National Liberation Alliance

(Aliança Nacional-Libertadora, or ANL), an antifascist, anti-imperialist front in Brazil that reflected a political coalition of several democratic parties and organizations, including trade unions and revolutionary groups of soldiers and officers (tenentes).

Founded in early 1935, the alliance had 1.5 million supporters under the leadership of the Communists and revolutionary young military officers. The program of the ANL set as its main tasks the struggle against oppression by foreign imperialism, the basic transformation of agriculture, the nationalization of major industrial enterprises, the democratization of public life, the outlawing of fascist organizations, and the formation of a people’s revolutionary government. This program gained broad mass support.

Fearing revolutionary outbreaks, the government of G. Vargas outlawed the ANL by special decree on July 11, 1935. However, ANL cells went underground to plan an armed uprising. The uprising took place in November 1935 in several cities but was soon brutally suppressed. The activity of the ANL and the November armed uprising, despite its defeat, attested to the growing role of the proletariat in Brazil.