Soldiers of Production and Builders of a New Country

Brazil’s deepening involvement in the Second World War created exceptional conditions for a leap forward in industrialization. In the mid-1940s, industry began to occupy a new place in the Brazilian economy’s present reality and future imagination. This transformation took place through the creation and nationalization of strategic companies and the militarization of production in state and private-owned industries under the aegis of the war effort. New internal migration patterns took shape, and old ones reappeared or increased in scale. Many workers faced the opportunity to learn new trades and develop new skills. In the textile sector, factories set all-time production records, followed by a sharp decline in the post-war period. Large temporary worksites appeared and disappeared within a few years. In other cases, new industrial cities or zones permanently changed the country’s economic geography. In all cases, those transformations were based on the overexploitation of workers, who were subjected to militarized labor relations, high risks of accident and disease, and the deterioration of their standard of living, especially their diet, due to inflation and food shortages. This chapter offers a panoramic view of the transformations experienced by the Brazilian working class during the war in the country’s various regions and productive branches.