Pó, fio e óleo: as lutas dos trabalhadores paraibanos por direitos na justiça do trabalho (1961-1964)

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the different struggles waged by workers in Paraíba during the early 1960s, with an emphasis on the conflicts fought at the Conciliation and Judgment Board of João Pessoa. Alongside these conflicts, I analyze struggles developed on other fronts, such as in the streets, in unions, and others, to build knowledge about the worlds of Paraíba workers between 1961 and 1964. Using English social historiography, mainly the theoretical and methodological contributions of E. P. Thompson and his insights on concepts central to this work (social class, class struggle, experience), I investigate forms of domination, exploitation, and resistance among workers at the Companhia Paraíba de Cimento Portland and IRF Matarazzo factories (both located in João Pessoa), and the Companhia de Tecidos Rio Tinto (located in the city of Rio Tinto), based on a set of documents distributed among labor lawsuits, newspapers, the report of the State Commission for Truth and Preservation of Memory, as well as official statistical data and oral sources. Situated within the field of the social history of labor, this thesis discusses, among other things, the situation of the working class in Paraíba (specifically a segment located on the coast), the meanings given to labor legislation, especially in the conflicts triggered in the Labor Courts, encompassing the period between 1961 and 1964, a time of social upheaval in Brazil that would lead, in the historical process, to the business-military coup that dismantled the organization of the working class in the state of Paraíba, as happened throughout the country.