Subversão na Terra do Ouro : ação comunista nas minas da Morro Velho 1943-1964

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the role of Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) militants in the labor movement of Nova Lima and Raposos, in Minas Gerais, between 1943 and 1964. For the PCB, these towns were strategic for its insertion within the state’s labor movement; for the political police, they represented the main focus of communist agitation in Minas Gerais. Based on a wide range of sources, the research examines the communist presence in the Morro Velho Miners’ Union and other local organizations, identifying their organizational forms, participation in strikes, committees, and assemblies, as well as their relations with other political forces. The study demonstrates that Morro Velho — the country’s largest gold enterprise at the time and one of the largest in the world — constituted an enclave of foreign exploitation and intense labor mobilization, where the PCB consolidated leaderships and projected its political culture. By linking the local experience of Morro Velho to the broader trajectory of Brazilian and international communism, the dissertation reveals how communist militancy in Minas Gerais expressed, on a regional scale, the contradictions and aspirations of the labor movement in Brazil between 1943 and 1964.