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Public History and Militant Identities: Brazilian Unions and the Quest for Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2009

Marco Aurélio Santana  and
Ricardo Medeiros Pimenta
Marco Aurélio Santana
Affiliation:
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Ricardo Medeiros Pimenta
Affiliation:
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO)
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze how Brazilian trade unions are using social memory as a tool to build up workers' collective identities, in an attempt to fight the fragmentation resulting from the impact of the industrial restructuring of the 1990s. We will draw upon two ongoing programs conducted by the ABC Metal Workers Union (SMABC) and the Oil Workers Union of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras (Sindipetro). The SMABC and Sindipetro have recently been addressing the issue of workers memory with social and public projects. These projects are building up memories, which in spite of being institution-based are also collective, framed by the unions through the use of new types of communication and electronic media.

Type
Articles
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , Fall 2009 , pp. 65 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2009

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References

NOTES

1. Lula was reelected in 2006.

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