A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #375 - International - Brazil: Faced with the electoral mirage, only struggle pays off (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Brazilian presidential election is taking place on October 4 and 25, 
pitting the incumbent president, Lula (of the reformist Left), against 
the far-right former president, Bolsonaro. Here, we publish a text 
written by our comrades from the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination, 
analyzing the context of this election. 
https://socialismolibertario.net/para-alem-das-ilusoes-eleitorais/ ---- 
We advocate for a program of struggle that does not trade away its class 
independence for positions, favors, or pro-government considerations. As 
a modest yet resolute force standing with the oppressed and exploited, 
we will continue to lead grassroots struggles-independent of the 
government and free from any collaboration with the bosses.[...]

Imperialism and intervention
The situation in Brazil becomes dangerous when viewed within its 
international context. In a state of decline and losing 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, 
ignoring decisions made at the UN-an institution now in tatters-and 
baring its claws at its competitors. These claws are digging into Latin 
America through a new national security strategy that revives the Monroe 
Doctrine[1]-an imperialist policy toward our continent aimed at 
plundering our natural resources. The intervention strategies we have 
observed so far are manifold. The first method is interference in 
electoral processes-involving financial and media support for the far 
right in these countries, as recently seen in Peru[2], but also threats 
of tariff hikes designed to pressure local bourgeoisies into aligning 
with imperialism. However, nothing now stands in the way of direct US 
imperialist intervention. This is unprecedented: foreign forces have 
abducted President Nicolás Maduro with the aim of plundering Venezuelan 
oil to fund their wars. A new narrative is also being constructed to 
justify intervention on Brazilian soil by reclassifying drug traffickers 
as "terrorist organizations." This sets legal precedents for US 
intervention within the country, even though we know their true motives: 
subjugating rebels-primarily populations organized within social 
movements-and seizing raw materials essential for new technologies.

The central issue is therefore environmental: it is about defending 
nature and the people living in "sacrifice zones." The capitalist 
frontier (the Amazon, the Pantanal, etc.)[...], along with new mining, 
forestry, and environmental codes, are part of a destructive logic aimed 
at funding wars and securing profits. All of this exacerbates climate 
change, the consequences of which weigh particularly heavily on the 
oppressed and exploited of this land in various forms (desertification 
in the Northeast, bushfires in the Pantanal, and torrential rains, 
landslides, and storms in the South and Southeast). In short, US 
intervention aims not only to ensure the survival of neoliberalism as an 
economic and political logic-thereby intensifying hyper-exploitation-but 
also to pave the way for Brazil's capitulation and to hand strategic 
resources over on a silver platter to the centers of capital amidst the 
global arms race.

Wresting rights through struggle
The emerging electoral landscape strongly suggests a victory for 
Lula-securing a fourth and final term-yet one that leaves behind no 
structural legacy, offering only crumbs that will be ruthlessly snatched 
away at the first opportunity. His true legacy has been the 
domestication of social movements and trade unions,[...]using popular 
struggle as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the elites. Where 
once there were marches, occupations, toppled barricades, clashes, and 
hope, today nothing remains but social media mobilizations.[...]The 
election campaign will also feature the unwavering 30% of the opposition 
to Lula-comprising Bolsonaro supporters, conservatives, reactionaries, 
fascists, and liberals-all united by their rejection of the Workers' 
Party government. Those who feign a revolt against the system are, in 
reality, seeking to strengthen it-either to amass more wealth or to 
escape their own precarious situations-at a time when nothing seems to 
change and everything is becoming more difficult, thereby accelerating 
the ongoing process of social disintegration.[...]

We, anarchists and libertarian socialists, pull the rope from the 
grassroots toward the left-outside the electoral game-by creating 
organizations and movements capable of wresting rights, with the goal of 
challenging the powerful for control through struggle. It is through the 
continuous, sustained practice of class struggle that we seek to forge a 
strong people who place not an ounce of hope in bourgeois democracy.

That is why we declare loud and clear: only struggle changes lives! Only 
autonomous, militant social movements can lead us out of the impasse 
into which we have been forced. Victories and responses of this kind are 
being delivered by Indigenous peoples, who expose schemes of 
environmental destruction 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-devoid of 
institutional solutions-and the individualistic, conservative cultural 
climate in which we live. We are committed to reclaiming the streets, 
the unions, and the movements, and to building structures where none 
exist, in order to wage the inevitable fight to reignite mobilizations 
based on our local and national interests. There is no room left for 
illusions: only struggle changes lives! Brazilian Anarchist 
Coordination, translated by Dahel (UCL Fougères)

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[1]The Monroe Doctrine is a foreign policy principle proclaimed in 1823 
by U.S. President James Monroe; it served as the basis for United States 
imperialist policies in South America during the late 19th and early 
20th centuries.

[2]In June, Peru elected a far-right president, Keiko Fujimori, 
following an extremely close vote. This result is currently being 
challenged by the opposition, which suspects fraud and interference.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Bresil-Face-au-mirage-electoral-seule-la-lutte-paie
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