By a margin lower than initially expected, Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) won the Brazilian presidential elections with 55% of the valid votes. The wave in favour of democracy and civil-rights, which has infected millions of people in Brazil, was able to reduce the initial gap. Fernando Haddad (PT), who had obtained 29% of the valid votes in the first round, reached 44% of those in the run-off. The fierce resistance which sprouted spontaneously in the streets across hundreds of cities, involving students, workers, artists, intellectuals and feminists, made history and gave hope for the future struggle to face and defeat fascism.
We did not have a democratic dispute. The dictatorship defending candidate won an election tainted by Lula’s political impugnation (which comfortably led all the electoral polls), criminal use of undeclared funding, from business groups, of massive fake news in social networks, undemocratic and tendentious actions taken by the electoral courts, and campaign on the major media, big businessmen and evangelical churches in favour of the PSL candidate.
Bolsonaro won a major battle at the ballots, but the struggle did not come to an end. Democratic and social resistance will continue in the streets, in the workplaces, in schools and in living areas. Let’s build a wall against fascism in every corner of the country.
We want to be very clear: we will not accept the cease of democratic guarantees, and social and labour rights, starting by the Pensions Reform announced by the vice-president, General Mourão. We will not tolerate any violence and discrimination against women, black people, LGBTs, indigenous people and immigrants. We will rise against the extermination of the black and poor population of the peripheries. We will up rise against the establishment of any authoritarian or repressive regime. We will defend the envoronment and our cultural heritage, we will be unconditionally alongside the indigenous peoples and quilombolas. The criminalization of the social movements won’t be accepted: the landless and homeless people won’t be left alone. We will close trenches against the persecution on the left organizations and its leaders. We will be attentive to any attempt of censorship in the press, the arts, schools and universities. We warn Bolsonaro and his gang: we will resist and, sooner or later, we will defeat them.
We are many, we are millions. He had a majority in the population as a whole, but lost among lower-income workers, throughout the Northeast Region and among women, black and young people, and the LGBTs. That means, in the most exploited and oppressed parts of the society, left-wing and democracy prevailed.
From now on, the United Front must bring together the whole left-wing parties, as PT, PSOL, PCdoB, PCB, PSTU, etc. Must include the social movement organizations, trade unions, and the students movements. Its central task is to resist and defeat the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, as well as building a democratic unity with all the political sectors willing to fight unitarily against authoritarianism and fascism. The building of an United Front must learn from the united women’s movement against Bolsonaro, who took to the streets more than 1 million people on the 29th of September, and in the spontaneous street movement carried out by tens of thousands of activists for the elections run-off. This valuable accumulation of forces and experience must be preserved and potentialized.
At the democratic Resistance, we will also fight for building a new left-wing agenda, to overcome the serious misunderstandings and limits of PT. That should be done along with PSOL, PCB, MTST, APIB and all political actors willing to build a new socialist perspective for our country.
We will certainly face difficult days with the election of Jair Bolsonaro. But we must keep both our heads and mood up and running. The truth is on our side. The rise of neofascism must be answered with the widest unity of the left and the democratic sectors, with courage. Let’s unite all “activism”, all movements, collectives and organizations. Let’s go, with hands together with the working and oppressed people.
United we will be stronger to resist and win!
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