ABC Region

The ABC Region, also known as ABC Paulista, is an industrial region in Greater São Paulo, Brazil. The name refers to three smaller cities south of São Paulo, capital of the Brazilian state of the same name. Originally, these three cities were Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul. Later, the region became known as the ABCD, with the addition of the city of Diadema, and sometimes even as ABCDMRR, with the addition of Mauá, Ribeirão Pires, and Rio Grande da Serra. The ABC region is widely known in Brazil and abroad because of the great number of international companies, particularly car manufacturers, in its area. National media and organizations consider the ABC region a powerful industrial pole and birthplace of the labor union movement that fought against the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. In this region the Workers' Party (PT) was formed, whose activities and popularity launched Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or simply Lula, to the presidency of Brazil in 2002. In 2006, the Federal University of ABC was established as a research and higher learning institution, with two campi and centers for Engineering, Modeling and Applied Social Sciences (CECS), for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC) and for Natural and Human Sciences (CCNH).