The article analyzes the beginning, peak and decline of a cycle of strikes in Brazil which can be considered as the most important one in the country's history due to its characteristics and intensity, reaching one of the highest levels compared to other western countries between 1985 and 1992. The cycle of strikes (1978-1997) is examined in all its phases, as well as the following period of strikes normalization (1998-2007) during the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The nature of this cycle is clearly linked to the steps of the political liberalization and transition to democracy fostered by both the industrialization and the urbanization process of former decades. Although the number and volume of strikes have also varied according to the instable and hard macro-economic conditions (particularly the hipper-inflation) such variables had a secondary play into the story. Over the last 30 years the inclusion of various social groups within the political sphere in the broad sense redesigned the map of the so called socially "included". This process began with the liberalization policy in the mid-1970s, was reinforced by the first strikes in 1978 in the ABC Paulista and has continued by several forms of modernization of the state throughout the subsequent governments, from Sarney to Lula.
Cycle of strikes; Political transition; Stabilization; Political liberalization; Democratization; Collective action
