Collor, Lindolfo (1890–1942)

Lindolfo Collor (b. 4 February 1890; d. 21 September 1942), Brazilian statesman. Born in Rio Grande do Sul of German descent, Collor received a pharmacy degree in 1909, but his first professional endeavors involved journalism and literature. His career in politics began when Antônio Augusto Borges De Medeiros, virtual dictator of Rio Grande, asked him to direct the state Republican Party newspaper in 1919. Thereafter, Collor rose rapidly in Riograndense politics and entered congress in 1925. After fellow Riograndense Getúlio Vargas was defeated for the presidency in 1930, Collor participated in the October revolution of that year, a movement which overthrew the Constitution of 1891. One of the first acts of Vargas's provisional government was to create a labor ministry, headed by Collor.

Collor legalized those unions approved by the labor ministry, which could also intervene in their internal operation. In addition, he introduced the so-called two-thirds law, which required that two-thirds of the work force of all industrial enterprises be Brazilian nationals. He also set up conciliation boards to settle labor disputes, regulated working conditions of women, and established a minimum wage.

Collor's labor system has expanded and survived all the regimes since 1930. Fundamentally corporative, it was also eclectic, inspired by Catholic social doctrine (though Collor was Protestant), the welfarism of Uruguayan José Batlle y Ordoñez, the Comtian paternalism of Julio de Castilhos, and Vargas's new commodity syndicates in Rio Grande.

Collor resigned his ministry in 1932, protesting Vargas's continuing dictatorship, and remained an opponent of his former colleague. A grandson, Fernando Collor De Mello, became president of Brazil in 1990 but resigned at the end of 1992 following impeachment.

See alsoBrazil: Since 1889 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John W. F. Dulles, Vargas of Brazil (1967), pp. 1-116.

Joseph L. Love, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism, 1882–1930 (1971), chaps. 10-11.

Edgard Carone, A república nova (1930–1937) (1974), pp. 98-151.

Rosa Maria Barboza De Araujo, O batismo do trabalho: A experiencia de Lindolfo Collor (1981): Israel Beloch and Alzira Alves De Abreu, eds., Dicionário histórico-biográfico brasileiro, 1930–1983 (1984), pp. 2142-2151.

Additional Bibliography

Costa, Licurgo. Ensaio sobre a vida de Lindolfo Collor. Florianópolis, Santa Catarina: Editora Lunardelli, 1990.

Weinstein, Barbara. For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo, 1920–1964. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

                                           Joseph L. Love