"Kill, kill the people from Bahia!": notes on the slave regime in Rio Grande do Sul

 Between 2013 and 2016, I was a member of the Naval Hub Studies Center, an interdisciplinary group that sought to encompass the various dimensions of the Rio Grande Naval Hub phenomenon, a city in the south of the state. It was almost impossible not to study the picture-perfect scenario: a tranquil city with a modest pace in its commercial dynamics, with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants focused on a semi-community culture; an economy supported by services, small businesses, and fishing; the factor that directly predisposed it to the world was the old port (since the late 19th century) and the still relatively new University of Rio Grande in its territory.

 As I described in the book Migrations: Cultural Processes and Identity Construction in Southern Rio Grande do Sul My problem was a peculiar conflict unfolding between the local inhabitants, the "gauchos" (people from Rio Grande do Sul) and the "Bahians" (people from Bahia). At first glance, it was a conflict in quotation marks, always recounted jokingly, as something unserious, a grumbling of the almost folkloric gauchos, that figure they themselves describe as parochial, rude, and coarse, bothered by the extroverted manner of the "Bahians." The "Bahian" was a discomfort brought about by the industrial park, the destabilizing movement of daily life, the new passersby, neighbors, characters on public transport; they were the new references in reality, the fluctuations in the prices of basic products, the new wealth that the city promised, the competition for jobs with better conditions. In short, as is frequent in contexts of social change, with the entry of new actors (migrants) onto the scene, reality escaped the control of the natives and forced them to move, readjust, and this caused reaction and discomfort.

 Rio Grande do Sul is (or was) the state with the highest proportional population of declared adherents of Afro-Brazilian religions in the country, almost five times the number of practitioners in Bahia (IBGE, 2010). This is a common interpretation in public opinion, of "Rio Grande do Sul as the state of religious extremes. The most Catholic, the most Evangelical, the most Umbandist, the most Islamic, and the most Mormon municipalities in the country are all located within Rio Grande do Sul."¹I could perceive the sounds, colors, and smells of these manifestations in the first few days of my stay in Pelotas. In a blue house on the corner of a busy street, Umbanda ceremonies took place. Usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we would hear the strong drumming that reached the streets, as well as the smells of candles, incense, and people gathered together. On the sidewalk in front of the house, we would bump into people painted, with colorful skirts, hats, bracelets, and instrumental anklets. It was a seductive atmosphere because it was joyful, vibrant, and sensual in the dances of beautiful women, strong men, and drags Or men dressed in "women's" clothes and accessories, and so on. On those nights, we slept lulled by the drums and songs of the neighboring groups. It was a small carnival. And this particular terreiro (Candomblé temple), which I later came to frequent, was located directly across from a large Catholic church, on the opposite corner. Later, attending the church, I discovered that it was run by the wife of the pai de santo (Candomblé priest) from the terreiro next door. This is the concrete manifestation of syncretism.  

 During a period coinciding with the rise of neo-Pentecostalism, cases of religious intolerance, and, indeed, the ascent of the national far-right with significant repercussions in Rio Grande do Sul, Afro-Brazilian institutions also retreated (or disappeared). The Casa Azul, as we called that terreiro (Candomblé temple), ceased operating there and, as far as I was informed, was now located in Três Vendas or Navegantes, neighborhoods further from the city center. In 2005 and 2016, the last years I lived in Pelotas, drums were no longer heard at night, nor could any Afro-Brazilian elements be easily seen as before.   

 With Operation Lava Jato and the decline of the Polo, Rio Grande reverted to its former state, with only skeletons and ruins of the old "Eldorado dream." There was a feeling of nostalgia and even regret for the good times when the problem was "the people from Bahia," those who, in one way or another, arrived and left along with the prosperity.They weren't all that they were made out to be… I had many friends from Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Ceará. I didn't have that prejudice.“I started hearing this from workers at the naval shipyard or in the service sector. It all seemed to have been a misunderstanding, a fight between children who secretly liked each other. That was the impression that lingered in the desert of the post-Naval Shipyard era. But, a few years later, the ghost of the “Bahian” would reappear and, following the national trend, in worse conditions.”

