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Rivalry and Unification: Mobilising Rural Workers in São Paulo on the Eve of the Brazilian Golpe of 1964*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Cliff Welch
Cliff Welch
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan.
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Abstract

The article utilises oral history, labour and military court records, newspaper accounts, and government documents to narrate the history of rural labour mobilisation in the Aha Mogiana region of São Paulo, Brazil, during the years 1959 to 1964. It shows how rival rural leaders linked either to the Brazilian Communist Party or the Catholic Church organised many workers, led numerous influential strikes, and helped hundreds of workers sue for their rights in court. Eventually, Catholic and Communist competitors joined forces under the guidance of a federal agency (SUPRA). Coordinated by SUPRA, the newly unified Alta Mogiana movement was suppressed by the military regime that took control of Brazil in April 1964.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 1995 , pp. 161 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 Camargo, Aspásia de Alcântara, ‘A questao agraria: crise de poder e reforma de base (1930–1964)’, in Fausto, Boris (ed.), Historia geral da civilização brasileira, Tomo III, o Brasil republicano, vol. 3, Sociedade e política (1930–1964), 3rd. edn. (Sao Paulo, 1986), p. 223Google Scholar. Bezerra in Moraes, Dênis de, A Esquerda e o Golpe de 64 (Rio De Janeiro, 1989), pp. 237Google Scholar. Skidmore, Thomas E., The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964–85 (New York, 1988), p. 4Google Scholar.

2 See, for example, Bastos, Elide Rugai, As ligas camponesas (Petrópolis, 1984)Google Scholar; Azevêdo, Fernando Antô;nio, As ligas camponesas (Rio de Janeiro, 1982)Google Scholar; Mallon, Florencia, ‘Peasants and Rural Laborers in Pernambuco, 1955–1964’, Latin American Perspectives vol. 5, no. 4 (Fall, 1978), pp. 49–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Page, Joseph A., The Revolution that Never Was: Northeast Brazil, 1955–1964 (New York, 1972)Google Scholar; and Moraes, Clodomir Santos de, ‘Peasant Leagues in Brazil’, in Stavenhagen, Rodolfo (ed.), Agrarian Problems and Peasant Movements in Latin America (New York, 1970), pp. 453–501Google Scholar.

3 The most recent relevant work is Stolcke, Verena, Coffee Planters, Workers and Wives. Class Conflict and Gender Relations on São Paulo Plantations, 1850–1980 (New York, 1988)Google Scholar, but only a small portion of the book deals with the union movement. Some relevant studies remain unpublished, such as Fatima Regina de Barros, ‘A organização sindical dos trabalhadores rurais: contribuição do estudo do caso do estado de São Paulo, entre 1954–1964’, MA thesis, UNICAMP, 1986.

4 See below and ‘Sindicalismo e anarquia rural’, A Rural (formerly Kevista de Sociedade Rural Brasileira), vol. 43: 501 (January 1963), p. 3 and General Olympio Mourao Filho, Memórias: a verdade de urn revolucionario, 4th edn. (Porto Alegre, 1978), pp. 25–47, 158, 162–3, 183Google Scholar.

5 Galjart, Benno, ‘Class and “Following” in Rural Brazil’, América Latina, vol. 7, no. 3 (07/09 1964), pp. 3–23Google Scholar; Forman, Shepard, ‘Disunity and Discontent: A Study of Peasant Political Movements in Brazil’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (1973), pp. 3–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Grynzspan, Mario, ‘O campesinato fluminense: mobilização e controle político (1950/1964)’, Revista Rio de Janeiro, vol. 1, no. 2 (1988), pp. 19–27Google Scholar. (Thanks are due to John Monteiro for the Grynzspan citation.)

6 Chasin, José, ‘Contribuição para a analise da vanguarda política no campo’, Revista Brasiliense, vol. 44 (11–12 1962), pp. 102–29Google Scholar and Siguad, Lygia, ‘Congressos camponeses, 1953–1964’, Reforma Agrária, vol. 2, no. 6 (11/12 1981), pp. 3–8Google Scholar.

7 SUPRA was created on 11 October 1962. See ‘Leisdelegadas no.s 8, 9, 10e 11’, A Rural, vol. 42: 500 (December 1962), p. 5. Decree 1.878 of 13 December 1963 regulated the agency, setting up a variety of executive departments, such as the Department of Rural Promotion and Organisation (DPROR), that was later used to orient the rural unionisation campaign. For more on the agency see below and Camargo, ‘A questao agrária’, pp. 203–5.

