Popular Surveillance of Contemporary Slavery

Luís Henrique Da Costa Leão,Thomaz Ademar Nascimento Ribeiro

doi:10.1590/s0103-73312021310125

Luís Henrique Da Costa Leão, Thomaz Ademar Nascimento Ribeiro

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-73312021310125

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Abstract

Abstract Considering social movements (MH) as agents for the production of information and actions that are fundamental to improve the health conditions of workers and their relevance in the history of health-work relations in Brazil, the article analyzes MH knowledge and practices related to collection, systematization, dissemination of information and intervention actions in contemporary slavery from the perspective of worker’s health surveillance (VISAT). Exploratory research of a qualitative nature was carried out on discursive practices of MS in the struggle for the eradication of slave labor in Brazil. Interviews with activists, documents produced by MS and observation of meetings and seminars were analyzed here according to Foucault. The results demonstrate the existence of a popular surveillance of contemporary slave labor, operated by MS with pioneering and original mechanisms for collecting, systematizing and publicizing data on occurrences of slavery associated with intervention strategies to defend the lives of workers. It is concluded that this popular practice of slavery surveillance challenges the SUS to expand dialogues with different knowledge and MS to include the theme in its VISAT actions.

Highlights

This article addresses knowledge and practices of social movements (SMs) in the fight against contemporary slave labor (CSL) from the perspective of worker health surveillance (VISAT).It is well known that even after the enactment of the abolition (Golden Law), slavery persisted in Brazilian society under new clothes
We sought to investigate theoretical approaches, knowledge and practices mobilized in the struggles for the eradication of the CSL from the perspective of actors from academia, SMs, state institutions and rescued workers, but for this article we present a focus on the perspective of the SMs who exert pressure to weaken the system of slave domination present in Brazilian society
Information about the existence of the CSL began to appear on the national public scene due to the presence and practice of social and religious groups, engaged in the defense of workers' rights in the scenario of socio-territorial conflicts in the countryside in different regions of Brazil in the 1970s, especially in the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the Movement for Basic Education (MEB) and rural

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that even after the enactment of the abolition (Golden Law), slavery persisted in Brazilian society under new clothes Those contemporary forms of slave labor started to be reported by syndicates, groups and SMs organized in the 1970's, such as the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) (Pastoral Land Commission) and other movements linked to Liberation Theology, that fight for land and agrarian reform and they have been one of the major collective subjects in the front for CSL eradication (MARTINS, 2004).

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