RIO DE JANEIRO — A one-day nationwide general strike, meant to capitalize on a wave of mass demonstrations across Brazil last month, produced mixed results on Thursday, with some cities and states disrupted severely and others largely unaffected.

Demonstrators blocked two of the nation’s main ports for much of the day, along with several highways essential to commerce in Brazil, South America’s largest country. Many banks and schools, along with some factories, were closed or occupied, as employees marched in the streets or conducted sit-ins outside their places of employment.

“The giant has awakened, and it’s not going back to sleep again,” said Marcelo Tredinnick, 41, an aerospace engineer who was writing slogans on posters at a rally at the intersection of Avenida Presidente Vargas and Avenida Rio Branco, downtown Rio’s two most important streets. “The people are making their will known.”

In contrast to last month’s mass protests, which began spontaneously, relied on social media to spread a broad-ranging message and had few identifiable leaders, the “National Day of Struggle” on Thursday was called by Brazil’s eight main labor union federations and was heavily scripted. The unions, which have a combined membership of six million, even met in advance with the authorities to work out the rules of the protest.