Bolsonaro threat to the Amazon

The owner of the Earth’s lungs has taken up smoking is how some have described the election of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazilian president in October. The Amazon rainforest, 60% of which lies in Brazil, emits 20% of the world’s oxygen. Rather than the Earth’s lungs recent research suggests it can be better described as the world’s beating heart, as millions of trees work together as a ‘biotic pump’ releasing water vapour into the air. This reaches the atmosphere circulating water and oxygen around the globe. At the same time, the Amazon sucks up billions of tons of carbon dioxide which would otherwise contribute to even worse climate change.

But far-right Bolsonaro is a prominent climate change denier. The threat he poses to the Amazon has been made clear by his plans to merge Brazil’s environment and agriculture ministries when his new government takes office in January. This is likely to mean even further conversion of Amazon rainforest into farmland.

His election, by a 10% margin, is a major setback for the Brazilian working class. Given the importance of the Amazon rainforest and the threat he poses to it, it is also a danger for the population of the whole world. Following the recent United Nations report, which bluntly says that we only have until 2030 to halt global warming, the threat cannot be overestimated. (See: The Latest, Starkest Global Warning, Socialism Today No.223, November 2018)

Bolsonaro is a far-right populist and former army captain who is openly anti-poor, racist, misogynist and homophobic. He is also a committed opponent of the left, speaking at one rally of the need "to eliminate the opposition and socialism and communism".

Despite Bolsonaro opening a new chapter for Brazil and its working class, the threat to the Amazon rainforest is not new. Deforestation has been taking place for decades with farming the biggest cause: 70% of formerly forested land, and 91% since 1970, is used for livestock pasture, particularly cattle ranching.

Recent governments, including the outgoing neoliberal president, the billionaire Michel Temer, must take their share of the blame. The Workers’ Party (PT), which was ousted in a parliamentary coup in 2016 but was in power for the previous 14 years – led by Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff – is also culpable.

The PT contributed to deforestation but, more importantly, its policies also led eventually to the rise of Bolsonaro. The PT has been beset by corruption scandals, has a record of class collaboration and, despite some major reforms in favour of the working class for which Lula is still popular, ended up implementing neoliberal policies. This was particularly so with the end of the commodities boom following the 2007/08 global financial crash. The victory of Bolsonaro is a by-product of the failure of the PT governments. Nonetheless, Bolsonaro is a bigger threat to the Amazon – at a time when immediate action is needed to prevent unprecedented climate change chaos.

The first victims of Bolsonaro’s environmental policies could be those who call the Amazon home. The areas where the forest meets farmland are some of the world’s most hotly contested frontiers. Illegal encroachments are being confronted by ‘Forest Guardians’, members of the 5,300-strong Guajajara tribe. They are fighting the rising tide of illegal logging that is decimating protected woodland in the eastern Amazonian state of Maranhão, which includes thousands of square miles of indigenous land.

Here, deforestation is very real. The wild game that has sustained the tribes for generations is disappearing. Lakes that give birth to the local rivers and streams are drying up because of the loss of trees. Fish and birds are dying off. And this is taking place while much of the logging is illegal – Bolsonaro wants to legalise it.

Another indigenous tribe in the area, the Awá, is one of the world’s last ‘uncontacted’ peoples. They roam the heart of the forest but are now living in a state of near-constant flight from the whine of winches and chainsaws, and the smoke of deliberate fires set by loggers to clear trees. Such is the threat to their existence that they have been called the ‘Earth’s most threatened tribe’.

The tribes – those in contact with the outside world and those who aren’t – rely for protection on FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio), the government agency for indigenous affairs. By extension, FUNAI is also a key force in the battle to protect the rainforest. Since 2016, however, it has suffered huge budget cuts pushed through by pro-big business politicians. One FUNAI official described the agency as "a patient in intensive care". Another revealed who is behind the logging: "All the local elites are involved, directly or indirectly". This is the same class of people who form the dominant social force behind Bolsonaro, the rich capitalists and their political establishment.

The methods of the loggers reflect the actions of Bolsonaro’s supporters – violence and intimidation. Those taking on the loggers have received death threats and, during the election campaign, a car drew up and a gunman shot at a PT rally. At Bolsonaro celebrations his supporters brandish pistols, firing them into the air.

It is significant, therefore, that anti-Bolsonaro committees have already been formed in many areas, and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in protest against the new president. Rejection of Bolsonaro is highest among the poorest. Liberdade, Socialismo e Revolução (LSR, the Committee for a Workers’ International in Brazil) is calling for self-defence committees to be set up as part of a movement to fight Bolsonaro’s repression and policies.

While the third round of the election will mainly be fought on the streets, it is vital that a socialist alternative is built too. LSR is part of the radical left Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) which made significant advances during the elections. Its number of federal deputies rose from six to eleven. Backed up by a movement on the streets and in the workplaces, it is vital that these representatives challenge Bolsonaro and his regime in the national congress.

Outside of Brazil, Bolsonaro wants to follow US president and fellow climate change denier Donald Trump in pulling Brazil out of the UN’s already inadequate Paris climate accord. His plans have been cheered on by big business in Brazil, specifically the logging bosses. Despite the clear and present danger of climate change to all, these capitalists are only concerned with furthering their own self-interest.

Based on the short-term drive for profit and the exploitation of the working class, the capitalist system as a whole is incapable of the long-term planning required to tackle global warming. Fundamental change is required if we want to have a planet fit to live on, good quality food to eat and water to drink, and to secure the survival of the wildlife and ecosystems vital to human life. This can only be achieved by socialist transformation on an international scale, through the mass action of those who most need this change: the working class and young people.

The planet’s resources must be taken out of the hands of the capitalists driving climate change, and put into collective ownership, as part of a democratic plan for green production and renewable energies. Only on the basis of a socialist world can we truly meet the needs of all, and avert catastrophe.