CLEAR | Vitor Araujo Filgueiras - Life After Slavery: Unleashing Workers from the Labor Market in Brazil

The UCI Center in Law, Equality and Race (CLEAR) welcomes Vitor Araujo Filgueiras (UFBA), inaugural CLEAR International Scholar, to present "Life After Slavery: Unleashing Workers from the Labor Market in Brazil."

Abstract:

In Brazil today, the immense power asymmetry between employers and workers has led to extreme forms of exploitation, including conditions analogous to slavery. Labor law and labor law enforcement have been vital tools to limit corporate power, but they have not been sufficient to prevent or to stop economic violence and abate inequality. Around the globe, similar patterns have propelled debates on basic income and other “right to live” policies. A Brazilian state program offers a novel, radical approach to permanently addressing exploitative employment for workers rescued from slavery. The Vida Pós Resgate Project, which promotes self-sufficient rural production, unleashes workers from the labor market, rather than re-subordinating them to it. The state helps to acquire land for rescued workers and purchases the necessary tools for production and distribution, all using funds from fines paid by corporations convicted by the labor courts. The collective organizations of workers take the form of agricultural associations, so that workers lead the production process independently. Rural agricultural production is carried out in a family and/or associative work regime, without subordinate ties. What, to date, have been Vida Pós Resgate’s failures and successes, and how replicable is the program across sectors and national boundaries?

About Vitor Filgueiras
Vitor Filgueiras is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Economics at the Federal University of Bahia. Professor Filgueuiras is currently serving in the Fundacentro, the Brazilian Ministry of Labor's health and safety foundation, where he coordinates projects related to labor reform. He is the author of the book It's All New Again, published by Boitempo, which analyzes the nature of the "great transformations" of contemporary capitalism. Professor Filgueiras holds a post-doctorate in economics from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), a doctorate in social sciences from UFBA, a master's degree in political science from Unicamp, and a degree in economics from UFBA. He was secretary of the Brazilian Association of Labor Studies (Abet) between 2018 and 2019 and the Tax Auditor of the Ministry of Labor between 2007 and 2017.

To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, please email centers@law.uci.edu.

School of Law | Website | View More Events

Contact the organizers