October Manifesto by Plínio Salgado (1932)

* Source: Retrieved on 24/6/2022 from integralismo.org.br and translated by d'Arma

Manifesto of October 7, 1932

To the Brazilian Nation – To the country’s working class and trade unions – To the men of culture and thought – To the youth of schools and trenches – To the armed classes!

I

Conception of the Universe and Man

God directs the destinies of peoples. Man must practice on earth the virtues that elevate and perfect him. Man's worth lies in work, sacrifice for his Family, Country and Society. It is worthy of study, intelligence, honesty, progress in science, in the arts, in technical capacity, with the aim of ensuring the well-being of the Nation and the moral elevation of people. Wealth is a fleeting thing, which does not enhance anyone, as long as its holders do not fulfill the duties it rigorously imposes, towards Society and the Fatherland. Everyone can and must live in harmony, some respecting and esteeming the other, each one distinguishing himself in his aptitudes, because each man has his own vocation and it is the set of these vocations that realizes the greatness of Nationality and social happiness.

Men and classes, therefore, can and must live in harmony. It is possible for the most modest worker to reach a high financial or intellectual position. He fulfills that each one should elevate himself according to his vocation. All men are susceptible to social harmonization and all superiority comes from a single superiority that exists above men: their common and supernatural purpose. This is a deeply Brazilian thought, which comes from the Christian roots of our History and is in the depths of all our hearts.

II How we understand the Brazilian Nation

The Brazilian Nation must be organized, one, indivisible, strong, powerful, rich, prosperous and happy. For this we need all Brazilians to be united. But Brazil cannot achieve the intimate and perfect union of its children, as long as there are States within the State, political parties fractionating the Nation, classes fighting classes, isolated individuals exercising personal action in government decisions; in short, any process of division of the Brazilian people. Therefore, the Nation needs to organize itself into professional classes. Each Brazilian will register in their class. These classes elect, each one by itself, their representatives in the Municipal Chambers, in the Provincial Congresses and in the General Congresses. Those elected to the Municipal Councils elect their president and mayor. Those elected to the Provincial Congresses elect the governor of the Province. Those elected to National Congresses elect the Head of the Nation, to whom the ministers of their free choice answer.

III The Principle of Authority 

A Nation, in order to progress in peace, to see its efforts bear fruit, to achieve prestige at home and abroad, needs to have a perfect awareness of the Principle of Authority. We need an Authority capable of taking initiatives for the benefit of each and everyone; capable of preventing the rich, the powerful, foreigners, political groups from exerting influence on government decisions, harming the fundamental interests of the Nation. We need hierarchy, discipline, without which there will only be disorder. 

A government that leaves the free will of all classes is representative of the Fatherland: as such it must be helped, respected, esteemed and honored. In him must rest the confidence of the people. He must be given the means to maintain social justice, the harmony of all classes, always aiming at the best interests of the Brazilian community. Hierarchy, trust, order, peace, respect, this is what we need in Brazil.

IV Our Nationalism

Cosmopolitanism, that is, foreign influence, is a deadly disease for our Nationalism. Fighting it is our duty. And this does not mean ill will towards friendly nations, towards the children of other countries, who also work here aiming at the aggrandizement of the Brazilian Nation and whose descendants are integrated in our own life as a people. We are referring to customs, which are rooted mainly in our bourgeoisie, enraptured by this civilization that is in jeopardy in Europe and the United States. Our homes are impregnated with foreign words; our lectures, our way of looking at life, are no longer Brazilian. Brazilians in the cities do not know the national thinkers, writers, poets. They are also ashamed of the caboclo and the black of our land. 

They acquired cosmopolitan prejudices. They don't know all the difficulties and all the heroisms, all the sufferings and all the aspirations, the dream, the energy, the courage of the Brazilian people. They live by covering it with buckets and ironies, belittling the races from which we come. They live to magnify everything that is outside, despising all national initiatives. Having given us an inadequate political regime, they prefer, in the face of the country's disasters, to accuse the Brazilian of being incapable, instead of confessing that the regime was incapable. Skeptical, disillusioned, exhausted by pleasures, everything that these powerful or those big and petty bourgeois say, distils a poison that corrodes the soul of youth. 

