NATIONAL FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY

FACULDADE NACIONAL DE FILOSOFIA

Address: Rua Antônio Carlos, 40, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Themes: Universities and the Student Movement
Translated from the Portuguese by Lara Norgaard

Located in the center of Rio de Janeiro, the National Faculty of Philosophy (FNFi) building was the site of political actions for various political groups and organizations at the heart of the Student Movement, which fought against the military dictatorship in the first years following the 1964 coup d’état. The various political parties and organizations – the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), People’s Action (AP), the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), Workers’ Political Organization (POLOP), and the National Student Union (UNE) – used the space to print pamphlets and hold meetings and rallies. They discussed the main political issues of the period, such as imperialism and the need for land and university reform. The space also held student strikes, which participants organized as a form of political pressure to make their demands heard.

The founding of FNFi dates back to the Estado Novo period (1937-1945) and is linked to the growth of the University of Brazil, which was part of a project aiming to build a university model to be consolidated across the country. Instituted by a decree in 1939 (law no. 1.190), FINFi housed the courses from the University of the Federal District (UDF), established in 1935 by the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Ernesto, who held office between 1935-1936, and by the then-director of the Department of Education, Anísio Teixeira. Getúlio Vargas shut down UDF in 1939 on the grounds that it was not within the mayor’s jurisdiction to create a university. With the main goal of preparing pre-service secondary and normal teachers, FINFi was designed to cover four basic areas: philosophy, science, letters, and pedagogy.

FNFi was first located in the José de Alencar Municipal School in Largo do Machado, part of the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. It was moved to the Casa d’Italia in 1942 and then, in 1944, all FNFi courses moved to their final address: Rua Antônio Carlos 40 in the Centro neighborhood of the city. In 1945, with the end of the Estado Novo and the redemocratization process underway, FNFi underwent some institutional changes and its structure became more defined, both in terms of its approach to instruction and research and in terms of its administrative system.

The international political climate at the end of the 1950s was marked by the radicalization of social movements and also mass mobilization against the expansion of communism (particularly after the successful Cuban Revolution). This context served to sharply polarize the left and right, a division that deepened further in the early 1960s. Within Brazil, ideological differences can be summed up as differing views on the landmark political decisions in the Goulart administration (1961-64), such as the Land Reform program and independent foreign policy. Specific events also divided the country, such as the Sergeants’ Revolt and the rally at the Central do Brasil train station. All of the debates surrounding these questions greatly affected FNFi, especially in terms of the role of the university in society and the use of teaching and research as tools for social change and development in Brazil.

Students from the Faculty joined campaigns for broad based reforms and especially championed the cause for university reform, which caused a “huge step forward in the student movement.” Essentially, the student movement saw university reform as part of broad based reforms – that is, as part of a larger political project. At the same time, Eremildo Viana, a professor of ancient history and director of FNFi since 1958, positioned himself against these groups more and more as the student movement grew increasingly radical. Supported by most of his colleagues, Eremildo Viana was reelected in 1960 and would continue as the director of the Faculty until 1963 when new elections took place. In 1960, many students did want Viana to continue as director, and it appeared that he worked to remain in the directorship position. That behavior came to a head in 1963 when a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) was established in the House of Representatives to investigate accusations that communists had invaded the National Student Union (UNE) and misused public funds to stir up political unrest. The CPI examined the UNE and called witnesses to testify about the communism invasion and to incriminate students for causing political unrest.

Considered one of the main centers of student mobilization, FNFi was subject to the CPI’s investigations and, its director, Eremildo Viana, was asked to take the stand. His statements reveal his close relationship to conservative forces that opposed Goulart’s administration and its broad-based reforms. The newspaper Correio da Manhã reported on the testimony on September 29, 1963:

Prof. Eremildo Viana’s testimony to the CPI in the House, and the notable detail with which he recounted facts determined the steps that would be taken in further testimonies […] The director of the National Faculty of Philosophy cited events and individuals that compromise students and student organizations. Among the objectionable cases, he pointed to meetings of students of both genders in suspicious apartments, citing addresses (Correio da Manhã, 29 set. 1963).

The political environment in early 1964 was one of increasingly radical confrontations between opposing groups, which only grew worse after the rally at the Central do Brasil train station on March 13 of that year, when president João Goulart explicitly stated his commitment to carrying out broad-based reforms. Students and professors from FNFi actively participated in what would be the final rally of Goulart’s administration.

