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Brazil under Bolsonaro: Social base, agenda and perspectives
By Ana Garcia
April 26, 2019 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project — The rise of the far right is a worldwide phenomenon, rooted in the nefarious effects of neoliberal globalization which have pushed the world into mass unemployment and enormous inequalities. I consider it to be a late political effect of the global financial crisis that hit the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
It is not an easy task to explain the phenomenon of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and to understand the groups that support him, both within and outside government. It’s difficult, for anyone, to draw a truly complete and sober analysis of what we have experienced. This essay is not based on in-depth research but on collective reflections and debates. I intend to pose some key questions and try to identify some clues to answer them.
The most important presidential race in Brazilian history (plus statements from MST & PSOL)
By James N. Green
October 13, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from NACLA — The unexpected strength of the far-right demagogue Jair Bolsonaro in the October 7 Brazilian elections sent shockwaves throughout the country. Capturing 46% of the popular vote in the first round of the presidential contest, Bolsonaro now faces a run-off race on October 28 against Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party, who trailed with 29.3% of the votes.
BRICS Xiamen Summit: Capitalist ‘deglobalisation’ could crack the bloc even if internal geopolitical strife eases
By Patrick Bond
August 31, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — The Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit in Xiamen from September 3-5 is already inscribed with high tension thanks to Sino-Indian border conflicts. But regardless of a welcome new peace deal, centrifugal forces within the fast-whirling world economy threaten to divide the BRICS. South Africa, which plays host to the BRICS in 2018, is already a victim of these trends – even as President Jacob Zuma continues to use the bloc as a primary crutch in his so-called “anti-imperialist” (talk-left walk-right) political survival kit.
Political crisis in Brazil: Opportunities and challenges for the left
Below, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is reposting two
views on the current political crisis and the situation facing the left.
Both articles first appeared at Socialist Project
Brazil: ‘We need direct elections now and an emergency plan for the people’ says MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile
Interview by Joana Tavares
May 26, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, originally translated from Brasil de Fato by Dawn News — Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and the People’s Brazil Front, analyzes the Brazilian political situation, the role of the O Globo media network, the internal divisions among the putschists, and the need for a transition government and building a people’s project for Brazil.
The BRICS New Development Bank meets in Delhi to dash green-developmental hopes?
By Patrick Bond
March 30, 2017 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – Will the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) bloc ever really challenge the world financial order?
Marta Harnecker: 'Nobody can deny that a new revolutionary subject has been created in Venezuela'
January 27, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — The following interview with Marta Harnecker was conducted by journalist Tassos Tsakiroglou for the Greek newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton prior to Harnecker's participation in the international conference "150 years Karl Marx's Capital: Reflections for the 21st Century", held in Athens, Greece, January 14-15, 2017. Links is making available the original English version of the interview.
BRICS fantasies and unintended revelations: the wages of sub-imperial assimilation
By Patrick Bond
October 14, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — A Brazilian leader’s faux pas spoke volumes about the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) heads of state summit underway in Goa this weekend. The country’s foreign minister (and occasional presidential candidate) José Serra told an interviewer last month that the BRICS included Argentina. And as he stumbled while spelling out the acronym, Serra also had to be prompted to recall that South Africa is a member (because in English it is the “S” in BRICS, but in Portuguese the country is “Africa do Sul”).
Un golpe desde arriba tras un colapso desde abajo
[Original in English here.]
Por Federico Fuentes
12 de octubre, 2016 — Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Beatriz Morales Bastos — Menos de dos años después de que la candidata del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT) Dilma Rousseff fuera reelegida presidenta de Brasil, el senado brasileño la destituyó.
Brazil coup shows BRICS powers are no alternative to US imperialism
By Patrick Bond
May 29, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- On May 12, Brazil’s democratic government, led by the Workers’ Party (PT), was the victim of a coup. What will the other BRICS countries (Russia, India, China, and South Africa) do?
Brazil: Joao Pedro Stedile (MST) 'The coup-plotters have made their intentions clear'
By Joao Pedro Stedile, translated by Federico Fuentes
May 26, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal translated from Brasil de Fato -- It only took a few hours or days for the provisional government of the coup-plotters to install themselves and demonstrate their intentions through the composition of its cabinet, the plans it has announced and its public declarations.
Behind the political crisis in Brazil
May 23, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff is facing a judicial coup as the country enters its worst political crisis since the military coup of 1964. What is at the heart of this crisis? Has the Workers’ Party project reached its limits? What is the opposition’s agenda? What are the implications for the future of Brazilian democracy?
These were the questions addressed at the May 21 public forum "Political Crisis in Brazil"hosted by the Latin America Social Forum, Sydney. The forum included video presentations by Pedro Ivo Carneiro Teixeirense, PhD Candidate in Social History (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil & Ruhr University Bochum, Germany), and Camila Alves da Costa, a researcher at Nationalities' Observatory, Universidade Estadual de Ceará (Fortaleza); and executive editor, Tensões Mundiais journal.
Below, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal has posted their presentations.
Brazil’s social movements oppose institutional coup against Dilma Rousseff, demand ‘Temer Out’
May 13, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Brazil’s Federal Senate voted on May 12 to proceed with the impeachment process against Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in a move that many see as an attempt by the right-wing opposition to carry out a “institutional coup”.
