Labor, Community, and the Making of a Cross-Class Alliance in Brazil: The 1917 Railroad Strikes in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

In the great wave of labor conflict that swept Latin America from I9I7 to I920, workers in Brazil took to the streets in unprecedented numbers. By that time, Brazil's urban workers had almost three decades of labor action behind them, decades marked by often-violent strikes and fierce state repression. Before I9I7, in the nation's industrial heartland of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, immigrant workers filled the factories, elites commonly condemned strikes as the work of foreign agitators, and the state defined the social question as a police question. In July I9I7, workers in Sao Paulo erupted in a massive general strike: they made moderate demands, negotiated indirectly with the state, and won a significant labor victory. Within a month workers in Rio followed suit. Although by September a repressive backlash was in full swing, a reconfiguration of the country's labor politics was already underway.1