Sugar mills in Mata Mineira: rural industry and workers' struggles, from 1920 to 1990

Abstract

The great sugar cane based economy in Minas Gerais started in the late XIX century. At first based upon steam mills and afterwards developing to sugar cane industry. The afterwards transformations on this pattern allowed the creation of new forms of political domination, as well as working class struggles. This situation lasted for decades not only within the Zona da Mata region but in the country as a whole.