Brazil: Weekly editorial – The egg of the fascist snake

We publish an unofficial translation of the article of A Nova Democracia:

Despite all the changes in government structures, from the municipal to the federal level, with the “alternation of power” between all the acronyms of the Unity Party, there is one thing untouched: the logic of repression.

The atrocious repression of popular demonstrations against the shocking increase in ticket prices in São Paulo is complete absurd, not least because of the typical brutality of the police troops – who could expect anything different? –, but what draws the most attention are the accusations against those detained, including those arrested before arriving at the demonstration, which had apparently just begun. In a single day, the São Paulo Military Police detained 50 students; 7 of them were accused of “attempting to violently abolish the democratic rule of law” for not accepting – amazingly! – the increase in transport fares. Some attribute the absurdity to the fact that São Paulo is governed by the ultra-reactionary Tarcísio de Freitas – the embarrassed Bolsonarist. However, the thing is more serious, and previously this was the root of the entire problem.

Despite all the changes in government structures, from the municipal to the federal level, with the “alternation of power” between all the acronyms of the Unity Party, there is one thing untouched: the logic of repression. Let’s see: ten years ago, Rio de Janeiro, after the most brutal repression by the MP [translator’s note: Military Police], the Public Ministry requested the preventive arrest of 21 activists accused of “gang formation” and identified popular movements as “criminal organizations”. Was the state government far-right? No. In fact it was a government allied with Dilma, who then headed the federal government.

Let’s look, then, at the situation in Pará, in 2007 – 2008. During Operation “Peace in the countryside”, the MP, federal forces and even the reactionary Armed Forces carried out incursions that imposed, for two years, a military intervention against thousands of peasant families in the south of the state, arresting, torturing, murdering and forced disappearances of dozens of workers. The governor was from the PT – Ana Júlia Carepa – and the federal government was of Luiz Inácio (in his second term). Despite the differences in the acronyms at the head of the governments, there are no fundamental differences in the content of the repression.

Despite the empty promises of all sorts of politicians at election time – now very much in vogue, the promise to “stop setbacks” – the fact is that Bolsonarism as an ideology and the tendency towards fascism in general have always been ingrained in repressive structure, even as a germ. The fact that the extreme right reached the presidency from 2018 – 2022 is due to the fact that it was religiously fed by all previous governments that, harassed by popular protest and political crises, resorted to strengthening repression and justified it, under intense campaign by press monopolies.

The fanatical democrats who head this old State and always resort to repression against popular protest, pretending to be fools, are scandalized by the appearance, on the political scene, of strange figures like Bolsonaro and his legion of police-militiamen, like if they appeared from Mars. No, gentlemen: they arise from the depths of this old dictatorial, reactionary democracy, of big bourgeoisie and big landlord serving imperialism, mainly Yankee, corrupted to the core, which resorts to repression because it is devoid of any democratic dealings with the masses, especially those who rise up, like poor peasants for their right to a piece of land, those dissatisfied with so much crisis, angry with the malfunction and precariousness of public services, with poverty and hunger, unemployment and police violence. Therefore, the masses of the people must raise their popular protest bellicose and not trust the lying and demagogic promises of manipulators who take turns managing the old State through electoral farce. Only a new social order, a people’s republic with a new democracy, can truly change the reality of our country and impose democracy based on the self-centered national economy, the independence and sovereignty of the Nation and the general well-being of our working people.