Workers and the Neighborhood: Social Movements and the Struggle for Autonomy

This chapter looks at São Paulo’s neighborhood organizations. In examining their weight within the political conjunctures, their relationships with union organizations, and their engagement in the broader struggles of workers in that period, it seeks to overcome the dichotomy, all too common in the literature, between “resident” and “worker.” In addition, the chapter discusses attempts by separatist movements in São Miguel Paulista to secede from the city of São Paulo. Feeling abandoned by the government, these movements believed that the transformation of the neighborhood into an autonomous city could improve the quality of life for the population. Finally, the chapter discusses the political conjuncture prior to the 1964 coup, with emphasis on the action of the Chemical Workers Union in São Miguel, as well as on the local consequences of militarization and the first moments of the dictatorship.