Below Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing translated version of statements released by the Popular Brazil Front, a broad coalition that involves the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), and the National Student Union (UNE), among others, and by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil’s largest social movement in the wake of the Senate vote. They have been translated from the Brazil Popular Front site by Federico Fuentes
Brazil's social movements: We will not accept a coup against democracy and our rights! We will defeat the coup in the streets!
Statement by the Popular Brazil Front and the People Without Fear Front, translated by Federico Fuentes
April 19, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In response to the recent vote in the lower house of Brazil’s parliament in favor of impeaching president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s two main coalitions of social movements issued the below statement on April 17. Both the Popular Brazil Front and People Without Fear Front were formed as a response to the recent right-wing mobilizations against Dilma, while at the same time remaining critical of the government’s austerity measures. Between them they unite many of Brazil’s largest social movements including Unified Workers' Central (CUT), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), and the National Student Union (UNE), among others.
Party of Socialism and Freedom (Brazil) - Why we voted against the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff
By Party of Socialism and Freedom, translation by Sean Seymour-Jones
April 19, 2016 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, originally posted in Portuguese on the PSOL website - Brazil’s lower house voted on April 17 to impeach Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in a move that many see as an attempt by the right-wing opposition to carry out a “institutional coup”. The vote came after a series of massive protests - both for and against Dilma - that have rocked the largest country in Latin America.
In October 2014, Rousseff was elected to a second term, and a fourth consecutive term for the Workers Party (PT) after Lula da Silva’s two terms in office. It will now be up to a vote in the upper house, scheduled for May, as to whether she is impeached.
Among those to vote against the impeachment process was the Party of Socialism and Freedom (PSOL), the largest party to the left of the PT, and which has maintained a strong oppositional stance towards the current government. Below is a translation of a PSOL statement released just prior to the vote explaining why they would be voting against the impeachment process.
Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) on the political crisis engulfing the Dilma government
April 16, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Over 700,000 Brazilians took to the streets on March 31 across dozens of cities in Brazil in defence of democracy. The demonstrations were called by the Popular Front of Brazil, of which the Landless Workers Movement (MST) is a key part. The demonstrations demanded an end to the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, which protestors say is equivalent to a coup.
Below, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is republishing two articles reflecting the views of the MST on the current political crisis in Brazil which have been translated by Friends of MST. The first is the MST's analysis of the origin of the political crisis and the role of the social movements and working class in this struggle. The second was written by MST leader João Pedro Stedile, and looks at how the crisis has been accompanied by rising rural violence, including the killing of two farm workers on Thursday April 7.
Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff: It’s class war, and their class is winning
March 23, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project -- Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of the state jams; the veils of consent are torn asunder and the tools of power appear disturbingly naked. Brazil is living through one of those moments: it is dreamland for social scientists; a nightmare for everyone else.
Dilma Rousseff was elected President in 2010, with a 56-44 per cent majority against the right-wing neoliberal PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) opposition candidate. She was reelected four years later with a diminished yet convincing majority of 52-48 per cent, or a majority of 3.5 million votes.
Dilma's second victory sparked a heated panic among the neoliberal and U.S.-aligned opposition. The fourth consecutive election of a President affiliated to the centre-left PT (Workers’ Party) was bad news for the opposition, because it suggested that PT founder Luís Inácio Lula da Silva could return in 2018. Lula had been President between 2003 and 2010, and when he left office his approval ratings hit 90 per cent, making him the most popular leader in Brazil's history. This likely sequence suggested that the opposition could be out of federal office for a generation. The opposition immediately rejected the outcome of the vote. No credible complaints could be made, but no matter; it was resolved that Dilma Rousseff would be overthrown by any means necessary. To understand what happened next, we must return to 2011.
Is South America’s ‘progressive cycle’ at an end? Neo-developmentalist attempts and socialist projects
‘Venezuela defines the future of the progressive cycle’ An interview with Claudio Katz
Introduced and translated by Richard Fidler, article original published in Spanish in La Llamarada
July 14, 2013 -- Life on the Left, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- Two recent events — the second-round victory on November 22 of right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri in Argentina’s presidential election, and the December 6 victory of the right-wing Democratic Unity Roundtable,[1] winning two thirds of the seats in Venezuela’s National Assembly elections — have radically altered the political map in South America. In the following interview, Argentine Marxist Claudio Katz discusses what these setbacks for the left mean for the progressive “process of change” that has unfolded on the continent over the last 10-15 years. My translation from the Spanish.
Katz is a professor of economics at the University of Buenos Aires, a researcher with the National Council of Science and Technology, and a member of Economists of the Left.[2]
World soccer corruption, Africa’s ‘illicit financial flows’ and elite silences
Click for more on sport and capitalism, the soccer World Cup and articles by Patrick Bond
By Patrick Bond, Durban
June 3, 2015 -- originally published at TeleSUR English, submitted to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author -- The last week has provided extraordinary examples of how corruption erodes the resources and morals of an entire continent – Africa – in part because villains in South Africa made alliances with wicked brothers in Switzerland, Latin America, the Caribbean and, especially, the United States. We now know more about offshore centres of both reactionary finance and corrupt-corporate soccer. It’s long overdue they are exposed to a spotlight, even if those pointing that light want to leave certain features in the shadows.
On May 21, Africa’s "illicit financial flows" (IFF) looting was partially dissected by Nelson Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, in his urgent-sounding report to the African Union, Track it! Stop it! Get it! Mbeki’s bottom line:
