The Seed Was Planted: Sao Paulo Roots of Brazil's Rural Labour Movement, 1924-64 - Tapa blanda

Until the 1960s, rural labourers and peasants composed the majority of Brazil's population and yet most scholars have downplayed their influence on the country's history. However, this text argues that rural labour has been fundamental to the making of modern Brazil. When the Brazilian military took power in 1964, anarchy in the countryside was one of the problems the conspirators used to justify ousting the civilian government. Cliff Welch examines this claim by narrating the history of rising rural worker activism in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most influential state. Between a major revolt in 1924 and the 1964 coup d'etat, Sao Paulo rural workers gradually gained a place in Brazilian politics by seizing opportunities from ruling class initiatives designed to reform the agricultural economy. Welch shows how laws composed to incorporate rural workers in a controlled way became platforms for unexpected protest and political mobilization cut short by the 1964 coup.