Class struggle between workers and big capital: the relations between the factions and the Guararapes company in Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the conflict between MPT-RN. and the Guararapes group, considering the role of factions and workers in the midst of the legal, economic, political and ideological conflict waged by these actors.On one side of the story is the great capitalist; on the other, we have the workers that are employed as dressmakers/tailors and the ones that the District Attorney Office for Labour label as the “disguised as small-business owners”. These two categories assume the role of those who sell their labour force in order to subsist and, this way, submit themselves to the capitalist's control, to one-sided rules, pressure for productivity and reduced rights. The article exposes this parallel based on alleged irregularities that the DA Office investigated in the hiring and operation of “facções of Guararapes”. Such irregularities underlie a public civil action and show that discourse and practices from over a century ago still feed the production line. The methodology used in this work includes bibliographic and documentary research. Results found show an intense conflict between capital and labour, in which the first one increases its profits by reducing costs, particularly those of labour