Seminar of the Labour and Trade Unionism Research Group
Law, labour and struggles for land in Brazil and Mexico

Professor Angus Wright, Universidade Estadual de Califórnia

June 29th, 2010, 15:00, CES Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, Coimbra

 
Presentation

Agricultural workers and small producers are facing severe problems related to the use of technologies which affect their and their families’ health. These technologies, such as the arbitrary use of pesticides, are prejudicial to the soil itself and, consequently, jeopardize the economic future of the communities sustained by it. Trade unions’ actions towards this challenge have been ineffective. In order to improve this situation, rural trade unionism in Brazil and Mexico, as in many other countries, needs to examine its own ideological origins, the relationship with the State, the political alliances, as well as the attitude towards technologies and identify alternative ways of struggle. There are obvious similarities between these two countries, but there are also significant differences. In this conference, the common features will be especially emphasized. It will also present a comparison between the mode of action, views and tactics of rural trade unions and of the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil. This movement provides an alternative experience in every mentioned aspect, although it is not a trade union.

 
Biographic Note

Angus Wright is an historian and Emeritus Professor of Environment Studies at California State University, Sacramento. He is the author of The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma (2005 2nd ed., University of Texas Press), co-author, with Wendy Wolford, of To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement in the Struggle for a New Brazil (2003, Food First! Books) and, with Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer, of Nature’s Matrix: Connecting Conservation, Agriculture, and Food Sovereignty (2009, Earthscan). As an historian and citizenship, he deals with issues which interconnect environment, agrarian reform, agricultural workers and rural social movements.

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