 The year is 2023, marking Bolsonaro's defeat and the beginning of Lula's third term. Institutions are slowly returning to their normal functions after the deliberate destruction of the welfare state initiated with the 2016 coup. All bodies, especially those on the left side of the state—to use a Bourdieuian concept—that is, institutions dedicated to care, education, health, protection, and social security, were immediately attacked. Their rationales were reversed: IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) deforested and encouraged illegal mining; FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) and INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) deforested and gave free rein to the extermination of indigenous people; the Ministry of Education denied education, disregarded research and postgraduate studies, sabotaged the ENEM (National High School Exam), fired shots at the airport, exchanged parliamentary amendments for gold bars, and forged diplomas. The Zumbi dos Palmares Foundation was headed by a pure-blooded racist; the Ministry of Labor made work precarious and subsidized slave labor.  

 The Ministry of Human Rights persecuted underage rape victims who opted for abortion, censored "gay drawings," defined colors appropriate to each sex, produced false information about indigenous peoples – such as videos in which it asked indigenous people themselves to stage the burial of children and then presented them as fact and evidence of barbaric infanticide and the need for loss of custody and adoption of their children – in short, it transformed itself into a sex police force, as its name suggests: Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. The Ministry of Health… Well, that was the main advertising body for chloroquine, responsible for the title of "genocidal" given to the then president by a population distrustful of vaccines, addicted to and suffering from the side effects of the Covid kit, a truly deranged panacea: a mixture of chloroquine, ivermectin, ozone, herd immunity, religion and market-driven public policy.²Finally, the Ministry of Justice was initially occupied by one of the main figures in the 2016 coup and, in our particular case, who dismantled national industrial policies, engineering companies linked to the petrochemical sector, and therefore to the Naval Hub.³And so the descent into hell continued until that interference was defeated by the forces of the people.

 In this simple resumption of the raison d'être of the institutions in which we still find ourselves in this first year of government, we discover daily the quagmire we were in. What little remained standing was agonizing. By reviving labor inspections, we saw that within three months almost a thousand workers were rescued from captivity in degrading situations analogous to slavery, surpassing all previous years (in the same period), second only to 2008. The captivity sites were directly or indirectly owned by businessmen directly linked to the Bolsonaro government. The most shocking cases concerned the degrading situation of workers in Rio Grande do Sul. Who were they? The "Bahians," in quotation marks once again.  

 Reports of slave labor in 2023 also resemble the record years of 2008, 2007, 2005, and 2003.⁴ In the regions and sectors where this forced labor is employed, a pattern emerges: they are linked to agriculture, mining, the sugar and ethanol sectors, and deforestation. In 2008, a record year, the majority of reported cases were linked to livestock farming (134). The coal industry came in second (47). However, regarding liberations, the sugar and ethanol sector led the ranking in 2008, with 2.553 workers leaving conditions analogous to slavery, according to the Pastoral Land Commission.⁵There were also seven compiled cases that combined slave labor and deforestation – six of them were inspected, with 83 workers freed.  

 Until 2008, among the states with the highest concentration of flagrant violations according to the CPT's historical series, those in the Amazon region linked to deforestation (Pará, Mato Grosso), Paraná, Santa Catarina, Maranhão, Goiás, and Alagoas were also located there. Rio Grande do Sul did not stand out among these states, but it was historically linked to agribusiness activities, from fruits – grapes, peaches, apples – to the vineyards and rice paddies historically present in the southern region.

