Tenório and Alaíde: Labor Court, Military Dictatorship, and Sugarcane Workers. Pernambuco, 1967–1968

Abstract

The objective of this article was to study the labor dispute between Tenório, a sugarcane worker, and Xavier, owner of Engenho Belmonte, in the Labor Court between 1967 and 1968. Based on this conflict, we sought to investigate aspects of the Military Dictatorship in the sugarcane region of Pernambuco. To this end, the main documentary piece was the labor lawsuit filed against Engenho Belmonte, located in the city of Vicência, northern forest area of ​Pernambuco. The newspapers Diario de Pernambuco, Jornal do Commercio, Ultima Hora and Correio da Manhã were also consulted, as well as reports produced by the National Information Service (SNI) and the Regional Electoral Court. As a result, we can state that the struggles for social rights continued in the sugarcane region of Pernambuco, even after the 1964 Coup, and the Labor Court became a stage for these clashes. Access to a small piece of land, or remaining on it by living on the sugar mills, also began to be disputed in the labor sphere, since movements such as the Peasant Leagues, agitators for radical agrarian reform, had been crushed. This article also indicates how the violence of the dictatorial State should be considered beyond that practiced directly by its agents, seeking to understand how the dictatorship updated the position of power of the agrarian elite and created a safe conduct for its violent actions.