The September 7th coup and the need for class independence in the workers’ struggle.
The following is translated from our Brazilian comrades of the Grupo de Trabalhadores Revolucionários do Brasil (GTR-BR)
On September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, Bolsonaro and his allies organized a national coup demonstration in a clear arm wrestling with the Supreme Court reflecting the deep institutional crisis that the country has been in since the impeachment of Dilma and the Workers Party (PT).
The day before the rallies low-cost hotels in Brasília were packed with people coming by bus to the demonstration sites. In Brasília, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro too. The demonstrations did not have the millions of participants expected by the Bolsonaristas, but they did have a few hundred thousand and with inflammatory speeches against the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the National Congress (CN), they had an offensive character. Banners and posters with the words “Military Coup” and for the closing of the STF and the National Congress were one more watchword.
The night before the demonstration truck drivers and Bolsonaro supporters broke the police barrier that gave access to the STF and CN buildings with the consent of the Military Police (PM) who took no action to stop them. The movement on the eve of the demonstration sparked a stir between the liberal right-wing opposition and the STF, trying to mobilize forces that ended up establishing a new barrier closer to the Praça dos Três Poderes(1) and caused the STF to issue arrest warrants for Bolsonarist bloggers, who advertised the demonstration on the 7th.
Ultimately, the institutional crisis in Brazil is a reflection of the current terminal crisis of capitalism. The outbreak of the crisis in 2008 highlighted the inability of neoliberalism to overcome the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall and maintain economic growth. The misery, inflation and unemployment brought about by the capitalist crisis cannot be solved by the bourgeoisie; on the contrary, the bourgeoisie knows that it needs to deepen the attacks on workers so that they pay the price of the crisis so that it can increase its profits again.
The liberal right maneuvered for Dilma’s impeachment, its candidates failed to win and ended up having to support Bolsonaro by imposing a neoliberal agenda and his economy minister, hoping to control the new government. But that’s not how it’s happening. Bolsonaro is based on the most backward sectors of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, the large landowners, businessmen such as cargo transport, the petty bourgeoisie, in addition to the military police and the lumpenproletariat. Therefore, Bolsonaro needs to defend a nationalist and populist program. The guidelines for conservative moral values, policies for the environment, agriculture, etc. serve this base: a backward and ill-educated bourgeoisie, landowners who devastate the Amazon, engage in land grabs and use armed militias to terrorize small farmers and attack indigenous people to take their lands. The military police, linked to urban militias that control vast areas in large cities and worship violence, are also part of this list.
Clearly, Bolsonaro strengthens and promotes the fascist sectors and their violent, sexist, racist and xenophobic methods against minorities, poor people and the working class.
The institutional crisis is a consequence of the crisis of the bourgeois democratic regime itself, discredited among the population, that while their living and working conditions are getting worse, sees a corrupt and inefficient government, national congress and STF. The liberal left that ruled the country for 13 years with Lula and Dilma fully adapted to and became part of that decadent regime, then lost power in the wake of this crisis. The absence of a revolutionary and socialist alternative brought to power Bolsonaro and his fascist hordes as the “anti-system”.
With the fascist and coup threats promoted by Bolsonaro, the PT and a large part of the so-called “radical” left today stand as defenders of bourgeois democracy and the decadent regime. From PT, PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) to PSTU (Unified Workers’ Socialist Party), everyone defends a Broad Front (Popular, that is), with the “democratic” bourgeoisie against Bolsonaro. (2) However, as Trotsky said, by putting the workers to sleep with parliamentary illusions that paralyze their will to struggle, it creates favorable conditions for the victory of fascism. In order to defeat fascism and the threat of a coup, a United Front is necessary which unites workers, minorities and poor people independently and with methods of direct struggle, and is not allied with the bourgeoisie with illusions in parliament, the STF and other bourgeois institutions .
The “democratic” bourgeoisie with whom the left is allied in “defence of democracy” is the old bourgeoisie, the “colonels” of politics like Renan Calheiros, the opportunists of the “central” parties and the discredited Brazilian judicial system, which has promoted persecution and imprisonment of Bolsonaro supporters for being “undemocratic”, attacking the Supreme Court and promoting fake news. Measures which, undoubtedly and with the same justifications, will be used against the left and the working class when necessary. It is also the same bourgeoisie that maneuvered to approve the impeachment in 2016.
