ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that throughout the 1950s Brazilian industrial workers challenged traditional structures of labor control by resorting to creative and increasingly autonomous forms of mobilization. By the mid-twentieth century, labor dynamics in Brazil were clearly more complex than has generally been described in the traditional historiography on the period. As the industrial sector expanded, particularly in the southeastern portion of the country, industrial labor became increasingly more active, vocal, and engaged in some of the most important socio-economic transformations taking place at the time. Metalworkers in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo consistently argued that a more socially inclusive and autonomous national economy could be achieved under the guidance of an economically interventionist and socially responsive central government. This ideological reading posited that attaining a more efficient and independent modern nation required a national government that directly owned the most important industrial units and promoted direct investments in the areas of infrastructure and land reform.
