Brazil: Why Lula-Alckmin is not a political alternative to Bolsonarism

By Alternativa Socialista-PSOL. ISL Brasil

The reality of Brazilian people is getting worse every day. Scarcity, inflation that impacts mainly on the basic food basket, unemployment and loss of conquered rights are combined with a government that tries to save its gang with mafia pardons and coup discourse. It is urgent to defeat this government and the extreme right. The question is: how to defeat them?

The electoral road at the service of the regime and its danger to democratic conquests

Last year, at the height of the mobilization against Bolsonaro’s government, the left of order with the PT at the head, managed to discipline the process and direct it to the electoral way out. “President Lula” was the policy defended by the main political, social and union leaderships of the working class and popular sectors. The absence of a leadership with mass influence, determined to overcome the margins imposed by the left of the order, and of a process of rebellion of the rank and file with their leaderships, provoked a setback in the mobilization. Thus, the policy aimed at trusting in the electoral solution was installed, within the frameworks of the bourgeois democratic regime and, with it, the call to trust in Lula as president as the only possible alternative to bolsonarism.

The existence of an extreme right-wing project, like Bolsonaro’s, has responded to the advance of the economic crisis that hits the people, provoking social and political polarization and more misery. That is why it is necessary to respond with all firmness and propose a leftist and socialist political alternative to the masses, not to fall into the siren songs of the left of order and its possibilist discourse of the “lesser evil”. Faced with the radicalization of the right, the center options like the project of class conciliation, do not offer real alternatives and, sooner or later, provoke the disillusionment of the masses, opening the political space for the emergence or strengthening of the extreme right.

The center-left and reformist policy of calling for confidence in the elections as a way to defeat Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism, brings the danger of demobilization which, as we well know, is the best weapon of the right wing to advance against the people and their conquests. That is why we say that there is no left-wing political alternative to Bolsonarism that does not begin by prioritizing mobilization and rebellion in the streets. The PT and Lula, accompanied by important sectors of the left, among them the leadership of the PSOL, were the promoters of “defeating Bolsonaro at the ballot box”, becoming a tool at the service of bourgeois institutionality and the normalization of the “New Republic”, where the exploited and oppressed class has everything to lose.

It is necessary to throw Bolsonaro out, to defeat all the sectors that intend to advance in a process of closing the regime. For that, it is necessary to present a political alternative of the left that vocalizes a program for a real way out of the crisis, so that workers are no longer the ones who pay the costs, with a socialist program, and not follow in tow the social-liberal program of the Frente Amplio with Lula-Alckmin at the head.

Debates with Resistance, Insurgency and Subverta

It is evident that we have differences in the characterization of what electoral support (tactical according to these currents) to the Frente Amplio project means. We are against it because, as we have already stated on many occasions, this project supposes a capitulation to the liberal possibilist program and the bourgeois government, in a moment of social polarization where it is fundamental to raise a project with class independence and a socialist program. But there is also another problem, the incorporation of the PSOL in the next government which could arise in the possibility of an electoral victory of Lula-Alckmin. And here begin the differences of strategic principles.

The leaderships of these three currents have acted with Primavera Socialista and Revolução Solidária, which have already publicly positioned themselves in favor of forming a government to “rebuild the country” with Lula and Alckmin. It is a concrete danger for the class independence of the PSOL and deserves our forceful rejection, there is no room for dubious and unclear positions, we are talking about the future of the party as a political tool of the working class, or its liquidation by capitulation to class conciliation.

From our point of view, electoral support is only a part of this process of adaptation to the regime and the regime of capital, and that is why we call on the socialist and revolutionary militancy of these currents, which make up the Campo Semante, to demand from their leaderships a position in favor of the foundational project of the PSOL and to vote against the support to Lula-Alckmin.

The MES guaranteed the Federation with the REDE and abandoned the dispute over Glauber Braga’s candidacy for the presidency

The MES, as one of the main internal currents of the PSOL, with a strong national presence and parliamentary representation, took a step back from what it defended in its Thesis at the 7th National Congress of the party, for independence and an anti-capitalist program. Recently they guaranteed with their votes in the National Directorate (DN) the federation of the PSOL with a bourgeois party, REDE. Before that they had already abandoned, in fact, the mobilization of Glauber Braga’s campaign for the presidency, continuing formally. That is to say, they have stopped fighting for their own candidacy, in the face of the support to Lula-Alckmin that the majority leadership is ready to vote in the Electoral Conference of April 30.

Roberto Robaina, in a recent text affirms that the independence of the party is a necessity, but immediately argues in favor of the Federation with REDE and says nothing about the battle for the party’s own candidacy. He does not even name comrade Glauber Braga in an extensive and meticulous opinion article. Then, we must ask ourselves, will the MES maintain its position regarding the electoral support of the PSOL to the Broad Front of Lula-Alckmin? And even more, will they join the militancy of the organized and independent left of the party on April 28 at the National Plenary to discuss policy and orientation towards the Electoral Conference on April 30?

On April 30, at the PSOL Electoral Conference, defend political independence and vote for the candidacy of Glauber Braga for the presidency! There is no room for hesitation, it is time to defend the independent party with an anti-capitalist and socialist program, that is why on April 28, at 7 p.m., we call on all the militancy that does not give up, to meet in the great National Plenary for an independent PSOL with Glauber as President. We will organize the rebellion of those who are not willing to discard the Socialism and Freedom Party, which will have important battles ahead, and for which we need the broadest unity of currents and independent militancy. We, from Alternativa Socialista, militate in this sense and we invite you to join us.