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In recent weeks, we have witnessed one of the most intense mass mobilizations in the country\u2019s history. Following the results of the first round, with Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro in the lead, a series of spontaneous demonstrations\u2014driven by young people and operating outside the structures of the PT and the government\u2014erupted across Brazil against the threat of the far right\u2019s return to power. Against all odds, and in the face of interference from big tech companies and the maneuvers of pro-Bolsonaro municipal governments, this movement achieved an unprecedented feat by bringing about a turnaround in the second round and an electoral defeat for Bolsonarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In practice, the mass movement took a discredited PT campaign\u2014which focused on selling an idealized image of the country, at odds with the reality of a Brazil facing enormous social and economic problems such as inflation, underemployment, and a lack of prospects\u2014and transformed it into a direct repudiation of the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The demonstrations and a vast network of solidarity among working-class sectors\u2014which helped transport people to the polling stations\u2014contributed to an unprecedented drop in the abstention rate, ensuring Lula\u2019s reelection and, above all, keeping the Bolsonaro camp out of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The working class and the youth emerge strengthened from this process, and rightly so. In the streets, they confronted the far right, Trump, and the big tech companies, and demonstrated that, through struggle, it is possible to shift the balance of power and prevent setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Furthermore, the movement played a key role in the Senate\u2019s virtually unanimous approval of the end of the 6\u00d71 pay scale\u2014something unthinkable just months ago. It also raised demands such as the defense of sovereignty, the fight against privatization, and the defense of social rights and the lives of women, Black people, and LGBTQI+ individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In a cowardly act and in coordination with U.S. imperialism, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro fled the country, while Trump threatens not to recognize the election results. The far right is an expression of the system\u2019s decay and of the rich’s view of “democracy”, and it will continue with its authoritarian agenda\u2014both within and outside government institutions\u2014unless we defeat it in the streets and defeat the system that feeds it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro\u2019s electoral defeat was significant and constituted a victory. But Lula\u2019s reelected government does not represent change for workers. It will be a capitalist government, just like the previous one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In the offices of the Planalto Palace and among the economic team, a new round of fiscal austerity is already being discussed, which could include measures such as a new pension reform and other fiscal austerity mechanisms at the expense of the rights of the poorest workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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One such measure would be the elimination of the wage subsidy for those who stop receiving Bolsa Fam\u00edlia<\/em> (lit. “family bag”) benefits upon securing formal employment. Another set of measures being considered by the current Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, would involve modifying the constitutionally mandated spending floors for health and education by changing their calculation basis through the inclusion of parliamentary amendments. This would be an accounting adjustment that, in practice, would effectively eliminate those spending floors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n These measures run counter to the message of the demonstrations, which took to the streets against the far right but also in defense of social rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This reinforces the need to resume the mobilizations that began during the runoff election\u2014but now against the attacks being prepared by the Lula administration, as well as against any potential authoritarian threat from the far right or political or military intervention by imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The mobilizations taking place in countries like France, Portugal, and the Spanish State in defense of rights such as education and housing show the way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even amid the impressive rise of mass mobilizations, Lula\u2019s government has already shown that it will not govern for the workers or with them. While the streets were moving to the left, the government was moving in the opposite direction\u2014for example, by placing agribusiness representative K\u00e1tia Abreu at the helm of its official campaign, or with Lula himself leaning toward punitive populism by lowering the age of criminal responsibility. And now, with the clear signal of a new fiscal austerity measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is happening because Lula governs with and for the bankers, industrialists, large agribusiness owners, multinationals, and, ultimately, the major national and imperialist billionaires and their representatives in the bourgeois parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why he does not confront the capitalists or nationalize strategic sectors by relying on the mobilization of workers and the people. On the contrary, he runs a government of alliances and relies on the National Congress\u2014an enemy of the people\u2014and the judiciary, sacrificing the demands of the working class, women, and indigenous peoples, such as the repeal of the labor reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This type of government based on alliances and conciliation with the big capitalists and imperialism is what, ultimately, ends up strengthening the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lula and Bolsonaro are not the same, in the sense that the far right poses a threat to democratic freedoms. We defeated Bolsonarism at the polls, but the task now is not to support Lula\u2019s government, but to build a strong left-wing opposition that offers an alternative distinct from both this failed project of class-conciliation and the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n To do this, we must continue the mobilizations and win over as many workers, young people, and oppressed sectors as possible to a path of class independence, demonstrating that the demands expressed in the mass demonstrations will not be achieved through agreements with the bourgeoisie and imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Workers and youth, when mobilized and organized, have the power to change the country and build a government of the working class, women, Black people, and Indigenous peoples\u2014without capitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n For it is the working class that produces the wealth that ends up in the pockets of less than 1% of the population\u2014the mega-owners of the country\u2019s 250 largest companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The PSTU fielded the candidacies of Hertz Dias and Vanessa Portugal in the first round with the aim of discussing and defending a revolutionary and socialist program for Brazil that addresses the root causes of our social regression and degradation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The program places at the center of the debate the need to expropriate the large capitalist monopolies that control a significant portion of our economy and the issue of national sovereignty, with the workers in charge. Along with this, it raises the need to build a working-class alternative political vehicle that overcomes the polarization between two capitalist alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the runoff election, the PSTU called for a critical vote for Lula, without offering any support for his government. This was because, although both represent different ways of continuing to administer capitalism, a potential Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro government was openly presented as a threat to democratic freedoms and, therefore, would create worse conditions for fighting the attacks to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to combating Bolsonarism, this position was also considered the most appropriate way to explain to workers the capitalist nature of Lula\u2019s government and to highlight the need to build a left-wing opposition to that government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, the PSTU actively participated in the demonstrations and in organizing the \u201cCritical Vote Blocs\u201d across the country, bringing together activists to sway votes and defeat Bolsonarism, while maintaining complete political independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with this, the PSTU raised the need to challenge the PT and its policy of class conciliation from the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the \u201cinstitutional left,\u201d which supports the Lula government and positions itself as part of its support base as a way to combat the far right, the PSTU warned that it is the PT government\u2019s own policies\u2014such as its fiscal framework, austerity-driven economic policy, the continuation of reactionary labor reform, privatizations, and the sellout of the country\u2014that, in addition to worsening people\u2019s lives, sustain and deepen the social and economic conditions that strengthen the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why the PSTU has positioned itself\u2014and will continue to do so\u2014as the left-wing opposition to Lula\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is an urgent need to build and strengthen a revolutionary and socialist alternative that goes beyond the PT, to the left of the system, and its failed policy of class conciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without this, we will remain trapped in an endless cycle of different bourgeois governments, while Brazil becomes increasingly dependent and the living conditions of the working class and the vast majority of the population continue to deteriorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n History has already shown that, by choosing one \u201clesser evil\u201d after another, we always end up falling into the \u201cgreater evil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Only by radically changing this social organization based on exploitation and oppression will it be possible to transform the living conditions of the working class; of women who are victims of femicide and gender-based violence; of Black youth and residents of the peripheries, victims of violence perpetrated by organized crime and the Military Police; LGBTI people, who are oppressed and overexploited; and indigenous, Quilombola, and riverine communities, who are victims of agribusiness, logging companies, and mining corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The PSTU extends an invitation: come discuss with us a revolutionary and socialist program and alternative<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nFight for the political independence of workers, strengthen a left-wing opposition, and build a socialist alternative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We must discuss the role of the PT and the need to move beyond it to the left<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s time to organize: take a stand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n