Getulio Vargas

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• Getulio Vargas
• 1930 - 1954

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Background to Vargas Rise to Power

• 1920s Growing conflict between urban
  bourgeoisie (industrialists quickly gaining
  prominence) AND conservative coffee oligarchy
• High, state sponsored coffee prices greater
  demand for labor and increased costs in urban
  industry
• Tremendous Foreign Debt By 1930 almost 1.2
  billion dollars!!!
• By 1930, US investment in Brazil 400 million
  dollars. US is chief trading partner.
• Economic Crisis! Great Depression 1929-1931
  coffee prices drop from 23 to 8 cents a pound

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ELECTION OF 1930

• ECONOMIC CRISIS SERVES AS BACKDROP
• Tremendous burden on working class (always
  suffering the most!) wage cuts, unemployment,
  etc.
• Growing rift between power brokers urban vs.
  rural forms two political coalitions

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CONSERVATIVE COALITION

• Made up of Rural Coffee Oligarchy (led by Sao
  Paulo ranchers, commercial bourgeoisie
  (import/exporters)
• THE OLD GUARD!
• Nominated Júlio Prestes for President
• STATUS QUO

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THE LIBERAL ALLIANCE

• Made up of Urban Bourgeoisie/Industrialists,
  rural landowners (those who resented Sao Paulos
  dominance), and other splinter groups
• Demanded change!
• Depression was proof of bankruptcy of the old
  order.
• Nominated GETULIO VARGAS as their candidate

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CAST A VOTE FOR THE LIBERAL ALLIANCE!
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1930 Election Campaign Handshakes and Kissing
Babies

• Prestes clearly ran as an advocate of latifundio,
  neocolonial, old-school interests
• Vargas offered CHANGE (not too radical doesnt
  want to scare away landowners)
• Promoted industrial development, self
  sufficiency, social welfare programs (supported
  by working class and women) and political,
  judicial and educational reform

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• We should move to action with a view to the
  progressive extinction of the latifundio, without
  violence, and supportthe transfer of small
  parcels of land to agricultural laborers.
• - G. Vargas 1930 campaign

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FIREWORKS!

• March 1930 Prestes, who had the clout, narrowly
  defeated Vargas in election rife with corruption.
• Vargas cohorts convince him to lead a COUP to
  overthrown the Conservative government
• RESULT The old-school coffee oligarchy that had
  dominated Brazilian politics since 1894 was DEAD

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THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION

• VARGAS is the heart and soul of this movement
  from 1930-1954
• Made up of a very heterogeneous group
• Industrial Urban Bosses
• Anti Paulista conservative landowners
• Leftists calling for nationalization
• Women/Minority groups (Brazilian Balck Front)
• WORKING CLASS
• Foreign Capital interests
• WHOA! THATS A LOT OF
• GROUPS!

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INTRODUCING SUPER VARGAS THE JUGGLER!!!
Vargas strategy of attempting to balance and
reconcile these conflicting interests helps to
explain the contradictions and abrupt shifts of
course that marked his career - Keen Pg. 363
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Vargas Economic Measures

• Attempted to reform coffee industry but prices
  remained low throughout the 1930s
• Diversified agriculture (KING COTTON)
• INDUSTRIALIZATION
• - spurned on by the Great Depression
• - Ind. Production doubled between 1931-36
• - A self-sufficiency glimmer of hope!

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VARGAS POLITICAL TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

• Very uncertain - Left or Right?
• Advocated a strong central government
• His provisional status as President would
  continue indefinitely
• Attempts to appease Sao Paulo rivalry on both the
  upper and working class levels
• HoweverJuly 1932 counter-revolutionary coup
  carried out by Paulistas. FAILED
• Vargas does not punish them! Works instead to
  strengthen his relationship with them

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Constitutional Reform 1932-1934

• 1932 New Electoral Code
• - Voting Age from 21 to 18
• - Established womens suffrage
• - Still denied votes to illiterates!
• 1934 Constituent Assembly elected, drafts a new
  constitution, and elects Vargas as president
  until 1938

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1934 Constitution

• Central planning essential in industrial
  development of country
• Government tutelage over the working class, a
  class to be courted through concessions but
  denied independence of action.
• - Shorter working hours
• - Minimum wage
• - Social Security Plan
• In exchange for these gains, the working
  class lost its freedom of action - Keen pg
  365-366

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BUTNO AGRAIAN REFORM!

• 85 of workforce worked in agriculture
• Labor reforms didnt apply to them!
• The LATIFUNFUNDIO was left intact
• Promises for agrarian reform made by Vargas in
  1930 campaign were forgotten!!!!
• (SEE SLIDE 8!!)