8 See de Carvalho, Hernani, Sociologia de vida rural brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, 1951)Google Scholar and Watson, James B., ‘Way Station to Modernization: The Brazilian Caboclo’, in Brazil: Papers Presented in the Institute for Brazilian Studies, ed. Watson, James B. (Nashville, 1953), pp. 1–56Google Scholar. These processes are more fully described in Welch, Clifford A., ‘Rural Labor and the Brazilian Revolution, 1930–1964’, unpubl. PhD diss., Duke University, 1990Google Scholar.

9 Irineu Luis de Moraes, inteview by author, Ribeirão Preto, 22 August 1988. Transcript, part 1, pp. 37–39. Copies of this and other author interview transcripts with rural leaders used in this article have been deposited at the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo [hereafter cited as (UNICAMP/AEL)]. For more on Moraes see also Geraldo, Cliff Welch e Sebastião, Lutas camponesas no interior paulista. Memórias de Irineu Luis de Moraes, 1912–1190 (São Paulo, 1992)Google Scholar.

10 On Padre Celso's life, see Celso Ibson de Syllos, interview by author, São Paulo, 19 January 1989. Transcript, pp. 1–4 (UNICAMP/AEL) and ‘O ex-padre Celso lembra sua experiência jornalistica’, Jornal de Ribeirão, 21–27 August 1988, p. 9. On his role in the archdiocese, see also Editorial, Diário de Notícias, 1 January 1959, p. 2. See the concise history of Diário de Notícias in ‘Um jovem padre muda a feição do jornal’; and ‘Apesar dos pesares, chega-se ao fim 63’, Jornal de Ribeirão, 21–27 August 1988, p. 3.

11 Editorial, Diário de Notícias, 6 February 1962, p. 2 Syllos interview transcript, p. 6, ‘Procuram-se líderes cristãos para o campo’, Diário de Notícias, 25 February 1962, p. 4. Catechists and other lay Catholics were also reported to be selected as candidates for training as rural labour leaders in Pernambuco. See Wilkie, Mary E., ‘A Report on Rural Syndicates in Pernambuco’, unpubl. paper, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1964), pp. 7–12Google Scholar.

12 Moraes transcript, pt. 1, pp. 41–43. See also ‘Pontal: Criada a Associação dos Trabalhadores em Usinas de Açucar’, ‘Sertãozinho: Fundação da Associação dos Trabalhadores em Usinas de Açucar’, Terra Livre (June 1961), centre section.

13 Syllos transcript, p. 3. See also, De Kadt, Emmanuel, Catholic Radicals in Brazil (New York, 1970)Google Scholar and Bruneau, Thomas C., The Political Transformation of the Brazilian Catholic Church (London, 1974)Google Scholar.

14 For the peasant leagues in São Paulo, see Julião, Francisco (ed.), Ligas camponesas, octubre 1962–abril 1964 (Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1969)Google Scholar. On conservative Catholic organising in the state see Martins, Arguaya Feitosa, ‘Alguns aspectos da inquietação trabalhista no campo’, Revista Brasiliense, vol. 40 (03/04 1962), pp. 132–41Google Scholar. Barros, ‘A organização sindical dos trabalhadores rurais’, pp. 104–22, and Maybury-Lewis, Alan Biorn, ‘The Politics of the Possible: The Growth and Development of the Brazilian Rural Workers Trade Union Movement’, unpubl. PhD diss., Columbia University, 1991, pp. 154–96Google Scholar.

15 Syllos transcript, p. 6. Antônio Crispim da Cruz, interview by author, Ribeirão Preto, 31 March 1989, p. 4–5, (UNICAMP/AEL) and ‘Organizou-se frente agrária estadual’, Diário de Noticias, 29 January 1963, p. 6.

16 José Alves Portela, interview by author, São Paulo, 23 August 1988. Transcript, p. 11 (UNICAMP/AEL).

17 Strike statistics have been gleaned from reports in Terra Livre, Novos Rumos, Notícias de Hoje, O Estado de Sāo Paulo, and Diário de Notícias and as such they no doubt underrepresent the actual number of strikes that occurred during the decade. For the Sertãozinho strike, see ‘Alta Mogiana: 6 mil trabalhadores em greve derrotaram império dos usineiros’ Terra Livre (August 1962), p. 5 and Moraes interview transcript, pt 1., pp. 43–44. Workers won two unprecedented concessions in this strike: 1) a switch from piece-rates, paid by the ton, to hourly wages and 2) the elimination of housing rent deductions from their wages.

