On the eve of May 1st, a date that the workers’ movement around the world claims as its own, Brazil has registered 400,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The vast majority of these almost half a million deaths are of ‘gente do povo’ (ordinary people), who are crowded on buses to get to work and back home. It is the 99% that make the machine of capital work that are being brutally targeted by the pandemic. We are talking about nurses, teachers, ‘garis’ (street sweepers), ‘faxineiras’ (domestic maids and cleaners), motorcycle couriers, delivery drivers, bus drivers, laborers, informal workers, street vendors … We are talking about people without access to health insurance, who live in precarious housing, often without sanitation, situated in the ‘periferias’, the sprawling poor suburbs on city outskirts, and in ‘favela’ shantytowns.
A study undertaken by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) researchers Ligia Bahia and Jéssica Pronestino and released by the Doctors for the People National Network (RNMMP), analyzed the COVID-19 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) hospitalization database, and exposed the impact of the pandemic in this highly unequal country. Mortality rates are striking at more people with low income and low education levels. Among those with no schooling the mortality rate is a staggering 71.3% of patients, for those who completed elementary school the rate drops to 59.1%, for those who made it to high school the rate falls to 35%, and for those with a college education the rate falls further to 22.5%. The study also highlights the structural racism inherent in our society, in which skin color also influences the mortality rate. White patients hospitalized with SARS experience an average mortality rate of 59%, while among non-whites it rises to 79%.
Anyone with the tiniest bit of empathy can picture the consequences of such a violent pandemic in a country suffering from mass unemployment, inflation, and increasing inequality. When the President of the Republic helps to sabotage social distancing, criticizes the use of masks, is negligent with vaccines, and does not guarantee decent emergency aid, all this means that he is helping to spread the virus, increasing its new variants, prolonging the pandemic, broadening its reach, and raising the mortality rate among the Brazilian working class, in particular among the poor and the non-white.
Day of struggle and solidarity
May 1st this year will see demonstrations and solidarity actions organized in several states and regions across the country. For the most part, we are seeing good united front initiatives between unions, social movements, and student organizations. Under the slogan ‘vacina no braço e comida no prato’ (vaccine in the arm and food on the plate), there will be ‘carreatas’ (motorcade protests), banners hung from bridges and overpasses, and symbolic demonstrations demanding vaccines, health protection measures such as lockdowns, emergency aid of R$600 ($US110) and ‘Fora Bolsonaro’ (Bolsonaro Out).
Tons of food hampers and personal hygiene products will also be distributed in the ‘periferias’ and poor neighborhoods right across Brazil. This act of national solidarity is a demonstration of the fact that social struggle and class solidarity are important for the early treatment of the pandemic that is terrorizing the world.
While progressive, these mobilizations have serious limits. This flows from the very health precautions that do not allow the calling of crowds into the streets. There is also the vacillating posture that we see at the moment among the majority of union movement leaderships, and the leaders of the large union ‘centrals’ in particular.
May 1st must be ‘classista’ (class-based)
Since the beginning of the year a national link-up between the Popular Brazil Front (Frente Brasil Popular, FBP) and the People without Fear Front (Frente Povo Sem Medo, FPSM), and involving ‘centrais sindicais’ (union centers and federations), social and youth movements, has been organizing mobilizations across the country under the central slogan ‘Fora Bolsonaro’ (Bolsonaro Out) along with other pandemic-related demands. This is the most important experience so far of a united front for fighting the Bolsonaro government, and it is through this front that most May 1st demonstrations have been organized.
This is all fine and well, except for the mistaken initiative of the big union centers to hold an online rally with musicians, performers, and a broad reach across social networks, that was regrettably held in alliance with sectors that represent the old politics, sectors linked to the right-wing and the representatives of the country’s ruling elite, who are truly responsible for the difficult and disastrous situation which the Brazilian working class finds itself in today. We do not believe that politicians such as Rodrigo Maia and Rodrigo Pacheco (Democrats, DEM), Arthur Lira (Progressives, PP), right-wing governors, and other figures who have helped to approve labor reform, pension reform, supported Lava Jato and helped to elect Bolsonaro, are allies for rallies on the day of the workers.
