Brazil's Elections and current political situation

Anyone know what the Brazilian anarchist movement is like at the moment?

Not specifically, but a couple of articles on recent movements:

https://libcom.org/library/brazil-popular-revolt-its-limits

https://libcom.org/library/what-happened-june-2013-brazil-incipient-material-community-its-reactionary-destruction-

See also the comment from Cris Oliveira on the second one which is critical of how... critical the article is about those movements and their legacy (i.e. that there are still anarchist groups and social struggles going on since 2013 and facing a lot of repression).

They've not put out anything new on Brazil in the last few months, but Crimethinc's coverage of social movements in South America is generally pretty strong, so for a bit of background you could do worse than (most recent first):
https://crimethinc.com/2018/07/30/brazil-to-burst-ropes-and-chains-on-the-sentencing-of-23-prisoners-for-the-2014-protests
https://crimethinc.com/2018/04/06/brazil-rivers-of-blood-peace-is-war-security-is-hazardous-and-citizens-are-the-targets-of-the-state
https://crimethinc.com/2018/03/12/brazil-2016-17-the-political-crisis-and-coup-detat-an-anarchist-analysis
https://crimethinc.com/2017/06/12/fighting-in-brazil-2013-2015-three-years-of-revolt-repression-and-reaction

The Left communist take on recent developments in Brazil here:
www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2018-10-09/bolsonaro-and-the-crisis-in-brazil
References to the recent 'truckers strike' may have been commented on and interpreted differently elsewhere on this site if I recall rightly.

Truckers strike commentary is here: https://libcom.org/news/rebellion-truck-drivers-crossroads-iniciativa-revolu-ao-universal-05062018

Crimethinc just put out a new podcast with an interview with a Brazilian anarchist: https://crimethinc.com/podcast/hotwire-40 Will try to copypaste relevant stuff later.

Radio 4 show:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000ngx

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswsns

BBC 9 minutes ofn the battle of Maria Antonia mentioned above.

The Intercept podcast has a useful context setting followed by an interview with a Brazilian left political https://theintercept.com/2018/10/17/upheaval-brazil-on-the-brink-the-saudi-regime-under-fire/?campaign=homepage-podcast-intercepted

I'd not heard the role of social media pay to promote 'fake news' mentioned before but also fascinating that a Rio cop has more chanced of being killed than a US soldier in Iraq at the height of the occupation. Unemployment, lots of anti-social crime (60k murders), a very sharp wealth divide and a deliberate social media campaign of scapegoating is a pretty explosive mix.

Sócrates and Brazilian Democracy
If only Lucas Moura was anti-semitic, Spurs fans might tell him to fuck off then (i doubt it).

/hey guys! Brazilian here

I will try to summarize what going on here. And sorry for my bad writing, i am not so instructed in english.

Ps:

The situation is pretty bad and probably the fascist candidate will win by a large difference tomorrow

The far-right uprising is an outcome from the deep crisis that plague Brazil since 2014. The slowdown in economic growth in China affected severely the commodities prices, which has badly hit commodity producers like Brazil whose principal source of surplus value is the ground rent. As a result the surplus value available to invest decline. The Worker Party (PT) government tried to avoid that contraction by means of keynesian fiscal and monetary policies that only postpone the crisis by the buildup of debt and inflation. In 2015 GDP fallen staggering 3,8%, unemployment soars and inflation intensified. The things only get worse when a political scandal involving the state oil company put PT as a main corruptor actor.

So the bourgeoisie put a lot pressure in the PT government in order to ensure a sequence of market reforms like the flexibilization of labour relations, fiscal austerity and restructuring of the pension system as a mean of increase the rate of surplus value extracted from the workers and, by this way, revert the slump. The solution found by the bourgeoisie was a '' soft parliamentary coup' that took out the PT from power and replace them by a neoliberal coalition in 2016. Since them, the political crisis deepens and the economic outlook has remained bleak. This whole dark atmosphere leads to a complete demoralization of the political establishment that affect precisely both right and left situated in the political center, paving the way to the far right growth.

