review of
Patrícia Galvão's Industrial Park
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 16-18, 2018

For the complete review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1080000-i-love-you-pagu

I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese & I've never been further directly south of the US than the Bahamas & Tijuana. When I tell people that I've been to Tijuana they say "That's not really Mexico" — meaning, of course, that it's just the tourist version of Mexico. & even tho I once organized a Latin American festival & I have 35 bks listed on my Latin American shelf here on Goodreads (& have actually read at least twice that many Latin American bks) & I (d) composed a piece called "Lost in Translation" that's based around Latin American music & literature AND have a piece out on record called "Birds of Villa-Villa Lobos (after Michael Pestel)" that uses samples from Heitor Villa-Lobos & Brazilian birds, I still don't know shit about Latin America. Basically, I need to speak Spanish & Portuguese (& other native languages wd be preferable too) & I need to fucking go there & stay there & be active there — & that's not likely to happen.

SO, I'll have to settle for reading & reviewing bks such as this one to help inform myself. The cover of Industrial Park declares it to be "A PROLETARIAN NOVEL" & that caught my interest. The back cover caught my interest even more:

"The novel dramatizes the problems of exploitation, poverty, racial prejudice, prostitution, state repression, and neocolonialism, but it is by no means a doctrinaire tract. Glavão's ironic wit pervades the novel, aspiring not only to describe the teeming city but also to put art and politics in each other's service.

"Like many of her contemporaries, Galvão was a member of the Brazilian Communist Party. She attracted Party criticism for her unorthodox behavior and outspokenness. A visit to Moscow in 1934 disenchanted her with the communist state, but she continued to militate for change upon returning to Brazil. She was imprisoned and tortured under the Vargas dictatorship between 1935 and 1940. In the 1940s she returned to the public through her journalism and literary activities. She died in 1962."

The promotion of this as "by no means a doctrinaire tract" & the mention that "She attracted Party criticism for her unorthodox behavior and outspokenness." are enuf to deeply endear her to me. The thought that such a wonderfully intelligent, benevolent, & free spirit wd be "imprisoned and tortured under the Vargas dictatorship between 1935 and 1940" is horrifying. I know nothing about the dictatorships of Brazil so I looked online:

"Vargas' four-year term as President under the 1934 Constitution was due to expire in 1938, and he was barred from reelection. However, on November 10, 1937, Vargas made a national radio address denouncing the existence of a communist plot to overthrow the government, called the Cohen Plan (Plano Cohen). In reality, however, Plano Cohen was forged in the government with the objective of creating a favourable atmosphere for Vargas to stay in power, perpetuating his rule and assuming dictatorial powers.

"The Communists had indeed attempted to take over the Government in November 1935, in a botched coup attempt known as the Intentona Comunista (Communist Attempt). In the wake of the failed Communist uprising, Congress had already given greater powers to Vargas, and approved the creation of a National Security Tribunal (Tribunal de Segurança Nacional), established by a statute adopted on 11 September 1936.

"In his address of 10 November 1937, Vargas, invoking the supposed Communist threat, decreed a state of emergency and dissolved the Legislature. He also announced the adoption by Presidential fiat of a new, severely authoritarian Constitution that effectively placed all governing power in his hands. The 1934 Constitution was thus abolished, and Vargas proclaimed the establishment of a "Estado Novo" (New State). The short interval was further evidence that the self-coup had been planned well in advance.

"Under this dictatorial regime the powers of the National Security Tribunal were streamlined, and it focused on the prosecution of political dissenters. Also, the powers of the police were greatly enhanced, with the establishment of DOPS, a powerful political police and secret service. When created in 1936, the National Security Tribunal was supposed to be a temporary Court, and defendants could file appeals against its judgements to the Superior Military Court (Superior Tribunal Militar [pt]), Brazil's Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which was in turn subordinate to the Nation's Supreme Court. Thus, Communists and other defendants accused of plotting coups were judged by the military court-martial system (with the National Security Tribunal as the trial court of first instance for those cases), and not by the ordinary courts. With the advent of the Estado Novo regime, the National Security Tribunal became a permanent Court, and became autonomous from the rest of the Court system. It gained authority to adjudicate not only cases of Communist conspirators and other coup plotters, but it now tried anyone accused of being subversive or dangerous to the Estado Novo regime. Also, several extrajudicial punishments were inflicted by the police itself (especially by the DOPS political police), without trial."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargas_Era

Does any of that sound familiar?

"The Reichstag fire (German: Reichstagsbrand,) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building (home of the German parliament) in Berlin on 27 February 1933, one month after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was found near the building and attributed the fire to communist agitators in general—though in 1933, a German court decided that van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he claimed. After the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed. The Nazi Party used the fire as evidence that communists were plotting against the German government, and the event is considered pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. The term Reichstag fire has come to refer to false flag actions perpetrated or facilitated by an authority to promote their own interests through popular approval of retribution or retraction of civil rights." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

"On Sept. 11, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania - and the EEOC" [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] "was faced with its own unique traumas and challenges resulting from these attacks on America. The Commission's New York District Office (NYDO) at Seven World Trade Center was severely damaged in the attack, and all EEOC personnel were evacuated. It collapsed later in the day with no loss of life or injuries, but the office and all of its equipment, files, and records were destroyed." - https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/50th/milestones/9-11.cfm

"The Patriot Act is a more than 300-page document passed by the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support and signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, just weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States."

