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Alternative Forms of Working-Class Organization and the Mobilization of Informal-Sector Workers in Brazil in the Era of Neoliberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2007

Salvador A.M. Sandoval
Salvador A.M. Sandoval
Affiliation:
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo; Universidade Estadual de Campinas
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Abstract

This article examines recent changes in working-class collective actions. First it explains which were the main causes for the decline of traditional labor union militancy resulting from effects of economic stabilization, neoliberalization, and globalization on those key segments of labor movement that accounted for the backbone of union militancy as in the case of the automotive workers, bank workers, steelworkers, and civil servants of the Brazilian economy during the decade of the 1990s. Secondly, the article analyzes the emergence of alternative forms of worker contention among the urban informal sector and the rural workers through the landless workers movement, which also have been affected by the processes of neoliberalization and globalization, but unlike the workers in the formal sector, these continue to contend for worker entitlements and introduce new forms of worker organization different from the conventional union organizations upon which is based the Brazilian labor movement.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , Fall 2007 , pp. 63 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © The International Labor and Working-Class History Society 2007

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References

NOTES

1. Sandoval, Salvador, Social Change and Labor Unrest in Brazil since 1945 (Boulder, CO, 1993), 180, 189Google Scholar.

2. Giannotti, Vito, Força Sindical: A Central Neoliberal de Medeiros a Paulinho (Rio de Janeiro, 2002)Google Scholar.

3. The main studies in this perspective are: Boito, Armando Jr., Política Neoliberal e Sindicalismo no Brasil (São Paulo, 1999)Google Scholar; Cardoso, Adalberto Moreira, Sindicatos, Trabalhadores e a Coqueluche Neoliberal: A Era Vargas Acabou? (Rio de Janeiro, 1999)Google Scholar; Cruz, Antonio, A Janela Estilhaçada: A Crise do Discurso do Novo Sindicalimsmo (Petróplis, 2000)Google Scholar; Mangabeira, Wilma, Os Dilemas do Novo Sindicalismo: Democracia e Política em Volta Redonda (Rio de Janeiro, 1993)Google Scholar.

4. For a detailed analysis of the 1980s, see Sandoval, Social Change and Labor Unrest, Chapter 7.

5. Departamento Inter-Sindical de Estatistica e Estudos Sócio-Economicos, Boletim Dieese-Anexo Greves do Mês (São Paulo, 1990–1999)Google Scholar, calculations by author.

6. The only exception was 1992, when both strikes and the average number of strikers declined most likely since striking was replaced by the political turmoil over the crisis in the Presidency of Fernando Collor and his eventual impeachment.

7. Departamento Inter-Sindical de Estatistica e Estudos Sócio-Economicos, Boletim Dieese, Separata Julho: 5 Anos de Plano Real (São Paulo, 1999)Google Scholar, Graphs 31, 11.

8. Sandoval, Labor Unrest and Social Change in Brazil Since 1945, Table 7.3, 163.

9. Cleide Silva, “Polos industriais empregam 45,9% menos,” O Estado de São Paulo, Nov. 8, 1999, B1.

10. “Em sete anos, SP perdeu 474 empresas metalurgicas,” O Estado de São Paulo, June 27, 1998, B4.

11. de Almeida, Maria Herminia Tavares, “O Significado do Sindicalismo na Área Pública: uma visão política” in Sindicalismo no Sétor Público Paulista (São Paulo, n.d. [c. 1994]), 94Google Scholar.

12. Sandoval, Labor Unrest and Social Change in Brazil Since 1945, 164–169.

13. Nogueira, Arnaldo M., “Novo Sindicalismo no Sétor Público” in O Novo Sindicalismo Vinte Anos Depois, ed. Rodrigues, Iram Jacome (Petropolis, 1999), 59–66Google Scholar.

14. Sandoval, Labor Unrest and Social Change in Brazil Since 1945, 167–169.

15. “Rebelião do Fucionalismo: Maioria condena greve no serviços essenciais” O Estado do São Paulo, May 14, 1995, A14.

16. “Eles Chegaram Lá: O que fazer agora?” Veja 30:16, April 23, 1997, 26–36.

17. See “Protesto” section in O Estado de São Paulo, August 26, 1999, A4–A15.

18. “Protestos contra desemprego tem pouca adesão em todo o País,” O Estado de São Paulo, November 11, 1999, B5.

19. Instituto de Terras do Estado de São Pauo, Mediação no Campo: Estratégias de Ação em Situações de Conflito Fundário, Caderno ITESP 6 (São Paulo, 1998), 32–33Google Scholar.

20. “Perueiro é preso com carro de placa ‘clonada’” O Estado de São Paulo, February 4, 2000, C4.

21. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística-IBGE e Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio a Pequenas e Micro Empresas-SEBRAE, Economia Informal Urbana (Rio de Janeiro, 2003)Google Scholar.

22. Gracia, Brigida, Humberto Muñoz and Orlanda de Oliveira, Hogares y Trabajadores en la Ciudad de México (México City, 1982), 179–180Google Scholar.

23. Other studies that focus on these issues are: Cross, John, Informal Politics: Street Vendors and the State in Mexico City (Stanford, CA, 1998)Google Scholar; Bryan Roberts, “The Social Context of Citizenship in Latin America” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (1996); Stillerman, Joel, “The Politics of Space and Culture among Santiago, Chile's Street Market Vendors,” Qualitative Sociology, 29:4 (December 2006): 507–530CrossRefGoogle Scholar.