“Yesterday the workers’ movement in support of the general strike began. The police intervened, with the objective of keeping some factories running. Soon thereafter, alarming rumors were spread about how the anarchist workers were planning a revolution, and for this, were heavily armed,” according to a report by the journal O Imparcial on November 19, 1918.
The journal referred to the Anarchist Insurrection, planned by organized workers since the first decades of the 20th century. The objective of the insurrection was to take down the State and establish a society self-governed by decentralized organizations and workers’ unions in the mold of anarcho-syndicalism. General workers’ strikes had occurred in 1917 – the year of the Russian Revolution – and in August of 1918. In the months of September and October of that year conflict between workers and the police continued on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, until the morning of the 18th, when the workers declared strikes in factories in Niterói, Petrópolis, Magé, Santo Aleixo, and Rio de Janeiro.
In spite of the large level of organization, the attempt at bringing down the state failed. Lieutenant Jorge Elias Ajuz, who participated in the movement, was actually a spy and agent provocateur. Thus, the principal agents were imprisoned and deported to other Brazilian states. “This workers’ movement was known and expected. Unfortunately, however, it did not take on a character entirely pacifistic. There were serious consequences to regret, perhaps, due to the actions of the authorities, who precipitated in their actions, haphazardly imprisoning workers, using extreme violence, locking up in chains anyone they thought might be responsible for the situation, without considering their social condition. This is what happened yesterday to Professor Oiticica, who, before being transferred to the Police Brigade, was imprisoned in the dungeons of the palace on Rua da Relação,” concludes the journal.