After the elections and Jair Bolsonaro’s victory, it is necessary to highlight the responsibilities of the political project of the false progressives of the PT and its allies, analyze the reactionary political project of the newly elected president and the need to strengthen the mobilization and a true left political alternative to confront fascism.
In a completely flawed and antidemocratic electoral process, where the Superior Electoral Court and other judicial instance actively ignored the electoral fraud, Bolsonaro’s victory jeopardizes the rights won by workers on the streets. His government is a threat against indigenous communities, quilombolas and the oppressed.
In a few days, we’ll begin the transition from Michael Temer’s government, product of an institutional coup, and the democratically elected government, headed by the fascist Bolsonaro. Temer is known for the brutal blow he dealt workers rights with his labor reform bit, that deteriorated working conditions. The future government of Bolsonaro puts our national resources on sale, like the Doce River valley, we’re selling for the price of a banana, deeply undermining our national sovereignty.
As we said during the campaign, the responsibility of the PT and its allies in opening the door to this new scenario is unquestionable. Their false left progressivism that assimilated to the neo-liberal regime as soon as it got to power, and is now the other face of this fast ascending fascism. After 14 years of corrupt PT governments that implemented policies against workers´ rights, like the social security reform and the anti-terrorism law, the Brazilian people are frustrated. The mistakes of not negotiating with those on the streets during the protests of June 2013, as well as the violent police repression, were clear signs that the governing ways of the PT were being questioned and that was corroborated with the austerity plan of Dilma´s last government. The people are tired of being governed by a political caste that is sinking the country in stagnation and, like we’ve said before, doesn’t rely on the mobilization of is social base.
As we mentioned before, we can’t ignore the bias of the Superior Electoral Tribunal when it comes to the serious violations of electoral laws by the Jair Bolsonaro campaign. The courts did the same with cases like the statements of congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro when he affirmed that “sending a soldier and corporal would be enough to close the Superior Federal Court”. It’s our duty to denounce all forms of use of the institutions for the persecution of militants who oppose the chosen candidate, as were the cases of searches and apprehensions of materials of Fernando Haddad (PT) in public universities; the censorship in the Law School of Rio de Janeiro when its director was forced -under the threat of detention from 1 to 6 years- to take down a flag that said “Antifascism Law”, hung at the entrance of the University. These clear violations of freedom of thought, expression and political militancy, supported and promoted by the Brazilian judicial institutions, accompany the authoritarian nature of Bolsonaro’s statements. We mast also not let people forget the campaign promises made by the elected candidate, who in recent weeks promised to “purge the country of communists“, and that for his opponents there will be two alternatives: leaving the country or going to jail. It is also necessary to remember his affirmations that his government will not invest a single real in Human Rights, and supports the right to bear arms.
Since the return of democracy, this is the presidential election with the lowest participation and with the most blank and null votes (around 30 million). This is a reflection of the polarization between extremism and disbelief in the failed and antidemocratic political system.
In the face of a new scenario, as militants that build a left political alternative we have an enormous challenge ahead: communicating to the popular majorities that confronted fascism that this is the time to strengthen the mobilization and an organization, apart from the PT, a real feminist, socialist and secular alternative. This is the path we take as Alternativa Socialista, and we consider the PSOL as the space that has to become an option for the majorities.
From our space, with comrades from across the world, we build the international current Anticapitalist Network, and from there we’ll do everything we can to confront this growing fascism. We have to be together on the streets to stop this fascist’s plans. This isn’t a time for pessimism, it´s a time for organization, because that’s how we’re stronger and can defeat this reactionary project.
On the streets, in Brazil and all over the world, we’ll resist!