Despite the repressive military dictatorship in Brazil from 1964 to
1985, rural workers' trade unions flourished. During that period,
2,800 trade unions, representing 8 million laborers, were founded.
Biorn Maybury-Lewis examines how union leaders carved out a place
for themselves in the political order of the country, and how other
progressive movements can succeed in comparable situation.
Maybury-Lewis analyzes the institutional and political tools used
by rural laborers, and what unionization meant for them. Though
traditionally viewed as among the weakest member of society, rural
workers proved able to confront, and even use to their benefit, the
government's stifling corporatist legislation. They succeeded in
asserting themselves as a powerful minority for the first time in
Brazilian history, in spite of the military regime's suppressive
Institutional Acts that suspended numerous civil and political
rights and shut down Congress.In a period when similar
authoritarian regimes in Chile and Argentina crushed social
movements, Brazil's rural workers mobilized on behalf of land,
salary, and workplace disputes. While facing the potential threat
of murder, rape, illegal arrest, kidnapping, slave labor, and other
human rights violations, they succeeded by employing what
Maybury-Lewis terms 'the politics of the possible': the capacity to
evaluate and dodge repressive measures, to keep alive the
grassroots struggle, and to turn to their advantage institutional
rules designed to suppress labor initiatives. Their story
contributes to our knowledge of Latin America's contemporary
agrarian struggles as well as offering a case study of how social
movements can withstand political repression in the most unlikely
circumstances. Author note: Biorn Maybury-Lewis is Professor of
Political Science at the University of Arizona.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!