Paternalism, workers' experience and development of the large-scale industrial regime: the history of ALUAR

Abstract

In this work we seek to make the history of the ALUAR company observable in its different implications. We go from its installation within the framework of the development pole projects, to the formation of a workers' collective that is intended to be functional to the company, to the first experiences of autonomous workers' organization, the struggles, the resistances and the changes.

We develop the process to a greater extent in the 1990s, after the hegemonic imposition of the financial capital project, observing there the changes that occur in the region and the role of ALUAR. We discuss widely used concepts there, such as "deindustrialization," and reflect on the role of the State in this new phase of capitalism. We highlight the transformations, the milestones in the process and the latest strikes, which occur within the framework of the great productive expansion of ALUAR.

It is evident that during the 1990s changes occurred in the struggle of the working class and in its forms of organization. There are also conflicts within the bourgeoisie, which was implementing various parts of its project through the creation of structural unemployment, the disciplining of the working class and the increased exploitation of the employed workforce. The description and analysis of the main conflicts allows us to understand the development of this process in greater depth.