Ação Popular and the process of integration in production: An experience of labor and struggle

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the process of integration in production carried out by the Brazilian left-wing political organization Ação Popular (Popular Action, AP), starting from the study of concepts related to labor, such as the division of labor, which was developed to mold the distinction between manual and intellectual labor and which led to the estrangement and alienation of the subject from his or her own work. From this premise and from a brief overview of the organization’s history (it existed between 1962 and 1974), the article aims to raise some questions about the reasons why AP led its militants, mostly middle-class, to work in factories and rural areas, and what benefits this measure had for AP’s revolutionary political strategy.

Keywords

• trabajo
• alienación
• izquierda política brasileña
• ação popular