A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL: Petrobras and Postal Service on strike! For unity in the struggles! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Brazilian working class is experiencing an important moment at the 
end of this year, with the start of two simultaneous strikes in 
strategic sectors: that of the oil workers of the Petrobras System and 
that of the postal workers. We stand in solidarity with the striking 
workers, who are strongly confronting the situation in defense of their 
rights and against privatization projects. ---- We must not understand 
the strikes as isolated stoppages, but as an acute symptom of the same 
class conflict that strikes at the heart of the country. On one side, a 
working class exhausted by precarious work, the dismantling of public 
services, and the systematic withdrawal of rights. On the other, the 
implacable logic of capital, which sees in the privatization of 
state-owned companies a great opportunity to advance in the management 
of its profits, and sees workers as a cost to be reduced. We know that 
the State is not neutral and that its management is subject to the 
scrutiny of the dominant classes; however, privatization means a 
strategic step to deepen the process of total surrender of services to 
the logic of profit. Oil workers, under the slogan "More Collective 
Bargaining Agreement, Fewer Shareholders," are paralyzing refineries, 
platforms, and terminals from north to south, defending a dignified 
collective agreement and Petrobras' role as a public company. In the 
first nine months of the year alone, Petrobras distributed R$ 37.3 
billion in dividends to shareholders. Workers are facing not only 
management intransigence but also state violence, with the brutal arrest 
of union leaders at picket lines, as occurred at the Reduc refinery in 
Rio de Janeiro. This is the classic criminalization of union struggle, 
yet another demonstration that the constitutional right to strike under 
capitalism is merely a dead letter on paper.

Meanwhile, postal workers, after months of fruitless negotiations, are 
also downing tools. Tired of being blamed for the company's crisis, they 
reject proposals that seek to eliminate historical gains, such as 
vacation pay and year-end bonuses. The revolt is so intense that, in São 
Paulo, the rank and file approved the strike, going against the guidance 
of the union leadership itself, a powerful demonstration of the autonomy 
and combativeness of the category's rank and file. In several states, 
the movement is likely to spread, with various locations already in a 
"state of strike."

Behind the discourse of crisis and the need for "efficiency," what is at 
stake is the handover of a strategic public asset to giants of 
international and national capital. The privatization of the Post Office 
directly serves the interests of large e-commerce corporations, such as 
the American Amazon, the Chinese Alibaba, and the Argentinian Mercado 
Libre, which covet the immense logistical infrastructure and national 
reach of the state-owned company to dominate the delivery market in 
Brazil. More than a business deal, the acquisition would mean for these 
companies the control of a colossal flow of personal data and consumer 
habits of the population, in addition to being able to stifle smaller 
competitors. The result would not be competition as envisioned by 
liberal ideals, but the formation of a private oligopoly, with more 
expensive and exclusionary services, abandoning less profitable regions 
and subjecting the country's logistical and data sovereignty to the 
interests of foreign conglomerates. The strike, therefore, is also a 
fight against this exploitation.

The points uniting these struggles are evident and profound. Both are a 
trench in the defense of what is public and strategic against its 
surrender to the private sector and the greed of shareholders. Both 
represent the workers' refusal to pay the price for crises they did not 
generate, resisting precariousness and austerity. Both show that real 
strength lies in the organization and decision-making of the grassroots, 
overcoming bureaucracies and hesitations. And both suffer the same 
threat: repression and the narrative that seeks to criminalize 
legitimate popular dissatisfaction, whether from workers losing their 
rights or from the rest of the oppressed classes suffering from the 
deterioration of essential public services.

It is crucial, however, not to fall into the trap of exempting the 
current government and its alliances from direct responsibility in this 
attack. The Lula/Alckmin government, through its appointed managers, is 
the one that, in practice, implements austerity policies in state-owned 
companies, defending the interests of fiscal stability and shareholders 
at the expense of workers' rights. Simultaneously, the majority union 
bureaucracies linked to the CUT (Unified Workers' Central) and the PT 
(Workers' Party) have frequently acted as a brake on the struggle, 
fueling illusions at the "negotiating tables" and, in the case of the 
Post Office, even postponing the start of the strike at the government's 
own request. This containment strategy, which disarms the combativeness 
and prior preparation of workers, needs to be denounced and overcome by 
the direct organization of the rank and file, as was clear in the 
assembly of the Postal Workers in São Paulo, where the category bypassed 
the union leadership to launch the strike.

The temporal coincidence of these strikes is an important sign. They 
point to the urgent need for unification of resistance, and the reminder 
that any government will primarily serve the interests of the dominant 
classes. The paralysis of sectors as vital as energy and communications 
reveals the fragility of a system that exploits the majority of the 
population, and shows that parliamentarians who are elected as defenders 
of workers' rights are doomed to commit electoral fraud. Therefore, it 
is fundamental to extend networks of solidarity, denounce state 
violence, and unconditionally support these categories. The struggle of 
oil workers and postal workers must be the struggle of all oppressed 
classes. This is a call for unity: may these strikes be the catalyst for 
a combative front that is not focused on electoral objectives, but 
rather advances in social force towards the construction of a 
self-governing popular power capable of replacing the capitalist system 
of domination in the future.

Libertarian Socialist Organization

December 2025

https://socialismolibertario.net/2025/12/18/petrobras-e-correios-em-greve/
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