AND Editorial – Criminal Bolsonarism amnestied

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of the last Editorial published by A Nova Democracia (AND).

Arthur Lira, president of the Congress and notorious “moderate Bolsonarist”, is already trying the first steps to put the Amnesty PEC [Translator’s note: Constitutional Amendment Proposal] for the coup plotters to a vote: approved and put into force, it would veto the punishment of the “green chickens” [Translator’s note: Brazilian way to define the fascists, in that case regarding the Bolsonaro’s supporters] for their action on January 8, 2023 for his boss, Jair Bolsonaro. The only thing that prevented Lira to do that, is that if he launches the vote without the agreement of the PT in the Chamber – which is resisting –, it may not be able to choose its successor as president of the house in 2025 (Hugo Motta); however, Bolsonarists in the Congress are already putting pressure on Lira to make a commitment to address the issue in 2025, otherwise he will not have support, which, in turn, also threatens him with not being elected.

First of all, the democratic and popular movement must be vigilant and reject any trick that guarantees amnesty to the Bolsonarist and fascist gangs. Although we should not expect justice by the reaction, we should also not remain indifferent to the schemes that seek to allow the fascists to attack democratic freedoms, which for the popular masses are already so limited. Because that’s what it’s all about: if they are amnestied, the Bolsonarist hordes will feel even more encouraged to commit their misdeeds, they will redouble their enthusiasm for other criminal offensives against the people and the nation and, obviously, they will launch themselves even more quickly against the revolutionary movement, when and where they see it. The motto of revolutionary democracy is War against the Bolsonarist paramilitary hordes! and extends to its accomplices, in words or in deeds.

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It is noted that the tens of billions of reais offered by Luiz Inácio to Lira, to achieve governability, were not enough, not even to gain a reliable political base in the Congress to govern (the Executive remains strongly limited by the “tax framework”, which was forced to propose and approve), and not even to isolate the “center” of Bolsonarism. Bolsonarism threatens to “return” in several ways: through amnesty, reincarnating in Bolsonaro himself and giving new life to the coup agitations, constitutionally forgiven; or by outsourced means, in a “moderate” candidate (Tarcísio de Freitas is already considered a virtual candidate, and has even promoted lectures on his economic and political thoughts outside of São Paulo, check it out!).

We said “return”, in quotation marks, because the hard truth is that it never went away: although they have reduced their explicit involvement in street protests in the capitals (as at the end of 2022), the Bolsonarist paramilitary hordes have intensified their warlike action in the countryside, even using CNPJ [Translator’s note: National Register of Legal entities] to cover up their paramilitary organizations. In Jaqueira (Zona da Mata de PE), the persecution of the struggling masses continues, now with the arrest of a peasant. From the government, there was not even a mention of the violence of paramilitary gangs or a promise regarding the expropriation of the Engenho Barro Branco area for the benefit of the peasants. Silence tells you which side you are on, in this case. Now, how can we speak about the “return” of Bolsonarism, if its armed bands are more active now than before?

Therefore, there are two ways to amnesty Bolsonarism: the first is through the PEC that is being processed in Congress; and second, it is through everyday life, when armed Bolsonarism, with its hordes thirsty for peasant blood, are allowed to act with impunity, for example, when “progressives” (as some label themselves) ignore the scandalous war that the Bolsonarists are promoting against the countryside’s poor people. In short, reconciling with Bolsonarism in the class struggle is the second way to amnesty it, in fact, and in this crime all opportunists take part, including the federal government.

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The current government not only lives by conciliating with Bolsonarism. If we look at the treatment of the strike movement in the cities, the horrendous way in which the striking teachers at federal educational institutions were treated at the beginning of the year was not enough, now the thing is happening again with federal health workers, at the Bonsucesso Federal Hospital.

The Riot and the Federal Police, this last one, under the direct command of the Presidency through its executive bodies, carried out an atrocious repression, evicting the hospital’s administrative rooms, occupied as a protest to prevent the handover of the unit to a company, that is, its de facto privatization. The result was no different: the banner that the public workers carried said Lula, traitor to federal health.

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It is necessary, at this current moment, to deepen the struggle in the workers’ and people’s movement for the radicalization of the class struggle through the mobilization of the masses to immediately achieve their most heartfelt demands. The illusion of the possibility of overcoming the economic, political, social, institutional and military crisis through “class collaboration” only leads to its worsening and protracting the suffering of the masses. Therefore, it is more than necessary to ruthlessly denounce and unmask as much as possible the class conciliation of this opportunist electoral left in its begging to the “powerful ones” for “ability to rule”, in order to achieve this objective of maintaining itself as a shift government – this is, what became its only objective. The last one demands from the powerful ones the permission to throw crumbs to the people, to manage the crisis of the system of oppression and exploitation and lead the repression of the legitimate struggles for rights. What has only resulted so far, in the end, as the country’s recent history demonstrates, is in the strengthening of the far right.