Practices of Normalizing Political Violence at Volkswagen do Brasil during the Brazilian Civil- Military Dictatorship (1964-1985)

Objective: to investigate what the practices of normalizing political violence perpetrated by Volkswagen do Brasil against its workers during the Brazilian military dictatorship were, how they were configured, and how they were operationalized. Theoretical framework: the historical context of corporate collaboration with dictatorial governments allows us to identify the invisible face of organizational violence that results from routine practices that normalize political violence. Methods: historical research with documental sources from the National Archives, the APESP, the Public Representation opened against the company by MPESP, the newspaper Tribuna Metalúrgica, the magazine Família VW, and the press. The documents were analyzed in dialogue with the historiography and with analytical categories from the field. Results: the research identified five practices of normalizing political violence: formalization, division of labor, routinization, authority and obedience, and identity and nonidentity politics. Conclusions: tunderstanding political violence as actions to dismantle workers’ protest movements for better working conditions and the organization of workers around issues of national politics, the results suggest that the company, in collaboration with repressive forces, carried out practices to normalize political violence.