In a country scarred by a far-right, denialist government, one that aids and prolongs the pandemic that kills primarily workers and the poor, the role of the major union centers and social movements is not to fraternize with sectors of the ruling class, but to ramp up and strengthen the struggle for ‘Fora Bolsonaro’ (Bolsonaro Out). The task is to demand his immediate overthrow, not to bet all our chips on 2022. Believing in the goodwill of this country’s elite to respect democratic conventions has already cost us too much. This position, which is held by the majority of union centrals, has been criticized by sectors of the United Workers’ Central (CUT). The CUT federation released a statement opposing the presence of right-wing personalities at this event, which sees them join other factions of the Brazilian union movement which are not participating in this event and opting instead to hold their own initiatives.
One example is the ‘Fórum Sindical, Popular e da Juventude por Direitos e Liberdades Democráticas’ (Union, Peoples’ and Youth Forum for Democratic Rights and Freedoms) initiative, which is organizing a program on social networks on May 1st at 2 pm. This activity will include the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST), Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), various movements against oppression such as those of black women and men, the LGTBQ community, the Party of Socialism and Freedom (PSOL), the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), University of Campinas (UNICAMP) professor Andreia Galvão, and other union, popular and youth movement organizations. This initiative can be viewed on the social networks of various groups, including that of the Fórum, and on ‘Esquerda Online’ (Left Online). It will be a rally of our class for jobs, food, vaccine, and for an end to this genocidal government, and will serve to build the necessary united front that the working and oppressed population so desperately need.
General Strikes in Colombia and Chile show the way
Several Latin American countries are experiencing mobilizations far more advanced than those of Brazil, mobilizations which are even defying the pandemic itself in order to defend the rights of workers against the actions of predatory and inhuman capitalism.
On 28 April, the Colombian union movement held a powerful general strike that saw thousands of people take to the streets in radical actions that opposed the Duque government’s proposals for tax reform, a reform that would only deepen social inequality in the country.
On 30 April, the union federations and social movements of Chile held a general health strike to demand the overthrow of the government of Sebastian Piñera. Everything indicates that these large mobilizations will rock the country, where the people have accumulated historic victories that have placed decades of neoliberalism into question.
These mobilizations are demonstrating that the union and social movements are very much alive, and point the way forward for the organization of workers across the continent, and especially here in Brazil. It is these examples that we must rely on to strengthen the struggles of resistance against the genocidal Bolsonaro government.
For a genuine parliamentary commission of inquiry and impeachment now!
The Bolsonaro government, while still on its feet with the support of 20% to 30% of the population, is going through its worst moment: it is internationally isolated, manifesting crises in its relationship with the military, its public support is wearing away, and it has difficulties maintaining its base of allies in Congress. The setting up of the COVID-19 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI), which already has a vast amount of material for its report and the potential to make the government bleed even more, is to be added to the over one hundred impeachment petitions piling up on the desk of the President of the Chamber of Deputies.
Even though the absurdly irresponsible actions of the president of the Republic regarding the pandemic are more than enough reason to remove him from office, the outcome of the CPI is not set in stone. Popular mobilization, increasing the pressure, and influencing public opinion, are all decisive for ensuring that the parliament moves forward with the impeachment process.
In our fight against the forces of the far-right that command central power in the country today, we are facing an important opportunity to turn the historic dynamic of this struggle around. Only with unity among the forces of the working class, with grassroots social mobilization, solidarity, courage, and the willingness to fight, will we be able to defeat the Bolsonaro government, in the streets, in the social networks, or in the elections!
This article is an English translation of “1º de Maio: Parar o genocídio com luta e solidariedade de classe”, [https://esquerdaonline.com.br/2021/04/30/1o-de-maio-parar-o-genocidio-com-luta-e-solidariedade-de-classe/], Esquerda Online (EOL), 30/04/2021.
Translation: Bobby Sparks
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