18 From a study of Justiça do Trabalho, Junta de Conciliação e Julgamento, Ribeirão Preto (JT/RP) records reported in Welch, Cliff, ‘Rural Workers and the Law’, paper presented at the XV meeting of the Latin American Studies Association (1990)Google Scholar.

19 For an inspiring debate on this theme, see Cross, Gary, ‘Time, Money, and Labor History's Encounter with Consumer Culture’, and responses by Rustin, Michael and de Grazia, Victoria, in International Labor and Working Class History, vol. 43 (Spring 1993), pp. 2–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Vargas, , ‘A plataforma da Aliança Liberal’, A nova politico do Brasil, vol. 1 (Rio de Janeiro, 1938), p. 27Google Scholar.

21 An informant named Da Maria, cited in Stolcke, Coffee Planters, Workers and Wives, p. 193.

22 Brant, V. Caldeira, ‘Do colono ao bóia-fria: transformações na agricultura e constituição do mercado de trabalho na Alta Sorocabana de Assis’, Estudos CEBRAP, vol. 19 (01/03 1977)Google Scholar and Holloway, Thomas H., Immigrants on the Land. Coffee and Society in São Paulo, 1886–1934 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980)Google Scholar.

23 For São Paulo, see ‘Estado e têndencias da agricultura paulista’, Agricultura em São Paulo, vol. 10, no. 5/6 (May/June), pp. 1–61 and for Sertãozinho, see Ianni, Octavio, Origens agrárias do estado brasileiro (São Paulo, 1984), p. 41Google Scholar.

24 Author interviews in Ribeirão Preto with Zildete Ribeiro do Desterro (5 July 1989) and João Geraldo (7 July 1989). Welch, Cliff, ‘Rural Populism and the Coffee Economy’, paper presented at the XVI meeting of the Latin American Studies Association (04 1991)Google Scholar. For labour statistics, see São Paulo, SEPLAN, Trabalho volante na agricultura paulista (Estudos e pesquisas No. 25) (n.d.), p. 170.

25 On gatos, see Siguad, Lygia, Os clandestinos e os direitos. Estudo sobre trabalhadores da canade-açucar de Pernambuco (São Paulo, 1979), pp. 49–82Google Scholar and Moraes transcript, pt. 3, pp. 28–9.

26 Moraes transcript, pt. 1. pp. 44–7, Irineu Luis de Moraes, interviewed by author and Sebastião Geraldo, Ribeirão Preto, 27 May 1989. Transcript, part 3, pp. 25–9 (UNICAMP/AEL), and ‘6 mil trabalhadores derrotaram imperio dos usineiros’.

27 See ‘Vendida uma das mais famosas fazendas de café em São Paulo’, Estado de São Paulo, 11 April 1950, p. 6. See also, ‘História da Usina São Martinho’ and ‘Pradopólis, um município integrado’ in Diário da Manhã, 13 September 1977, pp. 2, 11.

28 Moraes transcript, pt. 3, pp. 28–9 and Syllos transcript, 23–5.

29 Moraes transcript, pt. 1, pp. 45–7 and pt. 3, pp. 26–8 and ‘6 mil trabalhadores derrotaram império’.

30 On Sampaio and the circles, see ‘FAP administrará cursos a camponeses’, ‘Camponeses da FAP ouviram diretor do HC’, Diário de Notícias, 23 October 1962, p. 8, and ‘Frente Agrária promoverá concentração. Dois novos sindicatos serão criados’, Diário de Notícias, 24 February 1963, p. 7. Syllos transcript, p. 56.

31 Workers and speakers came from Jardinópolis, Sales Oliveira, Altinópolis, Brodosqui, Ribeirão Preto, Dumont, Guatápara, Bonfim Paulista, and of course, Batatais. See, ‘Frente Agrária estará amanhã em Batatais. Cria-se sindicato e realiza-se concentraoção’, Diário de Notícias, 2 March 1963, p. 3. See also, ‘Batatais. Agita-se a roça com assombroso movimento sindicalista. Presidente do sindicato prestou oportunas dedarações’, Diário de Notícias, 16 March 1963, p. 9.

32 See ‘Camponeses de Batatais receberão frente agrária hoje e amanhaã’, and Bellini, Gilberto, ‘Camponeses de Batatais: unam-se que a vitória esta próxima’, Diário de Notícias, 11 05 1963, p. 5Google Scholar. Sampaio's firing was reported in ‘Fazendeiro desacatou líder rural’, Diário de Notícias, 26 May 1963, p. 6. See also, ‘Otavio Sampaio c. Fazenda Boa Esperanç’, Processo 854/63, Packet 175, JT/RP.