[..]

"According to the Department of Justice, the Patriot Act simply expanded the application of tools already being used against drug dealers and organized crime. The act aimed to improve homeland security by:

"allowing law enforcement to use surveillance and wiretapping to investigate terror-related crimes

"allowing federal agents to request court permission to use roving wiretaps to track a specific terrorist suspect

"allowing delayed notification search warrants to prevent a terrorist from learning they are a suspect

"allowing federal agents to seek federal court permission to obtain bank records and business records to aid in national security terror investigations and prevent money laundering for terrorism financing

"improving information and intelligence sharing between government agencies

"providing tougher penalties for convicted terrorists and those who harbor them

"allowing search warrants to be obtained in any district where terror-related activity occurs, no matter where the warrant is executed

"ending the statute of limitations for certain terror-related crimes

"making it harder for aliens involved in terrorist activities to enter the United States

"providing aid to terrorism victims and public safety officers involved in investigating or preventing terrorism or responding to terrorist attacks

"Many of the Patriot Act’s requirements were slated to expire in 2005. Whether to renew the act was passionately argued in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

"Despite continued civil liberties and privacy concerns, President Bush signed the USA Patriot and Terrorism Reauthorization Act on March 9, 2006."

[..]

"Despite the supposed noble intentions behind the Patriot Act, the law is still hotly debated. Civil rights groups have claimed it violates American citizens’ Constitutional rights and allows the government to spy on them without due process, search their homes without consent and increase the risk of ordinary citizens being accused of crimes without just cause.

"The federal government asserts the Patriot Act has safeguards to protect the rights of American citizens. Still, some parts of the law were found illegal by the courts. For instance, in 2015 the United States of Appeals for the Second Circuit found Section 215 of the Patriot Act could not be used to validate the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records."

- https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/patriot-act

The question continues to be: How many of these terrorist attacks that're used to justify stepping up authoritarian government are 'false flag actions' preplanned to con the public into accepting reduced or destroyed civil rights? The fact that Patrícia Galvão was "imprisoned and tortured under the Vargas dictatorship between 1935 and 1940" is an excellent indication of how power can be abused w/ insufficient checks & balances. I found the "Translators's Preface" to Industrial Park very useful:

"Stylistically, it bridged the years when many writers combined modernist experimentation with themes of social realism. Its treatment of race and class compared favorably with that of proletarian novels of the same period by Jorge Amado but added a valuable urban, feminist perspective that had not been available before. Scenes of raw anarchist and communist propaganda conveyed how deeply Pagu" [Patrícia Galvão] "was involved in promoting workers' political consciousness and revolt." - p VIII

"THE STATISTICS AND THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN STRATUM THAT SUSTAINS THE INDUSTRIAL PARK OF São Paulo & SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF THIS BOOK, CAN BE FOUND, UNDER THE CAPITALIST REGIME, IN THE JAILS AND IN THE SLUM HOUSES, IN THE HOSPITALS & IN THE MORGUES." - p 5

Exactly. & that's a pretty good indication of what makes this an important bk.

"In the dirty latrines the girls spend a joyful minute stolen from the slave labor.

"—The Manager said that from now on we can only come two at a time!

"—Can you believe it? Did you see how much trash they wrote!

"—That's because before, this was the men's latrine!

"—But here's a dirty poem!

"—How awful! They should erase it. . .

"—What's the meaning of this word 'fascism'?

"—Dummy! It's that Mussolini thing.

"—Not on your life! Pedro said that here in Brazil there's fascism too." - p 10

When I think of things like controlled toilet breaks I think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire:

"The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women aged 14 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and "Sara" Rosaria Maltese.

"The factory was located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan."

[..]

"Because the owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft – many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped from the high windows."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

Yes, that was in the United States of America. We really don't need to go to those '3rd world countries' for exploited labor, now do we?!

"A pale young girl answers the call and stammers that it's impossible to finish the order for the next day.

"—What did you say? exclaims the seamstress nudging her into the inner workshop. Do you think that I'm going to displease mademoiselle just because of a few lazy tramps? Today there will be overtime until one in the morning.

"—I can't stay at night, Madame! Momma is sick. I have to give her medicine!

"—You're staying! Your mother won't die waiting a few hours.

"—But I have to!

"—Nothing doing. If you go, you're out.

"The proletarian returns to her place among her coworkers. She shudders at the idea of losing the job that had been so difficult to find." - p 15

Galvão sets the scene:

"—We don't have time to get to know our own children!