In my point of view the Bolsonaro victory is the political expression of the technocratic illusions that still perpetuate in the left. PT had believed that the capital contradictions could be suppressed in an old fashioned keynesian way, but this resulted in a more acute slump. Capital is fetishized social relation that not can be controlled by a properly political tools or democratic institutions. Capital must be destroyed for the people rescue a truly political autonomy to determine their lives in a non-fetishized way that transcends both the market and the state.

Now the far right will try to handle the capital crisis by means of force and militarization.

I wrote a text that explain the political conjuncture here in Brazil but my post was blocked by an anti-spam mechanism

Tim Vickery on footballers' support for Bolsonero:
https://thesetpieces.com/features/jair-bolsonaro-is-a-throwback-to-the-dark-days-of-brazils-military-dictatorship-so-why-do-so-many-footballers-support-him/

More on Paulo André:
https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/esportes/atletico-pr/apos-assinar-manifesto-contra-bolsonaro-jogador-dribla-ato-politico-do-atletico-7c136l4gc1rac7ae6t5kjftwf/

Reddebrek

spartakus25

I wrote a text that explain the political conjuncture here in Brazil but my post was blocked by an anti-spam mechanism

That's strange, earlier I could see it but now I can't, its a shame because it was very informative.

It was posted twice, I approved one and deleted the other. For some reason it got flagged as spam again as did a third posting of teh text. I have unmarked it as spam and deleted the third post.

i saw that the fascist won https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/oct/28/brazil-election-2018-second-round-of-voting-closes-as-bolsonaro-eyes-the-presidency-live

jef costello

Reddebrek

spartakus25

I wrote a text that explain the political conjuncture here in Brazil but my post was blocked by an anti-spam mechanism

That's strange, earlier I could see it but now I can't, its a shame because it was very informative.

It was posted twice, I approved one and deleted the other. For some reason it got flagged as spam again as did a third posting of teh text. I have unmarked it as spam and deleted the third post.

I tried to edit in order to fix some grammatical issues but again my post was considered as a spam =X

For some reason it seems most (all) of your posts are marked as spam. Your last post was also marked as such, I did as other mods have marked it as "not spam". I'm not sure how the antispam system works, but hopefully the algorithm will have been taught you're not a spammer. I suggest you send a message to the admins, though I'll do it on your behalf later when I'm on my laptop.

The Claws of Empire, the Rise of Fascism: Brazilian Anarchist Statement on Bolsonaro:
https://freedomnews.org.uk/the-claws-of-empire-the-rise-of-fascism-brazilian-anarchist-statement-on-bolsonaro/

spartakus25

jef costello

Reddebrek

spartakus25

I wrote a text that explain the political conjuncture here in Brazil but my post was blocked by an anti-spam mechanism

That's strange, earlier I could see it but now I can't, its a shame because it was very informative.

It was posted twice, I approved one and deleted the other. For some reason it got flagged as spam again as did a third posting of teh text. I have unmarked it as spam and deleted the third post.

I tried to edit in order to fix some grammatical issues but again my post was considered as a spam =X

I've just given you a role that will bypass the spam checks, so you should stop running into this from now on.

I just unmmarked spartakus25's first post as spam.

Is this automatic ? That is the third time if I am not mistaken.

Mike Harman

spartakus25

jef costello

Reddebrek

spartakus25

I wrote a text that explain the political conjuncture here in Brazil but my post was blocked by an anti-spam mechanism

That's strange, earlier I could see it but now I can't, its a shame because it was very informative.

It was posted twice, I approved one and deleted the other. For some reason it got flagged as spam again as did a third posting of teh text. I have unmarked it as spam and deleted the third post.

I tried to edit in order to fix some grammatical issues but again my post was considered as a spam =X

I've just given you a role that will bypass the spam checks, so you should stop running into this from now on.

that's fine! thanks!

Brasil group Black Pheonix (Fenikso Nigra), part of the Federal initiative linked to IFA, have written the following on http://i-f-a.org/
This is in English and Portuguese

this is a footage that show a little bit the collective paranoia and the hate speech against the whole left.it's very frightening

Meerov, are you even aware of what is happening in Brazil? Otherwise you would not be making idiotic comments like that.

