Breaking chains, building bridges: cooperation in upholding the rights of workers rescued from conditions analogous to slavery in Tocantins

Book excerpt: This work is the result of a master’s dissertation, but especially of the author’s concern to understand how, in the 21st century, we are still discussing degrading forms of labour without ever having actually freed ourselves from the chains of slavery experienced in centuries past. The state of Tocantins, as one of the Brazilian states that most often supplies slave labour, as well as importing this form of labour, has repercussions both domestically and internationally, which is why the study was justified. The north of Brazil, where the state of Tocantins is located, is a vast region with low levels of education, where many people live below the poverty line and with little state action, making it a favourable environment for workers to be recruited in slavery-like conditions. However, modern slavery has much deeper roots than can be measured and was only formally extinguished by political and economic interests, which contributes to the fact that even today the issue is the subject of worldwide studies and criticism, since the marginalised class of yesteryear has become the modern slaves of today. Unfortunately, history proves that the abolition of slavery was due to British pressure on Brazil to establish a new society: the consumer society. In other words, the new type of society would require products to be commercialised, but above all people to consume them, which justified the end of slavery. However, the end of slavery did not really mean the end of the exploitation of human labour power, because the excluded class of former slaves formed the marginalised class of modern Brazilian society, as they were left at the mercy of a capitalist system that was not inclusive and had no real opportunities for social mobility. Thus, this class of workers defined the future of their generations in which the barriers of social injustice and non-belonging could never be overcome because labour for the former slaves was never an emancipating mechanism, marking secular social injustices that continue to this day. The truth is that freed slaves, especially black, poor and illiterate slaves, started to be chained in other ways, especially those that caused physical and emotional illness, because they had to be subjected to degrading work due to the lack of education, culture and opportunities, making the same slave society of ancient times persist, but in a new guise. The slave of precision, that is, the individual who faces the absence of opportunities to achieve basic survival, becomes the worker in conditions similar to slavery by accepting work in precarious and humiliating conditions for personal and family needs given the demands of the capitalist world, creating a favourable environment for the perpetuation of modern slavery. Therefore, it is against this backdrop that the study of labour in conditions analogous to slavery becomes fundamental so that one day we can actually put an end to this vicious cycle from the perspective of coordinated actions between the various bodies that are responsible at the domestic legal level for combating and eradicating neo-slavery once and for all.