2023-11-25 15:21:09
Editorial Opinião Socialista no. 665, PSTU Brazil
The election of the far-right Javier Milei, in Argentina, generated concern among workers in Brazil. It is not for less. After all, it is part of the global far-right phenomenon that, despite the differences in each country, has many things in common.
This sector defends scorched earth, mercilessly accelerating and deepening attacks on the working class, oppressed sectors, the environment and the sovereignty of countries, as well as attacking democratic freedoms. All in the name of capitalist profits. To do this, they also promote hatred against black people, women, LGBTI+ people and immigrants.
The project defended by Milei includes the general privatization of Argentine state companies, the dollarization of the economy, and has a vice president who denies the deaths of that country’s military dictatorship.
The reformist and neoliberal “left” paves the way for the extreme right
The Argentine situation brings two alerts. The first is that the extreme right is not dead and it is waiting to return to power. The second is that it makes no sense for capitalist governments that claim to be left-wing to govern capitalism in a slower neoliberal way, since this does not prevent the strengthening of the extreme right.
In fact, the path of the right is paved because “leftist governments” defend measures that are in the interest of capitalist monopolies, and end up worn out, worsening the living conditions of the people, making work precarious, not facing looting and subordination. to imperialism, without being able to resolve the most basic needs.
And this fertilizes the soil where the extreme right thrives. Milei won the elections after the collapse of the “left-wing government” of Peronist Alberto Fernández.
There is no “lesser evil”
Right now, this is very important. There is a large part of the left that maintains that, to defeat the extreme right, it is necessary to support and defend Lula’s government. But when we see what the far right and the Federal Government are doing, we see how this position, in truth, leads to the strengthening of the agendas and demands of the far right.
There is, for example, an ongoing fight against privatizations promoted by the state governments of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, in the hands of the Republicans and the Novo, respectively. The mobilizations against privatizations are important, scheduled for the 28th in São Paulo, and on the 21st and 22nd, in Minas Gerais. With the struggle it is possible to defeat the privatization plans of the state governments and also demand that Lula revert privatizations already carried out, such as that of Eletrobras, and prevent new privatizations.
It turns out that Lula’s government is not a counterpoint to the privatization processes of far-right state governments. On the contrary, it has been collaborating in the privatizations promoted in the States, as demonstrated by the financing that the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) will provide for the privatization of schools in São Paulo.
They intend to induce a supposed development of the country, injecting public money into the private sector. For this reason, the government announced a Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) full of public resources and based on the proliferation of Associations. [Parcerias] Public Private (PPP), which are nothing more than a kind of privatization, with the difference that the costs and risks are insured by the State, while the profits are private. Multinationals receive all kinds of incentives and benefits to acquire companies, establish themselves in the country, and send their profits abroad.
There are right-wing sectors that openly advocate privatizing everything, cutting public spending and creating the “minimal state.” And there are those who call themselves leftist, but who, in practice, also privatize, just in a different way. Instead of selling, they make PPP. They also defend a neoliberal fiscal policy; but, instead of direct cuts in public spending, as Temer did, they do the same through the new Fiscal Framework. They even advocate increasing expenses a little, but to try to generate some economic growth, paying the capitalists with the public budget.
They are two sides of the same coin. Although they are different, with different rhythms, they arrive at the same place: a more subordinate, denationalized, privatized country, with precarious work and some minimum income.
They offer the lesser evil: liberalism in homeopathic doses, with small concessions to retail. But they play the same game as capitalism, defending the interests of the private profits of Brazilian and international billionaires. But those who call themselves left and, even at a slower pace, play the game of the bourgeoisie and capitalism: they feed the extreme right!
Revolutionary, class and socialist alternative
To end Brazilian social inequality it is necessary to confront the large capitalist groups. This is a historical problem, dating back to the country’s very origins.
Even the fact that the Banco do Brasil has acted centrally in slavery, enabling it to accumulate profits and capital, is only the expression of a responsibility that involves all Brazilian capitalists and the State itself, subject to imperialism. In fact, there is no reparation for black people that does not involve facing the interests of the rich and the expropriation of those wealth that were stolen from us.
The domination of imperialist countries in Brazil is the basis of our condition of poverty, technological backwardness and social inequality. Of our condition of underdevelopment and economic, political and social subalternity.
That is why the fight in defense of the Palestinian people is also so important. Lula should break diplomatic, economic and military relations with Israel, which promotes genocide and apartheid. What prevents him from doing this is not a tactical measure to repatriate Brazilians. In fact, this episode demonstrates Brazil’s subalternity with respect to the interests of the imperialists. This struggle is also part of Brazil’s own liberation from the rule of imperialism.
The political challenge of our time is that, to bury once and for all the danger of Mileis, Bolsonaros and Trumps, it is necessary to overcome the program, strategy and tactics of this capitalist, liberal left and defender of the bourgeois order, which has hegemonized the political scene until now.
It is necessary to build an alternative for workers, which goes to the root of the problems; that is, capitalism, and that it means not only a change of government, but also a change of system. As long as the left remains hostage to a bourgeois camp and the defense of order, the possibility of capitalizing on this feeling will fall into the hands of the extreme right, even though it is the most perverse part of this system.
Article published in www.opiniaosocialista.com.br22/11/2023.-
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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