THE FORMATION oF A NEW PROI.ETARIAT: WORKING WOMEN IN MANAUS INDUSTRIAL SECTION

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop an initial analysis of the process of formation of a female proletariat in the Industrial Section of Manaus Tax-free Zone. It is concerned with the beginning of the record of the history and stories of these women, who, in a very short time, from being "riverains" in the Amazon forest become workers in the electro-electronic industry and assemblers of TV s, videos, computers etc. Considering the difference of cultural stage in what regards the accession to technological development, one can say that it represents a leap in time equal to centuries of civilization. Following the processes of integration of these women (adaptation and conflict), an attempt is made to understand their trajectories in the factory and in the family, institutions where they act everyday. This approach allows the identification of the bilateral aspect of changes in the process of adaptation between capital and labor. Thus, one cain point out situations of behavioral adjustment in labor relations on the part of supervision management in the factories and of the enterprises themselves (in what refers to special welfare policies, unusual in the region), as well as on the part of the workers (the effects of submission to long journeys of still and careful work). In what regards the family organization for the main it is not structured in the traditional form - the couple as its core - and two regularities could be verified: the strong presence of an older woman (in general, the mother of the worker) and the weak or non-systematic presence -or even the non-existence - of a man (husband, companion, friend) as family support. The undestanding of this family frame as well as of the more independent position of this working woman in face of the man, in addition the other situations mentioned in the text, don't exhaust themselves in the observation, in the report by the workers nor in the informations by their employers. This would demand a deeper analysis of the roots of their historical heritage, whose record is practically unknown.