By Liaison Committee – Alternativa Socialista and Luta Socialista/PSOL – ISL in Brazil
How did it come to this? This question was one of the most repeated after the coup invasion and destruction of the headquarters of the three branches of government by a few thousand Bolsonarists in a moment of ultra-reactionary “trance”. The outcome so far is one of depredation, rare works of art and historical pieces partially or totally damaged, in addition to the disappearance and theft of various objects. Nothing like this has ever happened in Brasilia since its creation in 1960. In itself, this marks the historical proportion. The invasion was the height of the coup d’état of the Bolsonarist extreme right, but it was not the only one. At least since 2019, there has been a succession of coup attempts with the connivance of part of the institutions of the Regime. Bolsonaro has always said what he has come for. Did anyone doubt his intentions?
The comparison of Bolsonaro’s actions in Brasilia with the coup invasion of the U.S. Capitol in 2021 has long been recurrent. Differences and similarities aside, our grotesque Brazilian farce took place two years after what happened on Capitol Hill. The main political culprit, Bolsonaro, followed from some US sewer. Also in the US, Anderson Torres (Union), his former Minister of Justice and Secretary of Security of the DF, followed everything from afar, being exonerated the same day of the invasion and arrested days later (days before the commander of the PM/DF was also arrested), accused so far as the main responsible for the tolerance of the police forces with the invaders.
Dominant Regime and Bolsonarism, unity and tensions.
For us, Marxists, there is no doubt that the bourgeois Regime of redemocratization used Bolsonaro as a card for its electoral victory in 2018. The bourgeoisie wanted in the last four years to domesticate Bolsonaro in his political collar to implement all the withdrawals of rights not carried out in the government of Michel Temer (MDB). With some successes, it lived with the constant tensions created by Bolsonaro in his attempts to create his own regime where he would be the fascist “Bonaparte” who would lead the green and yellow herd and decide, with the support of the armed forces, over the institutions. With much resistance, and unfortunately with many betrayals, this did not happen. But in this last period several damages to the rights of the working class were imposed.
The initial question of “how did we get here?” serves to understand the growth of the extreme right in democracy. If it were considered universally, it would seem unacceptable. Seen from a revolutionary class perspective, it is perfectly possible to control fascism as a safeguard against the workers’ movement. That is what Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism have served for. By approving all the withdrawal of rights with the support of figures and parties that today integrate ministerial portfolios in the Lula-Alckmin government, Bolsonaro was the useful instrument for the objective of the bourgeoisie.
This “necessary evil” for the bourgeoisie did not always correspond, of course, to a linear relationship. The same Regime that coexisted with the Bolsonaro government for four hard years was also many times threatened in its existence – the STF was the most attacked. Nor were there few times that Bolsonaro rehearsed coups d’état, even with prepared documents, as is being denounced, where his Minister of Defense Anderson Torres planned an unrealized “State of Defense” Decree that would annul the electoral process and guarantee in practice the continuity of Bolsonaro in the presidency, the ultimate goal.
Even electorally defeated, Bolsonaro was able to regiment a significant part of the repressive forces that in the end is part explanatory of the coup invasion. There are many accusations against the Military Police, the Army at the headquarters and the police forces of the three branches of government, with images that prove their leniency with the invaders. This experience shows that it will not be as simple to stabilize relations with the repressive forces as Lula-Alckmin would wish, even with Minister José Múcio (PTB), a name of the bourgeoisie and with a good relationship with the ultra-reactionaries.
Defending democracy or our rights?
Many honest activists believe that patience is needed for Lula-Alckmin to govern and put the train back on track, repealing the counter-reforms and attacks, approving more rights. Others argue that the mobilization can pour water into the mill of Bolsonarism. We do not see it that way. The four years of Bolsonaro’s government have shown how the rights won are not ad aeternum. In politics, you either move forward or you move backward. Only mobilization is capable of guaranteeing rights, conquering more and burying Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism once and for all, an urgent need that has been postponed for more than four years. Negotiation on high ground, even more so in times of acute polarization of the class struggle in the world, is unfeasible.
The lessons of the coup invasion of Brasilia cannot be ignored. The confidence of the new government in Minister Múcio, defended by other former Ministers of Defense, even of the PT, as important in the “conciliation” with the Armed Forces, repeats again the attempt of a conservative resolution above, but without guarantees. In the same way, the blind confidence in the legal instrumentality to defeat the far-right can also knock on the door of the left.
The thousands who attended the inauguration of the new government sent an unequivocal message: “No to amnesty!”, a cry that was repeated in the mobilization on the 9th in response to the coup. Many voted for Lula, even with Alckmin, to electorally defeat the Bolsonaro government, but also to repeal the counter-reforms and other rights taken away, to guarantee steady jobs with wages above real inflation, housing and food on the plate of the millions who go hungry. Our task, organizing and mobilizing, must be this and for the conquest of much more. Immediately, it is necessary that Lula heed the cry of the grassroots that demand the dismissal of Múcio, Minister of Defense, the extradition and punishment of Bolsonaro and the confiscation of the assets of all the coup perpetrators.
Meet our Liaison Committee of the organizations Alternativa Socialista and Luta Socialista, currents of the PSOL, sections of the International Socialist League, and fight with us for a new revolutionary and socialist organization!