Very rare work written and distributed clandestinely during the Military Dictatorship in Brazil, to denounce the atrocities of the regime.
- Clandestine book written by the "Marxist-Leninist popular action of Brazil".
- 200 pages.
- In Portuguese.
- 13.8 cm x 17.4 cm.
- Brazil, July 1972.
- Good condition conservation, except for the loose cover and the torn back cover, both quite damaged.
Reissued in 2014 for the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 coup, the Black Book of the Military Dictatorship is a pioneering historical document denouncing the repression and torture carried out by the dictatorship against its opponents, from the coup to July 1972, when the work was first published by the clandestine printing press of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Action (APML) (...). It is the result of the collective effort of activists who risked their lives by publicizing the atrocities of the regime.
The following were directly involved: Carlos Azevedo, Bernardo Joffily and Jô Moraes (main editors), José Ricardo Junqueira, Divo and Raquel Guisoni (printers), Márcio Bueno Ferreira (typing), Renato Rabelo and Duarte Pereira (supervision). The latter coordinated the APML project, which also involved the participation of other activists, such as Aldo Arantes, Narciso Kalili and Elifas Andreato, who created the cover with the image of a skull wearing an army cap.
The book provides information about the struggle against the dictatorship promoted by students, intellectuals, religious figures, workers and peasants, addressing episodes such as “Bloody Friday”, workers’ strikes and demonstrations in the countryside, highlighting the repression of opponents of the regime and denouncing several cases of torture and murder by state agents, many of them named, with evidence to incriminate them. The work presented a first list, admittedly still incomplete, of the “main murderers and torturers of political prisoners” (p.179-184). Excerpts from compelling testimonies of those punished by the regime were reproduced, as well as other documents of rare disclosure, such as a poem by a singer from the Pindaré Valley, in Maranhão, dedicated to the struggles of peasant leader Manoel da Conceição.
It is true that the themes addressed with pioneering spirit and audacity by the book, in the heat of the moment, were later revealed in greater detail by research that had much better conditions for carrying out the work, but this does not detract from the interest in the pioneering synthesis, which highlighted, for example, the existence of clandestine torture and repression centers within the precarious legality of the regime itself, often located in small farms, something that today comes to light in ever greater detail in the work of the Truth Commission, which is discovering new cases of properties secretly dedicated to the repression and extermination of opponents.
The cramped letters that came out of a typewriter, some typos and typing irregularities, the cover format and other details give the reader the feeling of going back in time and sharing with the authors the difficulties and care of their craftsmanship, as well as the atmosphere of indignation against the dictatorship and its repressive apparatus. The decision to include an insert that explains how the book was produced in 1972, during the heaviest period of repression, was also a good one, with brief testimonies from the main people involved in this original version.
The descriptive text above is by Marcelo Ridenti, associate professor of Sociology at Unicamp, professor of Sociology at IFCH/Unicamp, Campinas/SP, Brazil.
This historic book was printed in just 500 copies, which were distributed in Brazil and abroad, very few copies have reached us, more than 50 years after the military coup.
