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Welcome toick it up in here. I'm address Age of the Future Channel Andrewism. Today were continuing the Latin American Anarchism series with our exploration of anarchism in Brazil. I'm joined by Garrison Davis. Hello there, and once again thanks to the scholarship of Edgar Rodriguez, Jesse Cohen, Philippe Coreer, Raphael Vianna, Li Silva Cowan, Williando Santos, Eddie Laine Toledo
and Luigi Biondi. When we last left off, anarchist labor resistance in Brazil had triggered a turning point and a reaction. Weakened by the splits caused by the Bolsheviks and the military repression of the government, another faction would step in to cripple the anarchist cause even further, the Integralists. In the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, Brazil saw the rise of the Brasilian integralist action, the aib A nationalist movement
led by Pinio Salgado. During a trip to Europe, Salgado became enamored with Benito Mussolini's fascist movement in Italy. Upon his return to Brazil, and at the height of Catulio Argus's dictatorship, which was ushered in thanks to a cool weather liberal alliance, Salgado founded the Society for Political Studies, gathering intellectuals who were sympathetic to fascism. Then he essumed the October Manifesto, laying out the groundwork for the Brazilian
Integralist Action. The movement closely mirrored Italian fascism with its green shirted paramilitary wing, regimented demonstrations, and militant rhetoric. Though Salgado publicly rejected racism, many members of his party adopted anti Semitic views. Integralism was financed in part by the Italian embassy, with the Roman salute and the Tupi word an nawe meaning you are my brother, as key symbols
of the unity. Integralist Action drew its support from lower middle class Italians and Portuguese immigrants, alongside sections of the Brazilian military, particularly the navy. As the party grew, it became the dictator of Vargas's primary right wing basis support, especially after he began to crack down on the Communist Party. Integrilists frequently engaged in street violence and terrorism aimed at leftist groups. In nineteen fifty one, Vargas introduced the Labor
Regulations based and Mussolini's Labor Charter. Independent industrial unions were banned. Union membership had to be registered with the Ministry of Labor, two thirds of the union membership had to be native born or naturalized Brazilians. Oh no, yeah, and union officers were required to either be resident in Brazil for ten years if naturalized, or thirty years if foreign born.
That's pretty fucked up, I would assume, also just very damaging to the entire labor movement in the country, A very intense series of restrictions.
Yes, as a very immigrant empowered labor movement. Yeah, yeah, that was definitely targeted. Definitely, definitely targeted. Obviously, like the class consciousness of the immigrant workers was such a threat that they had to root them out from any position of influence within the sanctioned unions. Salgado and the Integralists, of course, welcomed these degrees and worked with the police to capture militant workers. The communists also apparently welcomed the
impositions the Ministry of Labor. Meanwhile, anarchists and workers were weathering rightist violence. One time integralists kicked down the doors of the bakery workers union, the construction workers leave the mill and warehouse operatives, Stonemasons Union and Union of cafe employees, destroy their assets and extra judiciously hauled away the workers as prisoners.
So they just started like kidnapping people and doing like basically state sanctioned terrorism exactly.
Another integralist, Gustavo Barosso, used his walk in stick to break the arm of an anti fascist sixteen year old worker named neer Colejo as she was making a speed against fascism.
Time is a flat circle.
Indeed it is instead of sticks this time they're using cars, but it's the same same principle and sticks. Oh yeah, people are still collecting sticks.
I have been hit by many a stick from a fascist at a street demo, especially as a teenager.
M down. So with all this violence, the deal with in this time, the anarchist presses had to hounked down and prepare to face foot attacks. In nineteen thirty three, the Libertarian Anti Fascist Committee sounded alarm on the dire threat of integralism, as what anarchist press wrote, like fascism, integralism means to enslave and fetter the people that has now defend our liberty like men. Let's we be forced
to weep like mad men hereafter. On December twenty fourth, nineteen thirty three, the tensions were an all time high for when it humiliates and defeat At the Salon su Garcia Planio, Salgado's Integralists, known as the Green Shirts, planned a show of force to assert their dominance their targets union leaders and leftists, particularly anarchists, who sit against their
fascist vision for Brazil. According to reports from those of US on December first, the Integralists had organized eighteen companies of green shirted marchers who would parade through the heart of South Paolo, prepared to crush any resistance that came their way. Reinforcements from Rudishonneiro, led by Gustavo Barosso, bolstered their numbers with five hundred trained assault troops prime to attack.
