O mutualismo no norte do Brasil: um estudo sobre as sociedades de socorros mútuos no Maranhão Republicano (1889/1930)

Abstract

The mutual associations that existed during the last years of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century in Brazil made it possible for many workers to survive. In this way, understanding the construction of the Brazilian working class at a time of profound transformations in various sectors, such as the economic, social and political sectors, allows us to perceive these processes of change from a more critical perspective, as well as pay attention to the movement of workers associates in Maranhão during the Republican period. In the republican Brazilian State, the need to “whiten” the population and exclude blacks as a formal workforce in a system of profit and growing industrial capital prevailed. The present monograph has the objective of analyzing the phenomenon of Brazilian mutualism, through the perspective of the borrowing associations of Maranhão during the First Republic, in addition to social and cultural relations, thus producing a database on these associations. In this qualitative research, readings and records of the literature on the subject in question were used, based on the theoretical foundation of the social history of work. Thus, we obtained the results resorting to analyzes of different statutes and documents referring to mutual associations and the Brazilian and Maranhão working class. Therefore, in this work, the complexity of the chosen theme is understood and how these associations were of great relevance for the permanence and survival of male and female workers even before legislation capable of covering their desires.