Brazil workers form independent unions

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Women workers march in support of the CUT in 1984.

Independent trade unions are illegal in Brazil today. The so-called tradeunion structure is still based on Mussolini's Carta de Lavoro, which was enacted during the first presidency of Getulio Vargas in 1943.

Under the provisions of this labor code, the Ministry of Labor may intervene at any time in the internal life of the unions, replace "dissident" union leaders, decertify "uncooperative" unions, and prevent strikes and all other illegal forms of labor solidarity.

Corrupt "union" bureaucrats, known as the "pelegos, have assisted the government in maintaining a tight control over the workers' movement. In fact, the official "trade unions" have been a fundamental pillar of the various military dictatorships which have been in power since 1964.

Beginning in 1978, however, a new wave of worker militancy challenged the repressive labor laws. Defying the military regime and the "pelegos, the metal workers of the industrial belt of Sao Paulo paved the way for the creation of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) and of the new United Confederation of Workers (CUT) with a strike that soon spread to the rest of the country.

The strikes were illegal. The government intervened in every major union, replacing the new "combativo" leaders with military appointees. It also sentenced the nationally known unionists to long prison terms.

Despite the repression, the strike movement continued and deepened. In the spring of 1980, for example, over 50,000 workers crippled the automobile industry with a six-week strike. In 1981 and 1982, almost every sector of the economy was affected by the mobilizations of the Brazilian workers and peasants.

In July 1983, the oil workers in Paulinia and Mataripe (Bahia) walked off their jobs to demand an end to the austerity policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Within days a series of strikes in solidarity with the oil workers swept the country. On July 21, a 24-hour general strike paralyzed the nation; the first overtly political strike of its kind in decades.

Independent union formed

In August 1981, over 5000 union delegates met near Sao Paulo at the first National Workers' Conference (Cl ONCLAT). The purpose of the meeting was to call for the formation of a new trade union confederation which would be independent from the government and would fight for the interests of the workers at the work place. One of the motor forces behind this conference was the recently formed Workers Party.

The CONCLAT voted to launch the United Confederation of Workers (CUT) some time in 1982. But the secParis Commune/March-May 1871: clothing the children. In another, vouchers were distributed that covered food,

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The 18th of this month marks the clothing, and fuel. In another, daily anniversary of the Paris Commune of public meetings were held because 1871, one of the most heroic efforts in "those elected by the people have the working-class history, yet a story seldom duty of keeping in constant touch with told in our standard history textbooks. their electors in order to give account of For two months the working people the mandate they have received and to