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This article is based on a lecture by the author at the public forum of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Ninguem solta a mão de ninguém – no one will let go of anyone's hand.
This is one of the most repeated sentences after the victory of Jair Bolsonaro, the fascist candidate from military history who ran for president of Brazil.
It's the spirit, we take care of each other, we fight, we resist.
But how did we get here? The election of Bolsonaro has not been done by a democratic process: a whole country has just one day decided to elect a defender of torture and rape, racist and homophobic, to name only one. some of its features.
It is the continuation of the destruction of our democracy in the context of a coup process which began in 2016 with the dismissal of Dilma Rousseff from the presidency, on the basis of a process of dismissal no concrete proof of his actions.
As far as Brazilian democracy is concerned, we must also bear in mind that it is very young. I am older than Brazilian democracy. The norm in Brazil is to be subject to very oppressive and unequal systems.
Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world with 62,000 homicides in 2016. About 76% of these murders were committed against black and brown people. Every two hours a woman is murdered in Brazil. Every 19 hours, an LGBTQ person is murdered or commits suicide for homophobia.
This violence has always existed, but it has increased significantly since the coup d'etat, in the order of 30% for crimes committed against LGBTQ people since 2016. Violence is one of the main Brazilians' concerns, although there is a lot of misinformation associated with generates violence, which promotes violence and how you can end it.
Another important class relationship in Brazil is the slavery mentality that exists in the country. We still have many cases of poor exploitation, in the fields, in the factories, in the construction works and the servants, to name a few.
We are also a very misogynistic, homophobic and racist country.
Brazil is a country where many families control large areas, control major media and also hold political positions such as mayor, governor, senator, minister, etc.
Since our first presidential elections in 1989, the electoral process has been manipulated and controlled by these families. The final debate that took place before election day in 1989 was not broadcast live by Globo (the media monopoly in Brazil), as they had to show the latest episode of the novela. Instead, they showed the next day a revised version in which they were completely in favor of their candidate, Fernando Collor de Melo, who looked a lot like Bolsonaro.
Since its creation, the Workers' Party has always been attacked by the big Brazilian media, which broadcast what is now called "false information". At one time, you had false information in print, then on the radio, and then on television. have the social media format. Or the WhatsApp format. Whichever format you choose, let us be clear, this is not new, companies that control the means of communication and who serve the capital always manipulated the information.
These forces have always retained power in Brazil and are very strong and present in the country. That is why, in 2003, when Lula won, he wrote the "Letter to the Brazilian people" in which he "would calm the market", saying that the Workers' Party would not take the radical or too "left" way ". . He would rule for all, form a coalition.
And they did, Lula's two mandates brought more than 50 million people out of extreme poverty, empowering Brazilian national industry, education, health care, housing, the economy and give a lot of money to the rich. Lula left her second term with over 85% approval. No president in the world has managed to leave a second term with such approval. It was in 2010!
So, how is it that 85% of the countries support Lula and his party, of course, reject it completely and elect a citizen like Bolsonaro?
How do you change millions of opinions? The media in Brazil have played a very important role in this regard. When Dilma became president, she was very different from Lula and far away from the base. This is not entirely his fault, it was already something the entire Workers' Party had been doing since they came to power.
The PT made a lot of mistakes in "trying to govern for all" and trying to "please everyone". Many factors also influenced this crisis, such as the decline in the price of oil from 2013. other countries than the United States were competing to control, as Venezuela). There was the economic crisis, a social crisis with protests against the World Cup and transport rises. And all these crises came with an intense media attack saying that everything was the fault of the Workers Party. Yes, there was a fault, but their goal here was to start removing the Workers Party from the political scene, because no matter what they did, the PT continued to elect presidents.
And that is what happened when Dilma was reelected in 2014-15.
After the reelection, corruption cases related to Judge Moro's investigation of the car wash began to be used as a mechanism to end the Workers Party by any means necessary. Dilma was deposed and a right wing base began to descend on the street again. Violence began to grow, hatred and political violence in particular.
Governmental institutions have become weak, leaning to execute actions totally unethical in order to maintain the coup d'état and thus the power under the control of those who have always had it. I am talking about those who run the judiciary, the so-called "market", right wing forces such as parties and other groups, the police, the army, and religious groups that are mostly evangelicals.
We are not in a democracy, we are subject to a process of coup d'etat controlled by these people. And they knew that if Lula ran for president he would have won in the first round. And that is why Judge Moro has been trying to keep him in prison.
Most of the country associates Lula with prosperity. His mandates did not have the same level of crisis as Dilma's and the economy was much better. Lula is also very different from any other leader, that's a person apart from the Workers Party. So, yes, if he was in the race, he would win easily. Even so he had to do his prison campaign.
And that is why they have not only put him in jail without any evidence of corruption against him, but have also denied his right to run for office. A right guaranteed by an agreement signed by Brazil with the UN. And what the UN has drawn the attention of Brazil, saying that if the judiciary did not let Lula to run, Brazil would be disrespectful of the international agreement and could therefore face prosecution in the courts International. The judiciary has blocked Lula anyway.
And that's when the Workers Party launched the Haddad and Manuela campaign. Haddad was Lula's vice presidential candidate. He is a teacher and has been Mayor of Sao Paulo; he has received awards from around the world for his management of the city. He was also Lula's Minister of Education and the one who built more schools and universities than any other government in Brazilian history. Manuela comes from the student movement, she belongs to the Communist Party of Brazil and has been a senator for about 15 years.
And who is Jair Bolsonaro? He's not a new politician on the Brazilian scene, he's been representing the house for 26 years. He is a parasite who has done nothing for the country, not a single bill, but only government positions for his family. But let me use his own words to describe it:
- 1993: "I am in favor of a dictatorship, of an exceptional regime."