They created ethnic prejudices originating in countries that want to dominate us. They despised all our traditions. And they seek to implant the immorality of customs. We are against the pernicious influence of this pseudo-civilization, which wants to standardize us. And we are against the influence of communism, which represents Soviet capitalism, Russian imperialism, which wants to reduce us to a captaincy. We rose up, in a great nationalist movement, to affirm the value of Brazil and of everything that is useful and beautiful, in Brazilian character and customs; to unite all Brazilians in a single spirit: the Amazonian tapuio, the northeastern, the sertanejo of the northern and central provinces, the caiçaras and piraquaras, cowboys, calus, capixabas, calungas, paroaras, prospectors, the cattlemen and drovers of Minas, Goiás, Mato Grosso; settlers, besiegers, aggregates, small craftsmen of São Paulo; herb plants from Paraná and Santa Catarina; the gauchos of the pampas; the working class of all regions; the youth of schools; merchants, industrialists, farmers; the teachers, the artists, the officials, the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, the workers of all the railways; the soldiers, the sailors – all those who still have in their hearts the love of their elders and the enthusiasm for Brazil. 

We have to invoke our glorious traditions, we have to assert ourselves as a united and strong people, which nothing else can divide. Nationalism for us is not just the cult of the Flag and the National Anthem; it is the deep awareness of our needs, character, tendencies, aspirations of the Fatherland and the value of a people. This is a great campaign that we are going to undertake. the sailors – all those who still have in their hearts the love of their elders and the enthusiasm for Brazil. We have to invoke our glorious traditions, we have to assert ourselves as a united and strong people, which nothing can divide.

V Us, the Parties and the Government

We, united Brazilians, from all the Provinces, propose to create a culture, a civilization, a way of life that is genuinely Brazilian. We want to create our public law, in accordance with our realities and aspirations, a government that guarantees the unity of all provinces, the harmony of all classes, the initiatives of all individuals, State supervision, national construction. Therefore, our ideal does not allow us to enter into combinations with regional parties, as we do not recognize these parties; We recognize the Nation.

As long as we don't see Brazil organized, without the evil of selfish partisanship, the Brazilian State expressing classes, directing the Nation towards the desire of its elites, we will not rest in the propaganda that we impose.

Our homeland cannot continue to be cut up by state governors, by parties, by the fighting classes, by the caudillos. Our homeland needs to be united and strong, solidly built, in order to escape the foreign domination, which threatens it day by day, and to save itself from the internationalist communism that is entering its body like a cancer. Therefore, we do not collaborate with any party organization, which aims to divide Brazilians. We repeated the phrase of the legendary Osório, when he wrote from the countryside of Paraguay, saying that he did not recognize parties, because they divided the Nation and it must be cohesive in the moment of danger. We swear, today, unity, loyalty to one another, loyalty to the destiny of this generation. Either those in power carry out our political thinking, or we, the Brazilian Integralist Action, we will declare ourselves outlaws, spontaneously, from the false political life of the Nation, until the day when we are such a large number, that we will restore our citizenship rights, and by the force of that number we will conquer the Power of the Republic. Therefore, we will march through the Future and there will be nothing to stop us, because the conscience of the Nation and the honor of Brazil march with us.

VI What we think of the conspiracies and politicking of groups and factions

We declare ourselves enemies of all conspiracies, of all plots, conspiracies, backroom conspiracies, secret conspiracies, seditions. Our campaign is cultural, moral, educational, social, in the open, in a shallow field, with an open chest, with our heads held high. Whoever fights for principles need not combine anything in darkness. Those who march in the name of clear, defined ideas do not need masks. Our homeland is miserably lacerated by conspiracies. Politicians and governments deal with immediate interests, that's why they conspire. We preach loyalty, frankness, freedom of expression, struggle in the field of ideas. 

