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CEPS - FORGS Page 1 05/07/2009

Letter from Marques da Costa to IWA

1924, Rio de Janeiro, May 8th.

Dear Comrade D. Abad de Santilln:

The fact that our comrade DomingosPassos (Assistant Secretary of theWorkers Federation of Rio de Janeiro)shows me today your last letter, whichreferred to the Second Congress of theIWA and incites us to take part in thisimportant international event, has mademe decide to write you these lines, thatI want to mark the beginning of anexchange of correspondence asconstant as spontaneous and thereforehelpful to our relations and work ofrevolutionary advertising.I know you long, through chronicles andbrilliant articles that you sent to LaProtesta, that I read constantly for morethan three years, and when I knew thatyou had been was elected member ofthe Secretariat of the AIT, I got joyfuland waited immediately to be able toenter into direct relations with theSecretariat, to expedite the completionof the work we had started against thefew Bolshevik elements that since 1922began to undermine the old Federationof Workers of Rio de Janeiro. Myduties, however, they had never givento me - and this has been since eight

long years! - Stop and maintainrelationships with all of those whosecontact I would not ever get away from!I have done, however, what I couldachieve.Today, FORJ is the most categoricalstatement of the revolutionary spirit -and characteristically libertariantendencies of the workers of Brazil! Thedivisive campaign of false communists

hadnt had any worth. The decisiveattitude of the Union of Workers in CivilConstruction, courageously secondedby the Alliance of Workers in Calados,General Union of Workers in HotelsRestaurants and Similar, UGMetalworkers' unions and othersyndicates were the shot to death in thecentralized and dictatorial claims of themoscowized.Maintaining the revolutionary integrity ofthe syndicalism, since the first to thethird Workers Congress (1906-1913-1920) was interpreted and practiced inBrazil, according to the conception theanarchists have about it, the FORJ wasobviously intended to be the exponentthat today is the revolutionaryorganization of workers of here.Now its being draw, in the syndicalisthorizon that had been darkened ofheavy lead clouds, as a new dawn. Andif we can achieve, as desired, the twothings that we will vote with body andsoul, well soon be able to completevictory of our ideals, that we hope tosee prevail on all the campaigns ofdefeatism and demoralization of thestipend by Moscow. These initiatives, inwhich success depends of theimmediate revival of our languid CGTare:

1) a conference Intersyndical - orperhaps regional - with representationof the revolutionary syndicates of theRio de Janeiro (Distrito Federal) andthe State of Rio, the State of SoPaulo, the State of Minas Gerais andthe State of Esprito Santo;2) the representation of revolutionarysyndicates of Brazil (and we count asyou count with the ones of the State of

FORGSFederao Operria do Rio Grande do Sul

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Rio Grande do Sul and others, such asPar, Amazonas, etc..) In the secondCongress of the InternationalAssociation of Workers, and as acomplement of these initiatives: theachievement of our fourth nationalcongress.

Everything depends on the will andenergy of the anarchist elements that,despite the indifference of the massesand crapulism of the traitors, that hadntleft their place to the "flies" of capitalismand opportunism. And I have the saferhopes we will succeed. We'll see ...I would finish this letter (?) Whenoccurred the idea of sending you somecopies of "A Ptria", where I work aseditor-worker. And I will send you thesecopies.You will see in them, the "SeoTrabalhista," what goes through thisbrasiliensis land ...The workers organization hasnt,unfortunately, been able to maintain itsnewspaper A Voz do Povo, which Idont know if you ever come to read, itwas a journal that provided greatservice to the advertising andrevolutionary organization, but i t died,fell disastrously in the hands of thosetypes that later had to flee miserably tothe ranks of Russian communism,

leading to divisionism within theaforementioned Federation of Workers.When he abandoned this organization,under the conditions that I mentioned inthe above lines, the Union of Workersin Civil Construction - to which I belong- founded a weekly newspaper OTrabalho - which was forbidden to bepublished after seized by police in stateof siege (which lasted 18 long monthsof terrible persecution!) - the closing ofgold of the government of EpitcioPessoa, against whom was the military

uprising of July 22nd. [sic].Founded the FORJ, when everythingseemed to show that the country wasgoing into a period of peace, politicsand a less reactionary government, itwas the Civil Construction whichsuggested the idea to publish OTrabalho under the auspices of theFederation and as an organ of theWorkers Federation Rio de Janeiro. We

didnt have, however, what we needed:workshops. We appealed, therefore, tothe bourgeois press.Everything was ready to publish ournewspaper in the winds of advertising,when a new obstacle appeared. One ofthe most monstrous projects of law

against the freedom of thought hadbeen torn out of the archives of theSenate: the law of the press. It wasdiscussed and voted on quickly, we justwere able to publish the fifth issue - firstof the new phase - which was the lastglimmer of a hope that illuminated thegreat effort that dissipated.I will send you also a collection of OTrabalho.Now, fortunately, our stubbornness, ourintransigence, our tenacity, not to sayour invincible will and activity, seem tohave created a new environment, newhope ...It has been in the "Seo Trabalhista"of A Ptria that our work has beenperformed. In it I have published, sincesixteen months that I am here (withoutleaving my profession, which iscarpenter), I have made all ourpublications, making all our campaigns.A Ptria that I have - that we have theanarchists of Rio de Janeiro - made allthe advertising of the IWA. So I ask you

to send, addressed to my name of thePress Service of IWA circulars,bulletins, etc... Etc.., I ask you withremittances a copy.And it is just for now.Believe me comrade and right friend.

Marques da Costa

My address:Marques da Costa31 - Rua Chile - 31(Editorial staff of A Ptria)Rio de Janeiro - Brazil


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Handwritten letter from Marques daCosta to Abad de Santillan. Brazil,1924. Rio de Janeiro, May 8th, 9 p.Archive Abad de Santillan,Korrespondenz, 1924. (IISG).

Adolfo Marques da Costa

".... he was one of the leaders of theUnion of Workers in Civil Construction,in Rio de Janeiro. He collaborated inthe newspaper A Plebe; he was editorof O Trabalho and other newspapers.He was born in Portugal, was arrestedwith other militants on July, 7th 1924and deported to Lisbon.

inPinheiro, Paulo Srgio.Michael M. HallA Classe Operria no Brasil1889 - 1930 documentsVolume 1 O Movimento OperrioSo Paulo: Editora Alfa - Omega, 1981.

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