Solid steps towards the development of a revolutionary organization
By Douglas Diniz – Central Committee of Lucha Socialista/PSOL
The 1st National Congress of Luta Socialista (Internal Tendency of the PSOL) took place between the 16th and the 20th of June, 2022, in the city of São Paulo. In the agenda of the debate on the situation of the world, the country, the PSOL, the Statute of the LS and the election of the national leadership of the organization.
The Congress decides to join the International Socialist League (ISL)
The congress of Luta Socialista (LS/PSOL) after a long political discussion reaffirmed the analysis and the characterization that we live in a revolutionary period, of struggle against the bourgeoisie and imperialism, a period of wars and revolutions, which political situation is of enormous and growing social polarization, a stage of dispute for the political leadership of the mass movement.
The thesis voted by the congress members is contrary to what the reformist sectors of the Brazilian and global left affirm, that we would be living in a reactionary period of historic defeats of the mass movement, of the rise and consolidation of a conservative wave, which would justify the formation of political blocs with sectors of a supposedly progressive and democratic bourgeoisie, as, for example, the national leadership of the PSOL defended by voting in an electoral conference to support, shamelessly, the Lula-Alckmin candidacy for the presidential elections in Brazil and, previously, the formation of a Federation with the Rede Sustentabilidade.
This left of the regime, populist front and advocate of governments of class conciliation, has enthusiastically supported the fiscal austerity measures of governments like Pedro Castillo (Peru), Gabriel Boric (Chile), Alberto and Cristina Fernandes (Argentina), Luis Arce (Bolivia), all the variants of false progressivism and even dictatorships like that of Maduro (Venezuela) and Ortega (Nicaragua).
As a conclusion of the international debate and in the face of the need to build political instruments that allow to regroup the revolutionaries globally, to intervene in the class struggle, to dispute the political leadership of the mass movement and to build revolutionary parties all over the world, the Congress of Luta Socialista has decided to apply for membership in the International Socialist League (ISL), an international political organization existing in more than 30 countries, in the 5 continents, and political organization that also aims at unifying the different traditions of revolutionary Marxism at an international level.
Bolsonaro and Mourão out, no confidence in the next government
The congress discussed the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the huge economic, social, environmental and political crisis of the Brazilian situation.
It concluded that although Bolsonaro is far-right, has a fascist ideology and intends to close the regime, this situation was never put into practice, due to the mobilizations and struggles led by the Brazilian working class and poor people, who rise up against the government and its fiscal austerity measures.
It debated that during Bolsonaro’s government the mass movement, still facing the pandemic, did its part in the struggle against the government and that it was very close to overthrowing it, a fact that did not occur due to the treacherous and cowardly policy of the main trade union centrals and some leaderships of the mass movement of the country, which in the last years of greater crisis of the government, channeled the enormous discontent to the electoral calendar.
The role played by Lula, who upon his release from prison categorically stated that Bolsonaro should finish his mandate, a fact that served as a password for the trade union centrals, especially the CUT/PT and the CTB/PCdoB, to rule out any process of unification of struggles and mobilizations aimed at overthrowing the government.
Unfortunately, sectors of the socialist, democratic and revolutionary left played a hesitant role in the face of this situation. That was the role played by the leadership of the CSP Conlutas (PSTU and allies in the center), which even flirted with the political-unionist bureaucracy of the country by calling on actions, rallies and demonstrations that, with the appearance of fighting the government, ended up isolating small embryos of struggle against the government, like the Coordinating organization Povo na Rua. They came to feed false expectations that with common actions, as it occurred in 2019 in the rally of May Day attended by the former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Roberto Requião, Lula and characters from the old national politics, it would be possible to defeat the government. Nothing further from reality.
The synthesis of the policy voted was that we will spare no effort to defeat Bolsonaro electorally in the streets and at the ballot box. That the center of the policy of the Luta Socialista in the elections will be the programmatic debate, of what measures are necessary to get the country out of the crisis from the point of view of the workers and the poor people; that the electoral solution for the Brazilian situation is not the Broad Front of Lula-Alckmin, but the unification of the candidacies of the socialist and revolutionary left in a single candidacy (today the PSTU, the PCB and UP each have their pre-candidacy for the presidency) in a single program which, starting with not paying the public debt, could invest massively the resources of the country in the generating of employment, could readjust salaries, invest massively in free and quality public services, reduce and freeze the price of food, as well as that of electricity, water, telephone, fuel, restructure the public enterprises and nationalize the privatized ones. It is an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, feminist and anti-racist program that fulfills the agenda of struggle of the feminist movement, that fights LGBTphobia, outlines the land of the indigenous peoples and the quilombolas and carries out an agro-ecological agrarian reform. In short, these are measures with which only a government of the workers, the poor, the periphery, the farmland and the jungle, that gives the broadest freedom of political and unionist organization to the poor and working people, the majority of the population, would be able to get the country out of the current crisis.
Advancing in the construction of a political and trade union leadership
The political unity and the coincidence in the analyses and characterizations of the national and world situation anticipated in the congress the firm decision of Luta Socialista to be part of the construction of a new direction for the Brazilian working class.
With the erroneous policy of the majority leadership of the PSOL, it is urgent to organize the Radical Left of the Party of Socialismo y Libertad. Whatever candidate wins the elections, the next President of the Republic will attack the interests of the workers to serve the interests of the financial system and the big capital. It will be a government of the rich and powerful, which will govern against the interests of the poor and the workers.
The class struggle will continue in a country immersed in crises of all kinds. It will be urgent to build a political project, an independent and class conscious leadership, autonomous from the governments and the bosses. In this sense, the Congress decided, in addition to the entry of Luta Socialista (LS/PSOL) in the International Socialist League ( ISL), to accept the official entry of the Socialist Action Group (GAS/PSOL) in Luta Socialista. GAS is an organization of great tradition, with important political and trade union action in Rio Grande do Norte.
Another important decision was the proposal for the immediate formation of a Liaison Committee between the Luta Socialista (LS) and the organization Alternativa Socialista (section of the ISL in Brazil). This Liaison Committee would have the function of debating and organizing a common platform between our organizations so that in the coming months, if possible, before the inauguration of the next President of the Republic, we can hold a CONGRESS OF UNIFICATION of our militant forces, thus opening the way for other political, trade union and environmentalist organizations to join in the effort to build a new organization as an alternative of revolutionary leadership in the country. As important tactics of strengthening and intervention in the class struggle, we voted for the strengthening of the trade union tendency Unidos Pra Lutar/CSP Conlutas, of the feminist collective Marielle Vive and the construction of an Ecosocialist Collective that will allow us to help in the organization of social activists in the difficult task of fighting in the defense of the environment against the climate crisis.
The National Congress of LS had as guests a delegation of comrades from the Frente de Trabajadores por el Socialismo (FTS/Argentina), a political organization with which we have maintained fraternal relations and political exchange for the last two years. The honorary presidency was given to Nahuel Moreno (Argentine revolutionary leader, deceased in 1987, whom we have as a political reference and tradition), to the victims of the covid-19 pandemic and to the Ukrainian resistance fighting against the invading Russian army.
During the opening of our congress, we paid homage to the revolutionary leader Silvia Santos (Pestaña), who contributed a lot to the construction of a revolutionary organization in Brazil. Silvia Santos died on June 15, one day before our congress. The news of her death had a great impact on the comrades who for years worked and formed a political team with this important leader. Silvia Santos (Pestaña) present! To socialism, always!