ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the year-to-year variation of median real wages and real industrial production as compared to the fluctuations in strike activity. It shows that the general relationships between economic activity and industrial conflict are ambiguous unless viewed through the lens of the political dynamic. The crumbling of the multi-class alliance, the political base of the populist state, obstructed the formulation of solutions for the economic crisis. The response of the state to the mass mobilizations appears to have been consistent over the various political periods. The chapter argues that economic circumstances mediated by conjunctural political factors influence short-term fluctuations in strike activity, while long-term fluctuations depend more on changes in the power alignments within the polity. The strong correlation between strikes and real wages indicates the simultaneous decline of real wages and strike activity as the new government implemented its stern economic austerity program.