 Of the approximately one thousand enslaved workers rescued in the first three months of 2023, 207 were found on February 22nd, in a joint operation between the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the Federal Police, and the Federal Highway Police (PRF) in Bento Gonçalves, in the Serra region of Rio Grande do Sul. This region, famous for its train rides with wine tasting and festivals themed around wine, represents a universe where this historical institution, for most, has been overcome under current conditions. The workers, mostly from Bahia but also including some from Rio Grande do Sul and Argentina, some even minors, shared experiences similar to those of slaves in the past. plantations or the charqueadas, the "hell of the blacks," to evoke the gaucho imaginary.⁶.  

 The accounts reinforce the description of the treatment of the winery workers: they worked from 5 am to 20 pm without rest, without weekends. They were forced to stay overnight on site but had to pay for all the equipment used (boots, clothes, scarves, pots). They ate spoiled food, slept in precarious and unsanitary accommodations, and had no freedom to leave, meaning they were forced to stay under the threat of torture: beatings, electric shocks, pepper spray, death threats, and psychological torture. In the complaints received by the Labor Prosecutor's Office, workers from Rio Grande do Sul reported that "only those from Bahia were subjected to torture, shocks, and beatings."⁷One of these workers managed to make a video showing marks of torture on himself and his colleagues. The video was shared on social media and resulted in the termination of contracts for some clients with the company benefiting from slave labor. He was locked in a room and beaten for hours. During the beatings, the henchmen shouted:Kill him, kill that guy from Bahia! Let's wipe him out. He tried to wipe us out!".

  But let's observe the social reality of this universe that gave meaning – normal and positive, acceptable and even defensible – to this type of practice. A few days after the rescue was made public, on February 27th, the Bento Gonçalves Industry, Commerce and Services Center (CIC-BG) issued a “Position Note”.⁸Initially, he makes a quick agreement with the support for monitoring and punishing "those responsible for such unacceptable practices," only to then move on to his "however," and here are the key points for understanding that reality: "it is fundamental safeguard integrity⁹ from the wine sector, a very important economic force for the entire microregion.” The wineries are, “all of themThese are companies with a well-known and fundamental role in the community, recognized for their concern for the well-being of their employees/cooperative members. because they offer very good working conditions, which are also extended to their outsourced employees.”.  

 Thus, the note concludes with its real-life case study of slave labor, "a long-standing concern for companies and local authorities," namely: the employer's submission to slave labor is a consequence of "a lack of manpower and the need to invest in projects and initiatives (read: on the part of the public authorities) that allow for minimizing this major problem." Because "there is a large segment of the population with full productive capacity who, even so, remain inactive, surviving through a..." "A welfare system that has nothing beneficial for society."And the icing on the cake, the solution presented: "It's time to work on projects and initiatives that adequately address the labor shortage, offering companies throughout the microregion the conditions for full development within their already well-established models of ethical, responsible, and sustainable work."

  And this is their official statement of defense and clarification! Slave labor is a result of a labor shortage motivated by welfare programs that corrupt lazy and parasitic workers, leaving employers with no choice but to enslave them. Apparently, there is no logical sense in this. How does a labor shortage lead to the need to enslave the few remaining workers in the market? Thus, the greatest condemnation is directed at the State (social, non-punitive), which, in addition to lacking projects to address this labor shortage, also errs in granting benefits and aid to the poor. Furthermore, there remains an open, albeit distorted, defense of the very right to enslave lazy and parasitic poor for the benefit of society.  

 But there is a logical basis that enables these discourses. Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, within the context of neoliberalism, the "zero tolerance" projects, which imply the criminalization of poverty as a "parasitic class that threatens us and lives off our backs," as a United States authority declared, "the welfare state must be shelved in order to save society from..." underclass, which already sows social ruin and moral desolation in cities […]”. And the alignment with the CIC of Bento Gonçalves is almost perfect when Lawrence Mead, one of the main idealists of the minimal (social) state, described in a pseudoscientific tone, in a colloquium in England, that “the State should avoid materially helping the poor, However, it must support them morally by obliging them to work.” (WACQUANT, 2001, p. 42-43).

