The Solidarity Economy and the Social Struggles in Brazil: The Right to Associated Labor

  

One of the most important examples of a collective subject rising in the public arena in Brazil is the solidarity economy, which for several years has been shaping itself as an autonomous social movement. In this process, it has been trying to build new social rights for Associated Labor. It is a description and analysis of this process that this work intends to develop.

With this objective, it starts by rebuilding the history of the Solidarity Economy in Brazil, emphasizing that despite its long history and connection with the Brazilian social struggles for more than a century, it is only in the last thirty years that it has assumed a new configuration and new meanings as a result of the social and political changes that took place in Brazil after the eighties.

The second part of this work focuses on showing how the Solidarity economy today has become a new social, economical and political reality in the Brazilian society however; the subjects of the Solidarity Economy still lack the institutional recognition of its rights.

Lastly, we analyze how the subjects involved with the Solidarity Economy have been for years mobilizing and requesting the rights to Associated Labor and have achieved some successes in this process such as the creation of the National Secretary of Solidarity Economy and the approval of laws for the Solidarity Economy. As a result, the analysis of this movement in Brazil demonstrates that there are no natural rights but rights are political constructions consolidated from processes of social struggles that aim to expand democracy and transform society. It is some of these political agendas that we try to explore in this work focusing on showing the arenas where the struggles and debate around the development the right to Associated Labor take place.