The legacy of the Perus strike: memories of a labor struggle

Abstract

The present article analyzes the legacy of a workers' strike that lasted seven years (1962-1969) during the period of the military dictatorship in Brazil, emphasizing the workers' resistance in a working class neighborhood (Perus), localized in the outskirts of the city of São Paulo. The study is the result of a master's thesis titled "Repression and Workers´ Struggles in the Collective Memory of the Working Class in São Paulo", in which is analyzed the collective memory of different generations who did not experience the period of the strike: current community and union leaders and the strikers' grandchildren. This text contains a brief history of strikes in Brazil and how the struggle of the workers at the Perus Portland Cement Factory, known as the "Queixadas´ struggles"² came about and developed, emphasizing the legacy of the strike as it was preserved in a memory of the organization and resistance of the workers. Through the investigation of this movement, the author became aware of how, throughout the years, this workers' movement - marked by conflict and confrontation with businessmen, labor courts and the government - imprinted the history of the neighborhood and, mainly, the lives of the people, influencing the generations that followed and also becoming an ethical point of reference for new generations.