Usina Catende: solta o trem de ferro um grito “metamorfoses do trabalho”

Abstract

The objective of this research work was to know the struggle of the male and female workers of Catende Power Plant, located in the Zona da Mata Sul of Pernambuco, and how the process of changes occurred to try to overcome the bankruptcy condition of the company in the 90’s decade and then rebuild the Power Plant as a self-managed and solidary enterprise. At the fulcrum of this research was the text “CATENDE POWER PLANT: Released an iron train, a scream, metamorphosis of the work”. In it, the categories education and work serve as an analytical reference to learn about the revolutionary praxis present in the reorganization of the world of work in the Power Plant. Thus, to delineate the focus of the research, we used the dialectical historical materialistic method in order to show the intrinsic relationships of the rereading of the categories for the changes in the practice of self-management and the solidarity economy in the context of Catende Power Plant. We applied demistructured interviews, free observations, in addition to documentary and bibliographic analysis to support the research. From this point, to the hypothesis which was given birth that the pedagogical praxis focused on popular education presents itself as a theoretical and practical reference that creates the necessary space for the transition from precarious work into the so-called self-managing and solidary work, experienced by the class-who-lives-from-work. To reach the hypothesis presented, we first seek to identify the historical facts that led to the implementation of the assumption of self-management and the practice of solidarity economy at Catende Power Plant. Then, we seek to reflect on the relationships of the education and work categories and their implications with male and female workers, emphasizing the importance of projects under experiment and programs that materialize in solidary work relationships, food security and productive diversification. Finally, we seek to present some critical comments on the solutions found by social subjects to respond to the situation they experienced during the period that went bankrupt until the birth of the Catende Harmonia Project and after that of the Harmonia Cooperative.