The October 30 election victory of fake-leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – better known as Lula – as president of Brazil points to a sharpening of inter-imperialist rivalry and intensified fascist control over the working class. In a sign of deep divisions among both bosses and workers, Lula defeated his incumbent rival, gutter racist and climate change denier Jair Bolsonaro, by a razor-thin margin and secured his third term.
A popular former trade unionist, Lula enjoys a cult-like status in the economic powerhouse South American nation, where previous capitalist reforms by his Workers Party threw some crumbs to sections of the working class. Several leaders of the U.S.-dominated liberal world order expressed hope for improved ties with Brazil after the unstable Bolsonaro presidency--notably top-dog imperialist President Joe Biden, who personally called Lula to congratulate him (Reuters, 10/30).
But Biden and Company’s optimism is likely misplaced. Lula’s return to power figures to consolidate Brazilian capitalism’s alliance with the U.S. rulers’ main imperialist rival, China. During his first two terms in office, from 2003 to 2010, Lula oversaw a dramatic expansion of diplomacy and trade with China that both sides appear eager to rekindle (SCMP, 10/31).
As Lula and his Worker Party cronies opportunistically work both sides of the imperialist competition for their own benefit, it’s the workers in Brazil and across Latin America who stand to lose. Liberal bosses like Lula will cynically promote all-class unity, nationalism, and identity politics while simultaneously escalating racist, sexist attacks and more environmental destruction.
As members of the international working class, we have nothing to gain by supporting any boss. Our future lies in building the mass communist Progressive Labor Party as the revolutionary alternative to fascism, environmental devastation, and war. Join us!
Imperialist competition hurtling toward WWIII
The over-the-top congratulations to Lula from imperialist leaders around the world shows Brazil’s importance to the global profit system. Brazil’s $1.45 trillion economy is second largest in the Western Hemisphere (International Trade Admin, 1/22) and eighth largest in the world. Lula is deeply committed to the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, Indian, China and South Africa), which he helped found in 2009. In 2019, he said that he envisioned BRICS as “an instrument of attack. So we could create our own currency to become independent from the U.S. dollar in our trade relations” (Asia Times).
In Bolsonaro’s first election campaign, he accused China of “buying Brazil” (Reuters, 1/24). Once in office, he aligned with ex-U.S. president Donald Trump and delayed Chinese trade agreements. But with Lula back, and China investing more in Brazil than in any other country, the two countries should restore their close ties—a clear threat to the weakening U.S. bosses in their Latin American “backyard.” Lula’s election is one more step toward World War III.
Liberal bosses are more effective fascists
Shortly after his runoff win, Lula stated, “This country needs peace and unity. This population doesn’t want to fight anymore” (BBC, 10/31). Make no mistake: liberal politicians’ plan for “peace and unity” always involves their boot on workers’ necks!
With global capitalism entering a period of contraction, Brazil’s bosses see Lula as a more reliable stooge to ram through fascist attacks than the erratic Bolsonaro. In his previous presidential terms, Lula took advantage of a commodity boom and surging demand from China to finance social programs like Bolsa Familia, cash payments that helped alleviate extreme poverty (Foreign Policy, 11/4). This time around, facing an enormous debt crisis, the Brazilian bosses won’t fund big reforms. Rebellious workers will see more sticks than carrots.
Shrewd politician that he is, Lula has shown a willingness to work with bosses of all stripes in the name of a “better” Brazil. His vice president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin, presided over rampant police murder and cover-ups as governor of Sao Paulo state (HRW, 7/29/13). Lula’s likely appointee for environmental minister, Marina Silva, a Black woman from similar humble origins, will exploit identity politics while failing to offer any real solution to the devastation across the Amazon and beyond (AP News, 11/12).
Bosses who look and talk like us are no less dangerous when they’re put in charge of a lethal, racist profit system in crisis. The working class must expose and confront these deadly misleaders wherever they are and fight for true workers’ power and communist revolution.
Liberals lie, Black and women workers die!
Black workers in Brazil fought for survival under Lula’s previous regime, and they won’t be stopping now. The government-directed, militarized violence in Brazil’s neglected favelas (slums) will continue because they’re an essential tool for Brazil’s ruling class for keeping workers oppressed and intimidated.
In July, in the Complexo do Alemao favela in Rio de Janeiro, 18 people died in a violent militia-style attack. Residents said cops prevented them from helping the injured and called the attack a massacre (BBC, 7/22). Not a single politician running for office—including Lula—spoke in support of these workers. Under capitalism, politicians everywhere applaud cops for doing their state terror dirty work.
The same deadly state violence assaults women throughout the country. Brazil has “one of the highest rates of femicide—the killing of women due to their gender—in the world” (The Status of Women in Brazil: 2019, Prusa, PICANÇO, Barnes, et. al). Meanwhile, the bosses try to convince women that the only way to change the system is to vote or run for office. Case in point: ex-president Dilma Rousseff. who was impeached over the same kickback scandal that sent Lula to jail for 17 months.
Back to a fightback future
It won’t take long, as Lula shows his true colors once again, that he’ll be faced with the bold tradition of militant fightback from the working class in Brazil. In recent years, mass protests have been waged against deforestation, transit fare hikes, racist police terror, and displacement from favelas. Unsurprisingly, many of these fights are led by Black and indigenous workers, key revolutionary forces for our class.
PLP invites all of these antiracist fighters into our revolutionary struggle for a world without bosses or politicians, where the working class and its mass Party runs society in our own interests. From Brasilia to Beijing, workers of the world unite!