2023-08-22 14:29:03
The 59th UNE (Conune) Congress ended. What could have been a fundamental space for debate and articulation of the Brazilian student movement (ME) was a very bureaucratic and governmental event, due to the orientation given by the leadership of the entity, the União de la Juventud Socialista (UJS/PCdoB). and the pt.
By: Mandi Coelho
Delays in meals, lack of water, despite the fact that each student paid an expensive fee, were common. Furthermore, it was not an inclusive event for PWDs, due to the disorganization, negligence, and bureaucratization of the entity. In the spaces for debate, the time for intervention was restricted and the entity’s management tried to control which sectors of the opposition could speak. This bureaucratization has the function of keeping the entity at the service of the political project of the PT, which is a capitalist ally of the bourgeoisie, the centrão and even sectors of the right.
Hand in hand with the government and the “teaching sharks”
The congress summit was an activity with the presence of Lula. It was not a meeting meant to negotiate student agendas or deliver demands; rather it was a friendly welcome from those who, today, are the main defenders of the New Secondary Education.
The UNE laid out the red carpet for those who have “teaching sharks” as allies, such as the Lemann Foundation, the defenders of private higher education and those who approved the Fiscal Framework, which in the long run withdraws funds from Education.
The UNE called a demonstration against high interest rates, which is important, but it did not combine this with the fight against the Framework. He also did not say that the government could remove Campos Neto from the Presidency of the Central Bank and it simply does not do so because it does not want to violate its agreements with the bourgeoisie.
The truth is that the UNE did not coherently organize the students’ fight against the Framework, because that would require a confrontation with the government that it defends.
In addition, having guaranteed the presence of Luís Barroso, Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice, the majority leadership tried to make Conune a space of support for the institutions of the bourgeois State.
However, it is absurd that the student movement is in the tow of the STF and the Ministry of Justice, even with regard to the fight against the extreme right and the Bolsonaristas, trusting that these institutions, which have their tails tied up and feed to the right by defending capitalism, they can, in fact, defeat Bolsonarismo.
The main task of the student movement is to defeat the UJS and the PT
The ME needs to be independent of the government, fight for its rights and organize together with the workers, to face the government’s attacks and defeat, once and for all, the Bolsonaro extreme right. However, the majority leadership of the UNE did everything possible so that the Conune walked in the opposite direction. That is why we said: either the ME defeats the majority leadership, or we will remain with our hands tied, hostages of a project of alliance with sectors of the bourgeoisie.
CONUNE’s rebellion. Build a leftist opposition both in the UNE and against the Lula government
Rebeldia participated in the Conune calling for the construction of a Left Opposition (OE), both in the UNE and against the Lula government. All the resolutions that we presented and defended in the areas of Education and Conjuncture went in the same direction.
We also call on UNE to break with the government and stop participating in the Social Participation Council, known as “Conselhão”, created by Lula. Unfortunately, however, we were the only organization that stood up for this.
The crisis in the Left Opposition
The OE is experiencing a moment of fragmentation and crisis, in various ways. What could have been the construction of a unit, to impose a defeat on the majority leadership, became a group of organizations, without a minimum unitary agenda, which only revolved around the dispute over charges.
That’s why it’s almost impossible to build something together in the OE field. And when something in this sense is attempted, the result becomes only depoliticized agreements, which do not confront in depth the politics of the majority leadership.
The reason for this is that there is a programmatic limit in the EO, since all the organizations (some more, others less) capitulate, in different ways, to the Lula government.
Walking alongside the majority leadership
The “Youth Without Fear” (made up of organizations such as Afronte, RUA, Fogo no Pavio, Manifesta and Travessia) is paving the way to compose the majority leadership.
They opted to launch their own list for the UNE board, but not because they had progressive criticism of the OE; And, yes, because they were tempted to ally themselves with the majority sector. They debated and raised this possibility until the last second. So much so that they defended the resolution of the situation together with the UJS and the PT.
The compañeros and compañeras of this sector say that their position has to do with the need to prioritize the fight from the fight against the extreme right. But this is false, because the extreme right cannot be fought by endorsing the perspective of a capitalist country, as the majority leadership defends. In fact, it is this kind of stance that paves the way for the extreme right to proliferate.
For this reason, we consider that the position of “Youth without Fear” is a very serious error. It is a tremendous capitulation. Not only to the UJS. It is also a step towards becoming a more openly governmental sector.
