FictionThatMatters.org

Metalworkers (Peões)
Directed by Eduardo Coutinho
Brazil, 2004. 84 minutes.
Screening at the MOMA Premiere Brazil film festival.

Metalworkers is a complex portrait of the dynamic labor movement in Brazil that helped
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva come to power. Featuring numerous interviews from the former labor leaders that spearheaded Lula’s Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores), the film documents a prolonged struggle against foreign automobile giants.

Protesting during a military dictatorship during the late 1970s was fraught with risks. Some party members were fired while a select few rose to prominence. The marchers at
the 100,000 strong rallies risked everything to demand better working conditions, and their efforts left an imprint on the country that continues to influence Brazil today.

A History of Protest: Ford in Brazil

There is a long history of protest against foreign automotive companies in Brazil. One of the revolts occurred in the Amazon in the 1920s. The Ford Motor Company had bought 25,000 square kilometers of land – which they called Fordlândia — in the state of Para. The aim was to supply Ford vehicles and the U.S. with high quality rubber. The jungle site featured American-style homes, fire hydrants, and other amenities meant to reproduce a typical American town. The project failed for a number of reasons, both mysterious and due to poor business practice.

Ford’s draconian project sparked the Quebra Panela revolt. The Brazilian plantation workers barricaded themselves in the hospital, demanding better wages, until Federal militia intervened and everyone involved in the revolt was fired. Negotiating with laborers was not high on the Americans’ agenda.

(For more on this bizarre episode, check out my novel Everyone Comes from Belterra or Greg Grandin’s non-fiction book Fordlandia.)

Consequences

Metalworkers demonstrates that little changed in the years subsequent to the Ford debacle. Instead of plantations, automobile industries established a ring of manufacturing plants around the city of São Paulo, concentrated in the town of São Bernardo do Campo. Volkswagen, Mercedes, Ford, and other industrial concerns operated facilities. The wages were poor, working conditions dangerous, and little vacation was allowed. The Workers Party began organizing strikes as a result. Metalworkers recreates this tumultuous period, relying upon archival footage and personal interviews. It was an exhilarating time with harsh consequences. Like Ford in the Amazon, most of the protesters were fired. Amazingly, few of the former leaders in the film express any regrets. They each believed in their cause and somecontinue to organize protests today. But their work also took a heavy toll, breaking apart families and dreams of advancement.

The film celebrates personal achievements within a mass movement. We hear a daughter sing folk songs with her aging father and couples recall their courtships. A lifelong metalworker explains what it means to be a peao, a manual laborer with no real say in his working conditions.

The Rise of Lula

If the leaders of the Workers Party may be credited as the cast of this film, Lula emerges as the hero. Each interviewee sings the current President’s praises, and each recalls outstanding moments of his leadership. In one scene, a pensive, chain smoking Lula prepares himself to address a throng of 140,000. In another, he tearfully invites the members of the Workers Party to vote him out if they are dissatisfied with his leadership. The diminutive, feisty man is all the more impressive because he led these protests in the midst of a brutal military dictatorship –and repeatedly refused lucrative bribes.

Lula in a Suit

Lula’s presidency may seem like an inevitability today, but he lost three presidential elections before entering office. This film was shot before his victory. He inherited a country saddled with massive international debts and unemployment. Although his Family Stipend (Bolsa Familia) and Zero Hunger (Fome Zero) programs have met with success, the country still suffers from crime and unemployment. Lula’s beard is now flecked with gray and he wears a suit, but thirty years ago the man was charged with energy.

Metalworkers reminds us that Lula did not get to Brasília by himself. And this film has the unexpected result of demanding a sequel. Any real assessment of Lula’s achievements will require following up with the people who helped make him who he is today.

–Deji Olukotun

Photo courtesy of Eduardo Coutinho / Museum of Modern Art.