The confabulations of politicians are shredding the character of the Brazilian people. Civilians and military revolve around people, for lack of clarity of programs. All their programs are the same and these men are separated by reasons of personal and group interests. That's why they plot against each other. And meanwhile, communism plots against everyone. We preach frankness and mental courage. We are for United Brazil, for the Family, for Property, for the organization and legitimate representation of the classes; by religious morality; for the direct participation of intellectuals in the government of the Republic; for the abolition of States within the State; for a beneficial policy of Brazil in South America; for a nationalist campaign against the influence of imperialist countries, and, relentlessly, against Russian communism. We are the Revolution on the move. But the revolution with ideas. Therefore, frank, loyal and courageous.

VII The social question as considered by the Brazilian Integralist Action

The social question must be resolved by the cooperation of all, according to justice and the desire that each one has to progress and improve. The right to property is fundamental for us, considered in its natural and personal character. Capitalism today attacks this right, based as it is on unbridled individualism, which marks the physiognomy of the liberal-democratic economic system. We must adopt new regulatory processes for production and trade, so that the government can avoid imbalances that are harmful to social stability. Communism is not a solution, because it is based on the same fundamental principles of capitalism, with the aggravating factor of reducing all the bosses to one and enslaving the working class to a minority of cruel officials, all recruited from the bourgeoisie. Communism destroys the family in order to better enslave the worker to the State; it destroys the human personality to better enslave man to the collectivity; destroys religion to better enslave the human being to instincts; it destroys the initiative of each one, kills the stimulus, sacrifices an entire humanity, for a falsely scientific dream, which promises to be realized as soon as possible, that is, in 200 years, at least. What we want to give the worker, the peasant, the soldier, the sailor, is the possibility of ascending according to their vocation and their just desires. We intend to give everyone the means so that they can climb, through their qualities, work and constancy, to an increasingly better position, both in their class and outside of it and even in the government of the Nation. We do not teach the worker the doctrine of cowardice, disillusionment, hatred, of renunciation, like communism, or anarchy; the doctrine of submission, of inevitable ostracism, of conforming to the impositions of politicians, such as liberal democracy. We teach the doctrine of courage, of hope, of love for the Country, for Society, for Life, in what is most beautiful and attainable, of the just ambition to progress, to possess goods, to elevate oneself, to elevate the family. We don't destroy the person, like communism; nor do we oppress it, like liberal-democracy; we dignify it. We want the worker, with a guarantee of wages adequate to his needs, interested in profits according to his effort and capacity; with high foreheads, taking part in studies of subjects that concern them; with an enlightened look, like a free man; taking part in government decisions, as a superior entity. End of factionalism, regionalisms; organized the Nation, with workers participating in the government, by their legitimate representatives; inspection by the Integralist State is exercised over all production activities, the doors will be open to all abilities. The organized classes will guarantee their members, in collective contracts, will take care of the work or production needs of each one, so that we no longer submit, as until now, those who are unemployed, to the humiliation of job requests, so often received with contempt by those they seek, which causes just revolts. Free the worker and the petty bourgeoisie from the criminal indifference of liberal governments. Save them from the slavery of communism. To transfigure the worker, hero of the new Fatherland, into a superior man; enlightened by the noble ideals of moral elevation, intellectual and material, these are our purposes. The State is responsible for protecting everyone.

VIII The Family and the Nation

The importance we give to the Producing and Working Classes is as great as the importance we give to the Family. She is the basis of happiness on earth. Of the only possible ventures. What does human happiness consist of? In these little things, so soft, so simple: the cherish of the mother, the word of the father, the tenderness of a wife, the affection of a son, the hug of a brother, the dedication of relatives and friends. Solidarity in misfortune, in illness, in death, which no State, in its bureaucratic or legal expression, will ever avoid, at any time. Communion in joys, triumphs, struggles, comfort in every moment, encouragement of every day, hope of perpetuity in blood and in affectionate remembrance, this is what the family is, a perpetual source of spirituality and renewal, at the same time projection of human personality. 

Take the family away from the man and the animal remains; make it the working piece in the State and we will have the automaton, unhappy, demoted from its superior condition. What affection, what comfort, what consolation can the State give to this “economic entity”, at the time of great afflictions, or at the time of death? Who will cheer you up, in the hour of sorrows, which will be as inevitable in the regime of the communist bureaucracy as in any other regime? In the supreme moment, science, public life, social life, collective life, individualistic selfishness are not enough; it is necessary for the heart to enter the life of man and speak that language that is not that of a stranger's compassion, nor that of formalist philanthropy, nor that of official support, nor that of an absurd socialization of affections: – but the profound language of long-stimulated and nourished affinities. 