"Meeting of a regional labor union. Women, men, laborers of all ages. All colors. All mentalities. Aware. Unaware. Informers.

"Those who look to the union as the only way to satisfy their immediate demands. Those who are attracted by the union bureaucracy. The future men of the revolution. Revolters. Anarchists. Infiltrators." - p 21

"—We can't get to know our own children! We leave home at six in the morning. They are sleeping. We return at ten. They are sleeping. We don't have vacations. We don't have Sundays to rest!" - p 22

"—We build palaces and live worse than bourgeois dogs. When we're unemployed, we're treated like bums. If we only have a street bench to sleep on, the police arrest us. And ask why we don't move to the interior. They're ready to send us to die by the lash on the Laranjeira family's maté tea plantation!" - p 23

"—Poor people can't even be mothers! I dunno how I got this baby! I have to give him to someone, so the poor thing won't die of hunger. If I keep taking care of him how will I find a job? I have to give him up to take care of other people's children! I'll nurse the sons of the rich and I don't know how mine will get by." - p 74

These snippets are just that in comparison to the larger picture. Galvão tells it very well. One of the central narratives is of the marriage between Eleonora, working class, & Alfredo, ruling class. Eleonora is ecstatic to enter the life of luxury & hedonism & to escape the drudgery that she wd've otherwise been doomed to. Alfredo despises the class he was born into & wants to escape THAT & join in the revolution.

"Eleonora, contrary to what Alfredo had thought, is amazed. So much intelligence and so much elegance! She is courted. Insistent admirers. Luxury. Sparkling jewels. A punch more delicious than she had ever imagined existed. She becomes angry when Alfredo wants to leave, annoyed.

"He climbs in the automobile behind her, shouting:

"—I hate these people! These parasites. . . And I'm one of them!" - p 33

I'm sympathetic to both positions. Not every woman in the garment district is so lucky as to be well-treated by one of the parasite class.

"Corina reads a scrap of torn newspaper. Soft, sleepless eyelids. The lice and fleas nest on her slender body. The dirty mat thrown into a corner of the prison. The blue denim of her long skirt. Her shapely legs, barefoot, dark. She looks them over and crosses them, excited, dragging her long toenails along the protrusions of the wall. She feels her firm flesh. So pretty, she'll grow old alone, in prison." - p 59

Meanwhile, the parasite class actually commits crimes, instead of going to prison for trumped-up ones, behind the scenes.

"Automobile Club. Inside flies. The high-class Club asks for relief through the decadent pens of its press flunkies. Now it wants to dupe City Hall, selling it the building that the Club couldn't finish. It's the crisis. São Paulo's nascent capitalism turns its feudal and hairy belly up." - p 65

People kill lice & fleas & mousquitos — or at least try to get them off their body. It's a much harder task to try to get rid of the larger parasites & the system that enables them.

"The tiny voice of the revolutionary rises in the flushed faces of the rally.

"—Comrades! We can't remain silent in the midst of this struggle! We must be at the side of our men in the streets, as we are when we work in the factory. We have to fight together against the bourgeoisie that drain our health and turn us into human rags! They take from our breast the last drop of milk that belongs to our little ones to live on champagne and parasitism!

"At night, we don't even have the strength to warm our children who are left alone the whole day or shut up in filthy rooms without anyone to look after them! We must not weaken the strike with our complaints! We are behind in the rent and even go hungry, while our bosses who do nothing live in luxury and order the police to attack us! But this still will not make us slaves our whole lives!" - p 80

What nazism & fascism does is derail this class anger & direct it against ethnic groups, Jews & immigrants these days in the US & Europe. This is a ruling class tactic for deflecting criticism away from itself to people who're easily socially isolated into being targets.

"At twelve years of age she entered the cloth factory. The revolt against the exploiters and assassins. She discovered the union. She understood the class struggle.

"From the bars she leans against, she sees the soldiers' mess. At nine, from the other direction, the luxury train to Rio goes by. The Southern Cross. Each compartment costs four hundred milreis for one night. She earned two hundred a month, sometimes less." - p 85

Meanwhile, Alfredo is trying to do what he thinks is right.

"Alfredo? Could she believe it? Could her companions be wrong?

"She'll talk with him all her free hours to see if she can discover a false position, an opportunistic purpose, a shadow of bossism or opportunism. That great bourgeois from the Esplanada!

"Everyone tells her that his political line is perfect." - p 91

Ah, but the same Communist Party that criticized "her unorthodox behavior and outspokenness" (in other words, Galvão was a free thinker) turns against Alfredo:

"Octavia freezes. The accusers point out hard facts. Inconsistencies. Individualism. Errors. They all stare at her, given the concrete evidence. It's true. Alfredo had let himself be dragged into the bourgeois vanguard that disguises itself under the name 'leftist opposition' in proletarian organization. He's a Trotskyite. He connives and conspires with the most cynical traitors of the social revolution." - p 104

Once again, half truths at the service of dictatorship. ( )