(en) France, Coordination of Anarchist Groups - Resistors
libertarian 2 - History and actuality of anarchism in Brazil (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation
History and actuality of anarchism in brazil ---- Taking advantage of his time in Europe,
Libertarians Resistors call on Livio, our companion FARJ to talk about the political and
social situation in Brazil. Returning to the important periods in modern history, it gives
us some beads to understand what has happened since the huge protest movement of June
2013. He is also a question, in this article, the social anarchism as practiced by FARJ.
---- Brazil, a former colony became a land of welcome ---- "It is important to make a
historical overview of Brazil to understand what is happening today. Former Portuguese
colony, the independence of Brazil was carried out by the Portuguese royal family itself,
contrary to the Spanish empire that was split into several 'small' states, explaining the
current area of Brazil. From the 1500s until today, there have always been times of
struggle. Some conflicts have lasted over 100 years, between slaves and peasant · no · s
face the imperial or colonial troops. Brazil is a country marked by great social violence
throughout its history, with many struggles but also a lot of repression.
It is in this context, in the early twentieth century that arrived · e · s many migrant ·
e · s · no · s European, mainly from Spain and Italy at first, then France, Switzerland
and Germany. Contrary to the official history says - in a vision a little colonialist - it
is not the European · no · s which imported the social struggle in Brazil. We have
actually seen a convergence between different ways of struggle and different stories. This
explanation is valid for the entire American continent. "
The repression of anarchists in the twentieth century
"The beginning of the anarchist movement has been deeply marked by repression[1]; we even
anarchists imprisoned in concentration camps simply because they were anarchists. From the
1930s, during the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas, reforms of labor law in place will favor
the incorporation of trade unions in the state apparatus. But until then, the anarchist
movement was closely linked to the labor movement, explaining also one of the difficulties
of building a specific anarchist organization. These reforms will mark the decline of the
influence of anarchist militancy and in the unions, which will undergo a major crackdown,
facilitating de facto climbing the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), little affected by the
crackdown.
Until 1964, the anarchist movement was relatively marginal, maintaining nonetheless a
propaganda activity (newspapers, leaflets). In 1964, the military dictatorship repressed
with great violence all social movements and trade unions. This new situation forced the
Brazilian anarchist groups and anarchist student movement to go underground. Anarchist
resistance to the dictatorship was to perpetuate the memory of the anarchist movement. "
The awakening of the anarchist movement
"During the 1980s, many massive strikes will awaken the class struggle, again with a very
strong repression. With the end of military dictatorship in 1985, many publications and
numerous debates have emerged on the question of the organization of anarchists. In Rio
Grande Southern, anarchists are entered · e · s in contact with FAU (Anarchist Federation
Uruguayan), which had existed since 1956 and who had managed to survive the military
dictatorship in Uruguay. FAU at its first congress, used the term especifisme to describe
their anarchist current, based on the texts of Bakunin and Malatesta and the union
experience of the early century. In 1995, the FARJ was created, then gradually other
anarchist groups have emerged. In the early 2000s, the Platform text[2] has spread to the
Brazilian anarchist movement. For us, as qu'especifistes, the Platform largely matched our
vision of libertarian communism. In 2002 held a Forum organized anarchism, which resulted
- after many discussions - the creation of several organizations, including the Anarchist
Coordination Brazilian (CAB). "
Sows rebellion, anger harvest
"In June 2013[3], it is important to emphasize that this was not a spark coming out of
nowhere, as has sometimes been heard. The revolt of June 2013 is the result of work
carried out well in advance, not only by anarchists since the fall of the military
dictatorship. Since 2005, the protests against the rising cost of travel ticket gave rise
to the creation of a movement for free transport. The 2013 revolt is the fruit of eight
years of struggle. For example, in April 2013, in Rio Grande do Sul, there was already a
struggle (victorious) against an increase in bus fare, with a significant presence of
libertarians. First Located in Sao Paulo, the movement of June 2013 for free
transportation has spread all over the country, especially with the support of FARJ
concerning the city of Rio. It was a real popular movement, meeting a need quite
essential. According to official figures, 37 million people are pedestrianized because
they do not have money to pay for public transport. This struggle was very radical, far
exceeding the only framework for access to transportation.
