This chapter describes and analyzes the truth trial against Volkswagen for its role in the detention, torture, and disappearance of workers during the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985). This... Show moreThis chapter describes and analyzes the truth trial against Volkswagen for its role in the detention, torture, and disappearance of workers during the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985). This chapter uses the Archimedes’ Lever model to trace the evolution of the corporate accountability process since the country's democratization, through the establishment of the National Truth Commission (CNV), up to the negotiations between the company, the workers, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) that reached an agreement in 2020. This case has seen mobilisation from unions and institutional innovators pushing for accountability, as well as a certain level of cooperation from the company, but it also faces strong veto players and a change in context with the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president in 2018. We conclude with notions of what the Volkswagen case has to offer to understand corporate accountability and transitional justice, and the enormous hurdles it faces in achieving those goals. Show less
This paper explores the transformations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dominant narratives on labor between 1979 and 2009. By analyzing official May Day speeches of this period, it navigates... Show moreThis paper explores the transformations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dominant narratives on labor between 1979 and 2009. By analyzing official May Day speeches of this period, it navigates multiple constructions of workers’ roles, which were systematically propagated by the IRI’s Supreme Leader and president over time. The analysis relies on the following primary sources: from the 1979 May Day sermon, pronounced by Ruhollah Khomeini, to the 2009 speech given by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, together with messages sent by Ali Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Showing how workers’ role—understood as a collective and distinct group—was gradually minimized, this paper argues that a bottom-up cleaning up process slowly purified May Day. In fact, the IRI progressively neglected workers as (revolutionary) social actors and interlocutors, as it stopped talking to masses and started speaking to middle classes. Show less
