Brazilian Integralism
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Brazilian Integralism was a fascist political movement created in April 1933. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was relatively famous during the 1922 Modern Art Week, the movement had adopted all characteristics of European, specifically Italian, fascism, differentiating itself from some forms of fascism in that Salgado did not preach racism (they even had as their slogan: "Union of all races and all people"). The name of the party was Ação Integralista Brasileira (AIB, Brazilian Integralist Action); the reference to Integralism mirrored the choice of name for a parallel conservative movement in Portugal, Integralismo Lusitano. For its symbol, the AIB used a flag that appears to have take inspiration from the swastika flag[citation needed]: a white disk on a royal blue background, with an uppercase sigma (Σ) in its center.
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[edit] Character
With a green-shirted paramilitary organization with uniformed ranks, highly regimented street demonstrations, and aggressive rhetoric directly financed in part by the embassy of Benito Mussolini's Italy, the Integralists borrowed their propaganda campaigns directly from Nazi materials - including the usual traditionalist excoriations of Marxism, liberalism and espousals of fanatical nationalism (out of context in the heterogeneous and tolerant nation) and "Christian virtues". Like the European fascists, they were essentially middle class. In particular, they drew support from military officers, especially in the Brazilian Navy.
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The fight against Jews was always subject of polemical discussions within integralist leaders - Salgado was against anti-Semitism, while Gustavo Barroso, the chief of Integralist Militia (a paramilitary group) hated the Jews strongly. This led to at least two serious ruptures in the movement: one in 1935 and the other, 1936, when Plinio almost renounced leadership of the movement.
One of the most important principles in an Integralist´s life was the "Internal Revolution", or "Revolution of the Self", through which a man was encouraged to stop thinking only for himself, and instead start to integrate into the idea of a giant integralist family - becoming one with the Homeland, while also leaving behind selfish and "evil" values.
[edit] Attitudes of the Vargas regime
In the beginning of the 1930s, Brazil went through a strong wave of political radicalism. The government led by President Getulio Vargas was then weakly supported on worker´s sympathy because of the labour laws he introduced, entering a competition with the Communist Party of Brazil. In face of communists' advances, Vargas turned towards establishing the integralist Estado Novo, the only mobilized base of support on the right, building upon his intensive crackdown against the Brazilian left. With center-left tenentes out of the Vargas' coalition and the left crushed, Vargas gradually started seeking to co-opt the popular movement to attain a widespread support base.
Integralism, claiming a rapidly growing membership throughout Brazil by 1935, especially among the German-Brazilians and Italian-Brazilians (communities which together amounted to approximately one million people), began filling this ideological void. In 1934, the Integralists targeted the Communist movement led by Luiz Carlos Prestes, mobilizing a conservative mass support base engaging in street brawls. In 1934, following the disintegration of Vargas' delicate alliance with labor, and his new alliance with the AIB, Brazil entered one of the most agitated periods in its political history. Brazil's major cities began to resemble the 1932-33 street battles in Berlin between the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands and the Nazi Party. By mid-1935 Brazilian politics had been drastically destabilized.
[edit] Crackdown and legacy
When Vargas established full dictatorial powers under the Estado Novo in 1937, he turned against the movement. Although AIB favored Vargas' hard right turn, Salgado was overly ambitious, with overt presidential aspirations that threatened Vargas' grip on power. In 1938, the Integralists went on the last attempt of achieving power, by attacking the Guanabara Palace during the night. This attempt was called the Integralist assault[citation needed]. They were almost able to enter the building and kill Vargas, but police and army troops arrived at the last minute.
AIB disintegrated after that failure in 1938, and some years later Salgado founded the Party of Popular Representation (PRP), which maintained the ideology of Integralism, but without the clothes, salutes, signals, and signs. In 1964, many of the former members of Brazilian Integralist Action took part in the military coup that overthrew João Goulart; the soldier-President Emílio Garrastazú Médici was a former integralist. Today, there are minor groups in Brazil which uphold the integralist tradition, but without political significance.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Integralismo (in Portuguese)
- Site of the integralist nucleus of the south of Brazil (in Portuguese)
- Ação Integralista Brasileira symbols at Flags of the World
