somanlu jul dez 2006.pmd - Eventos - Ufam

“Soldiers” and citizens in the rainforest: Brazilian rubber tappers...
The social contract implicit in Vargas’s labor legislation and trabalhista discourse
– which pledged vigorous state intervention on behalf of the working class in exchange
for workers’ diligence and compliance – in fact can only be fully comprehended in
the context of Brazil’s participation in World War II. Students (and defenders) of the
military have long highlighted the impact of war and the role of the army in constructing
citizens and nations through mobilization and the dissemination of nationalist ideals;
while for the society as a whole, the collective experience of shared danger and
mobilization can bind isolated individuals or marginal ethnic groups to the nationstate
in the spirit of camaraderie and patriotic duty (CENTENO, 2002, p. 217-218).
As one scholar has noted: “Considered in purely mechanistic terms, the state needed
unobstructed access to the citizen; in turn, to gain his willingness to work and fight
for the state, the individual had to be offered political power, or-if that was impossiblenew
psychological inducements and social opportunities to enable him to reach full
potential.” (PARET, quoted in CENTENO, 2002, p. 243).
As producers of a critical commodity, rubber tappers came to hold an
important role in the wartime economy and national imaginary. The Vargas regime’s
Decree 5225 of February 1, 1942 granted migrant workers in the rubber fields
exemption from the draft while under contract, and required employers to notify
authorities of official termination of contract. In his wartime text, Amazonas governor
Álvaro Maia referred to the tappers with the catchy epithet: “vanguard of the
rearguard.” Indeed, the tappers’ official elevation to combatant status - reflected in
their renaming as “rubber soldiers” and their exemption from military service -
invites comparisons with the experience of army recruits.
Although on the one hand military service may offer the most equal
access for disadvantaged members of society, and mandatory conscription the
ultimate test and pillar of democratic rule, on the other it offers untold danger,
tedium, and privation; social stigma; and non-recognition and non-payment for
veterans(CENTENO, 2002, p. 241-242). To be sure, in Brazil and other parts of
Latin America, military recruitment and conscription was never impartial nor
unambiguous. Historically, army service in Brazil fell upon criminals, marginals,
and other sectors of the unprotected poor; still, some conscripts may have
gained skills, status, and social mobility. 9 In particular, military service in the
Amazon region had been employed as a disciplinary measure to punish the
unprotected poor. The mobilization of drought victims and other indigents
42 Somanlu, ano 6, n. 2, jul./dez. 2006