In what sense is Bolsonaro a "fascist"?

Bolsonaro is not a fascist, he is a democrat, a product of this disgusting thing called democracy and the victor of free and fair elections.

He is certainly a right-populist, misogynist, homophobic, and all-round reactionary with authoritarian tendencies, but he's also pro-free market and anti-gun control, whereas fascism is about total control of society by the state.

What does applying "fascist" to any right-wing politician you dislike achieve? It turns "fascist" into trivial insult, and instead serves to defend the honour of democracy by treating the result as illegitimate.

craftwork

but he's also pro-free market and anti-gun control, whereas fascism is about total control of society by the state.

lol. When your description of fascism is so restrictive it excludes Germany under the Nazis you should take a deep breath and get a bit less outraged about people using a broader one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany#Privatization_and_business_ties

Wikipedia

The Great Depression had spurred increased state ownership in most Western capitalist countries. This also took place in Germany during the last years of the Weimar Republic. But after the Nazis took power, industries were privatized en masse. Several banks, shipyards, railway lines, shipping lines, welfare organizations, and more were privatized.[40] The Nazi government took the stance that enterprises should be in private hands wherever possible. [41] State ownership was to be avoided unless it was absolutely necessary for rearmament or the war effort, and even in those cases “the Reich often insisted on the inclusion in the contract of an option clause according to which the private firm operating the plant was entitled to purchase it.”

..

The rhetoric of the Nazi regime stated that German private companies would be protected and privileged as long as they supported the economic goals of the government - mainly by participating in government contracts for military production - but that they could face severe penalties if they went against the national interest. However, such threats were rarely carried out in practice, and "companies normally could refuse to engage in an investment project designed by the state without any consequences."[66] Private firms refused government contracts and directions on many occasions. In 1937, de Wendel, a coal mining enterprise, refused to build a hydrogenation plant. In 1939, IG Farben denied a government request to increase its production of rayon and refused to invest in a synthetic rubber factory despite this being an important project for the regime. Froriep GmbH, a company producing machines for the armaments industry, successfully demanded cheap credit from the Nazi government under a threat of cutting back investment if its demand was not met.[67] The regime generally used monetary incentives, such as guaranteed profits, to persuade businesses to support its goals, and freedom of contract was generally respected even in projects important for the war

Craftwork

In what sense is Bolsonaro a "fascist"?

Bolsonaro is not a fascist, he is a democrat, a product of this disgusting thing called democracy and the victor of free and fair elections.

He is certainly a right-populist, misogynist, homophobic, and all-round reactionary with authoritarian tendencies, but he's also pro-free market and anti-gun control, whereas fascism is about total control of society by the state.

What does applying "fascist" to any right-wing politician you dislike achieve? It turns "fascist" into trivial insult, and instead serves to defend the honour of democracy by treating the result as illegitimate.

I am not sure that fascism necessarily means state control over society. For example, in Hitler's Germany, despite widespread nationalization, there were private enterprises, large and small, and the leadership of the SS consisted of supporters of market economy and liberalism. For example, one of the SS intellectuals and their leaders Otto Ohlendorf was a supporter of the free market and criticized the forced monopoly in the politics of the Reich.

The fascist Franco regime used, like the anti-fascist Spanish Republic, broad state control over the economy, but Franco from a certain moment began the process of economic liberalization and privatization.

Bolsonaro is a "fascist" If we call "fascism" the system of domination of large state and private monopolies, which is based on the ideas of nationalism and xenophobia, terrorist methods, dictatorship, and attempts to mass mobilization of the population through nationalist propaganda. If so then Bolsonaro is under the definition of fascism. He speaks of the need to eliminate parliamentary democracy, if it interferes with him, he glorifies military dictatorship and terror against dissenters.

But I agree with you to some extent. The line between fascism and democracy, or between fascism and anti-fascism, is much thinner than many leftists try to imagine.

