Brazilian Integralist Action ( Portuguese: ''Ação Integralista Brasileira'', AIB) was an integralist/

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

political party in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It was based upon the ideology of Brazilian Integralism as developed by its leader

Plínio Salgado Plínio Salgado (; January 22, 1895 – December 8, 1975) was a Brazilian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led Brazilian Integralist Action, a political party inspired by the Fascism, fascist regime of Benito Mussoli ...

. Brazilian Integralism supported a revival of spirituality in Brazil in the form of

Brazilian nationalism Brazilian nationalism is the nationalism of Brazilian people and Brazilian culture. It became strong during the declaration of Independence of Brazil, in the 19th century. History Brazil was initially a colony of Portugal, established during ...

to form a shared identity between Brazilians. It denounced

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

, and

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. It was violently opposed to the

Communist Party of Brazil The Communist Party of Brazil (, PCdoB) is a List of political parties in Brazil, political party in Brazil. The PCdoB officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist theory. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union and Student ...

and competed with the Communists for the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

vote.

Character

In its outward forms, Integralism was similar to

European fascism Fascist movements in Europe were the set of various fascist ideologies which were practiced by governments and political organizations in Europe during the 20th century. Fascism was born in Italy following World War I, and other fascist move ...

: a green-shirted

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

organization with

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ed ranks, highly regimented street demonstrations, and rhetoric against

and

. However, it differed markedly from it in specific ideology: a prolific writer before turning political leader, Salgado interpreted human history at large as an opposition between "

"—understood by him as the normal operation of

natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

s guided by blind necessity—and "

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

": the belief in God, in the immortality of the soul, and in the conditioning of individual existence to superior, eternal goals. Salgado advocated, therefore, the harnessing of individual interest to values such as pity, self-donation and concern for others. For him, human history consisted of the eternal struggle of the human spirit against the laws of nature, as expressed by the

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

of modern society in the twin forms of

and

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

—

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

competition leading eventually to the merger of private capitals in a single state-owned economy. Thus the integralists favoured

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

as a ''shared spiritual identity'', in the context of a heterogeneous and tolerant nation influenced by "

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

virtues"—such virtues being concretely enforced by means of an authoritarian government enforcing compulsory political activity under the guidance of an acknowledged leader. The Integralists were something akin to the contemporary Irish

Blueshirts The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, known by the nickname the Blueshirts (), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded in 1932.New Irish Army Arises, Ne ...

who, like them, were revolutionary in spirit, and were an offshoot of the Fenian movement and the IRB, both of which were terrorist organisations condemned repeatedly by the Irish Roman Catholic bishops and excommunicated by Pope Pius IX on 12 October 1869 and 12 January 1870. In particular, they drew support from military officers, especially in the

Brazilian Navy The Brazilian Navy () is the navy, naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval warfare, naval operations. The navy was involved in War of Independence of Brazil#Naval action, Brazil's war of independence ...

. Integralism being a mass movement, there were marked differences in ideology among its leaders under the influence of various international fascist and quasi-fascist contemporary movements. Gustavo Barroso, the party's chief ideologist after Salgado, was known for his militant antisemitic views, becoming notorious for being the author of the first and so far only Portuguese translation of the ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

''. Barroso was also the author of various antisemitic works of his own (''Judaism, Freemasonry, and Communism''; ''Synagogues in São Paulo''). This led to at least two serious ruptures in the movement: one in 1935 and the other, 1936, when Salgado 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.

History

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 President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; ; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Due to his long and contr ...

had a degree of support from workers because of the labor laws he introduced, and competed with the

for working-class support. In the face of communist advances, and at the same time building on his intensive crackdown against the Brazilian

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

, Vargas turned to the integralist movement as a single mobilized base of

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

support. With

center-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commonl ...

factions excluded from the Vargas' coalition and the left crushed, Vargas progressively set out to co-opt the populist movement to attain the widespread support that allowed him eventually (in 1937) to proclaim his '' Estado Novo''—an integralist "New State". 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 1932–33

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

with its street battles between the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

and the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. Brazilian politics would continue to destabilize as the communists would launch an uprising in 1935.

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 made a last attempt at achieving power, by attacking the

Guanabara Palace The Guanabara Palace (, formerly known as ''Paço Isabel'') is located on Pinheiro Machado Street (formerly Guanabara Street), in the Laranjeiras neighborhood (''bairro''), in the South Zone (Rio de Janeiro), south zone of Rio de Janeiro, capital ...

during the night, but police and army troops arrived at the last minute, and the ensuing gunfight ended with around twenty casualties. This attempt was called the Integralist "Pajama Putsch". The AIB disintegrated after that failure in 1938, and in 1945 Salgado founded the Party of Popular Representation (PRP), which maintained the ideology of Integralism, but without the uniforms, salutes, signals, and signs. The various political leaderships raised among Integralism dispersed into various ideological positions during subsequent political struggles. Those who maintained ties with the political Right included many of the former members of the participants in the 1964 military coup that was to overthrow President

João Goulart João Belchior Marques Goulart (; 1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the president of Brazil from 1961 until a military coup d'état deposed him in 1964. He was considered the ...

. Conversely, other former integralists associated later with the Left, as was to be the case of Goulart's foreign minister Santiago Dantas, the Catholic bishop D. Hélder Câmara. The Brazilian populist leader (and Goulart's brother-in-law)

Leonel Brizola Leonel de Moura Brizola (22 January 1922 – 21 June 2004) was a Brazilian politician. Launched into politics by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas in the 1930–1950s, Brizola was the only politician to serve as elected governor of two Brazil ...

, in an early stage of his political career, won the gubernatorial elections in the State of Rio Grande do Sul by means of an electoral alliance with the PRP. Today, there are two groups in Brazil which uphold the strict integralist ideology: the "''Frente Integralista Brasileira''" (FIB) and the "''Movimento Integralista e Linearista Brasileiro''" (MIL-B).

Integralistas and the military regime (1964–1985)

Integralistas and former Integralistas took a range of positions as regards the military right-wing dictatorship that followed the 1964 coup. Plínio Salgado joined the

ARENA An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

, the pro-military party. Augusto Rademaker and Márcio Melo, former Integralistas, served as two of the three member junta that briefly ruled Brazil in 1969, during the transition from the second military government (that of

Artur da Costa e Silva Artur da Costa e Silva (; 3 October 1899 – 17 December 1969) was a Brazilian Army Marshal and the second president of the Brazilian military government that came to power after the 1964 coup d'état. He reached the rank of Marshal of the Braz ...

) to the third (that of Emílio Médici). Rademaker was also vice-president in the third military government. He was generally considered one of the most diehard rightists in the contemporary military topbrass.R. S. Rose, ''The Unpast: Elite Violence and Social Control in Brazil, 1954-2000''. Ohio University Press, 2005, , page 134 Many former Integralistas in the military occupied government posts in the second and third military administrations, usually thought to be aligned with hardline sectors in the army. On the other hand, D. Hélder Câmara, also a former Integralista, operated at the time as the best-known opponent of the regime.

References