Democratic mobilization and the development of armed struggle in Brzil in 1968: notes for a history and some critical observations

Abstract

The important mass mobilizations that occurred in 1968, especially under the thrust of the student movement, were due to predominantly internal factors, as were also the first urban armed actions that took place in São Paulo in the same period (March-April 1968). While failing to display a causal link, the student demonstration and the guerrilla groups can be referred to the same historical cause, the 1964 coup and military rule. To that extent, they were distinct forms to democratic resistance. This is not a reason however, for us to overlook the international dimension of the 1968 events in Brazil, which is particularly evident in the prevailing theoretical views on revolutionary rural guerrilla strategy. Nevertheless, in practice armed struggle developed in urban centers and was eventually anihilated before it could overcome its "strategic impasse".