A-Infos (en) Brazil, CAB: SITUATION ANALYSIS - CAB - SEPTEMBER 2026 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We advocate for a program of struggle that does not trade its class 
independence for positions, favors, or pro-government agendas. As a 
small but resolute force of resistance standing with the oppressed and 
exploited, we will continue-as always-to participate in struggles rising 
from below, remaining outside the government and free from collaboration 
with the bosses. Regarding the current situation we are entering, we aim 
to build practical solutions alongside those who fight, without losing 
sight of our libertarian and socialist vision, and guided by the 
conviction that we can expect nothing other than what comes from the 
people themselves.

THE CRISIS OF BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY
The political landscape in Brazil bears an open wound. As anarchists, we 
must press upon this wound and foster a different political imagination, 
championing agendas that challenge the established system. Bourgeois 
democracy-historically the most effective mechanism for mediating class 
conflict-is showing clear signs of exhaustion within the current stage 
of crisis-ridden capitalism. The symptoms are visible to all: overtures 
toward "soft" or authoritarian coups seeking institutional restructuring 
to dismantle any remaining hard-won rights, thereby committing the State 
to austerity policies that tighten the belt on the working classes while 
loosening it for the country's parasitic, rentier elites. Fiscal 
adjustment measures-which frequently change names (spending caps, fiscal 
frameworks, new fiscal frameworks)-maintain the core policy of limiting 
social spending. This triggers a "fend-for-yourself" scramble within a 
peripheral, agro-export economy where the majority of the working class 
is employed in the service sector or in the informal economy (including 
*MEI*-individual micro-entrepreneurs). The exhaustion-and ultimate 
demise-of the New Republic is evident in the party-oligarchic system's 
inability to sustain the coalitions and class conciliation of the past. 
The reformism that once drove the state apparatus has vanished, leaving 
behind only a system that imposes austerity on the population-a stark 
contrast to the power social movements once wielded before that power 
was eroded by the politics of conciliation, which proved disastrous for 
their political education. The lesson drawn from this brief period of 
redemocratization, during which the vast majority of the Left pinned its 
hopes on elections, is that the solutions to our problems will not come 
through the ballot box.

Incidents such as the Daniel Vorcaro affair, the deep-seated ties 
between ALERJ deputies and organized crime, money laundering for drug 
trafficking involving the Faria Lima financial district, and the 
scrutiny surrounding parliamentary amendments-among other recent 
episodes-lay bare what we already know: representative liberal democracy 
is utterly subservient to the interests of the wealthy. Occupying 
institutional spaces offers no alternative other than feeding on the 
scraps alongside these swine.

Consequently, to remain standing, this crumbling republic doubles down 
on its policing of bodies and minds. It does so not only through police 
and judicial forces-which have intensified oppression in both rural and 
urban areas, as evidenced by the rising number of assassinations of 
activists and forced evictions-but also through neo-Pentecostal churches 
and militias acting as enforcers of the status quo, thereby stifling the 
agency of the working classes. The state's policing function is directly 
linked to the "masculinism" that has captured the minds of the youth via 
social media; this ideology seeks to rationalize the malaise this system 
inflicts upon us subjectively, while promoting the misogynistic theories 
that fuel high rates of femicide and violence against cisgender women, 
as well as trans and *travesti* populations. This is no mere 
coincidence; it is a constitutive element of the advance of the police 
state-a state necessary for the continuation of a neoliberal agenda that 
promotes individualistic solutions (entrepreneurship, betting, 
influencer culture). These solutions erode the social fabric built on 
class solidarity, thereby extinguishing hope for a different future. 
This violence among those at the bottom-fueled by a narrative that 
claims there is no future for everyone-aims to dismantle, through fear, 
the grassroots self-organization we have worked so hard to build in 
recent times.

