Greetings to the Brazilian People
The Brazil Popular Front, in its III National Conference, which took place on March 30 and 31, 2019, in the ENFF, in Guararema (SP) brought together representatives of national organizations and state delegates, from various locations that discussed the Brazilian crisis and refreshed the political agenda of democratic and popular forces.
The Popular Brazil Front is the historic fruit of the mobilization and coordination of struggles under the banners of several social movements as well as workers and labour movements, and the continuity of other experiences that, each in its own time, fulfilled the role of articulating and mobilizing the struggle for democracy and for the rights of the Brazilian people.
The FBP in the struggle against further setbacks
At the international level, the situation worsened. It is clear that the capitalist system is going through a crisis and is seeking a transition to new forms of exploitation, frequently reinforcing that capitalism is incompatible with democracy.
Faced with the consolidation of a global multi-polar framework in the system of nations, imperialism reacts by seeking to reassert its hegemony through the variety of forms of attack, especially in Latin America, producing a global climate that serves as a catalyst for the growth of the extreme right.
This is reflected in the Brazilian crisis. The coup process in 2016 unfolded with the Temer Government and its anti-grass roots measures, the unjust imprisonment of President Lula and the election of a candidate aligned with the imperialist, rentiers and surrendered sectors. The Brazilian government, once a proud promoter of peace, represents today an economically, socially and geopolitically submissive posture in relation to US imperialism.
The Bolsonaro government is an authoritarian government. It presents an agenda of economic ultraliberalism, of ultraconservatism with curtailment of individual liberties, combined with the repression and criminalization of popular struggles and mobilizations.
The main agenda of the Bolsonaro Government at this time is the Social Security Reform. In practice, this proposal ends the right to retirement and destroys social security by affecting the entire working class, especially the elderly, people in rural areas, as well as women and black people.
The Bolsonaro government has exacerbated the disastrous measures of the Temer Government. The consequence of this is high unemployment in Brazil, the end of labour rights and attacks on the organization of workers. This aggravates a situation in large cities marked by a lack of public and social policies, a sharp increase in violence and the stagnation of our economy, deepened by the EC 95/2016, the EC 95/2016, of the Expenditure Ceiling.
The so-called “Moro Anti-Crime Package” means an increase in exceptional measures, seeking to legitimize Lava Jato, restricting and criminalizing the struggle of workers and grassroots movements, including the right to demonstrate, as well as increasing the imprisonment of the poor population and genocide of youth, the majority of whom are black. It is clear that we have on our agenda the need to defeat Welfare Reform and advance in the construction of a national development project that can provide answers to these and other questions.
It is a matter of restoring at the center of the political struggle the need for a grassroots, feminist, antihomophobic and anti-racist project that guarantees development and national sovereignty as well as the hegemony of grassroots movements. A project centered on the sustainability of life, and not on profit. That requires an accumulation of strength in the programmatic debate and, at the same time, an accumulation of organized popular forces.
The challenges of the FBP in the current situation
The strengthening of the Popular Brazil Front and the action of the Fronts, political parties, central unions and social movements that compose it are essential elements.
Important themes were raised during the work of the III Conference that we want to deepen in the strategic debate of the FBP and for our dialogue with other democratic and popular forces, especially with the Fearless People’s Front and the Central Forum.
The strengthening and maintenance of our rich historical and programmatic heritage is not contradictory to the need to advance in the construction of a broad field of resistance.
Faced with the offensive of ultraliberal and reactionary sectors, we need to combine popular organization with movements and actions that include any sectors, social movements and civil society organizations that mobilize in defense of democracy, democratic freedoms, the civil and political rights of the Brazilian people as well as of national sovereignty.
We must challenge ourselves to seek additional forces in the construction of a general strike against welfare reform, which is greater and stronger than that achieved against labour reform, through increased dialogue and collective work, which we will seek to deepen in the coming months.
To survive its own crisis, the capitalist system is going through a crisis and is seeking new forms of exploitation. We need to better understand issues such as: the new labour relations, including reproductive and caregiving, as well as transnational financial capital, threats to democracy, challenges of the technological revolution of the information and communication era, and new strategies of democratic resistance.
In the coming months, our priority will be to defeat the project of destruction of Public Welfare.
The Lula Free Campaign is a fundamental agenda, which demands effort and responsibility of the FBP. Lula’s imprisonment is an arbitrary and political act, we must reinforce the actions and mobilizations to denounce a year of political imprisonment, as well as continue organizing and mobilizing the resistance throughout Brazil.
In the same way, the defense of Venezuela is the defense of a symbol of resistance in Latin America. We must strengthen the culture of peace and the sovereignty of peoples. The agendas in defense of peace and in defense of the sovereignty of the peoples threatened by imperialism have the support of the FBP.
The Defense of Democracy, Sovereignty and Social Rights are permanent priorities of the FBP. We will stand together in defense of education, alongside students and teachers, defending schools openly. We are defending a society free of any kind of exploitation, oppression and discrimination, while seeking to guarantee the rights of women, blacks, indigenous people, LGBT´s and workers.
Guararema, March 31, 2019.