The neoliberal policies of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro governments against the Brazilian working class

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Adherence to neoliberalism in Brazil marked the end of the state interventionist model and opened up projects to modernize the Brazilian economy. Initially assumed as a policy of the government of Fenando Collor de Melo, it was developed in a more pragmatic way in the two presidential terms of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, matured – although less intense – in the PT governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff and transfigured into a wave of attacks on the working class during the governments of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro. This most recent period of Brazilian politics is what interests us in this text. Supported by the government decisions of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro in the treatment of labor regulation in the country, this article points out the main transformations and attempts to change the labor legislation that occurred between the years 2016 and 2022, critically approaching its impacts on the life and political organization of the working class to show how right-wing and far right-wing governments manage to break the dialogue with society in the quest to maintain the privileges of the most affluent classes by preserving the interests of national employers.

Keywords: Neoliberalism, Policy, Working class, Labor relations, Labor laws.