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Dominant Power Components in the Brazilian University Student Movement Prior to April, 1964

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Leonard D. Therry
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief introduction and description of the dominant power components within the Brazilian university student movement in the area of political action. This is a field in which very little has been written, either in English or Portuguese. Because of this, and also due to the constant state of flux within the movement, this study must be considered as an initial effort toward understanding a rather complex area of Brazilian affairs. Much of what is described here may be radically changed within a few years, though in which direction is not yet clear. While extreme left groups now dominate the movement, some signs of democratic awakening are beginning to appear. These are, however, weak and sporadic efforts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , January 1965 , pp. 27 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1965

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References

1 Author's Note: This article was written just prior to the Brazilian revolution of March 31-April 1, 1964. The main elements of the united front described in this article, the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and Popular Action (AP), continue to militate in university circles, although now as completely clandestine organizations. LDT

2 The conservative Brazilian press, for example, makes constant reference to student activists as “youth astray” (juventude transviada) or the “alienated ones” (os alienados).

3 One Brazilian observer, for example, sees capitalism as the key causative factor in radicalizaron: “In each country in which the capitalist system of production is developed, youth assumes a growing importance in the field of political action. In order to install itself during its development, capitalism transforms living conditions of human groups so drastically that youth rapidly becomes a decisive element in social movements, especially within the political currents of left and right.” Octavio Ianni, Industrializacao e desenvolvimento social no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: (Editôra Civilizacão Brasileira, S. A., 1963), p. 159. (See especially Ch. XII, “O jovem radical.”)

4 Data for 1962, the most current year available, reveals that of a total estimated population of 75,271,000 only 110,093 students, or .15%, were enrolled in institutions of higher learning in Brazil in that year. This compares with a total enrollment in the United States in the same year of 4,206,672, or 2.3% of a total estimated population of 186,591,000. Sources: Anuario Estatístico do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografía e Estatística 1961); and Statistical Abstract (Washington: U. S. Gov't Printing Office, 1962).

5 Ronald Scheman, L., “The Brazilian Law Student: Background, Habits, Attitudes,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, July, 1963, p. 349 Google Scholar.

6 Pesquisa sôbre o comportamento político dos estudantes da faculdade nacional de filosofía, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Brazil, 1963.

7 This was a confused period in which Goulart, apparently pressured by the military ministers, asked Congress to declare a stage of siege. Following a hostile public reaction, Goulart attempted to disassociate himself from the proposed declaration and hurriedly withdrew it from Congress.

8 The Popular Mobilization Front is composed of: a congressional sector, Frente Parlamentar Nacionalista—FPN; a labor sector, Comando Geral dos Trabalhadores— CGT; a student sector, Unido Nacional dos Estudantes—UNE, and Unido Brasileira dos Estudantes Secundarios—UBES. Frequently also represented are the non-commissioned officers (sargentos) and a Woman's Front (Frente Feminina). It is interesting to note that the incidence of national fronts of liberation composed of Communists and other extreme leftists has become a hemispherical tendency. A number of examples of leftistinspired fronts of this type are: Colombia—Frente Unida de Acción Revolucionaria (FUAR), and the Movimiento de Obreros Estudiantes y Campesinos (MOEC); Dominican Republic—Movimiento para la Liberación dominicana (MLD); Chile—Frente de Acción Popular (FRAP); Mexico—Movimiento de Liberación Nacional (MLN); Paraguay —Frente Unida para la Liberación Nacional (FULNA); Frente de Liberación Nacional (FLN); Uruguay—Frente Izquierda de Liberación (FIDEL); and Venezuela—Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN). Sources: Ernst Haherin, “Castroism— Challenge to the Latin American Communists,” in Problems of Communism, XII, No. 5 (September-October 1963), 9-18, and Michael Aubry, Cuba: Nacáo indepertdente ou satélite? (Rio de Janeiro: Edicoes GFD, 1963).

