Despite the radicalization of the coup discourse, the cracks are growing. It is necessary to put the working class and youth in movement, and build a broad unity for “Out Bolsonaro”
After September 7th, the political balance and the analysis of the conjuncture should serve to indicate the next steps in the struggle to defeat Bolsonaro’s coup-ism. In this editorial, we point out some trends in the political situation. It is a fact that Bolsonaro put hundreds of thousands on the streets of the country yesterday. In a Herculean effort, which involved a lot of money, public apparatus and displacement of the Bolsonaro base from cities in the interior in thousands of buses paid for by pro-government businessmen, his rally was concentrated in Brasilia and São Paulo.
Nevertheless, a paradox presents itself: the more he mobilizes and agitates his militant social base, the more Bolsonaro isolates himself in the country’s political superstructure. What is the outcome of this quality leap in the political crisis? The Left-Wing took to the streets, in a courageous and dignified way, in very ill-prepared demonstrations and, therefore, with a reduced presence. Faced with Bolsonaro’s explicit coup-ism, it is necessary to build a broad unity of action capable of massifying the struggle to remove him from office immediately.
A quality leap in the political and institutional crisis
The coup demonstrations of September 7th occur when Brazil is experiencing an intense economic, social, health, political, water, energy, environmental crisis… In almost three years of government, Bolsonaro has magnified each of these crises, applying a program of shock against the working class and the Brazilian people, which counted with the enthusiastic support of the bourgeoisie until the ineptitude of the government began to charge its costs, especially with the genocidal policy in the pandemic, the stimulus to environmental destruction and its consequences in international markets, and the failure of Paulo Guedes to deliver the promised economic recovery.
Pressured by his falling popularity, by electoral polls that indicate his defeat in 2022, by investigations into his family’s criminal life, and by increasing divisions in the ruling class and the political superstructure, Bolsonaro has advanced his coup mobilization. Relying on the hard core of his base, Bolsonaro relied, above all, on the support of part of ruralism, retail businessmen and evangelical leaders to give a show of force, trying to contain the threats of the investigations at the STF and TSE.
If it is true that Bolsonaro is broadening his isolation and that his demonstrations have gathered a minority social base in the country, composed mainly of white, older, middle-class and evangelical people, the radicalization of Bolsonarism should not be underestimated. The coup attack on the STF and his promise that “only God” will get him out of Brasilia (and that the alternatives to his victory are death or a prison that he will not accept) show that his move is aimed at regime closure, combined or not with an unlikely victory in 2022. Hence, the systematic recourse to discrediting the TSE and the electronic ballot boxes, emulating Trumpism.
Bolsonaro clings to power and his coup-ism escalation was evident, accelerating the shift in the superstructure. The week before the demonstrations was marked by “letters” from bourgeois sectors in defense of institutionality. After the 7th, this displacement begins to manifest itself in the late articulations of bourgeois parties like PSDB, PSD, Cidadania, Solidariedade, among others, in favor of impeachment. Globo has vocalized, in its coverage of the Bolsonarist demonstrations, the harsher tone of the non-Bolsonarist right.
Today (8), the timid manifestation of Luiz Fux and the empty pronouncement of Lira also revealed the difficulties for such bourgeois sectors to contain the coup. Bolsonaro can only be contained in the streets with mobilization. The majority of the Brazilian people reject his genocidal, corrupt government and his policy of misery and national destruction.
The place of the opposition is in the street: it’s time for broad unity to bring down Bolsonaro
The demonstrations held by the opposition on the 7th, especially the maintenance of the protest in Sao Paulo, was an important example, but it fell far short of what was needed to counter the coup d’état of Bolsonaro. The opposition and, in particular, the majority of the “Out, Bolsonaro” campaign, under the orientation of Lula and the PT, made a serious mistake with the paralysis in the calendar of struggles, letting the pressure accumulated in the demonstrations of the last few months cool down. Even worse were the sectors that discouraged the mobilization, spreading fear in the vanguard. Bolsonaro’s coup cannot be allowed to take place, throwing all hopes of defeating the government to the election of 2022 – when it is known that Bolsonaro puts even that election at risk.
Mobilization is fundamental, since the government continues to lose support and, despite the radicalization of its coupist discourse, the fissures are growing. The crisis on the top floor can precipitate a window for those below. Therefore, it is necessary to put the working class and the youth in movement, and build a broad unity for “Out, Bolsonaro,” regardless of other electoral positions and expectations. The example of the struggle of indigenous peoples against the “temporal mark” should inspire us, raising our heads against the fascists.
We agree with the position of the federal deputy Fernanda Melchionna in a recent article:
“It is necessary to maintain the willingness to fight and, at the same time, open a frank and clear debate with the sectors of the left wing that bet on taking the dispute to the electoral field of 2022. This is extremely irresponsible; otherwise, our people will continue bleeding until then and give more chances for organization, even military, to protofascism. It is necessary to debate within the Brazilian vanguard that fear has never changed history. If we are a social majority, we need to demonstrate this in the streets. Identifying the bourgeois division is important to see Bolsonaro’s own isolation and limits, but we can never leave our future in the hands of the elites and summit deals.”
We must deepen the debate of the “agenda” of class needs: the price of gas, the increase in food price inflation, unemployment, the defense of state own companies. Our objective need is to build a broad unity act for “Out, Bolsonaro” and impeachment, still in September, opening the way for the expansion of the movement, with the entrance of the youth and working class on the stage.
