The Constitution embeds labor rights and an immigration quota

The strike movement broadened across workplaces and neighborhoods in São Paulo in mid-July. Contemporary labor organization, neighborhood associations, and anarchist newspapers helped circulate...

Decree 19,433 created the Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce, centralizing federal oversight of labor relations and social insurance. The new ministry could recognize and regulate worker...

Decree 19,482 required certain employers and public contractors to show that at least two-thirds of their employees were Brazilian-born. The measure responded to unemployment and shaped the balance...

Decree 19,770 defined how workers’ and employers’ associations could defend interests through the Ministry of Labor. It conditioned recognition on rules that included limits on foreign participation...

Founded in São Paulo on 16 September 1931, the Frente Negra Brasileira built a wide network of Black social and political organizing, with branches in several states. It offered education, community...

Decree-Law 25 established federal heritage listing (tombamento), defining national heritage through historical, archaeological, ethnographic, bibliographic, and artistic value. In practice, early...

Decree-Law 37 of 2 December 1937 dissolved Brazil’s political parties under the Estado Novo dictatorship. The Frente Negra Brasileira had converted itself into a political party in 1936; it could no...

Decree-Law 406 reorganized rules for foreign entry and residence, including the operation of national immigration quotas and requirements for visas. It extended a restrictive framework that had been...

Decree-Law 1,402 established procedures for union recognition, registration, representation, and contributions. The Vargas regime recognized unions within a state-controlled framework, restricting...

Decree-Law 2,162 instituted a statutory minimum wage and set regional schedules. A wage floor recognized workers as people with claims on employers, but protections depended on which sectors and...