9 In Brazil the universities are composed of faculdades, which are comparable to our colleges or schools in some cases (arts and sciences, law, medicine, etc.) and to our departments in others, (sociology, economics, political science, etc.). Each of the faculdades is represented by a student organization known as diretório académico or centro académico. At the state level there are state unions of students—unióes estaduais de estudantes (UEE), and at the national level the National Union of Students— União Nacional de Estudantes (UNE).

10 “A posição dos comunistas”, Novos Rumos, No. 257, 24-28 (January, 1964), p. 8.

11 “Pernambucanos dividem-se no congresso de estudantes com acusações recíprocas,” Jornal do Brasil, (July 25, 1963).

12 O Kalouro, No. 10, August 25, 1963 (student paper in the Escola de sociologia e política of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro).

13 Other youth sections of Catholic Action are: Juventude Estudantil Católica, (JEC) (secondary students); Juventude Operaría Católica, (JOC); Juventude Agraria Católica (JAC); and Juventude Independente Católica (JIC). While JEC is extremely strong among secondary students and dominates the elections in their class entities in a frente with the PCB, the JOC has httle projection in union circles and the last two, JAC and JIC, are largely paper organizations.

14 For example: Lebret, Principios para a ação, suicídio ou sobreviviencia do Ocidente, and Dimensões da caridade; Mounier, Personalismo; Sombras de mêdo sôbre o século XX, and lntrodução ao existencialismo; Chardin, O fenómeno humano; Maritain, Cristianismo e democracia, Humanismo integral, Principios duma política humanitaria, and Rumos de educação.

15 See various back issues of the review, Síntese, of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

16 Superintendencia para a Reforma Agraria.

17 Movimento de Educacao de Base, a Church-sponsored and Brazilian Government funded organization involved in literacy campaigns and leadership training.

18 The Catholic writer and intellectual, Gustavo Corçao, is the most outstanding critic of the radicalization of the student movement. See for example his editorial in the Estado de Sao Paulo, November 17, 1963.

19 Documento base, p. 13.

20 Ibid.

21 Indeed, one observer of the student movement sees radicalization as the central objective. See José Chasin, “Luta ideológica—objetivo central do movimento estudantil,” Revista Brasiliense, No. 39 (January-February 1962), pp. 139-152. ,

22 Documento base, p. 13.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., pp. 13-14.

26 The MEB is but one of the organizations in Brazil involved in literacy programs. The largest is the Ministry of Education's Programa nacional de alfabetização which employs the controversial “Paulo Freiré method.” It is alleged by some Brazilians that this program is under the influence of a section of the PCB.

27 For an interesting analysis of the CONTAG elections from PCB point of view, see Novas rumos, No. 235 (December 27, 1963-January 2, 1964).

28 Jornal do Brasil, December 28, 1963. All quotations are given from the letter printed in this edition.

29 Tribuna da lmprensa, January 18-19, 1964.

30 Jose de Almeida Rios, et al., A escola e o meio estudantil (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério de Educação e Cultura, 1955), p. 95.

31 Ibid., p. 97.

32 Almeida Ríos, A escola, pp. 97-98.

33 PCB document, O que são as OO BB do partido, n.d., part of a lecture series for PCB militants.

34 PCB document, A Fração na diretoria da UNE, n.d.

35 PCB document, Informaçoes do comité univertitário à conferência universitária da Guanabara, n. d. (1963?) 21 pp.

36 These are, of course, national PCB tactics as well and merely represent national policy employed at a sector level.

37 Quoted in: Herminio Linhares, “O comunismo no Brasil.” Revista Brasiliense, No. 28 (March-April i960), p. 133.

38 Untitled PCB document analyzing the 25th UNE Congress of 1962, n. d., 7 pp. Hereafter referred to as Analysis of 25th UNE Congress.

39 Relatório apresentado ao encontro nacional de universitários comunistas, May 1962, quoted in Analysis of 25th UNE Congress, p. 2.

40 Op. cit., Injormações do comitê universitário á conferência universitária da Guanabara.

41 Ibid.

42 Analysis of 25th UNE Congress, pp. 4-5.

43 Ibid.

44 Novaes Sodré, “Quem é Francisco Juliao”? Redencao Nacional (Sao Paulo), p. 32.