Since the onset of the world financial crisis a new cycle of labour unrest emerged around the world. In this project, Jörg Nowak compares mass strikes in India and Brazil between 2011 and 2014 and the new forms of workers' organisations that emerged in these strikes. The mass strikes affected various sectors in the two countries, but saw peak events in one sector in each country: the automobile industry in India and the construction sector in Brazil.
The mass strikes in question were traditional strikes in the sense that they were focused on specific economic sectors, but the forms of workers' organisation took on new forms, including new alliances with social movements. One can observe that the forms of workers' organisation that emerged during the mass strikes in emerging economies after 2008 are characterised by a decentering of the significance of national trade union federations.
The recent right-wing authoritarian governments in India (since 2014) and Brazil (since 2016) can be seen as political projects designed to respond to the recent upsurge of labour unrest in both countries.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 746345.
School of Politics and International RelationsUniversity of Nottingham University Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 823 2179 email: joerg.nowak@nottingham.ac.uk