Beware of the Communists
Beware of the Communists
Political Policing and Labor Control
This chapter examines the role of Brazil's state institutions in controlling labor at the National Steel Company (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional; CSN) during the 1940s. It considers two instruments of state intervention: the political police and the 1943 federal labor law. Under the 1943 labor law, workers had the right to unionize, but while the law appeared to place limits on the police's preemptive measures against militants, it also enhanced the role of law enforcement. The federal and state political police spied on labor organizers in Volta Redonda, launching an anti-Communist crackdown, particularly against the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista do Brasil), to justify repressive measures against suspected militants and thus to prevent the emergence of a militant labor movement. With the state's unmitigated support, CSN implemented its strategy of labor control until the end of the presidency of Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946–1951).
Keywords: Brazil, National Steel Company, political police, labor law, militants, Volta Redonda, Partido Comunista do Brasil, labor control, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, law enforcement
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