IMPERIALISM AND INTERVENTION
The situation in Brazil becomes perilous when viewed within its 
international context. Facing deep decline and a loss of political and 
economic hegemony, the United States is abandoning the hypocrisy of its 
rhetoric regarding multilateralism, diplomacy, and respect for 
international law; it is withdrawing from international agreements and 
ignoring UN decisions-leaving the UN itself in shambles-as it bares its 
claws at its competitors. These claws are digging into Latin America 
through a new national security strategy that revives the Monroe 
Doctrine-an imperialist policy toward our continent aimed at plundering 
our natural resources. We have observed a multitude of intervention 
strategies thus far. The first aspect is intervention in electoral 
processes-backed by financial and informational support from the 
far-right within these countries (as seen recently in Peru)-alongside 
threats of massive tariffs designed to incite local bourgeoisies to 
align themselves with imperialism. However, there are no longer any 
constraints on direct US imperialist intervention. In an unprecedented 
move, foreign forces abducted President Nicolás Maduro, driven by an 
interest in plundering Venezuelan oil to sustain their wars. Another 
narrative seeking to justify intervention on Brazilian soil is emerging 
around the reclassification of drug trafficking organizations as 
terrorist groups; this creates legal precedents for intervention within 
the country-an intervention whose true motives we recognize: the 
subjugation of the insubordinate-particularly the people organized in 
social movements-and the seizure of raw materials essential for new 
technologies.

Therefore, the central issue is environmental, centering on the defense 
of nature and the populations living in "sacrifice zones." Capital's 
frontier areas-such as the Amazon, the Pantanal, and the MATOPIBA region 
(Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia)-as well as new mining, forestry, 
and environmental codes, are all part of a destructive process aimed at 
financing wars and securing profits. All of this intensifies climate 
change, the consequences of which fall disproportionately upon the 
oppressed and exploited of this land in various forms: desertification 
in the Northeast, wildfires in the Pantanal, and torrential rains, 
landslides, and gale-force winds in the South and Southeast.

In short, US intervention aims not only to ensure the continuity of 
neoliberalism as the prevailing economic and political logic-thereby 
deepening super-exploitation-but also to throw the gates wide open 
through local capitulation, handing strategic resources on a silver 
platter to the centers of global capital for use in the global arms 
race. ELECTORAL LANDSCAPE
The unfolding electoral scenario points, in all likelihood, to a victory 
for Lula's fourth and final term-one that will leave behind no 
structural legacy, but merely crumbs that can and will be 
unceremoniously snatched away whenever the opportunity arises. His true 
legacy has been the domestication of social movements and trade unions; 
these groups have shifted their focus to the party's interest in 
perpetuating its hold on state management-and the perks that come with 
it-using grassroots struggle as a bargaining chip in negotiations with 
the elites. Where there once were marches, occupations, the tearing down 
of fences, confrontations, and hope, today we see only online 
mobilizations-movements wary of any specter resembling the 2013 
protests. We see this, for instance, in the handling of the VAT-led 
campaign against the 6×1 work schedule-a struggle whose direction we are 
actively contesting.

Throughout the electoral process, the unwavering 30% of the opposition 
to Lula remains-a bloc comprising Bolsonarists, conservatives, 
reactionaries, fascists, and liberals, united under the banner of 
rejecting the Workers' Party (PT) government. While feigning revolt 
against the system, they actually seek to deepen it, hoping to amass 
more wealth or escape their own destitution-all while nothing seems to 
change, life grows harder, and the ongoing process of social 
disintegration accelerates.

Other electoral strategies-which focus on mobilizing people to cast 
ballots-pin their hopes on a future that never arrives. They mislead 
workers into believing that someone from their own class, upon taking 
the presidential or parliamentary seat, will change the situation-even 
though history repeatedly shows us otherwise.

We, anarchists and libertarian socialists, pull the rope from below and 
to the left, staying outside the electoral game. We build organizations 
and movements capable of wresting rights from the powerful, with the aim 
of challenging their hold on power through direct struggle. It is 
through this continuous and enduring practice-class struggle-that we 
seek to foster a strong people who place not a shred of hope in 
bourgeois democracy.

That is why we declare loud and clear: ONLY STRUGGLE CHANGES LIFE; only 
autonomous and combative social movements can break us out of the bind 
we have been placed in. Victories and responses in this regard are being 
delivered by Indigenous peoples, who unmask nature-destroying projects 
disguised as development. These struggles demonstrate how direct action 
and independence can overcome attempts to co-opt political victories, 
without succumbing to the allure of representative structures that seek 
to manipulate movements.

Our strategy is the most realistic one possible given this context-one 
offering no institutional way out-and the individualistic, conservative 
cultural environment in which we live. We are committed to reclaiming 
the streets, the unions, and the movements, and to building organization 
where none exists, in order to wage the inevitable confrontation and 
relaunch mobilizations based on our local and national interests. We can 
no longer afford illusions.

Only Struggle Changes Life!!

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination

September 2026

https://cabanarquista.com.br/analise-de-conjuntura-cab-setembro-2026/
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