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1934 Begins rightward shift

• Begins to lose liberal support
• Brazilian Communist Party emerges as vocal critic
• Vargas and increasingly conservative legislative
  assembly begins crackdown on left.
• 1935 National Security Act govt. has special
  powers to suppress subversive activities
• BCP crushed in November

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VARGAS AS DICTATOR 1937-1945

• November 1938 After moving to the right more and
  more over a few year period, Vargas takes drastic
  action
• Cancels 1938 elections
• Dissolves Congress
• Bans Political Parties
• Assumes full dictatorial powers!

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BRAZIL UNDER THE GUNFASCISM???
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ESTADO NOVO(NEW STATE)

• Repression reigns in Brazil
• - Press censorship
• - Subversives jailed by the
• thousands!
• - Special Police established
• Rolled back progress on womens rights and other
  minority groups
• Interestingly enough very little organized
  resistance to the regime!

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THE LITTLE GUY WITH BIG PLANS!
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VARGAS FOREIGN POLICY LATE 1930s

• Courted both Fascists in Europe (Italy and
  Germany) and the United States!
• Germany became chief market for Brazil Cotton
• German Bank 300 Branches in Brazil
• In establishing relations with the fascists, it
  gave him bargaining power with the US
• THE JUGGLING STATESMAN!

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ESTADO NOVO ECONOMIC MEASURES

• State Intervention in economy more than ever
  before!
• 1940 Five Year Plan to expand heavy industry,
  develop hydroelectric power and railway network
• 1920 Over 13,000 plants and 300,000 workers
• 1941 44,100 plants and almost one MILLION
  workers
• Big boom in foreign investment as well- 44
  percent of total investment in stock companies by
  1940

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World War II OPPORTUNITIES!

• ECONOMIC
• - Accelerated industrialization further
• - Exportation of tremendous amount of raw
  materials
• POLITICAL
• -Played up on Axis/Allied rivalry Secured
  concessions from the U.S. to build HUGE iron and
  steel plant after Vargas warned he might turn to
  the Germans!
• By August of 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany
• Hmmmmm..

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AN AUTHORITARIAN DECLARING WAR ON FASCISM?
PARADOX ANYONE???
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DOWN WITH THE ESTADO NOVO!!

• Political Trouble! Many interests groups demand
  an end to Vargas dictatorship as WWII draws to a
  close
• Urban worker discontent grows as well
• February 1945 RIOTS!
• What is a dictator to do???
• AH HA.

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BRING BACK DEMOCRACY!!!!! (huh???)
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Presidential Elections called for on December 2,
1945!!!!

• Vargas reestablishes political parties and
  declares an open campaign season
• Oh, but announces he will not run!
• Sets the stage for a grass roots movement to
  convince him to do so.
• All the while, the guy makes a radical SWING back
  to the left, proclaiming himself to be a father
  to the poor (!!!!)
• This worries conservatives both at home and
  abroad.
• October 29, 1945 Vargas overthrown in a coup by
  military officers!

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Dutra Period 1946-1951

• The very bland Eurico Dutra is elected President.
• Adopted Laissez Faire Economic Policy
• Fully opened Brazil to foreign investment
• Pro US, strong anti communist
• (What time is it? Cold War Time!)

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1950 ELECTIONTHE COMEBACK KID!!
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VARGAS IS ELECTED

• Propelled into office on wave of discontent from
  Dutras failed leadership
• Workers, industrialists, urban middle class
  support him
• Inherited a doozy of an economic situation
  trade imbalance and massive inflation
• His old school plans of state run
  industrialization had become very unpopular to
  foreign investors.
• WHY??

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VARGAS LAST ECONOMIC GASP

• PETROBÁS Proposed December 1951, Not passed by
  Congress until October 1953!
• -Oil company owned by public/private interests
• - Government ownership of drilling and new
  refineries while private ownership of
  distribution
• ELECTROBÁS Same concept, but never got out of
  Congress!

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THE TAILSPIN

• Labor and Leftists make a big comeback under a
  sympathetic Vargas regime.
• December 1951 demand an increase in minimum wage
  from Vargas they get it!
• 1953 Hundreds of Thousands strike throughout the
  year to demand more worker rights
• 1954 Vargas Minister of Labor proposes doubling
  of minimum wage!
• Vargas falls under immense pressure from the
  right (military) to fire the minister and revoke
  the proposal.
• He complies and fires the guy, but afterwards
  denounces his opponents- Military, foreign
  investors and other conservative elements

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THE END

• August 24, 1954 The military orders Vargas to
  resign or face forced removal from office.
• Vargas decision

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HE COMMITS SUICIDE!
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I gave you my lifenow I offer you my death.
Nothing remains. I have no fear. Serenely I take
the first step on my road to eternity and I leave
life to enter history.-An excerpt from Vargas
Suicide Note
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HIS LEGACY

• Vargas, oh he was the father of the poor, as
  they used to say on the radio, but of course he
  was truly the mother of the rich!
• - Odette Pasquini
• Brazilian Textile Worker
• (Keen pg. 370)