Integralist Action (AIB)

The Integralist Action (Ação Integralista Brasileira—AIB; commonly known as Integralismo) was the first Brazilian fascist movement to gain national prominence. Formed in 1932 and headed by Plínio Salgado, the AIB was primarily modeled after the Italian and Portuguese fascist movements, although it did use Nazi-influenced trappings such as green shirts to distinguish its members and the swastika-like Greek sigma as a party sign. Its nationalistic goal was an integral state with a single authoritarian leader.

The AIB, whose motto was "God, Country, and Family," took the nationalism, Catholicism, and antiforeign nature of the Revolution of 1930 to an extreme. As Brazil's urban middle class became increasingly poorer during the worldwide Great Depression, the AIB attacked liberals, Communists, foreigners, and Masons, but never clearly articulated a positive political platform. Gustavo Barroso, president of Brazil's Academy of Letters and the AIB's chief ideologue, was a rabid anti-Semite whose Jew-baiting dominated the AIB's public discourse even though the Jewish population of Brazil was small.

In 1937 Salgado was one of three candidates in the presidential election and may have been strong enough to play power broker in a close election. When Getúlio Vargas declared the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1937, the presidential election was canceled and all political parties, including the AIB, were banned. When a group of Integralists attacked the Presidential Palace in 1938, most AIB leaders were arrested and Salgado was exiled to Portugal. Many important members of Estado Novo, however, including Justice Minister Francisco Campos and Federal Chief of Police Fillinto Müller, remained tied to both Salgado and the Integralist platform. Later the Integralist party was legally reconstituted in a number of Brazilian states, although its membership was tiny.

See alsoFascism; Salgado, Plinio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert Levine, The Vargas Regime: The Critical Years, 1934–1938 (1970), esp. pp. 81-99, 159-175.

Helgio Trindade, Integralismo: O fascismo brasileiro na década de 30 (1979).

Stanley Hilton, Hitler's Secret War in South America, 1939–1945 (1981), esp. pp. 82-93.

René Gertz, O fascismo no sul do Brasil: Germanismo, nazismo, integralismo (1987).

Additional Bibliography

Calil, Gilberto Grassi. O integralismo no pós-guerra: A formação do PRP, 1945–1950. Porto Alegre, Brazil: EDIPUCRS, 2001.

Cavalari, Rosa Maria Feiteiro. Integralismo: Ideologia e organização de um partido de massa no Brasil, 1932–1937. Bauru, Brazil: Editora da Universidade do Sagrado Coração, 1999.

Deutsch, Sandra McGee. Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890–1939. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

                                          Jeffrey Lesser