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Movements and Militant Memory. Ethnography and Anti-Asbestos Activism in Brazil

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Movements and Militant Memory. Ethnography and Anti-Asbestos Activism in Brazil Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna in cotutela con Universidade de São Paulo DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN STORIA CULTURE CIVILTÀ Ciclo XXIX Settore Concorsuale di afferenza: 11/A5 Settore Scientifico disciplinare: M-DEA/01 (Discipline Demoetnoantropologiche) Movements and Militant Memory. Ethnography and Anti-Asbestos Activism in Brazil Presentata da: Agata Mazzeo Coordinatore Dottorato: Professor Massimo Montanari Relatore: Professor Ivo Quaranta Relatore: Professor Rubens de Camargo Ferreira Adorno Esame finale anno 2017 To those who daily struggle and commit their life to the movement for an asbestos-free world, beyond the death and their most painful experiences of suffering and injustice TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 5 Summary 9 Summary (Italiano) 10 Summary (Português) 11 List of Abbreviations 12 Chapter 1: An Introduction Prologue 13 Statement of the problem 13 Research objective and questions 16 Theoretical framework 17 ‘The body as good to think about’ 19 Suffering and violence 20 Movements and activism 21 Disaster 24 Research context 26 Osasco’s historical processes and social fabric 28 Methodology 30 Study participants 30 Data collection 31 Data analysis 37 Ethical and practical considerations 37 Structure of the thesis 39 PART I: The movements of asbestos, bodies, and capital Chapter 2: Asbestos Mining Prologue 41 Introduction 41 A magical evil stone 42 Mining processes and dynamics 47 Embodying the eternal 51 Mine contexts as contexts of struggle 57 Conclusions 61 1 Chapter 3: Bodies and Capital’s Movements Introduction 63 People’s movements 65 Osasco. From vila to city 67 Capital’s movements 72 The case of Italian asbestos workers’ emigration from Casale Monferrato to Rio de Janeiro 76 The Eternit plant in Osasco 78 Conclusions 82 PART II: Anti-Asbestos Activism Chapter 4: Osasco. Cidade, trabalho e lutas Introduction 83 The impact of Liberation Theology on Osasco’s struggles 84 Workers’ struggles and trade unions in Osasco 92 ABREA’s first steps 98 Conclusions 99 Chapter 5: Care-Activism and Memory Prologue 101 Introduction 101 Asbestos-related suffering 102 Leticia/João 103 Beatriz/Carlos (part one) 105 Irene/Roberto 108 Pedro 110 The body as a source of knowledge and a tool for action 112 Chico 113 Activism as care 118 Beatriz/Carlos (part two) 121 Conclusions 126 Chapter 6: The Politics of Anti-asbestos Activism Introduction 127 The politics of anti-asbestos activism 129 Anti-asbestos activism through biomedical paths 135 2 Asbestos prohibition in Osasco and São Paulo 142 ‘Uma mulher de combate’ and the transnational anti-asbestos movement 144 Activism through judicial paths 153 Conclusions 157 PART III: Transnational disasters and movements Chapter 7: Risk and Vulnerability in Asbestos-Related Disasters Prologue 158 Introduction 160 Why disasters? 161 Denying risk (and disasters) 164 Living risk (and disasters) 171 Risk communication as activism 176 Conclusions 179 Chapter 8: Global Ethnography, Public Health and Activism Prologue 180 Introduction 181 Global Health disasters 183 Moral practices of Global Health and the movement for global asbestos prohibition 190 Engaging ethnography, activism, and Global Health 197 Conclusions 204 Conclusions 205 Appendix Photographs from the field 211 Bibliographic References 227 3 Agradeço a todos os participantes desse estudo. Fico grata por terem compartilhado comigo uma parte desta caminhada de luta conduzida com dignidade, paixão, compromisso e dedicação. Obrigada por terem me acolhido com paciência, sorrisos e carinho. Ficará sempre comigo o que aprendi com vocês. Agata I thank all my study participants. I am grateful to you for having shared a piece of your pathway of struggle conducted with dignity, passion, commitment, and dedication. Thank you for having welcomed me with patience, smiles, and kindness. What I have learned with you will be always with me. Agata Bologna, March 2017 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Talvez seja uma das experiências humanas e animais mais importantes. A de pedir socorro e, por pura bondade e compreensão de outro o socorro ser dado. Talvez valha a pena ter nascido para que um dia mudamente se implore e mudamente se receba (Lispector 1999). [Perhaps, it is one of the most important human and animal experiences. That of asking help and, just because of simple goodness and understanding of the other, the help is given. Perhaps, it is worth being born just for a day silently imploring and silently receiving]. The analysis and writing of this thesis were conducted over months of solitary work and I am the only person responsible for the contents and limitations of the results. However, I would never have been able to