First Brazilian Workers' Congress
The First Brazilian Workers' Congress was a meeting of workers that took place between 15 and 22 April 1906 at the headquarters of Centro Galego, in Rio de Janeiro, then the Federal Capital of Brazil. The Congress was the first initiative in the sense of organizing the working class at a national level in Brazil, and was attended by 43 delegates representing 28 workers unions from different parts of the country, but mainly from the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The congressional resolutions showed an evident influence of revolutionary syndicalism among the delegates present, who endorsed the political neutrality of the unions, federalism, direct action and the general strike. The Congress also laid the foundations for the agreement of the Brazilian Workers' Confederation, the first union institution of national scope, but which would only begin its activities in 1908.
Background
The period comprised by the First Brazilian Republic was marked by the consolidation of the working class in Brazil, started in the mid-nineteenth century from common experiences lived by enslaved and free workers. The abolition of slavery, in 1888, and the Proclamation of the Republic, in 1889, opened a horizon of expectations for the nascent working class, but the following years made clear the limitations of the republican regime, fostering new ideas and perspectives of organization and struggle. Thus, workers initially involved in the republican movement adhered to other political projects, such as anarchism and socialism. According to John W. F. Dulles, anarchists and socialists "advocated shoulder to shoulder in the main mission of persuading workers to join labor associations", but held divergent perspectives on workers' organization and struggle. The anarchists proposed a direct action unionism, rejecting the party organization and the participation of the working class in institutional politics, defending the strike as the main form of struggle and denying the intermediation of the State in the conflicts between capital and work. The socialists, in turn, supported an openly reformist perspective: they classified the strike as a form of struggle valid only in extreme cases and defended the consolidation of the gains obtained by the labor movement through the approval of laws. Unlike the anarchists, they did not refuse the authorities to mediate in labor conflicts and encouraged the participation of workers in institutional politics, supporting or presenting candidates for legislative elections.The awareness of the limits of the republican order and the emergence of new ideologies in the working class added to the increase in strike agitation. According to historian Claudio Batalha, the early years of the 20th century brought together favorable conditions for the emergence of movements to demand the working class in Brazil: the expansion of the economy that began in 1903 created a more favorable conjuncture for obtaining gains and there was a growth of the workers and unions organization. Initially, most strikes were quite circumscribed, often limited to a single company or workshop. However, larger movements soon took place, involving entire sectors or even several different categories, such as the general strike of 1903 in Rio de Janeiro, initiated by textiles workers and which had the adhesion of thousands of workers from other branches. Despite the growth of strike movements, Dulles noted that the successes achieved before the 1908 economic recession "were hard to achieve", with a large number of unsuccessful strikes indicating "the need for better organization". Thus, workers' leaders spent the years 1904 and 1905 fighting for the formation of new class entities and "educating the workers in meetings". The 1903 general strike itself was harshly repressed and none of its demands were met, but it ended up laying the foundations for a unionism more based on direct action in Rio de Janeiro. A month after that strike, the Federation of Class Associations was founded, succeeded by the Brazilian Regional Workers Federation in 1905. Also in 1905, the São Paulo Workers' Federation was founded in São Paulo, after a series of labor mobilizations that had already taken place since 1901. The increase in the number of workers' associations and federations ended up motivating an initiative to try to articulate the working class at the national level, culminating in the organization of the First Brazilian Workers' Congress. At the time, the division between reformists and revolutionaries was also already consolidated, and since its convening the meeting was marked by the clash between these two conceptions.
Call and organization
The idea of organizing a congress that would bring together union representatives from all over the country seems to have come from Antônio Pinto Machado, leader of the Workers' Union of Engenho de Dentro. A Union circular signed by him was published in the newspaper Correio da Manhã in December 1905, calling for a workers' congress. According to the circular, the congress should discuss "whether the worker should be a politician or not, and which policy to accept", and only the presence of socialists would be admitted, "revolutionary elements being prohibited". Considering that the call for the Union took the side of a specific political tendency, FORB began to organize its own congress, arguing that it would be necessary to hold a workers' meeting to deal with exclusively economic issues. In April 1906, a circular signed by Alfredo Vasques, secretary of the Federation, called on workers to attend the "1st Brazilian Regional Workers' Congress":Pinto Machado initially accused the Federation of imitating his initiative, but his call had few adhesions and he ended up accrediting the Union to participate in the congress organized by FORB.
