This book, like all products of knowledge, is a collective work, with the collaboration of many people. First of all, I would like to thank Leonardo Mello e Silva, my supervisor and friend, and Michael Burawoy, for having hosted me in California during my PhD. internship. Judith Marshall, Paula Marcelino, Ricardo Antunes, Rodrigo Santos, Ruy Braga and William I. Robinson, at different moments, offered their generous reading, suggestions, and comments. I thank Alfredo Saad-Filho and David Fasenfast for the opportunity to publish this book in the New Scholarship in Political Economy series. I would like to thank Eduardo Carniel for his careful work in translating the book and Sean Purdy for his translation editing. Without them, this publication would not exist.
I owe a lot to the decisive support of workers and union members who dedicated part of their time to teach me about their activities. I thank the leaders of stefem, usw Local 6500, Metabase Carajás, and Guilherme Zagallo for the welcoming, the contacts, and the patience to answer my questions.
Cristina, João and Priscila Aguiar, my mother, father and sister, were a source of unconditional support at all times. Many friends also contributed so that I could complete this book. In particular, Pedro Micussi, Vittorio Poletto and Flavia Brancalion were always close by, even when I was away. Pedro was, moreover, a permanent discussion partner, essential for this book’s eventual corrections, without, however, sharing any responsibility for its mistakes.
I thank the Graduate Program in Sociology of the University of São Paulo and the Department of Sociology of the University of California, Berkeley for hosting the research on which this book is based, and Brill for making its publication possible. I am grateful to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the grant which allowed me to carry out my PhD. research; to the Fulbright Commission and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (capes), for funding my PhD. internship; to the São Paulo Research Foundation (fapesp), for the resources which made this publication possible (grant #2021/11182–9) and for the post-doctoral scholarship (grant #2019/26020–4) at ifch-Unicamp, which allowed the updating of the material that gave rise to this book.