33 ‘Fazenda Boa Esperança declara guerra a frente agrária’, Diário de Notícias, 31 May 1963, p. 6. The other plantations were Boa Vista, Capão Grande, California, Floresta, Bela Vista, Caridade, Limeira, and Moradinha. ‘Fazendeiros decepcionaram trabalhadores’, Diário de Notícias, 8 June 1963, p. 6.

34 See, ‘Fazendeiro desacatou liíder rural’, ‘Colonos tiveram liberdade cercada’, Diário de Notícias, 9 June 1963, p. 6, and ‘Fazendeiros decepcionaram trabalhadores’.

35 See, Syllos transcript, p. 56; Moraes transcript, pt. 3, p. 30 and Arlindo Teixeira, interview by author, Ribeirão Preto, 18 October 1988. Transcript, pp. 10–11, (UNICAMP/AEL).

36 ‘Dimitido a Carta Sindical do Sindicato dos Assalariados Agrícolas e Colonos de Batatais, 10 de maio de 1963’, Diário Oficialda União, 16 July 1963, p. 6159. Teixeira transcript, p. 19 and Syllos transcript, pp. 11–12 and 57–8. See also ‘Camponeses armam expectativa em Batatais. Auxiliares do PC tentam “golpe’ sindical. Graves denuncias apresentadas a reportagem pelo atual presidente da Frente Agrária, regional de Ribeirão Preto', Diário de Noticias, 1 December 1963, p. 8.

37 ‘Camponeses armam expectative em Batatais.’

38 ‘Confirmam-se dununcias da frente agrária. Camponeses não permitirão nenhum “golpe.” Presidente da FA expôs manobras divisionistas preparadas por elementos diretamente ligados a ULTAB (pro-Comunista)', Diário de Notícias, 3 December 1963, p. 1. ‘Camponeses repudiam “golpes” sindicais. Elementos do PC continuam abusando’, Diário de Notícias, 17 December 1963, p. 6, includes a reprint of Sampaio's 16 December petition.

39 ‘Camponeses armam expectativa em Batatais.’ Syllos transcript, pp. 14–15 and 58, Moraes Transcript, pt. 3, p. 22, and Antônio Girotto, interview by author, Ribeirão Preto, 19 October 1988, Transcript, pp. 20–21 (UNICAMP/AEL).

40 Syllos transcript, p. 22.

41 ‘Nosso comentário: Quem é comunista?’, Diário de Notícias, 24 December 1963, p. 4. See, Machado, Raul, ‘Dom Angelo Rossi (bishop of Ribeirão Preto): a militância política social dos sacerdotes existe por falta de quadros leigos [sic] altura’, Diário da Manhã, 3 01 1964, p. 7Google Scholar.

42 ‘O superintendente da SUPRA, João Pinheiro Neto, falará hoje no salão nobre da Associação Comercial’, Diário da Manhã, 31 January 1964, p. 1. ‘Piano de trabalho da delegacia estadual da SUPRA em São Paulo para o ano de 1964’, São Paulo, n.d., in Vol. 7, Archive 144, Arquivo do Projeto ‘Brasil: Nunca Mais,’ (UNICAMP/AEL). (Hereafter, item title, followed by B: NM: volume number/archive number.) Besides the office in Ribeirão Preto eight other regional offices were established in São Paulo, Taubaté, Campinas, São José do Rio Preto, Araçatuba, Presidente Prudente, Baurú and Itapetininga. ‘Plano de trabalho da delegacia estadual da SUPRA’, unpubl. Mss., B:NM 7/144.

43 Before the end of Goulart's term of office in January, 1965, labour minister Amaury de Oliveira e Silva wanted SUPRA to set-up two thousand rural unions nationally, establish five hundred additional regional labour courts, stimulate pressure for the implementation of rural labour laws, and register three million new voters. ‘SUPRA: maquina de corrupção e subversão’, O Estado de São Paulo, 3 March 1964, p. 3. See also, Price, ‘Rural Unionization in Brazil’, pp. 68–70 and ‘Inquirição. Depoimento do Sr. Hans Alfred Rappel’, 30 June 1964, B: NM 2/144.

