We present this interview that the editorial staff of the ISL website conducted with the comrade, leader of Socialist Revolution and the PSOL. Silvia is an activist of long trajectory, who is suffering persecution and attempted expulsion by the majority leadership of her party for her unconditional defense of the rights of the workers of her city, whose Mayor is a member of the majority current of the PSOL. We call for the broadest solidarity with Silvia and to repudiate this attack which, if carried out, would imply another advance in the domestication of what used to be a fundamental tool in the struggle to achieve fundamental change in favor of workers and the poor.
First of all, Silvia Letícia, I would like to express our solidarity with you in the face of this unjust persecution. Tell us a little about your trajectory and what positions you currently hold at the labor and political levels.
I am very grateful for the solidarity of the MST and the ISL. I am a public school teacher in Belém and an education specialist in the state of Pará. I have a degree in Pedagogy, a master’s degree and a doctorate in Education from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). I work as coordinator of SINTEPP (Public Education Union) and as a municipal advisor for education and school nutrition.
I have been twice a member of the National Executive Secretariat of CSP Conlutas and president of PSOL Belém. I am currently a member of the party’s state leadership in Pará. I am also a councilor of the city of Belém, together with the Mandato Coletivo de servidores municipais, our first mandate.
What are your denunciations and criticisms of the municipal government of Edmilson Rodrigues and his political front with sectors of the right in Belém?
The mayor of the city, Edmilson Rodrigues, who is part of the Primavera Socialista political current that leads the PSOL, is at the head of the municipal government with a Broad Front that includes the PSOL, sectors of the traditional bourgeoisie that governs the state, and parties of Bolsonaro’s ultra-right. He has chosen to implement a fiscal adjustment plan that cuts workers’ wages in favor of the rich and powerful. Municipal employees do not even receive a minimum wage (R$1,412.00) as basic salary; teachers and nurses are not entitled to the National Salary Floor for their categories, established by federal law.
Recently, the mayor privatized the city’s waste collection service through a public-private partnership for R$1 billion, half of which will be paid by the population through a garbage tax, which is absurd. In addition, he bought buses to pass them on to the businessmen who dominate the sector and changed the municipal legislation prohibiting the dismissal of bus collectors. To top it off, he exempted the companies from paying taxes. The city council also granted an environmental license for the installation in the city of a gold refining company of dubious provenance.
This is a government that serves the interests of the rich and powerful, favoring businessmen over the needs of the poor and working population.
Since it is so evident that this mayor applies measures against workers and the poor, why does the majority current of the PSOL leadership intend to sanction you?
The PSOL leadership accuses me of disloyalty to the party for positioning myself and voting against the projects I mentioned, and threatens to punish me, even expelling me from the party, for my role in the political leadership of the mobilizations, strikes and stoppages of my category in education and of the municipal civil service against the government of the Broad Front, which belittles the workers. However, it is the mayor himself who goes against the PSOL program by attacking our rights and gains as workers. None of the measures adopted by the mayor’s office, which I mentioned above, were discussed or determined by the PSOL. They are trying to punish me for putting our mandate at the service of the workers and against the municipal management. We will not take one step back.
What is the political panorama today, of the government of Lula da Silva and the PT on the one hand, and of Bolsonaro on the other, vis-à-vis the mass movement in Brazil?
A year into the government, we can say that Lula also governs for the rich and powerful, favoring the financial system and agribusiness. The PT and the Broad Front government, which had denounced the Secret Budget (mechanism of buying deputies through amendments to the federal budget to form a base of political support in Congress), now utilize the same mechanism. We can say that the Tax Reform and the new Spending Ceiling Law in the budget only increased the tax burden on the poor, while the rich continue to benefit from tax exemptions. The same happens with the federal budget, which is oriented to paying Brazil’s public debt (the sum of internal debt and external debt), which currently exceeds 9 trillion reais, while more than 75% of households across the country are indebted, and 20% of them completely bankrupt.
There are many reasons to protest and fight for our rights. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy of the CUT and of the official trade union federations have exercised a nefarious political control over the mass movement in our country, with the left wing federations paralyzed, focused on the management of their own trade union interests and on ultra-propagandist political campaigns that fail to effectively mobilize their social base. There are several struggles in different categories, very fragmented, and the lack of a unified process against the government’s projects is what allows the federal government to still maintain part of its mass support. This could change at any moment.
On the other hand, Bolsonaro is politically weakened, despite leading key states such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Paraná. However, these state governments depend significantly on the federal budget, allowing Lula to neutralize to some extent the influence of these governors. Bolsonaro attempted a coup d’état on January 8, an event that is being investigated by the Brazilian justice system, but so far no political mastermind of the coup, not even its financiers, has been prosecuted or imprisoned.
In view of the recent electoral alliance in Sao Paulo between Boulos (PSOL) and former Senator Suplicy (PT), what is the opinion of the national leadership of PSOL and our internal current Socialist Revolution?
The PSOL leadership is making a serious mistake in accepting an electoral agreement with Marta and the PT, who have already governed the city of São Paulo and have left a legacy of taking away workers’ rights in favor of the powerful Paulista bourgeoisie. Boulos has all the political and social conditions to dispute and win the elections without having to ally himself with a sector of the ruling class represented by Marta Suplicy.
Another significant mistake of the PSOL leadership is to raise the municipality of Belém as an example of the municipal administration of the party, given that, according to the latest polls, it is rejected by 84% of the population and is considered the worst administration of a state capital. Unfortunately, for the moment, the PSOL leadership seems to confirm the maxim that the closer one is to power, the more right-wing and conciliatory the proposals of its program become.
We no longer hear Boulos talking about the re-nationalization of privatized companies, the auditing of the huge municipal debt with the companies, the breaking of contracts and the democratization of public administration with the protagonism of social movements and organized workers.
Our political organization, Revolução Socialista (Socialist Revolution), opposes this political-electoral agreement proposed by the national leadership of the PSOL. We propose a political left front with the social movements and trade unions, with a program including the audit and non-payment of the city’s debt to companies and suppliers, the breaking of contracts harmful to the population, the re-nationalization of all public companies privatized or in public-private partnership, the fight against real estate speculation, the regularization of all urban occupations, the creation of a municipal bus fleet, the reduction of working hours without salary reduction, public tenders for education, health and social assistance, and the freezing of food prices of the basic goods of the food basket, among other proposals.
Faced with the attempt of sanction by the majority leadership, Socialist Revolution, with the support of the International Socialist League, initiated a campaign. Can you tell us a little about this?
The International Socialist League, together with its parties and groups organized in more than 30 countries on five continents, is part of the campaign launched by my current, Socialist Revolution, in defense of my democratic right to think differently from the orientation of the majority of the PSOL leadership. It is a campaign in defense of the right of working men and women to have their political representatives as tribunes of the poor and working people in the bourgeois parliament. The campaign is open and democratic, any political organization, trade union and popular referent can participate. We have received political statements and videos from all over the world, which are being sent to the national leadership of the PSOL, demanding that there be no punishment for thinking differently. There is also a petition that has already collected many signatures and continues to spread.
This campaign has been a source of strength and support for me, because I know that I am not alone in this struggle. Political and international solidarity is very important.