The political and social instability that we are experiencing in the country is deepened with the fascist demonstrations of the 7th of September, which almost ended with a blackout of the cargo transport companies. The discontent of workers and poor people with their deteriorating living conditions makes a counter-offensive with uprisings and strikes increasingly possible. The bourgeoisie, “democratic” or not, will not hesitate to employ repression and authoritarianism against the working class, to establish “order” and bring “stability”.
A military coup, with or without Bolsonaro in power, is a real threat today. Bolsonaro is known to have a large part of the armed forces in his government. There are some voices in the army against Bolsonaro. We are not sure whether there are differences within the armed forces and how deep they would be. General Mourão, vice president, is publicly sidelined by Bolsonaro. He does not place himself directly on the president’s side, but insists that he is part of the government and defends it. In the official act of the 7th of September, he participated wearing a brooch with the flags of Brazil and China together; he is the direct contact of the government in negotiations with China. Bolsonaro and his allies are defenders of American imperialism in the inter-imperialist dispute with China, painting the Asian giant as a threat.
The national demonstration called for the 12th by the liberal right (MBL) by “Fora Bolsonaro” had a low attendance. Most of the left did not support the demonstration on the 12th. The PT justified its absence for “not having built the act”, the PSTU’s justification was the electoral will of the liberal right to launch a third-way candidacy in the 2022 elections. The PT and the left in the majority support the Frente Amplio (Popular Front); their justifications have no class character and are just opportunism!
The bloc of trade union centrals is a bureaucratic bloc. It has nothing to do with a United Front. There is no participation from the base, nor any democratic debates; all referrals are made by the top organizations that decide the leadership of the movement between four walls, usually in rooms in Brasília. This bloc is composed of centrals linked to bourgeois political parties such as PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party), PDT (Democratic Labour Party) and ex-union politicians such as Paulinho da Força, in addition to CUT (Unified Workers’ Central) and CTB (Brazilian Workers’ Central) which are linked to PT and PCdoB (Communist Party of Brazil), respectively. Also participating are the Syndical Centrals that were born from the break with the governing CUT. These are CSP Conlutas unions linked to the PSTU, and the Intersindical, linked to the PSOL.
In every moment of intensification of the struggle and strikes, when it becomes clear to the base of the workers that an organization and national union are necessary, the bloc of centrals and bureaucratic fronts takes action with their “National Day of Mobilizations”. As a popular front bloc, it has the task of bureaucratizing the movement and keeping control in the hands of the opportunist leaderships.
Workers must be aware that it is not possible to have conquests and advance the struggle if there is no grassroots organization and class independence. Therefore, it is necessary to unite fronts that bring together not only the movement’s leadership, but also the rank and file workers. As long as the workers do not take the movement into their own hands, with workers’ democracy and class independence, the opportunist leaderships will keep the working class imprisoned and divert the direct class struggle towards disputes for positions in parliament and bourgeois elections.
The political situation in the country seems increasingly unsustainable. Everything indicates that with the end of the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) against Bolsonaro, the bourgeoisie will come with force for impeachment. Obviously, the various sectors of the bourgeoisie have outlined their strategy to achieve their goals, whether it is impeachment of the president, wearing down Bolsonaro until the 2022 elections, military coup, etc. The goals of the working class are different from those of the bourgeoisie and we should not stay in the bloc of the ruling class to decide the direction of the country.
We must have our own decisions and strategies of what we want for the country, debated and deliberated in a democratic and independent way. This can only be achieved with the methods of the working class. Our strikes and mobilizations must organize grassroots committees in the places of work, housing and study. Self-defence committees are needed to protect pickets, occupations, the strike movement and demonstrations. The movement needs to go beyond the isolated categories in its states and municipalities. State Congresses and a National Workers’ Congress with delegates elected by the rank and file must be built and called upon by grassroots unions to organize and unite the class nationally and decide the direction of the movement in defense of the rights of the working class, wages and jobs, democracy, an end to privatization and the fight against the government. This is the real United Front of Workers.
Faced with the deep attacks on the working class and the poor people, the terminal crisis of capitalism in which the perspective is one of more attacks by the bourgeoisie and imperialist wars and climate collapse, uncontrollable pandemics, we defend the strategy of the Socialist Revolution. We call the rank and file to break with the generals and not support any attempted coup. We want picketing, occupying and taking over strategic sectors of the economy, expropriating the bourgeoisie and taking power. For the union of the workers of Latin America for a Socialist Latin America, towards the Socialist World Revolution.
For the working class to survive, capitalism must die!
GTR (ILTT)
