Nós na madeira: mudança social e trabalhadores assalariados das plantações florestais nos vales do aço/Rio de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The present thesis discuss both processes of social relations construction and of organization of small farmers and rural salaried workers at forest plantations in some cities of the “Vales do Aço” and “Vale do Rio Doce” regions at Minas Gerais state, Brazil. To the local and national state and to the wooden processing capitalist companies established in that region it was all along identified as a "traditional" one, what ignorizes the local small farmers and rural workers culture and ways of life. Arguing that the formation of this territory and its transformations must be understood from the conflicting relations historically constructed among that subordinate and dominant actors and its strategies, it was investigated how the disputes between these social actors had allowed to create the conditions of the organization of a trade union representation and how were its limits, as well as the results that had been produced by its resistance to the capitalist strategies in the region.