By PSTU, Brazil
Brazil is under direct attack from imperialism. Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Brazilian exports constitutes a serious violation of our sovereignty and national independence. It is more than an economic issue; it is unacceptable political interference. Trump’s justification includes defending former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for an attempted coup, and requesting amnesty for the coup plotters. This constitutes explicit interference in Brazil’s national political process, supporting the far right and opposing Brazilian state’s institutions.
In economic terms, the objective is clear: to strengthen the United States’ dominance over Brazil. For decades, U.S. imperialism has dominated our economy through monopolies that exploit workers, plunder our resources, and return billions of dollars in profits to shareholders. The profits of U.S. companies operating here are one of the cruelest forms of plundering our people.
As expected, Bolsonarism applauds Trump’s actions. They do so because their project is one of total submission to imperialism. They pushed for this maneuver as part of their attempt to politically rehabilitate Bolsonaro. They celebrate foreign aggression as part of their strategy to prevent the former president’s arrest and support his return to the electoral race. This stance reveals these sectors’ true nature: they are not patriots but rather lackeys of imperialist interests who are willing to sacrifice the country for their own political goals and an authoritarian agenda.
However, we must not be fooled by the rest of the Brazilian bourgeoisie. Although they criticize Trump’s actions, their response is timid and conciliatory. They call for negotiation and dialogue because their profits depend on their subordination to imperialism. Brazilian history shows that no bourgeois sector has ever been willing to challenge imperialism. Dependence is a structural component of the economic model they defend.
Despite its initial rhetoric of “reciprocity,” the Lula government declared 24 hours later that it would only be used as a “last resort,” representing the will of the Brazilian bourgeoisie. This further emphasizes the need for the working class to intervene and offer an adequate response. The minimum acceptable response to this aggression is to ban the remittance of dollars from investment funds with public debt, as well as the profits and dividends of multinational corporations. Additionally, the government must be prepared to nationalize imperialist monopolies and U.S. companies operating in the country. Strategic sectors must be nationalized and placed under workers’ control. A genuine break with imperialism must be initiated.
The electoral and institutional left has a very limited position. At the rally on Paulista Avenue, Boulos’s speech did not address the severity of the imperialist attack. He focused on the 2026 elections and defended the idea of helping Lula’s government “govern against the Centrão” (1). In reality, when he proposes that workers help govern, he is actually talking about maintaining and supporting the government’s neoliberal economic policy and fiscal framework, which protects bankers and U.S. investment fund creditors who plunder our wealth. Furthermore, his speech is misleading because it overlooks the fact that the “centrão” feeds off the government that assigns it ministries and funds.
This conciliatory policy toward the bourgeoisie disarms workers. The struggle against imperialism must be linked to the struggle against budget cuts to social services, the fiscal framework, the 6×1 scale, and the taxation of billionaires and capitalists. We must unite the popular struggles independently of the bourgeoisie, Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the government.
In order to defeat imperialism and Bolsonarism, we must confront the wealthy, bankers, the Brazilian Social Fund (Fiesp), agribusiness monopolies, and Congress. We cannot conciliate and govern with all of them, as Lula does.
In order to defend the country’s sovereignty against imperialist aggression of this magnitude, workers’ and popular organization must break with the bourgeoisie. They must call for the mobilization of workers with political independence from governments and bosses in order to defend the country and our demands.
Workers must build their own mobilization that is independent of the bourgeoisie. We must pressure unions, students, and popular movements to end their passivity and organize a real response. Even to demand concrete measures from the Lula government to confront the United States, independent mobilization is necessary, not empty speeches or timid negotiations. Therefore, the struggle against imperialism must be connected to our demands, to the struggles of U.S. workers and immigrants against the Trump government, and to the Palestinian people’s struggle against genocide in Gaza and for an end to the capitalist system itself.
The time is now for firmness, courage, and organized action to defend national sovereignty, class independence, and a future free from exploitation. Trump out of Brazil! Bolsonaro to prison!
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(1) This term is used in Brazil to refer to a group of opportunistic bourgeois political parties that negotiate their parliamentary votes in exchange for perks or positions. ↩