June 20 was the occasion of mass demonstrations throughout the country, probably the most
important since 1985. The revolt was so powerful that the media were forced to change
tactics vis-à-vis the movement. While the media were used to qualify the protester · e · s
mobsters or marginal, they gradually gave the real reasons for popular anger and even
summoned the population to events, obviously because of popular pressure . However, the
media turnaround has strengthened the character legibility of the claims, since they
called the population to events on different slogans (against corruption, politicians). In
the end, we had millions of people in the streets without clear purpose. Without
organizations able to direct this anger, this revolt ended quickly.
During this time, the repression of anarchism has been important, including Federação
Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG) which had its headquarters raided twice by the police of the
ruling Workers' Party[4]. The "discovery" of material in the local anarchist has justified
the imprisonment of several militant · e · s anarchists. It is the organization that was
attacked."
World cup 2014: enough is enough!
"The World Cup was an event in Brazil among others, as the World Day of Youth in Rio pope
or the Olympics ... It accelerated a process of gentrification, massive, aggressive and
violent[5] . Until a few months before the cut, the fight was very important and positive
with a real union of left forces, popular participation and the involvement of people who
had never been active in their lives. But with the imminent arrival of the World Cup, the
government has made agreements with some social movements and granted some claim to calm
these movements. Other factors have also prevented the further mobilization until the
World Cup: the fear of repression, sectarianism disease, lack of strategic understanding
of the situation ... All these ingredients have resulted in the division Left political
forces who wanted to reiterate the revolt of June 2013 during the World Cup, while the
situation was very different.
Regarding the strike of workers of the Sao Paulo metro, it is a direct result of the
revolt of 2013. Workers have seen that it was possible to organize and fight to win
rights. The strike has undergone a major crackdown by police and employers (43 strikers
dismissed · e · s), even if some of the claims have been conquered. "
Social inclusion in the service of the revolution
"The strategy of the CAB is to build social movements on horizontal bases, reinforcing
the" strength "of the people for it to be able to initiate a process of social revolution.
The CAB is not the main objective to increase the number of militant · e · s, but to
extend its influence within social movements to strengthen and contribute to the
construction of a power-cons popular.
Our social inclusion through several projects, including popular education. We are
currently involved in schools aimed at helping those who do not have the means to pass the
baccalaureate. We also develop other popular education projects within the social
movements, like the mural painting. Muralism is a painting technique, with large drawings
on the walls of the cities representing the struggles involving teens, children and
adults. We first made a general meeting to agree on the painting and then we start the
work. The idea seems simple at first, some organizations look at us with a shrug, but it
actually helps to create links between those who paint on the basis of direct democracy.
People who take ownership of them involve painting and are proud · e · s to have performed
and when they watch it.
Since their inception, the anarchist organizations in Brazil reflected on the relationship
between political organization and social movement in order not to superimpose the two
spheres. When done Muralism or occupation of land or public education, we always act
within the social movement. This is what distinguishes us from all other political
currents because we assume to speak of ethics, responsibility and discipline or militant ·
e. "
The difficulties of union work
"Regarding our insertion in the unions, there are no significant differences with what is
done in Europe. However, the Brazilian trade union system is very different from what
exists in Europe. As in the United States, in each branch and in each sector there can be
only one union. This is a corporatist system, where unions receive government subsidies.
While there may be several trends in each union, but it is very difficult to act as a
libertarian in a union.