The police, of course, were openly supported of the Integralists, and at even stationed machine guns at key points throughout the city to ensure the march went smoothly. Arleino de Olivera had an additional four hundred troops made up of infantry, fire brigade units and cavalry ready to intervene. Seems like clear overkill, but it was a show of force so as to be expected. By the time the marchers reached the pressure that say, a huge crowd had gathered, some
curious onlookers, others outright opponents of the fascist movement. As the Integrolists survived at the cathedral, cries of death to the Fascists and down with the Green Shirts echoed throughout the square. Suddenly shots rang out. Some say the fire and began accidentally when a machine gun set up by the Civil Guard was nudged. Others claim it was the communists lying in wait, ready to ambush the march. Regardless, chaos erupted before the anarchists had even initiated their planned attack.
The scene quickly evolved into pandemonium. People fled in terror, shots continued to fire, and several were mortally wounded. The planned pledge of loyalty to Plingeo. Salgado, the head of the Integralists, never took place that day, but by nineteen thirty seven, Salgado launched a presidential campaign, hoping to ride the wave of crow and support for his movement and
became dictator in his own right. However, when Varragas canceled the elections and established the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, he banned the Integralist Party along with all the others sideline in. Salgado in response, and targoless militants launched two uprisings in nineteen thirty eight, both of which failed. Salgado was imprisoned and lad to exile to Portugal. After spending most of his life supporting the dictators of Brazil, his attempts to become one of his own utterly failed.
There's a few interesting things in this moment here, particularly like how the initial struggle against fascism once again and kind of laid at the feet of anarchists and communists, had like a degree of hesitancy to like to like
jump in fully. And then also like I find it interesting the way that these like this era of fascists in Brazil particularly were targeting unions, but as almost as a way just to target like immigrants, Like it was like the easiest way for them to actually just do anti immigrant violence was like through the unions.
Yeah, anti immigrant violence is almost always anti worker violence as well.
Yeah, no, No, in the States at least right now, we're just like seeing another kind of uptick in like anti immigrant rhetoric and violence, and yeah, a lot of it is tied to like labor, like how immigrants are taking jobs away from the lower classes, that sort of thing.
Huh. As always you remember that, you know it could happen here, and it's important to be constantly aware and on God against even the ghost, the shadow of fascism creeping up in their communities. It's easy to be treated by the media or by others as just oh, you're making a big deal about ohover exaggerates into threat. But you know, these things sinuwable are very quickly. They need
to be nip in the bud. And it's largely thanks to anti fascists on the front lines that the situation is not as bad as it could be right now, even though it is getting worse every day. For the already weakened anarchists and labor movements in Brazil, integralism had posed a dire threat. They were already splintered and in decline, struggling to maintain influence. An Integralism's rapid rise with its militarized structure and anti leftist violence fully suppressed their hopes.
The communists weren't exactly a help either. The anarchists lost a significant strongholder their struggle on the premises of the Anti Clerical League in Rio de Janeiro when communists sent to disrupt their meeting called the police on them, leading to the arrest of eight anarchists and the closure of
the Anti Clerical League center and its newspaper. With the help of the Integralists, communists and leaders of Cardinal Sebastio Lemes Brazilian Catholic Party, Getulio Vargas faced little resistance in establishing Hisestado Novo dictatorship. His authoritarian regime lasted from nineteen thirty seven to nineteen forty five and was marked by
continuous crackdowns on labor, autonomy and anarchism. But despite the common claims the nineteen thir eties marked the end of anarchism in Brazil, anarchists remained active in unions and cultural spaces. Despite repression. Anarchists published influential periodicals like A playbe and a Childreta, and aimed to create a national anarchist political organization.
