First Brazilian Workers' Congress

The First Brazilian Workers' Congress was a meeting of workers that took place between 15 and 22 April 1906 at the headquarters of Centro Galego, in Rio de Janeiro, then the Federal Capital of Brazil. The Congress was the first initiative in the sense of articulating the working class at a national level in Brazil, and was attended by 43 delegates representing 28 workers unions from different parts of the country, but mainly from the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The congressional resolutions showed an evident influence of revolutionary syndicalism among the delegates present, who endorsed the political neutrality of the unions, federalism, direct action and the general strike. The Congress also laid the foundations for the agreement of the Brazilian Workers' Confederation, the first union institution of national scope, but which would only begin its activities in 1908.