The aim of this paper is to study a recent phenomenon in Brazilian labor history, called slave-like labor, characterized as crime by the penal code since 1940. Since it is a phenomenon that afflicts all continents, it is found in countries with distinct levels of development. Contemporary slave labor, as it is also known, has been targeted by the ILO and has resulted in the design of public policy to extinguish it. In Brazil the work carried out by the Mobile Labor Inspection Groups from the Ministry of Labor and Employment, and the Catholic Church, through the Pastoral Commission of Land, have been most important in making accusations related to this phenomenon and to its repression. In spite of the immense difficulties involved, the Brazilian state has achieved positive results, including an increased awareness among workers subjected to this practice about their own lives and working conditions and, thus, about their rights.
slave labor; memory; public policies
