Labor Market and Labor Relations under the PT Governments
by Ana Paula Fregnani Colombi, José Dari Krein | April 22, 2020
There is some consensus on the foreign policy of Dilma Rousseff’s government that Brazil lost prestige and international influence because of her lesser personal dedication. Against this consensus, the paper presents two alternative hypotheses for explaining its unsatisfactory outcomes: that there was no change in policy objectives but an adaptation to a more hostile context and that its limitations were structurally related to dependency on global corporations and to the increasing rejection of South-South politics by domestic business. If this analysis is correct, the structural limitations described require that the struggle to achieve an independent foreign policy involve deeper political and ideological battles and a more radical questioning of neoliberal capitalism.
Abstract
In its 12 years in government, Brazil’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) promoted inclusion through the labor market and through consumption with an increase in labor flexibility. Despite an increase in employment and incomes, the increase in the heterogeneity of the labor market and in flexibilization has resulted in a deepening of the insecurity and vulnerability of workers in line with the new trends that contemporary capitalism imposes on labor. These trends are being deepened in the postimpeachment situation.
Em 12 anos de governo o PT promoveu um importante movimento de inclusão pelo mercado de trabalho e pelo consumo com avanço da flexibilidade laboral. Apesar do crescimento do emprego e da renda, o alargamento da heterogeneidade do mercado de trabalho e o avanço da flexibilização resultaram no aprofundamento da condição de insegurança e vulnerabilidade dos trabalhadores em linha com as novas tendências que o capitalismo contemporâneo impõe ao trabalho. Essas tendências estão sendo aprofundadas no cenário pós-impeachment.
