THE EXPANDED STATE, RURAL CORPORATIST UNIONISM IN BRAZIL, AND THE FORMATION OF THE RURAL WORKING CLASS: ON THE DISPUTE OVER THE NATIONAL RURAL APPRENTICESHIP SERVICE (SENAR)

Abstract

This study is part of a doctoral dissertation in History (PPGH/UFF), entitled “State, Class Struggle, and Rural Education: the National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) and the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG) (1991–2013),” funded by the Foundation for Research Support of the State of Maranhão (FAPEMA). It aims to examine the dispute between the CNA and CONTAG over the control of the National Rural Apprenticeship Service (SENAR). This struggle involves Private Apparatuses of Hegemony (APH) belonging to antagonistic classes (agrarian fractions and the rural working class) for leadership and control of SENAR, an agency that has been involved in rural worker training since the 1970s. This process did not unfold consensually or harmoniously; from the decision point and throughout the first decade of the 2000s, signs of resistance and attempts by CONTAG to reverse CNA’s administrative and pedagogical monopoly over SENAR can be identified. Various sources were consulted, including documents from the National Archives, files from the National Information Service, newspapers, decrees and congressional records from the 1970s to the 1990s, as well as SENAR-specific documents such as internal regulations (1976, 1991, 2013), and instructional and educational materials. Methodologically, the analysis is guided by Antonio Gramsci’s theoretical framework, particularly the categories of Expanded State, Private Apparatuses of Hegemony, and the struggle for the consensus and consent of the subalterns.