Actually millions of Brazilians, voting for the opponent of democracy, or simply refusing to come to the polls (30 million), showed that they are not interested in protecting democracy and in anti-fascism.

admin - we've unpublished several off-topic posts from meerov on this thread (and some of the responses to them), if we have to keep doing this it'll be a temp ban

Bolsonaro IS a fascist. Fascism is all about counteract the inner ''a-social'' nature of capitalism by means of fictitious community as a mass movement identified with the nation-state. the commoditized socialization leads a weakening in the social bonds which brings about the emptying of the individuals. the capitalism crisis undermine further the atomization of individuals that fuels the demand for a ''true community' founded upon a neurotic nationalism. that's the core concept of fascism that pass through by different political archetype from statist corporatism to the neoliberal corporatism.

Brasil is in a deep crisis that threats the social unity. Fascism is a brutal political way of put together the fundamental elements of capitalism reproduction in unity. capitalism is unity in separation. When separation tends to exacerbate, the authoritarianism comes to claim the unity upon the separation. In the particular case of Brasil the only way to reach this unity, and maintain the capital social reproduction, is by the neoliberal program which means savage privatizations and further exploitation of natural resources. Ironically that will creates a lot exclusion -exclusion of blacks, indigenous people, poor etc-, which will further the separation, but the ''social unity'' will confine in the withe upper-middle class situated in the industrial south and south east. It’s a very restrictive nationalism. The social reproduction of capital in Brazil needs to ‘‘expurgate’’ the ''superfluous'' people that not will be more useful to the capital accumulation, and this will be reached by mass incarceration and bloodbath.

Here's a good text about Brazil, though I disagree with the last paragraph.
https://www.paperrevolution.org/the-proletariat-of-brazil-was-defeated-by-democracy-not-dictatorship/?fbclid=IwAR0QQISYFRHFJVHcgzYLCsxm9fvAjA4085QwsjG074pxnGGKmkaXqHaRcUY

I agree that this Bolsonaro piece of shit is a fascist. But an interesting question is raised. If nationalism is the essence of fascism, at what point does nationalism become fascism?

Most people are nationalists, though it gets called patriotism, and from an extremely young age we are fed a steady-diet of seemingly "benign" nationalism, like standing for the national anthem everyday in school, big celebrations with fireworks for Independence Day or whatever equivalent national-celebration day a country might have, being taught to take pride in your country, and so on. Of course none of this is benign, and it's the foundation on which bigotry is built.

At what point is the line crossed from nationalism to fascism?

Not read enough of it to have a super-clear idea of their perspective and how far I'd endorse it, but this site has a lot of Brazilian coverage: https://newmilitant.com

Podcast:
https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/battleground-brazil-jair-bolsonaro-the-military-dictatorship-fascism

Lucky Black Cat

Most people are nationalists, though it gets called patriotism, and from an extremely young age we are fed a steady-diet of seemingly "benign" nationalism, like standing for the national anthem everyday in school, big celebrations with fireworks for Independence Day or whatever equivalent national-celebration day a country might have, being taught to take pride in your country, and so on.

Most of the bolded are unique to USA no? Nationalism is obviously a feature of nation states but it tends to be a lot more subtle. USA is extreme.

There's a fair bit in the UK masquerading as ww2 related stuff. I imagine, could be wrong, that it wouldn't work half as well if was straight up nationalism without the ww2 pretext.

It would be interesting to hear about how nationalism/patriotism is inculcated into people in the UK (other than WW2 stuff).

News from Brazil..a political member from bolsonaro family was target by an investigation that found solid evidences of money laundering involving him and his car driver. Some analysts suggests that the move against Bolsonaro family is a way to remove Bolsonaro from power and replace them for a high ranked office military that have the capacity and political strength to organize the government in order to implement complex and problematic reforms like the neoliberal restructuring of pension system. Bolsonaro is too immature and unstable for this task, and could severely damage the political viability of the neoliberal agenda, and his party is even worse with a lot internal conflicts lead by egocentric and bigotry politicians.