LABOR AND HUMAN CONDITIONS: BRAZILIAN PANORAMA AND RURAL SPACES

• Main Author: Pietrafesa, José Paulo
• Publication Date: 2022
• Other Authors: Pietrafesa, Pedro Araújo
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Revista Baru - Revista Brasileira de Assuntos Regionais e Urbanos
• Download full: https://seer.pucgoias.edu.br/index.php/baru/article/view/12757
• topic: rural working conditions in Brazil; agrarian structure; slave work; rural social movements.

The objective of the article is to analyze the working conditions in the Brazilian rural space and whether these conditions are similar or not to slave work. The country's agrarian structure is directly related to the persistence of overexploitation of the labor of rural workers. To develop this study and understand the contradictions existing in rural labor relations in Brazil in the 21st century, the article used the socio-historical method, comprehending the contradiction of national agrarian issues as one of the roots of this phenomenon. Through the database of the Dom Tomás Balduíno Documentation Center it was found that between 2015 and 2019 there was a decrease in the number of occurrences of work analogous to slavery. However, this decrease may be related to the precariousness of the labor inspection system, the criminalization of social movements, the propaganda on social media against the defense of human rights and the speech that became hegemonic, since 2016, regarding the freedom for defense of property. The conflicts generated in rural spaces with the expansion of agrarian capital are confronted with the immediate needs of peasants and rural workers who create conditions to build new knowledge and new potentials for social organization.