Sustainability in Brazil and Argentina: the trade unions within the commodity consensus

DOBRUSIN BRUNO

Berlin

Conferencia; 9th Global Labour University Conference. Inequality within and among Nations: Causes, Effects, and Responses; 2014

Berlin School of Economics

This paper analyses the development strategy followed by the governments of Argentina and Brazil since the election into power of left-oriented parties (2002 in Brazil and 2003 in Argentina), focusing on the role the trade union movement has had in affecting those policies and challenging the growth strategies. The main argument is that both these countries underwent significant socio-economic improvements since these governments were elected, but this development has been based mainly on the extractive industries (mining, forestry, transgenic agribusiness-based agriculture and oil). These activities have produced immense wealth, which the governments have been much more effective at distributing, with focus on the poorest sectors. This is the basis of the massive support that both the Lula (and later Rousseff) and the Kirchers? administrations consistently receive. However, the model of redistribution, still inadequate in several aspects, remains controversial since it is both unsustainable in the medium-long run, and has produced intense social dislocations in the populations directly affected. These contradictions and the trade union responses to it are a central focus throughout the essay