The Socialist Party of Brazil Individuals, Projects, and Political and Electoral Action (1925-1926)

Abstract

This article is part of a wider research project on the trajectories of socialist intellectuals who operated in different regions of Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century. It is based on information found in major newspapers and working-class press, the countless articles those intellectuals published in magazines and newspapers in many Brazilian cities in the 1920s, their memoirs, their contributions to official publications, as well as books they wrote about themes such as politics, law, and culture. The aim of this paper is to reconstitute the process of establishment of the Partido Socialista do Brasil (PSB) [Socialist Party of Brazil]. Founded on May 1, 1925, it was one of the initiatives in which the individuals I have biographed were involved. I analyze the party’s social composition, its program, its integration with the labor movement, and how PSB intervened in the 1926 municipal elections in the Federal District. I demonstrate that PSB had strong influence on the workers at that time despite not having achieved significant electoral gains.