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| Anarchist movement in Brazil | |
|---|---|
| Name | Anarchist movement in Brazil |
| Native name | Movimento anarquista no Brasil |
| Founded | Late 19th century |
| Ideology | Anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism, platformism, insurrectionary anarchism |
| Region | Brazil |
Anarchist movement in Brazil The anarchist movement in Brazil emerged in the late 19th century as a transnational current influenced by European Mikhail Bakunin-inspired federations, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon-influenced mutualism, and Peter Kropotkin-inspired communism, interacting with urban immigrant networks, trade unions, and radical presses in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre. Early militants and organizations navigated tensions with republican elites, Positivist circles, and Catholic social movements while contributing to strikes, publications, and workers’ associations that linked to international federations such as the International Workingmen's Association and later IWA-AIT currents.
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Eastern European immigrants brought libertarian ideas to Brazilian port cities, connecting figures like Giuseppe Garibaldi-inspired republicans, Errico Malatesta, and followers of Bakunin to local artisans and printers in neighborhoods around Lapa, Brás, and Pelotas. Early organs such as A Plebe and O Operário disseminated debates between Proudhon, Marx, and Kropotkin alongside campaigns involving the FOB and the COB, while labor confrontations connected to strikes in the Vila Nova Conceição textile workshops and the Santos port. Influences also came from exile networks tied to Paris Commune veterans, First International delegates, and transatlantic socialist congresses.
Anarcho-syndicalist organizing crystallized in unions such as the Confederação Operária Brasileira and the Federação Operária de São Paulo, with leaders and militants publishing in titles like A Plebe, O trabalho and A Voz do Trabalhador while coordinating mass strikes in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the southern ports. The movement engaged with immigrant federations from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, building ties to the IWW and participating in the 1917 São Paulo general strike and the 1917–1918 General Strike of Rio de Janeiro where collaborative networks overlapped with socialist and communist groups. Debates over dual unionism and participation in federations involved contacts with the Red International of Labor Unions and organizational disputes echoed in the pages of A Plebe and O Socialista.
During the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas and later the 1964–1985 military dictatorship, anarchist militants faced police bans, surveillance by the DOPS, imprisonment in sites like Ilha das Flores and exile to European centers, while clandestine cells maintained networks through samizdat presses and mutual aid associations. Repressive episodes intersected with campaigns by the Integralista movement, interventions by the Exército Brasileiro, and legislative measures such as the Lei de Segurança Nacional that targeted libertarian organizers, prompting affinity groups to adopt deliberative tactics learned from Spanish Civil War veterans and solidarity contacts with Solidarity-style networks abroad.
After the 1970s–1980s abertura and redemocratization, libertarian currents reemerged in student circles at the Universidade de São Paulo, punk scenes in Brasília and Curitiba, and grassroots collectives in Bairro do Recife, producing new federations, periodicals, and autonomous labor projects that interacted with the MST, the CUT, and squatter movements inspired by European squats such as Kraków and Freetown Christiania. Important nodes included the reappearance of journals influenced by multa-culturalism, the diffusion of ideas from Platformism and especifismo currents, and collaborations with international networks like the Anarchist Black Cross and Latin American libertarian federations.
Contemporary Brazilian libertarian organizing spans autonomous social centers in São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, affinity groups practicing direct action during protests connected to the June 2013 protests and demonstrations against PEC 37-style measures, mutual aid in favelas such as Rocinha, and digital activism on platforms used by activists linked to Black Bloc tactics, horizontalist collectives influenced by Occupy Wall Street, and platform-based coordination referencing Indymedia and Riseup-style infrastructure. Networks engage with environmental struggles around the Amazon Rainforest, indigenous solidarity with movements at Aldeia Maracanã and interactions with groups organized around the MST and international campaigns like Attac.
Anarchist cultural production has included newspapers such as A Plebe, Ação direta, and A Voz do Trabalhador; literary contributions by translators of Kropotkin and Malatesta; theatre collectives influenced by Brecht and Augusto Boal; and punk zines, hip hop collaborations, and graphic art circulated in squats and fairs in Centro Cultural São Paulo and independent bookstores. Important publishing houses, radical printers, and mimeograph networks connected to Worker-Correspondent traditions maintained the diffusion of libertarian theory, pamphlets on direct action, and oral histories archived in institutions like the Instituto Moreira Salles and municipal memory projects.
Organizational debates revolve around federalist models inspired by Bakunin vs. organizational platformism associated with the Organizational Platform, with disputes over affinity group autonomy, participation in trade unionism (interactions with CUT and Força Sindical), and involvement in electoral abstentionism versus engagement in municipal councils influenced by participatory budgeting experiments in Porto Alegre. Tactical repertoires include strikes, factory occupations, squatting linked to the Coletivo de Moradia, consensus decision-making practiced in Assemblies and dazzle tactics modeled on Black Bloc actions, while theoretical exchanges reference Anarcho-syndicalism, Anarcho-communism, Insurrectionary anarchism, and Especifismo.
Category:Anarchism in Brazil