Autor/es
Descripción
ver mas
Colaborador
Montes Cató, Juan
Materias
Temporal Coverage
2003-2011
2002-2010
Idioma
spa
Extent
269 p.
Derechos
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Formato
application/pdf
Identificador
Cobertura
ARG
2003-2011
BRA
2002-2010
Abstract
This thesis compares the relationship between the labour movement and the new-deveolpmentalist governments in Argentina and Brazil during the first decade of the 2000s. The comparison is structured around an analysis of the minimum wage policies in both countries. These policies articulated significant trade union participation. The thesis focuses on the main trade union structure in each country, the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) in Argentina and the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT) in Brazil and their actions within State spaces. From 2002 onwards, Argentina and Brazil witnessed a period of contestation regarding the neoliberal policies that were predominant in the previous decade. The hypothesis in this thesis is that labour movements, represented through the main confederations, played a role in the process of political, economic and social change. However, this role was limited to trade union participation within the State, and did not allow for further structural changes. The contained mobilization at the confederal level, and the lack of direct confrontation with employers, left labour without the fundamental role of mobilizing and pressuring capital. Challenging capital would have allowed for the process of change to be deepened and to move it further away from neoliberalism.
The continuation of structural elements from the neoliberal period was a central part in limiting trade unions. The pervasiveness of informality, precarity and out-sourcing was not confronted in full during this process. This thesis refers to the new-developmentalist process as one of unstable revitalization of the labour movement Pro-labour changes are vulnerable due to the maintenance of an overall economic structure that weakens labour in the long-term. As a case study of this situation, the thesis focuses on the policies of the minimum wage in both countries, and the role trade unions played within it. When considering the potentials, limitations and contradictions of the new-developmentalist project, the analysis cannot limit itself to the State, but rather needs to also consider key social actors, labour in this case, and the role they play in those processes.
The political changes of the early XXI century in Argentina and Brazil opened spaces for labour movements to participate within the State. This, in turn, produced pro-labour governments, also referred to as new-developmentalist. The large participation of labour in the political decision-making was a factor in government policies that strengthened labour markets, diminished inequalities and produced an overall improvement in living standards. However, labour’s participation has not generated a structural, sustainable change, in both economic and labour-related terms. The balance of power remains inclined to the side of large transnational capital. In short, trade unions in Argentina and Brazil were necessary actors in the political change, but did not manage to maintain a determining role required to produce structural changes. The unstable revitalization is perceived by observing the limits to trade union affiliations, in the need to strengthen rank-and-file organization and in the high levels of informality and precarity, which all weaken labour’s position vis-a-vis capital. .
The continuation of structural elements from the neoliberal period was a central part in limiting trade unions. The pervasiveness of informality, precarity and out-sourcing was not confronted in full during this process. This thesis refers to the new-developmentalist process as one of unstable revitalization of the labour movement Pro-labour changes are vulnerable due to the maintenance of an overall economic structure that weakens labour in the long-term. As a case study of this situation, the thesis focuses on the policies of the minimum wage in both countries, and the role trade unions played within it. When considering the potentials, limitations and contradictions of the new-developmentalist project, the analysis cannot limit itself to the State, but rather needs to also consider key social actors, labour in this case, and the role they play in those processes.
The political changes of the early XXI century in Argentina and Brazil opened spaces for labour movements to participate within the State. This, in turn, produced pro-labour governments, also referred to as new-developmentalist. The large participation of labour in the political decision-making was a factor in government policies that strengthened labour markets, diminished inequalities and produced an overall improvement in living standards. However, labour’s participation has not generated a structural, sustainable change, in both economic and labour-related terms. The balance of power remains inclined to the side of large transnational capital. In short, trade unions in Argentina and Brazil were necessary actors in the political change, but did not manage to maintain a determining role required to produce structural changes. The unstable revitalization is perceived by observing the limits to trade union affiliations, in the need to strengthen rank-and-file organization and in the high levels of informality and precarity, which all weaken labour’s position vis-a-vis capital. .
Título obtenido
Doctor de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en Ciencias Sociales
Institución otorgante
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales