Draft:Communist menace in Brazil
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The communist menace in Brazil is a conspiracy theory that expresses the belief that the country has been, or still is, in imminent danger of becoming a communist state, either through revolution or ideological conversion.
It is the equivalent of the red menace, communist danger, red danger, and others. The expression embodies a recurring phenomenon in the country's political and social history, being disseminated by conservative currents to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity in the population about a danger that never had the dimension and imminence in which it was disseminated, and often to justify the introduction of exceptional measures of an authoritarian and anti-democratic nature, claimed to be necessary to combat the supposed threat.
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Definition and premises
[edit]The communist menace theory in Brazil is an alarmist version of anti-communism, and in the way it is generally disseminated, denies any possibility of any positive contribution from communist ideology to society. The main expression of the theory is the accusation that communism is in the process of dominating the national political system, coupled with the insistence on fighting it urgently, because it, like all other left-wing currents, is considered a major threat to what is thought to be the ideal model of civilization and to the values of the common good, morality, family, justice, patriotism, freedom, religion, and/or traditional social hierarchies and structures. It is also argued that communism represents an attack on the sovereignty, identity, stability, and security of the nation and its institutions. For adherents of the theory, communism and the left in general are the source of all evil, a social disease and a nefarious and subversive enemy to be ruthlessly fought.
It is a conspiracy theory of a conservative nature, which expresses the fear of certain groups towards processes of social, political, and cultural transformation that shake up traditions, their established certainties, and the status quo. The means of enforcing the acceptance of the theory and making it a plausible reality are the transformation of communism into a scapegoat for all dilemmas, insecurities, and difficulties, and the manipulation of public opinion using falsehoods and distortions, creating an illusion of consensus and dramatically amplifying an imaginary danger, although perceived by many as real and imminent.
According to Bethania Mariani, the intense and continuous anti-communist propaganda has created an inflated and polarized political culture in the country, fed by information wars where so-called fake news abounds, refusing serious debate, not recognizing otherness or any kind of difference, and aiming to produce a policy of silencing the “enemy”. For Fábio Araújo Martins, the discourse of the communist threat fits in with totalitarian and extremist discourses, which, by sustaining the practice of fear-mongering, aim to legitimize a selective hostility against a target group, in this case, communists and leftists. “The creation and maintenance of an environment of insecurity and fear complete this terroristic framework, which is responsible for preparing public opinion to accept and agree to the indiscriminate use of force, a process that is promoted through a strong campaign of inducement and massive psychological action.” By being chosen as a scapegoat and constructed as an enemy devoid of human dignity, a danger looming over society, the target group is labeled with the insignia of evil and can ultimately be eradicated “for the good of all.” The target group is also labeled with the insignia of evil. These narratives typically need to construct the rhetoric of “us” (the good guys) against “them” (the bad guys) in order to legitimize themselves, and “them”, in the case of Brazil, according to Sergio Schargel, “are all encompassed in the supposed biggest scarecrow, the omnipotent specter that, despite having practically disappeared worldwide, is still the great imaginary enemy fought in the country: communism. In this stigmatization, it doesn't matter what political stance you take: socialist, social democrat, liberal, they all become communists."
The theory of the communist threat, as many writers and historians point out, has never had a solid basis in reality, being an exaggerated and mistaken perception of the real possibilities of success of a communist revolution in the specifically Brazilian context, marked as it has always been by a very weak adherence to the most radical left-wing currents. The theory of the communist threat, as many writers and historians point out, has never had a solid basis in reality.
A conscientious critique of communism will not deny the existence of corruption, violence, and malfeasance in regimes where the ideology was put into practice, such as the Soviet Union, where a reality developed that was in many ways oppressive and brutal, far removed from the idyllic and Edenic images disseminated by pro-Soviet propaganda. [18] One of the problems with conspiracy theory is, as already mentioned, the tendency to attribute the monopoly of evil to the left, without recognizing that abuses and distortions occur in all man-made political systems and regimes. For Ericson Falabret, “there are no justifications or excuses for Stalinist violence, just as there should be no indulgence for complacent silence in the face of violence perpetrated diffusely by the apparatuses of power that sustain liberal democracies, [. ...] an officialized and normalized violence, which sustains inequality and, for this very reason, prefers property to life, [...] and, on a daily basis, imprisons, tortures and kills the poor, blacks, Indians and minorities under the tutelage of our liberal conscience".
Origins
[edit]Opposition to communism has existed for as long as communism has existed, growing stronger at a time when authoritarian tendencies against democracy were on the rise internationally, both on the right and on the left of the political spectrum. The Russian Revolution of 1917, which established a communist state as a viable political alternative, had a major international impact and soon came under strong criticism in the Brazilian press in a sensationalist and uncritical manner, generally based on rumors and unconfirmed information. The Russian Revolution of 1917, which established a communist state as a viable political alternative, had a major international influence and soon came under strong criticism in the Brazilian press in a sensationalist and uncritical manner, generally based on rumors and unconfirmed information.
Despite the widespread rejection of communism and its ready identification with the forces of evil, chaos, and barbarism, the threat to Brazil in this early period still seemed remote, but it would gradually become material, especially after a Communist Party was founded in the country in 1922. From then on, anti-communism would play a fundamental role in the history of the Republic, especially in times of crisis or political and social instability. In Brazil, anti-communism developed based on three main ideologies: Catholicism, nationalism, and liberalism. For Catholics, communism undermined spirituality, denied God, subverted divinely determined hierarchies, and attacked the family and Christian morality, placing the ideological struggle in the context of the struggle between good and evil. For the nationalists, it was a foreign interference in national affairs, abolished the idea of unity between the people and the state and the idea of homeland, and represented the beginning of chaos. Finally, for the liberals, it was an attack on freedom, free enterprise, and property.
In the 1920s, communist propaganda intensified through the publication of books, newspapers, and pamphlets and the holding of lectures and conferences in union halls. In 1924, the first Brazilian edition of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto was published. However, in 1927, the Communist Party was declared illegal and was now represented by the Workers' and Peasants' Bloc. Despite its outreach activity, the movement faced internal dissent, its union penetration weakened, and in the 1930 elections the Bloc's candidate for president, Minervino de Oliveira, had an unimpressive vote, and no senator from the left was elected. In the 1933 elections, no candidates were elected.
Since the 1930 Revolution, the country had been going through a period of great institutional instability, and the political environment was polarized between several strongly antagonistic fronts. The 1930 Revolution overthrew President Washington Luís and put Getúlio Vargas in power through a coup d'état, dissolving Congress and the state and municipal legislatures and installing federal interventionists. However, tenentismo, a centralizing, authoritarian, and anti-democratic movement, expressed deep dissatisfaction on the part of the military officer corps with the Vargas regime. A broad popular mobilization was also underway through the activism of the Brazilian Integralist Action, founded in 1932, with an anti-liberal, positivist, and ultra-conservative character, inspired by Italian fascism, which raised the banners of God, country, and family. Plínio Salgado, leader of the integralists, was a staunch anti-communist, understanding communism as the worst of liberalism and communists as the degeneration of humanity, mere “meat puppets, ready to steal, kill and use any expedient to satisfy their appetites”. Among the Armed Forces, a strong anti-communist sentiment had been established since the Russian Revolution, and articles in the Brazilian Military Magazine in the 1930s signaled a rapprochement with Nazism and preached authoritarian and militaristic political ideals.
Other factors were at play at the time. In the 1930s Luís Carlos Prestes, one of the leaders of tenentismo, joined communism, and in 1935 the communist National Liberation Alliance was founded. These events increased the level of alertness of conservatives against the communists, reinforcing the already significant systematization of anti-communist propaganda to combat the “enemy of order”. During this period, the communists carried out movements in various Brazilian regions, culminating in the Communist Intent of 1935, which unleashed revolts in Natal, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro. All these uprisings were unable to achieve their goal, with little support, and were quickly suppressed by forces loyal to Getúlio Vargas' government. The communist uprisings were also suppressed by forces loyal to Getúlio Vargas' government.
Despite the failure of the Intentona, according to Celso Castro, it “triggered a process of institutionalization of anti-communist ideology within the Armed Forces. Brazilian communists were accused of being elements 'in the service of Moscow' and therefore traitors to the homeland. [...] Although the opposition of broad sectors of the military to communism preceded the revolt, it was from that moment on that the communists were identified as the main enemy." For José Martins Ferreira, "it would be no exaggeration to say that if Brazil's recent political history has been characterized by a constant and growing presence of the Armed Forces on the political scene, this presence has been justified, either beforehand or afterward, through anti-communist rhetoric." In addition, according to Pandolfi & Grynszpan, the Intentona was a justification for Vargas to obtain significant political support in order to extend his centralizing and authoritarian powers.
