O trabalho infantil no contexto ultraneoliberal

Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of a study whose general objective was to analyze the repercussions of the ultra-liberal conjuncture on the phenomenon of child labor in Brazil. The study was carried out through documentary and bibliographical research, using the following theoretical categories: child labor, overexploitation of the workforce, structural racism, structural violence and ultra-liberalism. The bibliographic research focused on books, scientific journals, theses and dissertations that dialogued with our object and with the theoretical categories listed in the study. Documentary research was carried out by consulting official government websites, official research institutes, newspapers and specialized online platforms, decrees and laws enacted during the period of the ultra-liberal governments of Temer and Bolsonaro (2016-2022). We also analyzed political positions that had an impact, reinforcing or restraining actions to combat child labor in the country during this period. We based our analysis on historical-dialectical materialism, as we believe that the critical method is the best way to deal with the object in question. The study was based on the Marxist theory of dependency in order to understand the particularities of Brazilian capitalism, the implications of the contemporary crisis and the responses devised by capital to deal with it, and its impacts on the dependent peripheral economies and how this is reflected in the living conditions of the working class and promotes the persistent exploitation of child labor in Brazil, under the determinations of ultra-liberalism. The study shows the existence and persistence of child labor, as an expression of the structural violence present in the Brazilian particularity, a reflection of a dependent peripheral economy, which is crossed by structural racism, which strongly impacts the lives of children and adolescents from the poorest strata. The research carried out reveals that the ultra-liberal political conjuncture established in Brazil since 2016 has directly impacted the fight against child labor in the country, promoting significant setbacks in the protection of children and adolescents in the country.