Brazilian Communist Party | Eduardo Gonçalves Serra
The Brazilian Communist Party greets the People’s Democracy Party of Korea for holding its National Congress and greets all the participants of this important meeting.
In Brazil, we are experiencing the first hundred days of the Lula government, a broad coalition government that, in the presidential elections of October 2022, defeated, by a small margin of votes, president Bolsonaro and his alliance, which basically brought together fascists and conservative representations, with the support of a large part of the Brazilian bourgeoisie and popular segments. Lula was elected by a broad, anti-fascist political coalition, including the left and sectors of the big bourgeoisie, which today make up the government, and had broad international support.
Right at the beginning of the mandate, on January 8th, the government faced an attempted coup d’état, with the occupation of public buildings in Brasília by organized groups of Bolsonaro supporters. The attempt was defeated but required a great effort from the government. Many coup plotters were arrested on the same day and leaders, financers and supporters of the act, including the military, are being prosecuted. There was an intense demonstration by the left and democratic and anti-fascist sectors in the streets, in repudiation of the coup attempt. But the right and the extreme right remain active and organized, and the so-called Bolsonarism remains alive, galvanizing part of the bourgeoisie and social segments of the middle and low-income classes.
The new government has been operating some emergency actions, such as the fight against illegal mining and deforestation in indigenous lands, in the resumption of institutional normality, under the limited bourgeois order. However, there are no prospects of abandoning liberal policies in the economy, nor of repealing the labor and social security counter-reforms implemented in recent years, nor of overcoming extreme poverty and misery, rural and urban, which predominate in the country, due to of the strong presence of business representatives in the government. However, more space is opened for the class struggle. There is a greater movement of the Landless Movement and localized struggles, but the more general mobilization of the working class is still low. The mobilization is a priority for the action of the communists.
In terms of external relations, the movements, declarations and commitments that have been undertaken by the new government are relevant, pointing to a repositioning of Brazil, which is back to participate in international organizations and conferences, such as the COP 27, held in Egypt, at the end 2022, already with the presence of Lula, even though he had not yet been sworn in. In Latin America, rapprochement with socialist Cuba and with reformist-progressive governments, such as those in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina, the return to CELAC and Unasur, and, pragmatically, the articulation and strengthening of Mercosur, which, in addition to Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, also includes Uruguay and Paraguay, which today have conservative governments.
In Latin America, we are experiencing a wave of electoral victories of the democratic-reformist-progressive field over right-wing and extreme-right, neoliberal and authoritarian coalitions, also by small margins of votes, as in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras and Colombia, with significant popular mobilization. The new governments face many difficulties in carrying out their programs and, in Peru, a coup d’état removed the legitimately elected president, Pedro Castilho, from power. The coup has been contested by a large popular mobilization and Peru is a priority for action by the international right.
Lula’s visit to China, in addition to the political implications such as the strengthening of the BRICS – and the consequent loss of space for the United States – had important results.
The possibility of adopting the Yuan and other currencies to back trade and the flow of investments between the two countries, a standard that may be extended to the entire Brics, adds to the intention, already announced by Brazil, of adopting an accounting currency for operations within Mercosur, points to the loss of strength of the dollar and, consequently, of the power of imperialism in the region.
Moreover, the visit of Russian foreign minister Serguei Lavrov to Brazil strengthens the Brazilian position of neutrality in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, emphasizing that Brazil had already refused to supply ammunition and military equipment to NATO, contrary to a direct request from the USA. The Brazilian government had already announced this position of neutrality, reinforced during the visit to China. These movements signal an international stance of non-alignment by Brazil, reinforcing this international trend.
There is, however, no sign of a political or economic break with the United States – one of the first countries that Lula visited. Brazil’s rapprochement with China is complex, as it brings benefits to sectors of the Brazilian bourgeoisie – such as export agribusiness – and to investments by private Chinese companies in Brazil, but we understand that the relations that China has been establishing with many countries in the world, with alliances such as the BRICS, instruments such as the Economic Belt Initiative, the New Silk Road and the recent Initiative for Modernization, even though they do not have a socialist content, contribute to the construction of a non-aligned international field and a multipolar world, with the decline in the weight of the United States on the international scene, creating a mediation that favors workers in the class struggle.
The PCB is opposed to the war in Ukraine, as the population in general suffers the most from wars, but recognizes that this war has its origins in the expansionist action of the United States via NATO as a way of encircling Russia and imposing its military presence and its influence in Europe, and in the actions of internal Nazi forces in Ukraine, mainly in the Donbas region, where Russian populations predominate.
In addition to this action, the US has been seeking new military alliances and trying to increase tension in different parts of the world, such as in the China Sea. At the same time, the extreme right has been reorganizing internationally, as can be seen from the recent meeting in Madrid, which followed similar meetings in Brazil and Peru. The same movement of organization occurs with the traditional right.
For the PCB, at the same time that communists must intensify actions to denounce and combat imperialism, it is essential to strengthen actions to organize the anti-capitalist struggle, understanding that capitalism is the root of imperialism, in all the ways it presents itself, and that only with the struggle of the working class and its victory over capital, in the perspective of the revolutionary construction of Socialism, a new era of social justice and human emancipation will begin.
