ABSTRACT
The state-wide strike in Sao Paulo in 1954, one of the greatly increased number of strikes in 1954-1955 as compared to the preceding period, gave rise to the "Pacto de Unidade Intersindical", an organization which was to effectively coordinate labor struggles in Sao Paulo until 1960. The Brazilian labor movement is facing vital programmatic and organizational questions, the answer to which will play an immense role in Brazil's future political development. Alongside the term "labor aristocracy", and often confused with it, is the category of "labor bureaucracy." One of the major issues posed by strikes is the crisis of the "pelego" system. The "pelegos" helped achieve the dual purpose of the union structure, to maintain the proletariat in submissive passivity while developing a mass base for the populist governments which depended on popular support for political survival. The aim of the military coup was to ratify, at the level of political hegemony, the economic dominance already achieved by monopoly capital.
