There is already a date for the Conference of Unification of our two organizations, Luta Socialista and Alternativa Socialista. It will be held in São Paulo in February, 2023. It will begin with a public Rally on Friday 10 and will be in session until the 11 and 12. In the current context of Brazil, with a new Lula government and an increasingly pronounced crisis of the PSOL, due to the decision of the majority to support the new government, the unification of our organizations is an opportunity to try to transform ourselves into a small but dynamic pole of all those dissatisfied with the turn that the PSOL is taking. Below we transcribe the statement that has just been issued by the Liaison Committee that is carrying out the unification process with the intention of giving wide publicity to the unification.
We unify to fight
For our rights, for an independent PSOL and for socialism
On January 1, Lula takes over the presidency of our country in his third term, the fifth of the PT. A new period opens in Brazil, full of contradictions and challenges.
Of course, we celebrate the failure of the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. He is the main political responsible for so many deaths in the pandemic, enemy of the Amazon and the environment, of labor, democratic, women’s and LGBT rights, and of indigenous and black people. And we have contributed to his defeat by calling for mobilization against him and also with our critical vote for Lula in the second round.
But besides the fact that Bolsonarism maintains strength and continues to operate, we consider that it is not appropriate to have any hopes about the new government of national unity, which not only does not consistently confront Bolsonaro, but rather welcomes him and thus allows him to continue to grow and strengthen. All in the name of ‘social peace’ and bourgeois ‘democracy’. With his vice-president, the PSB-affiliated Tucano, Geraldo Alckmin, his right-wing liberal allies like Henrique Meirelles and Simone Tebet, among others, and his calls for moderation, Lula returns to the Planalto essentially to continue managing capitalism and thus ensure the profits of big domestic and foreign corporations.
That is to say that, beyond some initial and limited populist measure to seek popular sympathy, the Lula-Alckmin government will not bring any fundamental solution to the economic crisis, unemployment, low wages, environmental problems and other structural needs of the poor people and the youth of Brazil.
And this is because the PT has been meekly integrated into this globalized capitalism of permanent crisis and adjustment for many years now, and does not have the slightest political will to confront the Bolsonarist far-right in depth or to question the interests of the multinationals, the banks and agribusiness. Therefore, he does not deserve our trust, but we must be alert to his measures.
As poor people of Brazil, we can only rely on our own strength, unity and organization. That is the only guarantee to defend our rights and to be able to advance, here and all over the world. That is why in the face of the new government it will be necessary to deepen the organization, struggle and mobilization of the working class, women, youth, the landless, the homeless and other popular sectors.
The left has an immense challenge: to challenge the project of class conciliation and build a real anti-capitalist and socialist political alternative. Within the ranks of the PSOL, the left is facing what, very probably, is the last opportunity to save the original project of an anti-capitalist party, to dispute the leadership to prevent the liquidation project of the current majority leadership from succeeding. It is fundamental to unite all our forces of militancy organized in currents or independently, to recover the PSOL together and put it at the service of this task.
In this context, Luta Socialista and Alternativa Socialista, both currents of the left of the PSOL, are happy to announce that we have decided to unify our forces in the same national organization. In order to achieve this important political-organizational step forward, next February we will hold a Conference open to the militancy and to all those who want to join us in this exciting challenge.
We believe that our unification has an outstanding political value for three essential reasons:
First, in itself, since in a panorama where the most usual thing in the left are divisions and ruptures, this time we are leading an opposite, positive example of political and militant unity among organizations that come from different backgrounds.
Second, because our unity reinforces the political fight that we have been giving within the PSOL to reverse the mistaken course of the majority of its leadership, of adaptation to the new capitalist government, and to recover an independent, socialist and revolutionary perspective.
And third, because at the same time our unity strengthens the International Socialist League (ISL), which as the Brazilian section we integrate together with sister parties and groups from almost 30 countries. In a world where capitalism only offers more and more hunger, wars, inequality and destruction, it is key to make revolutionary and internationalist socialism grow.
For all this, we invite you to participate in the debates and preparatory activities of our Unification Conference and to join as a militant to the new current that we are founding. With your participation and support, we will be stronger to continue fighting for all our rights, to recover a PSOL independent of the bourgeoisie and to defeat this capitalist system of exploitation and oppression, and replace it with a government of the workers and socialism.
Luta Socialista-Alternativa Socialista Liaison Committee
November 2021