Comprodo Chattel Slavery and Colonialism: How Brazil Still Buys and Sells Its People
By Direct Democratic Communist Confederation We are told that slavery ended in Brazil in 1888. We are told that citizenship, the vote, and the right to quit a job make us free. We are told that Carnival is culture, remittances are development, and migration is opportunity. All of this is a lie. What ended in 1888 was private slaveholding—one person owning another directly. What began was something larger, more efficient, and more profitable: Comprodo Chattel Slavery and Colonialism. In this system, the state itself treats its inhabitants as movable assets, openly bought and sold across borders and within the nation, for the profit of capital and the stability of the state. The vote does not challenge this market. Quitting a job does not escape it. We are still chattel. The only difference is the paperwork. 1. What Is Comprodo Chattel Slavery? Before 1888, Brazil had private slaveholding. A plantation owner bought a human being with a bill of sale. That human was chattel—movable pr...