Post nineteen forty five, in the era of re deemocratization, anarchists converged in South Pawerlo for Brazilian Anarchist congresses in nineteen forty eight and nineteen fifty nine, which brought together veterans and motivated the re establishment of social centers. The anarchists resumed educational and cultural activities that I found in the Centro des Cultura Socil the CCS, which became a hub for anarchist intellectual life, hosting lectures, conferences, literary events,
and even theater performances. The anarchists were back. The CCS had played a key role in building anarchist networks, even hosted anarchist exiles from Spain, and helped to establish similar cultural centers in the suburbs of sarth Paolo and other cities across Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro, a similar space emerged in nineteen fifty eight, the Centrol des Studios put Fessor Jose Hitka or SEPTCHO. Like the CCS, de Septcho
hosted courses, lectures, and debates. In nineteen sixty one, it helps establish an anarchist publishing house called Mundo Libre in suth Paolo. Union activity surged with three hundred thousand workers striking in nineteen fifty three and another four hundred thousand in nineteen fifty seven. This period of intense mobilization providing an opportunity for anarchists and independent socialists to come together
and form the Syndicalus Orientation Movement or MOS. Created in nineteen fifty three, MS aimed to fight for the autonomy and freedom of workers unions resistant state and corporate control. By nineteen fifty seven, they had enough momentum to contest union leadership positions, especially within the graphics sector. Despite these strides, however,
the anarchists movement faced considerable challenges. The re democratization after nineteen forty five offered some room for growth, but the labor landscape was dominated by corporatist forces the Communist Party and the Brazilian Labor Party. Anarchists found themselves battling for influence in a crowded political field. Their efforts to revitalize the movement were furtheres stifled by a lack of resources
and militants, which limited their presence and social movements. The momentum gained the nineteen fifties came to a crash in halt. With the military coup of nineteen sixty four, once again Brazil entered a period of authoritarian rule, placing anarchist activists in a precarious position. In May nineteen sixty four, anarchists from Rio de Janeiro and South Paolo organized a secret
meeting to strategize, focused on safeguarding anarchist resources. Many went underground, facing renewed repression and uncertainty about the future of their movement. They shifted focused to education and cultural spaces to survive, with initiatives like the newspaper or Protesto and the publishing
house Hilminal. Anarchists, including young students new to the cause, formed the libertarian student movement the MEL in nineteen sixty seven, with the intention of fixing a position and fighting back, as well as having an active presence in class and ideological struggles, marking our directions more in according to the federalist principles which had governed the life of every class organization.
But after one student, Edson Louise, was murdered by the military police, the MEL and other student initiatives faced heavy persecution after the nineteen sixty eight Institutional Acts Number five, with the AI five, which suspended most civil rights, included habeas corpus, allowed for the removal from office of opposition politicians, enabled federal interventions municipalities and states, and enabled the institutionalization
of arbitrary detention, torture, and extra judicial killing by the regime. This military dictatorship that grouped Brazil from nineteen sixty four to nineteen eighty five forced anarchist movements into survival mood. In Rio de Janeiro, the Centro de Studo's professor Jose Equitica, operated secretly, while in South Paulo the Centro des Cultural Sociel kept the flame of anarchistor alive through underground propaganda
and secret meetings. These centers were vital in maintaining connections with international anarchist movements, insurance the ideology persisted despite the
harsh political climate. You see the importance of international solarity for in its head yet again, and you see also the importance of having cultural centers, social centers, community centers where they movements contraw strength even when it's not directly engaged in labor organizing, what direct political struggle, Just that rejuvenation of community is enough to maintain the survival of that ideological struggle, even all hope seems lost.
No, I mean this is something like you see a lot especially after or during like a movement that's faced incredible repression. Is that kind of it goes back to kind of its earlier forms, at least in terms of like like the like the social aspects. In some ways, it feels like it's kind of regressing back to kind of where it like started back in the last episode with some of those like same like you know, like
like underground newspapers all this. Like this is like a cultural engagements, as you said, kind of like a way to like keep the light alive during like an intense, like military style effort of repression.
Yeah, it's really quite necessary. Unfortunately, in nineteen sixty nine, the headquarters of Sepjol was raided by Air Force agents. The invasion resulted in the arrest and prosecution of eighteen members, including the anarchist Adiel Perez, who endured a month of imprisonment and torture. So between nineteen seventy two nineteen seventy seven, anarchists were forced into even greater degrees of secrecy, meeting
in very small titling. It groups In terms of organizational strength, this might have been the lowest point for anarchism in Brazil, but things began to shift in nineteen seventy seven as a dictatorship started to lose its grip. That year, the anarchist periodical or Animigouret or The King's Enemy, was launched
in Biheir, marking a significant moment for the movement. This newspaper brought together student and union terns from various parts of the country, but here Rioligiro, sal Paolo, Prio, grand Rasoul, Paraiba and Para Despite internal conflicts and ideological differences, the paper played a crucial role in reorganizing the anarchist movement, either the influence of the counterculture or Inimiguorey tackled issues
like revolutionary unionism, anarchist syndicalism, the student movement, gender sexuality, and political theory. The paper ran until nineteen eighty two, and after hiatus resumed briefly between nineteen eighty seven and
nineteen eighty eight. During the same period there was the first sign of notable anarchist engagement with the labor movement in years, following a wave of strikes involving more than forty eight thousand workers anarchists began questioning the bureaucratic union structures in South Paolo to collect TiVo Debritario de Opposichao Syndical or COLLOPS was formed, closely aligned with the ideas
of the Metalworkers Opposition movement. COLLAPSE was officially established during the first National Meeting of Workers in Opposition to the Trade Union Structure or ENDOS, held in September nineteen eighty in Nitroi. This meeting brought together in union opposition from sixteen states across Brazil, further spark in the revival of
anarchist involvement in the labor movement. But one of the most significant developments to come out of this period was the rise of the Movementento dos Trabahaldoes Urai Semterre the Landless Workers Movement or MST, Emerging nineteen eighty four just before the end of the military regime. The MST became a mass movement with distinctly anarchist communist characteristics. It adopted a decentralized, non hierarchical structure the prioritized autonomous direct action
principles deeply aligned with anarchism. However, the MST has resisted being identified as explicitly anarchist, avoiding the label to maintain broader support and avoid the stigma attached to anarchist movements over time, what maintained in its independence, The MST has built alliances with the furious political parties, including the Workers' Party. We should go on to form the government in two
thousand and two. But the nineteen eighties, Brazilian anarchism began reflecting the broader new social movements that had emerged globally after the nineteen sixties. Ecology, feminism, and new discourses on sexuality were now key components of anarchists thought. The nineteen eighties saw the rise of pro homosexual actists like Nestor Perenguer and Argentinian born intellectual who became a central figure in Brazilian anarchism.