44 ‘Nosso Comentário. SUPRA: rendenção da roça’, Diário de Notícias1, 14 October 1963, p. 4. ‘Líder rural adverte João Goulart contra perigos da revolta popular’, Diário de Notícias, 28 December 1963, p. 6. After the military takeover, the police interrogated Vassimon and asked if he had been forced to work for SUPRA. Quite to the contrary, Vassimon responded, it was he who had sought to volunteer. ‘Têrmo de declaração do Sidney Gomes Vassimon’, 26 June 1964, B: NM 9/144.

45 Moraes transcript, pt. 3, pp. 29–30. ‘Têrmo de declaração do Adhemar Teixeira de Morais (chief of administration in the Ribeirão Preto office)’, 10 June 1964, B: NM 9/144. See B: NM, 7/144 and 12/144, for copies of the pamphlets. Rappel quote in ‘Depoimento’, B: NM, 2/144.

46 For Moraes, see ‘Fundado o Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Dumont pela SUPRA e ULTAB. Grande numero de camponeses presentes – um minuto de silêncio pela morte de agente da SUPRA – diretoria’, Diário da Manhã, 5 March 1964, p. 8. For Rappel, see ‘Inquirição. Depoimento da Srta. Miriam Di Salvi (Rappel's executive assistant)’, B: NM, 2/144 and the request letter which was signed by Mario Bugliani of Pontal, Manoel da Silva of Barrinha, Sebastião Lopes of Ribeirão Preto, and Antônio Conte of Sertãozinho. ‘Curso com os dirigentes sindicais da Alta Mogiana’, Bugliani et al. to Donato, Ribeirão Preto, 3 February 1964. B: NM, Anexo 4971. Of the four, at least Lopes and Bugliani were members of the PCB.

47 Dulles, John W. F., Unrest in Brazil (Austin, 1971), pp. 269–72Google Scholar and ‘Personagem 7: Luis Carlos Prestes’, in Moraes, A esquerda e o golpe de 64, pp. 264–65. Goulart's speech is quoted in Branco, Carlos Castello, Introdução da revolução de 1964, vol. 2 (Rio de Janeiro, 1975), pp. 262–6Google Scholar and Bandeira, Moniz, O governo João Goulart. As lutas sociais no Brasil, 1961–1964, 6th edn. (Rio de Janeiro, 1983), pp. 163–5Google Scholar.

48 On the conspiracy to oust Goulart, see Leacock, Ruth, Requiem for Revolution: The United States and Brazil, 1961–1969 (Kent, OH, 1990)Google Scholar, Dreifuss, René, 1964: a conquista do estado, 3rd edn. (Petrópolis, 1981)Google Scholar, and Parker, Phyllis R., Brazil and the Quiet Intervention, 1964 (Austin, 1979)Google Scholar.

49 Officially, the CRB held that employer and employee unions would help discipline rural labour relations and stimulate greater social harmony and economic productivity. See the speech of CRB president Meinberg, Iris in A reforma agrária na VI Conferência Rural (Rio de Janeiro, 1962), pp. 28–9 and 53Google Scholar. The SRB, on the other hand, seemed more opposed to rural unions than ever before. See, for example, Magano, Virgilio dos Santos, SRB counsel, ‘A sindicalização rural’, A Rural, vol. 42: 494 (06 1962), p. 71Google Scholar and Editorial, , ‘Proletariado e política,’ A Rural, vol. 42: 496 (08 1962), p. 3Google Scholar.

50 Prado, Salvio de Almeida, ‘Legislações trabalhistas’, A Rural, vol. 43: 508 (08 1963), p. 3Google Scholar. Mourão Filho, Memórias, p. 183. In a self-congratulatory note published after the golpe, Prado wrote: ‘As one of the groups that designed and directed the “March of the Family, with God, for Liberty”, whose organising commission was situated in the headquarters of the Brazilian Rural Society, and as a participant in the team that brought victory in the struggle against the recently-deposed comuno-peleguista government, the SRB occupied an outstanding place in the national political panorama …'. ‘Pronunciamentos da SRB durante a revolução redentora do país’, A Rural, vol. 44: 517 (May 1964), pp. 28–30.

51 ‘FACUR: movimento de redenção dos trabalhadores do campo’, A Rural, vol. 43: 510 (October 1963), p. 45. In Portuguese, FACUR was an acronym for the Instituição Fraternal Amizade Cristã e Rural. Pellegrini, sister of the Estado de São Paulo publisher Mesquita Filho, was chief of MAF. Mesquita Filho was one of four civilian members of the Estado-Maior Civil-Militar that planned the golpe in São Paulo. See Dreifuss, 1964: a conquista do estado, esp. pp. 294–5 and 373–7, Mourão Filho, Memórias, pp. 216–9, and ‘Projetam um golpe nacional as forças da reação. Vagões de armas teriam sido vistos em São Simão’, Diário da Manhã, 5 February 1964, p. 1.

