The Truth about
the Brazilian
Revolution
PEREDA VALDES
BACKGROUND
THE recent revolution in Brazil, the scope and significance
of which it; is my purpose to set forth here, was not an
isolated or sporadic phenomenon, but had a very direct re-
lation to economic factors and to the existing political
situation in that country.
Up to the middle of last year, there were in Brazil two
great· political parties, between which the public opinion of
the nation was divided. There was the
L!
llianfa Nacional
Libertadora
(League for National Freedom) which, with
an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist program, had the strong sup-
port of the old-time revolutionary elements, including sol-
diers, intellectuals and students'
and workers'
organizations;
and there was the A.LB., or
L!
cfao Integralista Brazileira
(Brazilian Integralist Movement) with a program that was
definitely fascist, being modeled after those of the parties
now in power in Italy and Germany. This latter party had
the strong backing of the entire conservative class.
Alarmed by the rapid growth of the "League," and in
reality under pressure brought to bear by the imperialist
interests in the neighborhood of the embassies, which saw in
such a manifestation a serious menace to their own economic-
financial well-being,
the federal government
then ordered
the
L!
llianfa
dissolved; but all the while, the "Integralists"
or fascists openly kept up their activities, despite the protests
of the congress, the press and the courts of the land.
As a result, popular discontent continued to increase; for
the majority of the people were "pro-League";
and demon-
strations became more violent and more frequent in the north
of Brazil, where the aboriginal element predominates.
In
Rio Grande do Norte political unrest was even more pro-
nounced, owing to the fact that Sr. Rafael Fernandez, large
property owner and well-known Integralist,
had just been
made governor of the state, although the p~ople's choice was
Commandant
Hercolino Cascardo, an officer of the marine,
a former revolutionist and erstwhile state comptroller who
in the course of his administration had dispiayed soci~listic
leanings and who was the acting president ;)f the League.
From the economic and social point of view, it may be
stated that the population of northeastern Brazil has for
generations suffered from the exploitation of the feudal and
imperialistic overlords. They have suffered and died from
hunger, from thirst and from epidemics. Even water is sold
or denied to the poor in times of drought, when the feudal
masters summarily cut off or restrict the supply for the poor
6
peasants, who come for miles and miles in search ()f the
precious liquid. The regional literature co:.tains numerous
passages brilliantly descriptive of such sufferings, as in the
Bagaceira
("The Husks")
of Jose Americo and the
0
Quinze
("The Fifteenth")
of Rachel de Queiroz.
The chief exploiters of the northeastern region are the
Great Western Company-under
cover of which British
imperialism maintains a hateful monopoly of the railroads in
the states of Alagoas, Pernambuco,
Paraib:t and Rio Grande
do Norte-the saltpeter mines of the last-named state and
the sugar factories throughout the district. Much has already
been told of the starvation wages paid and the truly feudal
state of slavery in which the people here live, a prey to
hunger, thirst, disease and ill-treatment;
so that there is no
point in repeating all this. It may merely be remarked in
passing that this exploitation not only goes on under the
government's very eyes, but it actually has the support of
the federal and state authorities,
for the simple reason that
governmental
posts are for the most part filled by large
shareholders in the enterprises involved, when not by the
feudal land barons or the factory or mine heads themselves.
SUMMARY OF WHAT HAPPENED
With on the one hand, wages slashed and workers being
laid off by the wholesale and subjected to persecution by
the police, and on the other hand, the consciousness of
the masses newly awakened by the League for National
Freedom, the railway men, along with the workers in the
salt mines of Macau and Arena Blanca, finally went out on
strike. They were forthwith clubbed and thrown into jail-
on the orders of the English or nationalistic bosses-that
is
all there is to it. The workers on the large plantations there-
upon made common cause with the Great Western strikers
and the miners, and a general strike was declared through-
out the state. The masses were now stirred up and were
beginning to arm themselves and to organize, in self-protec-
tion against police violence and in order to obtain their
rights. When the British company, supported by the govern-
ment, endeavored to resume railway traffic, women and chil-
dren, mothers with babes at their bosoms, ran out and threw
themselves on the rails, at the risk of their lives. In the
meanwhile, inscriptions were to be seen in streets and build-
ings, on walls and along the highways, voicing the people's
protest: "Down with the Great \Vestern!" "Down with
feudal and imperialist exploitation
I"
"Nationalize the im-
perialist plants
I".
"We want a popular, national, revolution-
ary government
I"
Similar conditions prevailed in the streets of Recife and
throughout
the interior of the state of Pernambuco the
public's resentment being increased by the system of go~ern-
ing bodies which the Integralists ultimately proposed setting
up, especially in the northern states, with the unmistakable
silent consent and even with the scandalously open protec-
tion of the federal and various state governments. The short
of the matter is, the government itself appeared to· be doing
everything in its power to bring matters to a head.
WHAT HAPPENED IN RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
The situation had reached this grave point and insurrec-
tion was in the air, both in the city and country districts,
FEBRUARY,
1936