- 1999: "The pau-de-arara [a torture technique] works. I am in favor of torture, you know it well. And people are also in favor. "
- 19999: "Thanks to the vote, you will not change anything in this country, nothing, absolutely nothing! Unfortunately, this will only change when one day we will start a civil war and do the work that the military regime has not done. Kill about 30,000 people, starting with FHC [then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso], do not chase them, kill them! If innocent people die, okay, in any war, innocent people die.
- 2003: "I am a rapist now. I would never rape you, because you do not deserve it … bitch! To another representative at home
- 2010: "I would be unable to love a homosexual child. I will not behave here like a hypocrite: I would prefer that my son die in an accident than to present me with a mustachioed type. For me, he would be dead … "If your son starts to play a little gay, hit him with leather and he will change his behavior.
- 2016: "I would not use it [a woman] with the same salary [of a man]. But many women are competent.
- 2017: "I will give carte blanche to the police for her to kill."
- 2018: "This group, if they want to stay here, will have to submit to the law of each one of us. Leave or go to jail. These red marginals will be banished from our homeland. "
- 2018: "You will not have more NGOs to quench your left hunger. It will be a purification never seen in the history of Brazil. "
During the presidential campaign, Bolsonaro only participated in two debates in the first round, before Haddad's candidacy was defined.
He was then stabbed at a rally and did not participate in any other debate because he was following his doctor's recommendations. However, early in the second round, his doctors said that he agreed to participate in the discussions with Haddad and he refused. Later, he even acknowledged that the fact of not discussing Haddad on national television was part of his strategy.
And who is behind Bolsonaro's campaign strategy? Steve Bannon. And what was the basis of the Bolsonaro campaign? Facebook and Whatsapp. They created a machine to broadcast information (anything, hate messages, fake news). Part of this machine was paid for by wealthy businessmen in Brazil. They spent $ 12 million on mass marketing campaigns on Whatsapp. This is something that is illegal in Brazil for two reasons: 1. The private sector can not fund political campaigns. Doing what these businessmen did by not directly giving the money to Bolsonaro, but paying the marketing companies directly for their services is called "caixa 2" and is a crime. Another crime is to use lists, contact lists, to send a campaign propaganda that is not your party list. In the same way that we build our contact list when you register at the door, during elections, parties are supposed to send this type of message only to the contacts on their list, and not to buy lists of marketing companies. .
During the elections, there was a wave of violence promoted by supporters of Bolsonaro. Do you remember the right base that invaded the streets during the impeachment process? This is a very violent and very dangerous base. A capoeirist, Mestre Moa, was killed in Bahia for expressing support for Haddad. A young woman was attacked and marked with a swastika on her body with a knife by supporters of Bolsonaro because she was wearing a campaign sticker #EleNao, a campaign led by women against Bolsonaro.
It was in fact the most violent national elections in history. In two months of the electoral process, 136 violent attacks were recorded, resulting in 42 injuries and eight people.
The people who got involved in the "Turn the Vote" campaign or Vira voto right after the first round were a bit afraid to approach people and how to approach them. We, here in New York, went to Newark to raise awareness and we were very discreet because of that.
But over time, outreach strategies were consistently iterated through people sharing what worked, what did not work, new materials to try, new arguments, and so on. Strategies have become more and more prevalent, people are starting to prepare tables with cakes and coffee, inviting others to come and talk to them if they have questions about who to vote for. Even famous people joined the group, as novela actors who talked with people. The last week and a half before the second round, this popular work has become incredible. It was the first time since the coup d'etat that the mobilized people who fought against the coup managed to reach out to the uninvolved people and to dialogue with them, engage them. The popular mobilization of ViraVoto will certainly be part of the history of Brazil.
Bolsonaro then wins the elections. It is important to note that among the votes cast, the actual number was: 39% for Bolsonaro, 32% for Haddad, 29% for Abstained. So 61% rejected Bolsonaro. The fact is that half of these people also expressed a strong rejection of the Workers' Party, so much so that they preferred not to vote for him, even if they did not really support Bolsonaro.
My personal feeling is that we have great potential to organize and mobilize this 61%. The ViraVoto has shown that there is a way to connect and join forces. For example, "defending democracy" was a point of connection. We need to find more connection points to rebuild the base.
Even the Workers Party has resorted to the strategy of withdrawing from the message. In the second round, they had slogans for their campaign that started: "I'm not a petist but because of x, I'll vote for Haddad" [Petista refers to Workers Party members or supporters-ed].
The Brazilian left must be able to join forces and build a solid base.
In addition, more than ever, we, the resisters, need to professionalize our recruiting capacity and develop as many skills as possible to meet the demand. Because we are already witnessing attacks against the landless movement, which has burned down one of its camps. We are witnessing attacks on aboriginal communities across the country; one of them set fire to a medical center. There are already attempts of censorship against universities and teachers. We saw people armed with rifles in the streets, military parades celebrating Bolsonaro's victory. A law could criminalize the movement of landless peasants and the homelessness movement as a terrorist. Bolsonaro announces the appointment of his government and everything will be supported by the worst of the worst of Brazilian politics. Do you remember Judge Moro putting Lula in jail, eliminating Bolsonaro's biggest opponent in the race? He has just accepted the offer of Minister of Justice of Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro plans to merge the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, which will result in increased destruction of the Amazon and other forests and already destroys our education system.
And because of all that, I will finish my presentation on my debut. We must be organized, we must care for each other, we must fight, we must resist.
Ninguem solta a mão de ninguém – no one will let go of anyone's hand.
