Trabalho na agroindústria canavieira: bases históricas e estruturais da superexploração da classe trabalhadora em Capela/SE

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to analyze the historical and structural bases of labor superexploitation in the sugarcane agroindustry, examining the arrangements of labor reorganization/restructuring in contemporary times in the municipality of Capela, Sergipe, Brazil. Throughout the research, the expansion and development of Brazilian dependent capitalism were considered, which flourished subordinated to the expanded reproduction of global capital. Socio-historical and economic inequalities were examined to understand the particularities of labor in the sugarcane agroindustrial complex. The reorganization of field labor led to the intensification of productivity in manual cutting and a reduction in the number of employees with the introduction of harvesters. Historically, Capela has sugar and ethanol production as its main economic pillar. The municipality is characterized by large estates (latifundia), resulting in sugarcane monoculture, which generates significant inequalities and impacts for all its citizens. The investigative process adopted a materialist and historical-dialectical methodological approach to understand the contradictions present in sugarcane production, based on the capitallabor relationship and from the analytical perspective of political economy critique, grasping the structure and dynamics of the object beyond the pseudo-concreteness of the real world (Kosík, 1961). The study is of a quali-quantitative nature, bibliographic and documental, which allowed the use of multiple sources, enabling data collection from the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the Annual Social Information Report (RAIS), and the General Register of Employed and Unemployed (CAGED), using the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO). The results reveal intense social, racial, and gender inequalities, as well as those stemming from land concentration today—a model conducive to the predominance of monoculture. These conditions directly influence the organization of labor in Capela’s sugarcane sector. Workers in sugarcane cultivation are predominantly male, representing over 90% of the total, and exhibit low educational attainment, with approximately 64% not having completed the fifth grade of elementary school. Furthermore, 93% self-identified as Black (80% Black and 13% mixed-race). Sugarcane cutters earn, on average, about 50% less than workers in mechanized harvesting.