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On the other hand, the National Liberation Alliance had gained significant popular support, especially among the middle class, with its program against landlordism, imperialism, and fascism and in favor of democracy. Faced with this situation, after the formation of the National Constituent Assembly of 1933, dominated by the Situationists, which resulted in the restoration of the legislatures and the promulgation of the 1934 Constitution, a National Security Law was passed in 1935, through which the National Liberation Alliance was declared illegal. Various other repressive measures included constitutional amendments to restrict the powers of the legislature in favor of strengthening the executive. In the same year, the Brazilian Catholic Action was founded, subordinate to the Church hierarchy, to combat the National Liberation Alliance, and one of its main concerns was to defend the working class from communist influence.
In this context, Getúlio Vargas insistently used the theory of the communist threat to consolidate his power and legitimize it in the eyes of the population. He created a Special Commission to Repress Communism in 1935, shortly afterward declared a state of siege, and in 1936 several communist leaders were arrested. A crucial part of this strategy was the disclosure of the “discovery” of the Cohen Plan, a document credited to the Communist International and which described plans to ignite a communist revolution in the country involving the destruction of public buildings, the elimination of military leaders, the kidnapping of ministers and magistrates, strikes, looting, disorder and the confiscation of property. But the document was a forgery; it had been drawn up in 1937 by Captain Olímpio Mourão Filho, organizer of the Integralist Action and a member of the Army General Staff's secret service. The document circulated through the barracks and was disseminated by the government as being genuine, to unleash a generalized anti-communist panic and prepare public opinion to accept a dictatorship.
The public disclosure of the Cohen Plan had great repercussions in the press and society. The day after the disclosure, on September 30, 1937, Vargas obtained from Congress a decree of a state of war, suspending constitutional rights and giving the president unlimited powers of repression, despite the small opposition protesting that there was no evidence that the communist threat existed. According to Renato Peixoto, the Cohen Plan was typical of the ideology of conspiracy theories, “with disturbing revelations, easy to understand and with strong popular appeal: the enemy was conspiring from within, through sinister and treacherous actions, which once disclosed were able to help compose an environment favorable to the coup scene,” and once denounced, required a quick and strong reaction. The Plan also sought to denigrate integralism by associating it with Nazism and alluded to a supposed international Jewish conspiracy, with similarities to the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, another false document that was widely disseminated internationally. The Plan also sought to denigrate integralism by associating it with Nazism.
The situation rapidly evolved towards the crushing of the opposition and the elimination of all reformist tendencies aligned with the left, forming a state of exception. It was alleged that the communist movement was much more extensive than supposed, and in a wave of persecution that affected a large number of civilians, even deputies and the mayor of the Federal District were arrested on charges of involvement with communism. On November 10, 1937, in a public pronouncement, Vargas decreed the closure of Congress and canceled the presidential elections scheduled for January 1938. It was a coup d'état, establishing the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo. The Electoral Court, political parties, and the Legislature were abolished, censorship was instituted, and with the granting of the 1937 Constitution, the powers of the Executive became practically unlimited. The preamble to the Constitution made it clear that it was intended to address the “state of apprehension created in the country by communist infiltration, which is becoming more extensive and deeper day by day”, and therefore required a “radical and permanent” remedy. For Getúlio Vargas, the communists were the main enemies of Christian society, and as early as 1936 he had defined communism as “the absolute annihilation of all the conquests of Western culture, under the empire of the low appetites and petty passions of humanity - a kind of return to primitivism, to the elementary forms of social organization.” With the support of conservative sectors, the Catholic Church, and the press, Vargas launched a populist discourse in which he idealized a homogeneous and harmonious nation, which was nevertheless based on intolerance, xenophobia, and exacerbated nationalism. While he publicized his government's achievements and encouraged the cult of patriotism and his personality, repression and political persecution increased. In 1940, most of the communist leaders were arrested. In 1940, most of the communist leaders were arrested.
Although it faced a lot of resistance and criticism, the Vargas government consistently sustained the myth of the communist threat and generally made the idea of “national salvation” plausible to the population at the cost of democracy, representing a moment of consolidation of the alliance between the Armed Forces, the issue of national security and the fight against communism, and guaranteeing the Army a leading role in the construction of the idea of the nation and in combating, in the collective imagination, communism as the great enemy, paving the way for its growing interventionism on the political scene, as revealed in its performance in the overthrow of Vargas himself in 1945, in the crises of 1954 and 1955, and then in the crisis of 1964, which resulted in a military dictatorship.
Postwar return of the "menace"
[edit]With the fall of Vargas in 1945 amid a great wave of protests, the PCB returned to legality and reorganized itself, and all political prisoners were amnestied. The process of re-democratization in Brazil began. Amid the enthusiasm generated by the end of World War II and the defeat of Nazi-fascism, the country was filled with new hopes for progress. Luiz Carlos Prestes also gained freedom, already acclaimed by the press as “the knight of hope”, a great “popular leader”, “leader of the national progressive forces”, “one of the most responsible political leaders among us”, “accepted by the anti-fascist majority”. In the elections for president that year, the communist candidate, Iedo Fiúza, won 10% of the votes. By 1946, the party already had eight daily newspapers, a few weeklies, and two publishing houses. At the time, it had around 180,000 members. Despite its orientation, its official proposal did not envisage an overthrow of the system and rejected any form of dictatorship, but rather intended to introduce reforms within the capitalist and democratic framework. Part of the communists, including Prestes, had even supported Vargas' permanence, seeing it as the only viable legalistic alternative to combat fascism, while others wanted him deposed in an attempt to achieve immediate reforms.
Even after being deposed, Vargas remained a figure of enormous charisma and great popular acceptance, especially due to the labor reforms he had implemented, and his support was decisive in getting General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, the former Minister of War, elected president as his successor. However, the rapprochement between Vargas and Prestes, although brief and loose, as well as the rapid reorganization of the PCB, were viewed with fear by conservatives, so that the issue of the communist threat would once again become central to the political debate from 1946 onwards. The workers' strikes that year were suspected of communist insufflation. There were many arrests, and repression and censorship measures were taken in the unions and public bodies, including a ban on public commemoration of Labor Day, and left-wing newspapers were seized. Prestes himself was losing ground and was harshly criticized by the left for the ambiguous direction he was taking the PCB. In 1947, following complaints to the Superior Electoral Court, the Communist Party's registration was canceled, the mandates of communist politicians were revoked, and a wave of persecution and repression began against communist groups throughout Brazil. It was then up to the government to fight communism, classified as the great “enemy of the nation”, in the name of the rule of law and the defense of the Constitution. According to Carla Rodeghero, “on the one hand, the Brazilian government took measures to curtail the work of the communists, who, in response, radicalized their positions, initially against foreign capital and imperialism, and later against the Dutra government, which, at first, had their support. [...] In 1946, that left-wing sensibility and collaborative purpose lost ground. The process was completed in 1947. The Dutra government made clear its conservative side and its alignment with the United States."
Thus, the issue of the communist threat was part of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which divided the West into two opposing blocs. In this polarization, the United States was concerned with keeping Latin American countries within its sphere of influence. In Brazil, aligned with the United States and seen by the US government as an ally, a lot of anti-communist material was disseminated, including US magazines and films, strengthening Brazil's long-standing anti-communist tradition, [while independent groups and institutions called themselves guardians of the system and engaged in an anti-communist crusade in which the USA was portrayed as the representative of good, democracy, individual freedom, the right to private property and economic liberalism, and the USSR as the incarnation of evil, a perverse, treacherous and disloyal enemy, a threat to Western civilization and its most cherished values. Anti-communism at this time was of interest to the defenders of national industry, the advocates of the entry of foreign capital, the conservative agrarian wings, the integralists, Catholic traditionalism, the military, and other groups. Typically, propaganda had a Manichean, melodramatic, and sensationalist character, insistently appealed to fear, reduced a highly complex issue to simple and superficial elements, without theoretical contextualization, limiting itself to uncritical denunciation and refusing to debate in depth what communism and its social proposals constituted. The Catholic Church was also actively involved in the fight against communism, associating it with the devil, debauchery, and immorality. At this time, there was intense propaganda in Brazil encouraging the adoption of the American way of life, which was reflected in culture, fashion, behavior, music, entertainment, and utopias of good living.
1960s
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