There are also major unions, called free and independent. In the education sector, the
majority of unions are leftist, allowing to have more struggles in this sector. By cons,
road and steelworkers unions are controlled by the patrons. The combative unions suffer
the brunt of repression, such as the union of Rio bus drivers who unfortunately has a long
list of murdered unionized workers. There are also more confidential, the COB
(Confederação Brasileira Operária), affiliated to the IWA (International Workers
Association, to anarcho-syndicalist tendency), but whose numbers are thin and which
remains very sectarian positions.
The work of the CAB in the union is through their militant · e · s that are in their
sector union, and even if they do not always stick · e · s of these unions.
Another feature of the Brazilian social movement is the importance of the peasant
movement, with peasant · no · s landless. The CAB is very present in this movement via the
FARJ. The links between workers and peasant movements emerged during the 1990s, during
which the labor movement and the peasant movement were far more united and were struggles
together. But with the victory of the PT, the CUT (Unique Workers Central, majority)
stopped the fight. There remains still small interesting experiences, such as financial
aid from the unions to the peasant · no · s can have infrastructure, meet ... The workers
and union workers are also establishing similar associations in Amaps (Association for
Maintenance of Peasant Agriculture), buy their coffee in cooperatives etc ... "
The farj today
"The FARJ has a social center in a neighborhood of the northern zone of Rio. Within the
center, with other social movements, we focus all our political activity to the attention
of the neighborhood in which we are. We try to organize a maximum of activities (library,
writing workshop, thrift stores, libertarian theater, capoeira, kung fu ...) such as
population education project in a self-management perspective: people s' organize
themselves to find out what they want to do. The purpose of this is to create a physical
space that can accommodate the local population and thus contribute to the people's
autonomy. In addition to work in the neighborhoods, we are very acti ve · · · f s in
peasant struggles.
The area of work is important because it is usually the extreme right which occupies the
ground, including through their Pentecostal churches, extremely conservative, based on the
discipline and rigor in their long-term action; their work gives results. It is therefore
understandable that work in neighborhoods, knowing that unionism is very bureaucratized,
our main task is to organize the population in the interests of social transformation.
It's very hard work, which takes a long time, where you regularly confronted the manager
mafia drug trafficking; mafias which include former police officers in connection with the
rulers and not tolerate any political work. NGOs also regularly put us spanner in the ...
Another practical difficulty we are confronted · e · s is the military occupation of the
police and sometimes the army of some neighborhoods of the favelas, which also
strengthened due to the World Cup and OJ ... I do not know which is the worst (drug
trafficking, police or militia), but we must still make do.
We perform basic work that the left does not, because it prefers to concentrate its
efforts in the struggles of the labor movement and in the electoral race. Simply because
we are not following the same programmatic axis, we are accused of not being in popular
movements, while we justly ground floor there are (and they - the left - there are not).
This is especially true since 2013, sectarian tendencies and divisions within the popular
assemblies led us · e · s to leave to return to the places where we have always been, that
is to say, the neighborhoods where we perform daily work. "
Interview by Dadou (Paris area)
[1] Alexandre Samis, Clevelândia. Anarquismo, sindicalismo repressão e politica no Brasil,
Rio / São Paulo, Achiamé-Imaginário, 2002, 342 p., 307 p. See the report of the work by
Frank Mintz: http://acontretemps.org/spip.php?article16
[2] The Platform is a text from 1926, written by Russian exiles, "written with the
intention of finding a theoretical alternative and organizational solution in response to
the failure endured by the Russian anarchist movement and a willingness to find means the
labor movement face to Leninism. " (Source: anarchopedia.org)
[3] The movement in June 2013 in Brazil means a vast social movement, whose demands
initially focused on increasing access to public transport fares.
[4] See press FAG October 2013: http://www.anarkismo.net/article/26294
[5] http://www.cga.org/motion/coupe-du-monde-de-football-au-bresil-une-arme-de-guerre-sociale
http://www.c-g-a.org/motion/histoire-et-actualite-de-lanarchisme-au-bresil
