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This article is published as part of the partnership between Nueva Sociedad and DemocraciaAbierta. You can read the original article here.
The general strike of April 28, 2017 in Brazil took place 11 years after the last one and 100 years after the first. Throughout this period, trade unionism has actively taken part in the history of the country. After the two decades of a dictatorship (1964-1985) during which it was persecuted, the trade union movement played a prominent role in the re-democratization process and in successfully managing to include social improvements in the Constitution of 1988. Between 1983 and 1996, the Brazilian unions carried out six general strikes. Right from the start, two different approaches crystallized: one represented by the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), created in 1983, heir to the so-called "new unionism" and allied with the Workers' Party (PT); the other represented by the National Conference of the Working Class (CONCLAT), created that same year with the support of sectors linked to official federations and confederations, and renamed in 1986 as General Confederation of Workers (CGT). A few years later, in 1991, a dissident sector of the CGT created Union Force (FS), which defends a pragmatic vision related to neoliberal thought.
