It took less than 200 days in government for Lula-Alckmin’s campaign promises to be left behind.
By: Waldemir Soares, CSP-Conlutas
I believe there is no doubt that the current Planalto administration was elected to change the genocidal policies applied by Bolsonaro to indigenous peoples and its predatory stance towards the environment.
Nor is it news that the current composition of the National Congress is comprised of owners of large estates and supports industrial agribusiness and that many supported the previous administration and the coup attempt on January 8.
Where we are at then, is at a political juncture that is completely unfavorable to the protection of the planet. Instead, governance has been made to guarantee the management of the financial interests of the economic system. It is not possible to move away from this reality.
Maneuvers favorable to agribusiness
The maneuvers to cater to agribusiness carried out on May 24 by the president of the Chamber Arthur Lira (PP-Alagoas) give a clear example that naivety or amateurism have no place in the current context. And that the social movements should not give up the streets.
Lira has never hidden his support for far-right policies and politicians. Far from it, he campaigned for Jair Bolsonaro and his genocidal team. Therefore their defense of indigenous peoples and the environment can only be for those clueless enough to believe that “the earth is flat.”
And agribusiness has never been so strong. And it is not only in terms of the economy. Today agribusiness has a seat in the Chamber of Deputies composed by 2/3 of the parliamentarians. It occupies the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, with the cattleman Carlos Fávaro (PSD-MT). And it is present in the most diverse sectors of the national economy.
Therefore, the discourse of the protection of indigenous peoples and the environment is fallacious. It is really within the limits of the interests of the Brazilian agrarian bourgeoisie and its contradictions, but never outside the monetary objectives that supply the system itself.
That is why the urgent vote of PL nº 490 (Temporary Framework), changed who is able to demarcate indigenous territories from the Executive Power to the Legislative Power (the former PEC 215), and is fundamental for the expansion of land dedicated to cultivation. In other words, it removes the process of demarcation of territories from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) and takes it to the Ministry of Justice and Citizenship and Flávio Dino (PSB-MA), who is a supporter of the landowners.
What the government celebrates as a victory in the approval of MP 1.154 in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, in reality was a defeat for the voters and social movements that honestly believed in the end of the old policy and its most nefarious interests.
In addition, it was a victory for the landowners, with the approval of MP 1.150/22, which weakens the environmental protection of the Atlantic Forest biome. There were 364 votes in favor and 66 against. That is to say, the federal administration itself voted against environmental preservation, in addition to remaining silent regarding the protection of indigenous peoples.
It occurred in less than two hundred days
Defending democratic freedoms is necessary, but without a planet it is meaningless. The current composition of the National Congress will not prevent the genocide of indigenous peoples, nor will it prevent the arrival at the “point of no return” for the environment.
And, depending on the current administration that abandoned campaign promises, the future will be one of deeper attacks against indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental preservation.
May the defeat suffered in the Chamber of Deputies by indigenous and environmentalists be a driving force to promote political demonstrations to guarantee the historical rights won with the blood of fighters, and to understand the need for political independence and with power coming from the masses.
There can be no preservation of indigenous peoples and the environment under capitalism. And the illusion of peace, as Ailton Krenak would say, is only to ensure that everything remains the same: whites continue to exploit, enslave, and kill our people. The “fall of the sky” begins.
Article published in www.pstu.org.br