design, realise, and conclude my research project without my encounters with the anti-asbestos activists who have marked my private and academic life, and the love, encouragement, and support of those who are crucial presences in my life―my family and friends. I thank the Associação Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto-ABREA [Brazilian Association of Exposed to Asbestos] founded and situated in Osasco, São Paulo. This thesis is rooted in the stories of the lives, suffering, and activism of its members. I thank the current ABREA President Mr. Eliezer João de Souza and Ms. Fernanda Giannasi for having introduced me to the field and exchanged opinions and conversations with me that were fundamental for my approach to the anti-asbestos movement in Brazil. I do not mention the names of the majority of my study participants nor their affiliations to safeguard their anonymity. However, I want to thank all the Brazilian professionals, researchers, anti-asbestos activists, and associations who welcomed me in São Paulo (Osasco, São Caetano, Santo André), Rio de Janeiro (Cabo Frio and Rio de Janeiro), Goiás (Goiânia), Bahia (Salvador, Simões Filho, Poções, and Bom Jesus da Serra), Paraná (Londrina), and Santa Catarina (Florianópolis). I am grateful to the professionals and activists from public health institutions, associations, and trade unions operating in Osasco, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. They helped me to grasp ABREA’s role in knowledge and law-making processes and situate anti-asbestos activism in the local and national socio-political scenarios. 5 During my doctoral education, my participation in conferences and seminars including those outside the academy represented fruitful occasions to disseminate and reflect on my research. I thank the Ministério Público do Trabalho-MPT [Public Ministry of Labour] and the Departamento Intersindical de Estudos e Pesquisas de Saúde e dos Ambientes de Trabalho- DIESAT [Inter-union Department of Study and Research on Health and Work Places] for having invited me to give a talk at the International Conference Amianto: Uma Abordagem Sócio-Jurídica [Asbetsos: A Socio-Juridical Approach] that was held in Campinas (São Paulo), in October 2016. I thank Cyro Haddad Novello and his team for having invited me to give lectures on the occasion of the awareness and training campaigns organised during the “Semana do Trabalhador” [Worker’s Week] by the Subsecretaria de Vigilância, Fiscalização Sanitária e Controle de Zoonoses [Sub-secretary of Surveillance, Health Inspections, and Zoonoses Control] of the Prefeitura of Rio de Janeiro and by the Centro de Saúde do Trabalhador- CESAT [Centre of Occupational Health] in April 2015. Throughout the eight years of my ethnographic research, I met sufferers and activists from various settings and organizations. I thank the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization- ADAO (USA) for having invited me to give a talk at the ADAO Conference 2016 in Washington D.C., and I am grateful to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat-IBAS (UK) for its archives available online. I thank the Associazione Familiari Vittime Amianto-AFeVA [Association of Relatives and/of Victims from Asbestos] from Bari and Casale Monferrato (Italy). My engagement with the study of the suffering and activism experiences related to disasters provoked by the global market of asbestos began with my encounter with their members. I am also grateful to the AFeVA Emilia Romagna for the enthusiasm with which its members participated to the educational projects I conducted with the students of the Centro per l’Istruzione degli Adulti- CPIA [Centre for Adult Education] Metropolitano di Bologna (2013/2014, 2015/2015). I thank my Professors from the Universities of Bologna, São Paulo, and Amsterdam where I studied and nurtured my passion for medical anthropology. I thank Professor Ivo Quaranta (University of Bologna) for his precious advice and supervision since the beginning of my study on asbestos related experiences of suffering and activism; Professor Rubens de 6 Camargo Ferreira Adorno (University of São Paulo) for his advice and interest in my research; and Professor Stuart Blume (University of Amsterdam) for his mentorship and encouragement. I thank Pietro Comba, Daniela Marsili, and Roberto Pasetto from the Department of Environmental Health of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome, Italy) for their encouragement and interest in my research. I thank Alberto Prunetti for having introduced me to them. I thank the librarians of the Faculty of Public Health’s library and Centro Cultural Vergueiro (São Paulo), Centro de Documentação Histórica de Osasco (Centro Universitário Fieo, Osasco), Instituto Zequinha Barreto (Osasco), the public library Monteiro Lobato (Osasco), and the libraries of FUNDACENTRO (São Paulo) and FIOCRUZ (Rio de Janeiro). I thank my fellow ‘anthropologists in progress’ and dear friends
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