Workers’ associativism, education and autonomy in the making of the working class in São Paulo (1889-1930)

Abstract

In this article I present a slice of a broader study about the visions and practices of selfeducation by the working classes in São Paulo, between 1889 and 1930. I took a deep look at a series of documents - the bylaws of workers´ associations - found in the First Real Estate Registry of the Capital´s County (1883-1941), stored by the São Paulo State Archives. Compared with other documentation such as the workers’ press, and resolutions of the first Workers Congresses in Brazil, the bylaws were simultaneously source and object of the research. The analysis of the sources was made in dialogue with references of the English social history and the historiography on the making of the working class and associativism in Brazil. I found that education is embedded in the very juridical framework of the workers associations. It was possible to assess the importance and goals of education for those associations. I analyzed the types of formal educational actions carried out by the associations, and the informal educational processes that developed within the associative culture. I concluded that education was a fundamental component in the making of the working class. However, the predominant form of education was not a schooled one. It was a relatively autonomous and non-hierarchical educational experience, if compared to the State and the hegemonic schooling forms. I have chosen to call this autonomous and horizontal experience as “the self-education of the working classes”.