Commonwealth and Foreign
SWASTIKA AND SIGMA IN BRAZIL
By WILBUR BURTON Rio de Janeiro.
THE two dominant features of Brazil today are German penetration on one hand and the increasingly strong bid for power by the "Action Integralista Brasileira " on the other. Whether there is any direct connexion between the two, as Brazilian anti-Fascists both believe and fear, is a moot question, but there can be no doubt that the Integralistas are the most potent faction of the Fascist ideological international that has yet developed in either of the Americas. They wear green shirts and their symbol is the Greek letter sigma, in its higher mathematical meaning of "totality," which they wear on their arms and paint on houses and walls all over Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities. Their creed, as proclaimed in misty Portuguese, includes such concepts as "the totality of the universe" and a totalitarian State with "the spiritual over the moral, the moral over the social, the social over the national and the national over the individual " ; and their less ethereal manifestations have included dosing allegedly backsliding comrades with castor oil and beating up wearers of the badge of the Brazilian Democratic Union.
They indulge in frequent street demonstrations, one of which recently in San Paulo resulted in considerable blood- shed. They claim a million members, and if all were eligible to vote, this would be about one-third of the total voting population. They are not, however, quite as strong as that, but they are the only political party with an organisation in every one of the United States of Brazil. Further, in the opinion of an observer who has spent about twenty years in Brazil and also was in Germany for three years before the triumph of Hitler, "the Integralistas are now in about the same stage as the Nazis in 1930." Under Brazilian conditions, this would not necessarily mean a wait of three years to get in power, although the same conditions might also work against them ; in a crisis, the army would probably be the deciding factor, and while many of the officers are pro-Integralista, there are certainly large numbers of the rank and file who are not.
This is presidential campaign year in Brazil, with the election fixed for next January 3rd, and there are now three candidates in the field, including the Integralista leader, Plinio Salgado, who is as Hitleresque in appearance as he is in aspirations. The other candidates are the traditional types of Brazilian politicians': Dr. Jose Americo de Almeida, the nominee of the factions now in power, and Dr. Armando de Salles Oliveira, the nominee of the groups out of power (other than the Integralistas) who have formed the Demo- cratic Union. In accordance with customary election procedure, no political principles are at stake, and the cam- paign revolves around personalities and intrigue, with the government nominee usually announced as winner, as result of which the opposition alleges incorrect counting of the votes and starts a revolution. It was thus that the present regime of President Getulio Vargas got into power.
Ever since the uprising of 1935 the potcy of the Vargas regime has played into the hands of the Integralistas. Accord- ing to constantly reiterated official propaganda, the uprising was the work of Communists, and hence all organisation and propaganda on the left have been suppressed by the police. Although there were Communistic elements involved in the uprising, it actually appears to have been far more a typical South American revolt than a Marxian revolution, and cer- tainly many of the so-called Communists arrested were no more than pale pink intellectuals. And today there is no evidence whatsoever of any Communist movement worthy Of the name. Yet the Red scare continues, with the Minister of War, General Enrico G. Dutra, recently officially proclaim- ing that "Communism is the major danger faced by the army," while even the most moderate newspapers frequently publish articles or editorials on "the Communist menace to civilisa- tion." Meanwhile, there is no restriction on Integralista activities, and I think it may be regarded as axiomatic that when a country suppresses Communist propaganda while not only allowing but encouraging Fascist propaganda, it is in grave danger of going Fascist. Further, wealthy Brazilians— many of whom are supporting the Integralistas—have appar- ently not observed that Fascism in both Italy and Germany is far more the master than the servant of capitalism.
Concurrently (if not otherwise) with the rise of the Integral- istas has been intensive German penetration of Brazil. Economically this has been due to the "compensated " mark which is one of the higher flights of Hitlerian economic fan- tasy. If the reichmark equal 6.2 Brazilian milreis (a milreis is approximately 3d.), the compensated mark would equal five milreis, thus giving German goods a 20 per cent. advan- tage in the Brazilian market over goods of equal value from any other country. At the same time, Germany agrees both to buy and to pay only in goods at values fixed in compensated money. This not only means the dumping of German goods in Brazil, but also enables Germany to get raw materials in Brazil cheaper than she could elsewhere. One result is that Germany is now buying more cotton from Brazil than from the United States, while both United States and United Kingdom imports into Brazil have been declining. And besides trade losses, there have been extensive defaults on Brazilian federal, State and municipal debts to the United States and United Kingdom.
The total Brazilian external debt, most of which is in some stage of default, is £249,709,333, or about £62 per capita—which is more than a year's wages for any excepting the most highly-paid Brazilian workers. The overwhelming bulk of these debts are to British and American investors ; none are to either Germany or Italy. In consequence of the recent negotiations in Washington by the Brazilian Finance Minister, Souza Costa, there will soon presumably be some modification of the compensated mark arrangement, from which Britain as well as the U.S. will benefit, but it cannot be anticipated that the existing German advantage will be entirely eliminated.
Politically, the definitely known German activities in Brazil include a vast amount of propaganda and an effort to make an oversea colony of the four or five hundred thousand Brazilian Germans. Many of these are concentrated in the State of Santa Catherina, and according to reliable reports the Brazilian public schools there are being used for Nazi propaganda. Many German residents doubtless oppose this, but if they have business or family connexions in Germany they can be whipped into line. There is a large German Nazi party in Brazil under the leadership of Herr von Cossel. At the last party congress in Germany, he represented the Brazilian Nazis and publicly proclaimed that "Germany and Brazil are culturally and economically complementary." This caused a vigorous protest in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies by Senhor Cafe, Jr., against Nazi "infiltration and propaganda," with the declaration that "Germany was more and more dominating the culture and the commerce of Brazil," but Herr von Cossel has now returned to Rio de Janeiro as "cultural attaché" of the German Embassy. An ever-increasing number of German propagandists, some in the guise of tourist agents and others as journalists, are coming to Brazil, and I recently witnessed the incredible spectacle of the Jewish president of the Brazilian Press Association publicly welcoming a Nazi " journalistic " delegation.
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