“…Colonial state policy toward the working class has consequently been a subsidiary, albeit important, reaction to the changing imperatives of successive transformation in the local forces and relations of production. Although this article focuses on the third stage, it is clear that the formation of the working class and state policy during the most recent period were strongly conditioned by previous political and economic developments (see Quintero Rivera, 1974Rivera, , 1975aRivera, , 1975bRivera, , 1980Campos and Bonilla, 1982).…”