The Brazilian Workers' ABC
Class Conflict and Alliances in Modern São Paulo
By John D. French
406 pp., 6 x 9
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Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4368-0
Published: May 1992
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This revisionist, grass-roots view of Brazil's corporatist system of state-linked trade unionism in the 1930s examines the tumultuous political transition after World War II, when workers entered into electoral politics on an unprecedented scale. In examining the interplay between the industrial working class, its leaders, and politicians such as Getulio Vargas, Luis Carlos Prestes, and Adhemar de Barroas, French shows that workers were active and resourceful political political actors whose participation propelled Brazilian politics in a new, more democratic direction.
About the Author
John D. French is assistant professor of Latin American history at Florida International University.
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Reviews
"A major contribution to the study of Brazilian labor history. French's analysis is based on extensive archival and oral history research and on an exhaustive review of the secondary literature on Brazilian labor politics. His community-level work helps establish the empirical basis for better comparative analyses of labor politics in Latin America."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review
"A penetrating analysis of the ups and downs of labor mobilization during the first half of the twentieth century, The Brazilian Workers' ABC: Class Conflict and Alliances in Modern São Paulo illustrates how workers consciously and skillfully used any political opening to advance their interests and aptly confronted the tremendous constraints they faced."--Latin American Research Review
"French's pioneering study of worker politics in the heavily industrialized ABC region of São Paulo challenges prevailing assumptions about the origins and impact of populist alliances in Brazil. His carefully crafted account of worker struggles and government policies raises the discussion of labor and populism to a new level of sophistication."--Barbara Weinstein, State University of New York at Stony Brook
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