You know, some have considered me a pro homosexual, Okay, but but no mean this is a continued It is interesting to see this like starting with student movements and then getting back into kind of labor over time after they like rebuilt their movement through students, and then continuing to like adopt more and more like modern social views and like cultural engagement have an image here of one of their newspapers that has built what looks like two
men having sex right on the cover. That's like the seventies, which is which is quite.
Something incredible, must have been very scandalous at the time.
Yeah.
So with the nineteen nineties, as Brazil transitioned to the New Republic and embraced new liberalism, anarchists became key players in shaping a wave of social movements. They actively helped to create and integrate into these movements, advocating their principles and strategies. One prominent example was Brazil's involvement in the global anti globalization movement, inspired by protests like the Seattle
WTOO demonstrations in nineteen ninety nine YEP. In Brazil, this movement began in Santos on the same date, led by anarchists, ecologists and liberterians. By two thousand, a coalition of these groups emerged, particularly in South Peru, and continued to organize in actions against the liberal policies until two thousand and three. The protest targeted institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO, and introduced the black block tactic to Brazil.
Anakis also helped establish Brazil's Center for Independent Media CMI, part of the global Indie Media network which aimed to challenge me instream media dominance. Active between two thousand and one and two thousand and five, CMI was a key platform for independent journalism across fourteen Brazilian cities. Beyond protests, anarchids were involved in broader social movements, contributing to housing struggles in South Power and Real Desionero, as well as
supporting feminists, indigenous, Black and LGBT causes. They played significant roles in movements like the National Movement of Collectors of recycla Level Material MNCR, the previously mentioned Landless Workers Movement or MSD, and the Homeless Workers Movement the MTSD, reflecting
their deep involvement in Brazil's diverse social landscape. In the early two thousands, Anikis Popular Union the UNIPA helped form networks such as the Class and Combative Student Network or the RCC and the Federation of Revolutionary Synicalist Organizations of Brazil or the f WOB. Further cement and anarchism's influence in students and workers' struggles. Despite being considered part of a broader leftist current. Anarchists specifically made a lasting impact
on Brazil's social movement during this period. Today, Brazilian anarchism continues to evolve, shaped by the principles of spacifismo, a strategy where anarchists work alongside broader social movements or maintaining their own distinct ideology. Many anarchist federations have found common cause with groups like the MST, supporting their struggles while promoting their own vision of a stateless, non hierarchical society. The story of anarchism in Brazil is one of endurance, adaptability,
and reinvention. Despite decades of repression, the movement has continued to shape Brazil's political landscape, from underground propaganda dune dictatorship to the mass mobilization of land less workers and intellectuals.
Alike, similar to what they were doing ninety years ago. We've also seen like a resurgence of anarchist anti fascism in Brazil. Indeed, around the same time we kind of saw this rise in the United States as well as in Europe. With the emergence of these like right wing populist politicians between like Trump and Bolsonario, you've been seeing more of like the black block style anarchism in Brazil, which often kind of in this era went hand in hand with like anti fascist action in organizing.
Indeed, so that's been the story, very summarized account like I would recommend that you check out. Of course, the scholarship of the folks I mentioned the beginning, the resources all across the Internet, particularly the Anarchists Library discussing Brazilian anarchism. This has been It can happen here. I've been Andrew Siege. You can find me on YouTube dot com, slash andrewism peatre dot com, stas Saint Drew. I've been here with gay and that's it Peace.
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