Abstract
Based on extensive research into several Brazilian newspapers and workers’ press, this paper analyses the role played by lawyer Joaquim Pimenta (1886-1963), who led the successful General Strike of July 1919, in Recife, and his advances to establish a worker-based socialist party in 1920 and 1921, in Pernambuco. It examines the reasons for Pimenta’s political and electoral failure in the face of strong resistance from anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists in the capital of Pernambuco. The paper compares the workers movement in Recife with that of other Brazilian cities in the same context and analyses their similarities and differences, including the impacts of the First World War (1914-1918) and the 1917 Russian Revolution on the general strike dynamics and working class organization of the period.
Keywords
General strike; socialism; anarchism; trade-unionism; Joaquim Pimenta