Different levels of capitulation to the government
The largest sectors of the opposition, such as Correnteza (Popular Unity) and the Union of Communist Youth (UJC/PCB), have a position of depoliticization. Correnteza does not even mention the Lula government. It has a very limited policy, which we could call “economist”; that is to say, restricted to the specific problems of the university or of the UNE, without linking it with the great themes and the demands in relation to the government.
Meanwhile, the UJC even talks about the government, but does not alert the students that he is the real agent, the one who carries out all the attacks. One of the main tasks of the students is to demand that the UNE break with the government. And, for this reason, putting anything that does not point in that direction as the center of politics is a capitulation to the majority leadership.
On the other hand, “Juntos”, despite criticizing the attacks and talking about the independence of the student movement, does so with many limits and capitulating to a vision that the government would be “in dispute”.
Therefore, they do not call for building a left-wing opposition to the government. They even remain in the PSOL, which is part of the government’s support base. How to organize students to fight against a government being part of the political support of that same government?
All these sectors argued against our position, criticizing the call we made to the UNE to break with the government or to build a leftist opposition. For this reason, we repeat here a phrase that we had to repeat many times during the congress: “Comrades and compañeras, there are only two possible positions: either you support the government or you oppose it” .
We, from Rebeldia, are leftist opposition, precisely to differentiate ourselves from the Bolsonarist opposition. But not taking a position on the matter means implying that you are part of those who support the bourgeois and capitalist government of Lula. The ME has to be independent, but that can only be done if we also position ourselves as a left-wing opposition to the government.
Next steps: Rebuild the Left Opposition with one task: defeat the UJS and the PT
Rebeldia defended a resolution on the student movement, together with sectors of the OE, in an effort to press for the unity of those who want to defeat the UJS.
We presented our own list for the leadership of the UNE, given that, in the face of such a crisis, there was the possibility that there would not be a unitary list of the opposition. After the breakup of “Juventude Sem Medo”, and having a unified opposition list, we opted to make our defense in the box, withdrawing our list and calling for a vote in the OE.
We have many differences, political and ideological, with sectors of the left opposition. We even consider that, within the EO, everyone capitulates to the government. We have even more differences with those sectors that embellish Stalinism, which is the promoter of bureaucratization in the style of the UJS.
Among the sectors of this political trunk, there is very little difference in relation to the methods used to conduct things. However, tactically it is very important for us to build this “front”, having a single common task: to defeat the UJS, the PT and the majority leadership of the student entity.
Starting from this common goal, and strengthening the fight for this change, regardless of the limits of each sector, it would be possible to take a big step for the student movement to free itself from those who are, today, responsible for its greatest limitations. . And this does not prevent us from continuing to argue and present our differences with the OE sectors.
Revolutionary clothing, opportunistic content
Today, there are some organizations in the ME that rightly criticize the PSOL and its capitulation to the PT, but do not consistently confront the PT’s politics. And they confuse the tactical with the strategic.
La Faísca, led by the Modo Movimento Revolucionário dos Trabalhadores (MRT), capitulates to the government by not denouncing Lula’s presence with the same weight that it did in relation to Minister Barroso.
They also called for a demonstration against the Fiscal Framework and the New Secondary School, but they did not put up a coherent battle for UNE’s break with the government, nor did they call for the construction of a left-wing opposition to the government. And when the topic of 2016 comes up, it seems that they want to be more defenders of the PT than the PT themselves.
There are also those who criticized us for the tactic of voting for the OE and those who defended a list without the PSOL. We have criticisms of the PSOL, as we have already shown, but there it was a question of delimiting a unitary field of opposition, despite the differences.
And even if we had to make a front only with those who were against the government, there would be limits, because even those who criticized the PSOL did not present a coherent policy, which would fight, in content, against the government and for the rupture of the UNE with the Planalto [gobierno].
Defeat the majority leadership to organize the student struggle
Those who take on the task of fighting governmentalism in the student movement need to have a dialogue with the thousands of students who believe in the old left opposition. They received thousands of votes from those who see in them an alternative to the old leadership of the UJS and the PT.
Those of us who criticized the capitulation of the PSOL to the government were few. In order for us to increase our forces, it is necessary to know how to make a policy that unmasks the UJS and the PT, that confronts the government and frankly discusses the limits of the EO. But, at the same time, it also lays the foundations to build an alternative left opposition to the majority leadership, with this only task: to defeat the “majority” of the UNE, to advance the organization of the students.
*Mandi Coelho is a member of Rebeldia, Youth of the Socialist Revolution.
Article published in www.pstu.org.br 20/07/2023
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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