52 Police interrogators questioned Rappel and his assistant about the training session and the dispute with Donato. Rappel and Di Salvi depoimentos, B: NM, 2/144.

53 Rappel depoimento, B: NM, 2/144. Twenty-eight rural labour activists attended the course. See also the account of the meeting given in ‘O presidente da república viria dia doze de abril a Ribeirão Preto para inaugurar agência da SUPRA’, Diário da Manhã, 25 March 1964, p. 8; Syllos transcript, pp. 67–70, and ‘Recibo das despesas do curso com os dirigentes sindicais da Alta Mogiana, 21–22 de março de 1964’, B: NM, Anexo 4932.

54 Syllos transcript, p. 41. Moraes transcript, pt. 1, pp. 65–6, 89–90 and pt. 3, p. 32. On the guerrilla training camp, see also Antônio Girotto, interview by author, Ribeirão Preto, 19 October 1988, transcript, 22 (UNICAMP/AEL). ‘It was asinine (besteira)’, Teixeira said of the camp. ‘It only served to prejudice us. I participated there too. But it was foolish (bobagem), complete rubbish (porcaria).’ Teixeira transcript, 22. Moraes transcript, pt. 1, p. 66 and pt. 3, p. 19.

55 Syllos transcript, p. 72. Diário de Notícias, 1 April 1964, p. 1.

66 The military-civilian conspiracy in São Paulo is detailed in Mourão Filho, Memórias, pp. 169–288. See also, Sampaio, Regina, Adhemar de Barros e 0 PSP (São Paulo, 1982), pp. 103–5Google Scholar, and Dreifuss, 1964, pp. 376–96. See, ‘Em 64, um paralisação indesejável’, Jornal de Ribeirão, 21–27 August 1988, p. 4 and ‘Diario da Manhã’, Diario da Manhã, 31 May 1964, p. 1.

67 ‘Considering SUPRA, the organisation that the accused served’, wrote Dr. Waldemar Torres da Costa, vice president of the military tribunal, ‘was an official institution, created by the federal government, and that the creation of rural unions, intended to support the workers of the interior, was one of its mandates… and that the accused limited themselves to fulfilling orders sent from above…the ministers of the Superior Military Tribunal, unanimously agree to reject the appeal of the military prosecutor.’ ‘Apelação No. 39.067 – Estado de São Paulo’, Superior Tribunal Militar, Rio de Janeiro, 2 June 1972, B NM, 12/144.

58 ‘A lavoura paulista repudia o decreto da SUPRA e “reafirma seu pensamento em favor de uma reforma agrária justa e real”,’ A Rural, vol. 44: 515 (April 1964), p. 6. ‘Victorious in two days’, wrote the SRB's Prado, ‘the military battle that constituted the first phase of the revolution…has a complete program of demands to fulfill’. From the signed editorial, ‘Da Marcha da Familia a revolução vencedora’, A Rural, vol. 44: 517 (May 1964), p. 3. Other clear examples of how the conspirators saw themselves as revolutionaries are represented in the titles of their memoirs. See, for example Mourão Filho's Memórias: a verdade de urn revolucionario and D'Aguiar, Hernani, A revolução por dentro (Rio de Janeiro, 1976)Google Scholar. For more on the SRB's expectations, see ‘Pronunciamentos da SRB durante a revolução redentora do pais’, A Rural, vol. 44: 517 (May 1964), pp. 28–30.

59 On the ‘experiment’, see Skidmore, Thomas E., Politics in Brazil (1930–1964): An Experiment in Democracy (New York, 1967)Google Scholar and on the ‘populist republic’, see French, John D., The Brazilian Workers' ABC: Class Conflict and Alliances in Modern São Paulo (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1992)Google Scholar.

60 Maybury-Lewis, , ‘Politics of the Possible’, Dreifuss, 1964, and Collier, Ruth B. and Collier, David, Shaping the Political Arena (Princeton, 1991), pp. 567–68Google Scholar.

61 The role of rural labour law is similarly highlighted for Chile in Loveman's, BrianStruggle in the Countryside. Politics and Rural Labor in Chile, 1919–1973 (Bloomington, 1976)Google Scholar.