We hereby share the letter of entry of our comrade Bruno Meirinho to Alternativa Socialista – ISL, Brazil. Bruno has been a militant of PSOL since its foundation. He is a lawyer and activist of the working movement, having started in the Nucleus of the Popular Movement of the PSOL of Curitiba and then in the Popular Movement for Housing of Paraná (MPM-PR). He was candidate for mayor of Curitiba twice (in 2008 and 2012) for the PSOL in coalitions of the Left Front, with the PCB and the PSTU. In the PSOL, he was part of the C-SOL current until 2013 and of the Coletivo Rosa Zumbi, when he was a member of the Ethics Commission of the PSOL National Board of Directors, until 2019. After that date, he remained independent.
It is with great satisfaction that we welcome a comrade with an important tradition of struggle and revolutionary organization, a reference of the left in Paraná and with whom we share the decision to build a revolutionary and internationalist party in Brazil.
In defense of the PSOL, let’s build Alternativa Socialista
Electoral democracy is a popular conquest of major importance, and it was never obtained without struggle. Defending the validity of a democratic system should be the banner of socialists, even though we know that electoral democracy is incapable of substantially changing the system.
Faced with the lack of expectations, sectors of the left mistakenly believe that the defense of electoral democracy requires us to adapt, even temporarily, to the models of bourgeois hegemony. They run in search of alliances with the right, eager for the broadest fronts to defeat a common enemy.
But the political orientation of negation does not make history, it depoliticizes.
It is necessary to establish a program, and promote alliances that do not dilute the socialists in environments of bourgeois hegemony that dissipate all class differentiation, with setbacks in consciousness.
Under the inspiration of Plínio de Arruda Sampaio, I remain convinced of the “politics of the marathon”. Run with intensity, conscious of the long road. Those who seek shortcuts or try to shorten the course weaken the socialist program.
To conquer daily life, to become omnipresent, that is the task of socialists. To build militancy from the communities, in the territorial base of the popular movement, is a way to run the marathon of history. With this commitment, I met Alternativa Socialista- International Socialist League, a current that builds the PSOL.
The most difficult junctures are the ones that most test the tenacity of militancy. The strength with which the AS/ISL demonstrates its program, without giving in to sectarianism, is an invitation to the construction of socialism.
The PSOL is the most valuable instrument of alliance for the affirmation of socialism in Brazil. In this party a wide spectrum of socialist traditions converge under united programs.
It is true that the conjuncture of the necessary defeat of Bolsonarism has put the PSOL to the test as never before. The majority of the party has chosen the path of electoral unity with those who do not deserve our trust.
In this way, socialists spontaneously abdicate the right of electoral democracy and go underground. They hope to contain the thirst of the bourgeoisie within the alliance, and establish links that ensure the defense of democracy. They waste a unique moment and do not affirm the program that could really represent the working class.
But this is the moment for tolerance. The PSOL will re-establish itself, and will come of age with the experience that internal divergences are not greater than consensus. This conviction, which I also see in the AS/ISL, consolidates the defining elements of a long-term policy: a) the defense of revolutionary socialism; b) the daily construction from the grassroots of the popular movement; and c) the defense of the PSOL.
In the same way, the construction of the International Socialist League reveals the will to form an environment of unity of the anti-colonial struggles in search of solidarity among the peoples and of the socialist revolution. The political positions constructed in a lively manner, without dogmatism, represent an excellent novelty.
With these points, I express my desire to join the AS/ISL! Long live the struggle of the workers! Long live the socialist revolution!
Curitiba, August 3, 2022
Bruno Meirinho.