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Lula’s Witch Trial: Who Are The TRF4?
Some are calling it the Coup’s endgame, others the “final battle” for Brazil’s next decade. Former President Lula, who held office from 2003-2011 has twice the support of his nearest rival to succeed Putschist Michel Temer in the October 2018 elections. However, on the 24th January in the southern city of Porto Alegre, he will … Keep reading »
The MST and the Fight to Change the Brazilian Power Structure
Gilmar Mauro interviewed by Brian Mier During the 1960s, legend has it that governor José Sarney sat down at a table with a group of cattle-ranching cronies and aerial photographs of Maranhão state, in Northeastern Brazil. They marked boundaries on the photos with pencil and divided up the land. In the decades that followed, these ranchers … Keep reading »
Brazil in Crisis and the Challenges for the Left
On Thursday, May 18, an incriminating audio recording surfaced containing the voice of current Brazilian president Michel Temer of the historically centrist, but recently turned right wing, Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party). In this recording, Temer can be heard engaging in discussions of bribery with former House speaker and fellow party … Keep reading »
Brazil’s Political Rupture and the Left’s Opportunity
Fora Temer – eleições diretas já! “Out with Temer – direct elections now!” Amid meltdown in Brazil, the left calls for democracy, while the right must find ways to deny the people a voice. The Brazilian Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) won the country’s presidential elections four times in a row; first with Luís Inácio … Keep reading »
Brazil’s Neoliberal U-Turn: Wishful Thinking in the Face of Class Antagonism
Since reaching its zenith in 2010, the Brazilian economy has suffered a remarkable reversal of fortune. Despite official protestations to the contrary, however, Brazil’s afflictions turned out to be of its own making, as it so often proves to be the case. The origins of the contraction of Brazilian GDP in 2015-2016 by nearly 7.5% … Keep reading »
Censorship is Back in Fashion in Brazil
Lately, it’s been common to say that the “right has come out of the closet” in Brazil. More precisely, the authoritarian, fascist right, has done so and very publicly for that matter. The revolutionary potential of June 2013 [Ed.: see Bullet No. 851], even if convoluted and smeared by depoliticization, held enough of a threat … Keep reading »
“Dilma’s Mistake Was to Promote Class Conciliation”
Interview With João Pedro Stédile The economist and leader of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) of Brazil, Joao Pedro Stédile, affirmed that left-wing forces won’t allow the Parliamentarian right to fulfill their wish to force Dilma Rousseff out of the presidency to reinstall neoliberalism in the country. Stédile was interviewed by LibreRed, where this article was … Keep reading »
Crisis in Brazil
Since the 1980s, Brazil’s Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) has been one of the largest political parties of the left in Latin America. It has held power at the federal level in Brazil, in coalition with other parties, since January 2003, and figured prominently as one of the central representatives of the ‘pink tide’ … Keep reading »
Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff
It’s Class War, and Their Class is Winning 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 … Keep reading »
Brazilian Democracy in Distress: Unpacking Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment
Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has opened impeachment procedures against President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party (PT). This political manoeuvre is led by an unholy coalition including the Speaker of the Chamber, Eduardo Cunha, a right-wing evangelical from the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), who is being prosecuted in Brazil and in Switzerland … Keep reading »
The Ultra-Political Game: Depoliticization and False Polarization in Brazil
In a recent essay (see “Brazil: The Débâcle of the PT”), Alfredo Saad-Filho writes of the dilemmas the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) now faces in Brazil. His analysis helps decipher some of the dynamics that have led to the current crisis of the PT regime and President Dilma Rousseff. This essay complements … Keep reading »
Brazil: The Débâcle of the PT
Hundreds of thousands of chiefly white middle class protesters took to the streets in Brazil on 15 March in an organized upsurge of hatred against the federal administration led by President Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT). These protests are far more cohesive and better organized than the previous wave of … Keep reading »