Man cannot transform himself into a bee or a termite. The Man and his family preceded the State. The State must be strong to keep the man and his family intact. For it is the family that creates the virtues that consolidate the State. The State itself is a large family, a group of families. It is with this character that he has the authority to set the course for the Nation. Based on family law, the State has a duty to carry out social justice, representing the producing classes. At this serious time for the Brazilian family, we intend to enroll their defense in our program. It is to defend the family of the worker, the merchant, the industrialist, the farmer, the peasant, the trader, the doctor, the pharmacist, the lawyer, the engineer, the magistrate, the scientist, the artist, the teacher, the official, of the soldier and the sailor,

IX The Municipality, Center for Families, Cell of the Nation

The municipality is a gathering of families. Man and woman, as professionals, as agents of production and progress, must enroll in their respective classes, so that they are supported by them in times of illness and unemployment. In this way, those who work and produce are guaranteed by their own class, they do not depend on favors from political bosses, caudillos, local directories, electoral cables. It is the only way to become free and conscious voting. The classes elect their representatives to the Municipal Chambers, as we have said, and these elect their president and mayor.

Municipalities must be autonomous in everything that concerns their peculiar interests, because the municipality is a gathering of residents who aspire to local well-being and progress. Administrative morality can be supervised by the classes themselves, since what determined the demoralization of the Municipal Councils, in the liberal system, was the politicking, the support that local political bosses, the leaders of state politics had. Once the parties are extinguished, municipal government will rest on the will of the classes. Within these, no outside influence can be exerted, because everyone feels supported by the very class to which they belong. There will be no way to make political persecutions, because the local government will be free from injunctions from men who, living outside the municipality, meddle in their business, as has been common.

X The Integralist State

We intend to realize the Integralist State, free from any and all principles of division: political parties; stateisms in struggle for hegemony; class struggles; local factions; caudillisms; disorganized economy; military and civilian antagonisms; antagonisms between state militias and the army; between the government and the people; between the government and the intellectuals; between them and the popular mass. We intend to make the classic powers work (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary), according to the requirements of the Organized Nation, based on their Producing Classes, the Municipality and the Family. We intend to create the supreme authority of the Nation.

 We intend to mobilize all the technical capacities, all the scientists, all the artists, all the professionals, each one acting in their sphere, to realize the greatness of the Brazilian Nation. We intend to take as the basis of the Great Nation, the man of our land, in his historical, geographical, economic reality, in his nature, in his character, in his aspirations, studying him deeply, according to science and morals. From this biological and psychological element, we will deduce social relations, with secure norms of law, pedagogy, economic policy, legal foundations. As the dome of this building, we will realize the supreme idea, the synthesis of our civilization: in philosophy, in literature, in the arts that will express the meaning of our national and human spirit. We intend to create, with all the racial elements, according to the mesological and economic imperatives, the Brazilian Nation, saving it from the errors of capitalist civilization and the errors of communist barbarism. Create in a single expression the Economic State, the Financial State, the Representative State and the Cultural State. We intend to raise the Brazilian populations, in an unprecedented union, in a force never attained, in a hope never imagined. 

We intend to lay the foundations of an educational system to guarantee the Nation's livelihood in the future. We intend to infuse young people with energy, to pull them out of disbelief, apathy, skepticism, and sadness in which they live; teach them the lesson of courage, instilling in them the certainty of the value that each one has within himself, as a child of Brazil and America. To move the popular masses in a great affirmation of rejuvenation. Shake off the fibers of the Homeland. To lift her from her depression, her discouragement, her bitterness, so that she can walk, starting the New Civilization, which, by our strength, by our audacity, by our faith, we will make leave Brazil, set our continent on fire, and even affect the world.

 For this, we will fight the mockers, the “blasés”, the disillusioned, the disbelievers, because at this time we swear not to rest for a moment, until we die or win, because with us a homeland will die or win.

These are the directions of our march!