Right after the 1964 military coup, intense repression was unleashed against groups opposing the regime. FNFi was an important target for state repression. By April 2, Eremildo Viana, with help from military troops, raided the Radio of the Ministry of Education (Rádio MEC), which at that time was directed by Maria Yedda Linhares, professor of modern and contemporary history at FNFi. The occupation was based on an accusation that the radio was a site for student unrest and subversive activity.

The issue of Correio da Manhã published on April 3, 1964, states that the dean of the University of Brazil had called for a break in the academic calendar until the 6^th. In the months that followed, various Military Police Investigations (IPMs) were opened to determine the nature of communist infiltration at FNFi. The Department of Social and Political Order (DOPS/GB) archive contains files on FNFi students and professors. Produced by security agencies, these files build a record of leftist activity in the Faculty and contain documents that precede the military coup. Files dating back from the 1950s were gathered to show evidence that FNFi functioned as a communist cell and that its professors and students were extremely dangerous extremists.

On April 23, 1964, nineteen students were expelled from the Faculty after being accused of involvement in political activities considered to be “subversive.” Eremildo Viana named ten of those students. Individuals on the list included the journalist Elio Gaspar, who later created a character named “Eremildo, the idiot” in one of his narratives.

Due to suspicions that there was a communist cell functioning in FNFi, an Investigative Commission of the University of Brazil was established in May 1964 in Rio de Janeiro. The goal of the commission was to gather evidence about communist infiltration in FNFi. The historian Eulália Lobo, the first woman to defend her doctoral thesis in history in Brazil and professor of American history at the Faculty, described what took place:

[…] right after ’64, the university was very targeted, and Eremildo denounced a series of people. When they finally opened an investigation, the general in charge ended up against Eremildo, viewing him as a conniver, someone with a rash character, at the very least. He testified to the existence of communist cells, saying that there was –think about how ridiculous this is – an Anchieta Cell in FNFi. Eremildo turned in Manoel Maurício de Albuquerque, José Américo Pessanha, Maria Yedda Linhares, Evaristo de Morais Filho, Mariana Szão Paulo de Vasconcellos, and myself, amongst others, as communist conspirators (Relato de Eulália Lobo, retirado de Ferreira, Marieta de Moraes, 2014, p. 34).

Despite the suspicions of a communist cell, the commission did not find evidence that proved the existence of these so-called “FNFi communists.” As for Eremildo Viana, after reporting 44 professors, countless students, and also members of the Investigative Commission as “implicated in subversive activities,” the newspaper Correio de Manhã would publish the following story under the headline “Federal Court to accuse the ex-director of FNFi” on May 17, 1967:

A case in which the director of the Radio of the Ministry of Education and Culture and ex-director of the National Faculty of Philosophy, Mr. Eremildo Viana, is accused of embezzlement and the falsification of documents by the Investigatory Commission of the University of Brazil was sent to the Federal Court. Judge Buarque de Amorim determined that it was not within the jurisdiction of the Criminal Division to judge this case. Mr. Eremildo Viana was the only member of FNFi accused by the Commission, which was presided over by General Arcy da Rocha Nóbrega (Correio da Manhã, 17 maio 1967).

In addition to suffering repression, the University of Brazil was the target for changes developed by the Ministry of Education directly following the 1964 coup as part of a larger vision of broad university reforms. As part of this process of transformation in higher education, a federal law in 1965 determined that the University of Brazil would come to be known as the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and that its units would be reorganized into institutes and schools, a decision that resulted in the dissolution of FNFi.

Made defunct in 1968, FNFi was divided into UFRJ’s ten units: the School of Communication, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Letters, Biology Institute, Physics Institute, Geosciences Institute, Institute for Philosophy and Social Sciences, Mathematics Institute, Psychology Institute, and Chemistry Institute. What was left of the old FNFi was only the façade of the building where it had operated before being shut down, at Avenida Presidente Antônio Carlos, 40, which is now the building for the Italian General Consulate of Rio de Janeiro.

In January 1987, a group of researchers from the UFRJ Faculty of Education developed a research initiative that aimed to reconstruct the history of FNFi. The project aimed to study its origins, the paths it took, and the lived experiences inside it, from its creation through the beginning of its dissolution in 1967 to 1968, when it was fully shut down. One of the most serious problems that the initiative faced – which was later confirmed through the testimonies of former professors, students, and staffs – was that important FNFi documents had been destroyed or disappeared after the 1964 coup when soldiers came on frequent “visits” to the Faculty.