O integralism it was a political party and movement that emerged in Brazil in the 1930s, influenced by the fascist ideals and practices that developed in Europe after the end of World War I. The far-right movement was founded under the name Ação Integralista Brasileira (AIB) in 1932, when journalist Plínio Salgado launched the October Manifesto.
To this day, Plínio Salgado's leadership is invoked in the integralist tendencies that exist, as the Brazilian Integralist Front (FIB) and the Brazilian Integralist and Linearist Movement (MIL-B).
The Integralism motto “God, Fatherland and Family” serves as a starting point for understanding the proposals of the movement that became known as Brazilian fascism.
The word "God" indicates the Christian religious influence of the integralists, with the divine figure in first place and occupying the top of the social hierarchical structure, as understood by the integralists, since it was God “who directed the destiny of peoples”.
The motherland was defined by the Integralists as “our home”. The intention was to present a unit of the Brazilian population within the territory, mainly as an opposition to the division of society into classes. The integralists intended to achieve this unity through the constitution of a
integral state, which would harmonize the different interests existing within society.Finally, we have the family as the smallest unit of social organization within the integralist proposal. The family would be the “beginning and end of everything”, the guarantee of the maintenance of tradition, conveyed through this form of social organization.
Thus, we can characterize integralism as a nationalist, authoritarian, traditionalist and founded on religious precepts, and the State is responsible for maintaining the integral unification of society through the coercion.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
The main symbols of integralism were the Greek letter ∑, the sigma, which in mathematics means the sum of infinitely small, indicating that the union of individuals and the family would guarantee the integration of society, having as its axis the State; and the greeting with the arm raised in the air, using the expression "Anaue”, word of Tupi origin that means “you are my brother”.
The integralist greeting was very similar to the one used by the Nazis, being another item of approximation with European fascisms. But unlike Nazism, the Integralists did not assert themselves as racists, as for them Brazilian society was also based on the miscegenation of the different ethnic groups that inhabited the territory.
Integralism had strength during the 1930s, when it mobilized between 600,000 and 1 million people. Integralists were fierce opponents of liberalism, anarchism and communism. Against the latter, several street conflicts were carried out in the 1930s. Integralists were known both for green shirts, because of the clothing they wore, and derogatorily for green chickens.
The authoritarianism and nationalism of the integralists brought us closer to the Getúlio Vargas government. However, despite the fact that the Estado Novo instituted in 1937 has centralism in the state institution and the extreme authoritarianism as characteristics, the integralists were persecuted during the Vargas dictatorship, which extinguished the parties. From that moment on, the Integralists were no longer able to organize themselves with the same strength, and today they are a residual political movement in the Brazilian scenario.
By Me. Tales Pinto
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PINTO, Tales dos Santos. "What is Integralism?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-e-integralismo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
