SocialismToday           Socialist Party magazine
 

Issue 224 Dec-Jan 2018/19

Brazil: the resistance starts now

he victory of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election represents a huge political step backwards for the country and the people. We do not share the cynicism of capitalist analysts who speak about the legitimacy of the system and ‘consolidation’ of the democratic institutions. A candidate who explicitly defends dictatorship and torture, whipping up violence against opponents, should not be treated as a ‘normal’ candidate.

The violence the ex-army captain has encouraged has already cost lives. For example, Mestre Moa do Catendê, a teacher, was stabbed twelve times for criticising Bolsonaro, and Charlione Lessa Albuquerque, the 23-year-old son of a CUT trade unionist, was shot dead by a Bolsonaro supporter on a demonstration in support of the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, Fernando Haddad.

During the campaign, Bolsonaro publicly threatened his opponents with exile or prison. A video in which his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, an MP, threatened to shut down the Supreme Court, has been widely circulated. Jair Bolsonaro was elected on the basis of a sequence of abuses which followed the institutional coup which brought down Dilma Rousseff (former PT president). There is a great risk to democratic rights and this must be said loud and clear.

Following his victory, even during an operation supposed to calm the atmosphere, Bolsonaro continued to make threats. In an interview with the Rede Globo national newspaper he said that, when he spoke of banning all ‘red bandits’ from the country, he was ‘only’ referring to the leaders of PT and PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade) in which LSR (Liberdade Socialismo Revolução – CWI in Brazil) participates. He then directly attacked Guilherme Boulos, PSOL presidential candidate and leader of the homeless workers’ movement, MTST.

The elements of an undeclared state of emergency, already present since the 2016 parliamentary coup, will be deepened. The role of the judiciary in this process has been key, locking up Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the candidate who was favourite to win the election, paving the way for Bolsonaro.

Illegal big-business funding, estimated to be at least 12 million real (£2.5m), financed a mass campaign of pro-Bolsonaro fake news on private social networks. This was even denounced by the Organisation of American States as unprecedented. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal did nothing about it. A special report in the Folha de São Paolo newspaper revealed it, and the paper and the journalist who wrote it are being threatened by Bolsonaro.

It is no coincidence that, just before the second round of voting, at least 17 universities suffered police interventions after students, teachers and other workers protested against proto-fascist ideas and practices. Intimidation and the suppression of the right to protest were already happening before Bolsonaro took power.

Despite not being their first choice, big capital initially tolerated and then directly supported Bolsonaro. Their mission now is to try to contain some of his excesses while taking advantage of his iron fist to apply tough neoliberal attacks. They are prepared to tolerate many abuses in the name of deep cuts, privatisation and pension counter-reform.

They know that the majority of Bolsonaro voters did not vote for him expecting a worsening of their living conditions, or a loss of rights. Moreover, they realise that, sooner or later, discontent will come. With the exception of an openly reactionary section of society, a big part of the 39.2% (57.7 million) of the electorate who voted for Bolsonaro in the second round is sick and tired of the political system. They want to see radical change and saw no alternative on the left. The remaining 89.5 million – combining votes for Haddad, blank votes, spoiled ballots and abstentions – are not prepared to accept attacks on their fundamental rights.

Bolsonaro is already opening the way for violence by paramilitary groups and fascistic elements, to complement his authoritarian government. This could open up divisions and conflicts within the ruling class, which we should seek to take advantage of. However, only the organised power of the working class and all the exploited and oppressed can face up to the authoritarianism and attacks of Bolsonaro.

His victory worsens the social and political balance of forces from the point of view of the oppressed, but the situation is volatile. The balance of forces is also defined by the action and organisation of our class.

The actions of the student movement on the day after the elections – to counter attempts by the pro-Bolsonaro right wing in the universities – is an example of how we need to take our places in the streets, workplaces and neighbourhoods, and not leave any space for far-right groups to make progress. The defence of democratic freedoms will be a fundamental banner in all our struggles.

We must also warn of the danger that Bolsonaro and the previous president, Michel Temer, will make alliances in parliament to implement attacks like the pension change immediately. Passing this before Bolsonaro takes office on 1 January would free him from the enormous damage this unpopular measure would do to his government.

Once more, Temer is playing a rotten role. He has helped prepare the ground by passing the decree to create a new intelligence force, led by the current security minister, the reactionary General Sérgio Etchegoyen. It is a tool Bolsonaro will use against public opposition.

The trade unions and other social movements must mobilise against these counter-reforms, along the lines of the great general strike of April 2017, which stopped the pension attack then. In the days before the second round, a broad movement of activists was reborn, often spontaneously. It organised leafleting, door-knocking, meetings in town squares, and action on social media. Many committees of struggle, democracy brigades and anti-fascist fronts were created. A new layer of activists was born and many returned to activity, generating huge hope and solidarity.

This needs to be continued and strengthened. Solidarity action, political pressure, mass mobilisations and practical self-defence can only be effective through democratic, collective organisation. This is a task which the organised working class must clearly assume. Beyond the united front of the trade union federations, social movements and working-class parties, we must build even broader unity in action with democratic organisations and civil society. This applies in particular to the defence of democratic rights from attack.

Nonetheless, the basic motor for this struggle must be the coordinated action of the working class and oppressed. Only our class organisations can make the necessary connection between the defence of democratic rights and the fight against the neoliberal agenda and anti-working class measures. Authoritarianism and neoliberalism go hand-in-hand and must be fought together.

Part of this struggle needs to involve a debate about the reorganisation of the left. We cannot win against the far-right without a deep understanding of how we got here. This means taking account of the failure of the policies of class conciliation and adaptation to the system adopted by PT and the Lula-ist camp.

The experience of this current defeat will only be useful if, in the process of resistance and struggle, wide sections of the working class and youth, women and other oppressed sectors arrive at conclusions about the need to build a new political force of the socialist left. This alternative must come from PSOL and must also be even broader, involving alliances with the MTST and other sections of the workers, students’ and popular movements.

The far-right has channelled a lot of the popular discontent, partially because it could present itself as something new and outside of the system. In truth, they represent continuity and the deepening of the current order, and its chaos. The socialist left must offer the working class and poor a new, radical, combative banner filled out with the ideas of equality, solidarity, democracy and socialism. To the struggle!

Liberdade Socialismo e Revolução (CWI Brazil)


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