 President Clinton, for example, accepted as correct analyses that "illegitimate unions and single-parent families are the cause of poverty and crime," and "the rate of single-parent families is rapidly increasing as aid budgets grow." The same rhetoric we've heard in Brazil about the Bolsa Família program and mothers who supposedly have more children just to cling to the aid. And of course, those targeted by such hostilities were poor black people, this being the race, the substance, and poverty and its consequences (sexual promiscuity, inclination towards crime and vagrancy) as the defining characteristics.  

 More spontaneously, it is Sandro Fantinel, a city councilor from Caxias do Sul, a neighboring city of Bento Gonçalves, then a member of the Patriotas party, who gives consistency and polish to the meaning of that universe. In his speech, contrary to the apparent lack of surprise from the entity representing the accused, the councilor finds the opposite strange, he finds the astonishment of society at what was happening in the wineries strange:  

Farmers, rural producers, agricultural companies that are following me right now, I'm going to give you some advice: don't hire those people from up there anymore. All the farmers who have Argentinians working for them today are very complimentary. They are clean, hardworking, honest, punctual, keep their houses clean, and on the day they leave they even thank their boss for the service provided and the money they received. Now, with the people from Bahia, whose only culture is living on the beach playing drums, it was normal that this kind of problem would arise. Leave aside those people who are used to Carnival and parties so you don't have to worry about it again. Let this serve as a lesson. If slavery was so bad, why didn't some of the group want to leave?”¹⁰

In conclusion, and in self-analysis, I understand that an evolutionary sense of history remained within us, researchers and political subjects, between daily pessimism and long-term optimism, and that it was shattered, destroyed. The iconic representations of colonial Brazil that we kept at home gained new meaning, drawing closer in time, to yesterday, to just around the corner. Debret and Rugendas were now more human, more like us.  

 The excerpt from the councilman's speech could be transported to the 17th or 18th century without major modifications to fit into the ledger of a slave trader or plantation owner. But the speech was given in 2023, and gained meaning in its dissemination, even to those aware of its displacement in time and space. Even we, who are accustomed to these statements in recent years in Brazil and the world, have become somewhat dulled by them. The question I conclude with is both political and scientific: how was this reappearance of relationships possible whose meanings, a few years ago, seemed completely absurd and outdated? bugs In reality, was it a fracture in space-time that launched us into a picturesque past? Or was it the veiled present that has been unveiled?

P.S.: This article can be found in an expanded and detailed version in the Plurais Journal, 2023, from UFPR.

 1See link: https://gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br/geral/noticia/2012/06/dados-do-ibge-colocam-municipios-do-estado-como-campeoes-em-credos-3806966.html#:~:text=Apesar%20de%20ser%20o%20segundo,vezes%20%20percentual%20da%20Bahia.  

 2On this topic, I published an article in the press detailing the debates and initial health policies related to the Covid-19 pandemic. See: https://www.brasil247.com/blog/5-razoes-para-a-des-politizacao-do-virus-chines  

 3I published an article about Lava Jato as a project to destroy the cutting-edge national industry. See: https://www.brasil247.com/blog/para-uma-hermeneutica-da-tagarelice-a-lava-jato-a-odebrecht-e-o-bale-imperialista 

 4According to reports from the Pastoral Land Commission compiled since 1985.

 5See link: https://reporterbrasil.org.br/2009/05/denuncias-sobre-trabalho-escravo-atingem-recorde-em-2008/ 

 6The popular legend of the little black shepherd boy is a synthesis of this hell and is widely replicated in the folklore of Rio Grande do Sul.

 7https://www.sinprodf.org.br/vereador-gaucho-faz-discurso-xenofobo-e-e-expulso-de-seu-partido/ 

 8http://www.cicbg.com.br/noticia/nota-de-posicionamento/1699 

 9Italics are mine.

 10https://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/policia-abre-inquerito-para-apurar-declaracoes-xenofobicas-de-vereador-no-rs/