2023-07-04 12:54:36
Only the workers can carry the fight against Bolsonaro and Bolsonaro to the end.
30/06/2023
By: Julius Anselmo
The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) resolved this Friday, June 30, for the disqualification of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The sentence refers to the abuse of political power and misuse of the media. This is just one of the processes, but dozens of actions are already underway to which the former president will have to respond.
Bolsonaro’s crimes – committed before, during and after his term – are evident and unquestionable. Not only the blatant use of deception in communication with fake news and the use of the apparatus of the Presidency to carry out an electoral campaign, but mainly the authoritarian threats that he has made in recent years, trying to create a narrative of questioning the elections as a means to justify an attempted coup.
First, it must be said that we do not advocate democracy for the rich and that elections, in general, are not really democratic. They are not fair, in fact they are very undemocratic precisely because of the control of economic power. There are fair and democratic elections only for the bourgeoisie, for the rich. What we stand for, as long as we live under capitalism, are democratic freedoms, which can be even broader, with more equality in the contest and less control by the rich over the process. We could have, for example, equal time on television for all candidates and everyone’s participation in the debates, a lower ceiling for candidacies, salaries for parliamentarians equal to those of a teacher or a worker.
Finally, we could have more freedom so that the working class has the capacity to defend itself and also more space to organize and defend another society, just, egalitarian and truly democratic, that is, one in which the working class and the vast majority of the people really command and control. However, a true democracy presupposes another economic system, a workers’ state and another political regime, of workers’ democracy, based on the power of the workers and the expropriation of the bourgeoisie.
Bolsonaro, on the contrary, criticizes the electoral regime because it does not have less democracy for the workers, he defends even more control of the rich, to the point of questioning the result of the elections to justify a possible self-coup. However, he did not find enough support among the Brazilian and international bourgeoisie to create the conditions for a successful coup. This lack of support did not allow the coup project to obtain an active majority at the top of the Armed Forces, nor did it mobilize enough sectors to put pressure on both in the streets, despite moving a contingent to obstruct roads, surround barracks and occupy Brasilia.
That didn’t stop him from trying. On January 8, he was incited by Bolsonaro and those around him, and all the facts presented by Colonel Mauro Cid or that are being revealed by the ICC (Parliamentary Investigation Commission) of the coup corroborate this.
Burying once and for all the authoritarian threats of Bolsonaro and the extreme right, military and non-military, that he organizes, prosecuting and punishing him is only part of what would be needed. In addition, not only must he be ineligible, but he must also be in prison. But it is still necessary to dismiss the thousands of soldiers who are in positions in the Executive and sanction the soldiers who participated or were soft on January 8.
Lula’s government (PT), however, has not even confronted the coup’s extreme right embedded in the civil institutions of the State, much less the coup’s military. On the contrary, it capitulated to the military in the election of the current Defense Minister, as well as, once again, showing its submission by returning the GSI (Institutional Security Cabinet) to the control of the military. All of Lula’s measures point to a renegotiation with the leadership of the Armed Forces. The investigation is not advancing either, much less the necessary changes in the Armed Forces to abolish Bolsonarism and the coup within it.
Lula and the PT relegate to the Judiciary the role of confronting Bolsonaro, Bolsonarismo and the ultra-right. The problem is that this does not even guarantee that this sector will be punished, since the judiciary defends the interests of the rich, in addition to also having influence from the ultra-right. For this reason, in Brazil, the workers, the poor and the blacks are punished very severely, while impunity is guaranteed for the rich and powerful. Furthermore, the defeat we need to inflict on the extreme right goes well beyond legal proceedings. They need to be defeated politically, since only prosecuting, punishing and imprisoning them does not guarantee that, in the future, they will not return to power or that their ideas will continue to have weight in society.
The task of confronting Bolsonarismo cannot be left in the hands of the Judiciary, of any State institution or of any other sector of the bourgeoisie. Even the TSE itself saved Braga Neto, which demonstrates his subservience to the military and coup leaders. We do not want any amnesty for the coup plotters. But the Lula-Alckmin government does not meet this demand. He says that he will face it, but he always faces his own limit, which is the defense of the interests of the capitalists and the current political regime of the rich. For this reason, the STF (Supreme Federal Court), at the same time that it persecutes the extreme right, takes measures that are beyond questionable from the point of view of freedom of expression, which tomorrow could turn against the left and the workers’ movement .
Lula’s government does a double disservice in this fight: while it capitulates to the military, it is today the main person responsible for making agreements with Arthur Lira (PP and leader of the Centrão) and other sectors that were Bolsonarists until yesterday. But not only that, Lula today is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as well as the guarantor of the interests of capitalist businesses and, by managing capitalism in crisis and decadence, keeps Brazil in the chains of a bourgeois sector that he defends the deepening of exploitation and oppression and gives room for the rise of things like Bolsonaro.
Against the extreme right, in specific situations, the broadest unity is needed to fight. But that cannot mean support for the government or even a political or permanent unity with the government, as the majority of the left, like the PSOL, does. This disarms not only the fight for workers’ rights, which the government has been attacking, but even the fight against the extreme right.
If workers want to confront Bolsonaro and prevent the rise of the far right again, they must remain independent of the Lula government. In addition, it is necessary to build a left-wing, class-oriented, and socialist opposition to the government that truly confronts the ultra-right, demanding not only punishment for Bolsonaro, but also fighting politically to defeat all the Bolsonarism that unfortunately the PT helps and feeds today.
Workers’ struggles against government economic attacks, such as the Fiscal Framework, are also critical, as they can be seen as a starting point for broader struggles against capitalist exploitation.
Only the workers can carry the fight against Bolsonaro and Bolsonaro to the end in a consistent manner, guaranteeing not only the investigation and punishment of their crimes, but also imposing a political defeat and expunging all Bolsonaro.
While the Lula government demonstrates every day that it governs for the bourgeoisie and the rich, even agreeing with the military, the workers need to build a project for an independent country in relation to the bourgeoisie and the Lula government, which confronts the ultra-right and defend a socialist program.
Finally, we fight against Bolsonaro’s authoritarian threats, but we also don’t want the democracy of the rich with its judges, professional politicians and filthy rich bourgeois who live off the suffering of workers. For this reason, we need to defeat capitalism, build another system that is socialist and a political regime with true democracy, which is neither the democracy of the rich nor the dictatorship of the rich, but a true democracy of the workers.
Also read: The disputed government thesis does not hold, in:
Article published in www.pstu.org.br
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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