Delegates sent to the congress
The First Brazilian Workers' Congress took place between the 15 and 22 April 1906 at the headquarters of Centro Galego, in Rio de Janeiro, then Federal Capital of Brazil, and was attended by 43 delegates representing 28 associations from different parts of the country, but mainly from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The organizations represented and their delegates were the following: Quarry Workers Union, Antônio da Silva Barão and Marcelino da Costa Ramos; Artistic Center of Ceará, Antônio Pinto Machado and Benjamin Prins; Union of Graphic Workers of São Paulo, Eduardo Vassimon and Augusto dos Santos Altro; Protective Center for Workers of Pernambuco, José Hermes de Olinda Costa; Association of Coal and Mineral Workers, Belisário Pereira de Sousa and Firmino Rodrigues Alonso; Marmorist Workers Center, José de Sousa Azevedo and João Arzua dos Santos; Union of Longshoremen, Manuel dos Santos Valença and Manuel Inácio de Araújo; Workers Union of Engenho de Dentro, Benjamin Moisés Prins and José Roberto Vieira de Melo; Railway Employees Center, Domingos Gomes Sobrinho and Francisco Camilo Soares; Hatters Union, José Arnaldo de Carvalho and Antônio Pires G. Sola; Couriers and Correlative Arts Union, Félix Alesandre Pinho and Auto Navarro Negreiros; Italian Workers' League, Pietro Bernarducci and Silvio Pazzagia; Workers' Federation of São Paulo, representing six unions, Fernanco Frejeiro, Manuel Domingues de Almeida, Giulio Sorelli, Edgard Leuenroth, Ulysses Martins, Caralampio Trillas, Carlos Dias, Manuel Moscoso, Fernando Bondad and José Sarmento; Tailor Artists League, Cândido Costa and Alfredo Vasques; Union of Carpenters and Correlative Arts, João Benvenuto and Manuel dos Passos do Nascimento Bahia; Union of Tobacco Handlers, Melchior Pereira Cardoso and Mariano Garcia; Association of Workers in Trapiche and Café, Francisco Guilherme Chaves and Anselmo Rosa; Botanical Garden Workers Center, Albino Moreira and Antônio Domingues; Labor Union of Ribeirão Preto, Manuel Ferreira Moreira and Arnaldo José Carvalho; Campinas Workers' League, Alfredo Vasques and Antônio Augusto do Amaral Chaves; Graphic Arts League, Luigi Magrassi and Mota Assunção; Union of Artists Shoemakers, Célio de Brito and Vitorino Pereira; Campos Workers Center, Damazio Gomes da Silva.Themes and resolutions
Guidance
The first topic discussed by the Congress was the one that most polarized reformers and revolutionaries: "Should working-class society adhere to a party policy or maintain its neutrality? Should it exercise political action?" Discussions were dominated by FOSP delegates, who energetically fought the reformists' proposals. Anarchist Carlos Dias stated that the political struggle should not be accepted by the workers' movement, "because it is not in agreement with the working class in general. The workers' conquest must be the worker's own. There can be no barrier between capital and labor. No political struggle. No parliament. Only the economic issue". Pinto Machado, on the other hand, took a position in favor of the participation of workers in politics, stating that it "could provide great services to the class", citing the example of the União Operária do Engenho de Dentro, which achieved a reduction in working hours through negotiations involving the government — represented by deputy Ricardo de Albuquerque — and the board of the Central do Brasil Railway. After the debate, Edgard Leuenroth made the following motion, which was eventually passed:According to historian Tiago Bernardon de Oliveira, this resolution was a victory for the anarchists, "insofar as it attacked the pretensions of influential militant reformists in the Brazilian labor movement". The defense of the political and religious neutrality of the unions appeared to anarchists as "an adequate tactical solution to prevent their instrumentalization by opponents", which allowed the action and participation of libertarian militants in the associative life of workers, contributing to making the unions "revolutionary means".
In the discussion on how Workers' Day, on 1 May, should be celebrated, the delegates present stated that it should be a day of mourning, not a day of celebration. The resolution passed by the Congress recalled the historical origins of the date, "which was born from the demand, by direct action, of eight hours of work in North America and the sacrifice of the innocent victims from Chicago", condemning "indignantly the antics made on the 1st of May with the concurrence and complacency of the gentlemen" and urging the working class "to restore to the 1st of May the character it deserves, of serene, but fearless protest, and of energetic demand for offended or ignored rights". The resolution also recommended "strongly workers' organizations to propagate claims to assert the 1st of May" and welcomed the French labor movement, considered a "model of activity and initiative for workers in Brazil". By mentioning the martyrs of Chicago and the working class of France, the workers gathered in Congress revealed that they felt part of an international trade union movement.