The textile union militancy and the political alliances: communism, labourism and nationalism in the working class experiences in the state of Rio de Janeiro (1955-1964)

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the participation of the textile workers of the cities Niterói and Magé in the organization of alliances between communists and labourites in the former state of Rio de Janeiro, from the second half of the 1950s until the civil-military coup of 1964. This category, commonly referred to as "traditional" in the productive sphere, played a prominent role in fluminense political scene, both for its intense activity in the unions, as by their role of protagonist in important political episodes in the former state of Rio de Janeiro since the first decades of the century XX. In the 1950s, when the country recorded crescent levels of worker strikes and demonstrations against the cost of living, the fluminenses textiles, already well articulated with other categories (especially the workers of the shipbuilding and construction civil in Niterói and the peasants in Magé), seeked a articulation, as alternative to maximize its acting in the spheres of power, with political groups unified under flags nationalist and labourites.