In a statement regarding the current situation in Brazil, the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy of the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro) points out:
The capitalist crisis, aggravated by the global Coronavirus pandemic, continues to aggravate and threaten peoples' lives. The number of people infected and killed by COVID-19 increases. Even in this scenario, imperialism continues to show its claws to maintain the profit rates of the capitalist monopolies at any cost.
In Latin America, the United States and allied governments reinforce the blockade against Socialist Cuba, Bolivarian Venezuela and Nicaragua. And they still threaten to attack Venezuela militarily, disrespecting international law and jeopardizing peace in our America.
One month after the beginning of quarantine, in the main Brazilian cities, the impacts of the brutal crisis of capitalism and the growing health crisis are intensely manifested. The increase in unemployment, famine and social misery give even more visibility to the barbarism promoted by decades of application of neoliberal economic policies. Several categories of workers continue to work without prevention and adequate care, as well as the exploitation of teachers, mainly from the private sector, with the excessive adoption of online classes and the intention of replacing face-to-face teaching with Distance Education platforms in the future, favoring private schools’ owners (“sharks”) and educational multinationals.
Neoliberal discourse is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Its defenders have lied and deceived a large part of the Brazilian working people, by promising more jobs with the approval of counter-reforms. The practices of austerity, fiscal adjustment, spending cuts, privatizations led to the scrapping and weakening of public systems, with an emphasis on health, leaving the vast majority of the population in extremely precarious conditions of survival, bringing no benefit to the working class and the popular strata. The ultra-right and the Brazilian right, although they present differences in the political dispute, strike the rights of the working class, the popular strata and the Brazilian youth in a unitary way.
In addition to the extreme right, represented today by the Bolsonaro / Mourão government, the traditional right is also responsible for the current political, social and economic situation in which we live. The former Minister of Health, who came to be called a hero by businessmen, liberal politicians and the bourgeois media, has always been a reactionary politician opposed to SUS, having positioned himself in the recent past in favor of cutting spending in social areas . The approval of counter-reforms, which made public services and workers' rights more precarious, such as the so-called labor and social security reforms, added to cuts in funds for health, social programs, basic education, federal institutes, universities, science and technology, has worsened in an extreme way the living conditions of the working people. That is, the right and the extreme right are the two sides of the same counterfeit.
In the National Congress, they come together to approve measures such as the Yellow-Green Card, which creates a new type of employment contract that institutes a second category of workers, much more precarious and with fewer rights, with the payment of the 13th salary and vacations in installments, among other attacks. MP 905 was removed from the Senate agenda, but its main content of destroying rights to favor the supply of disposable jobs will return with another guise, depending on the mafia that acts only for the sake of capital. They want the yellow green wallet to be the model for hiring young people and rehiring those who are being fired during the pandemic. For employers, those who are fired should not return to the job market with the same rights as before.
In turn, MP 936 - “EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME MAINTENANCE PROGRAM” - is in force. It was presented to meet the interest of businessmen concerned solely with maintaining their profit rates amid the expansion of Covid-19 and creating an exemption file in favor of the capitalists, without prohibiting the dismissal of the employees of the companies that adhere to this program. The number of agreements between companies and employees has already reached almost 2 million across Brazil after the decree of the MP. A significant portion of workers are already suffering the consequences of this measure, which eases the situation for employers and puts the survival of workers who have not secured their jobs at risk.
The PCB denounces the crimes against humanity committed by Bolsonaro, governors and allied mayors who insist on disregarding the safety, prevention and care rules stipulated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the scientific community. In this scenario, it is essential to combat inequalities, precarious living and working conditions, famine, hunger and misery. We communists defend and will continue to fight in defense of public health services, education, universities, scientific research, basic sanitation, job security and basic income as universal social and human rights.
AGAINST GOLPISM AND BOLSONARO'S GENOCIDE POLICY
The presence of Bolsonaro, once again, in the public demosntration carried out last Sunday, April 19, to defend a military coup, does not surprise us. In addition to repudiating the president's attitudes, it is time for the left and for all democratic organizations and popular movements to take concrete steps to stop their reactionary escalation. The PCB defends the impeachment of the Bolsonaro-Mourão slate, understanding that their crimes did not start in 2019 and that the vice president is as responsible as his boss for the destruction of the country.
In addition, we understand that measures such as Bolsonaro's impeachment request may contribute to weaken the government and contain the coup d'état at that time. However, regardless of the institutional developments of the current crisis, we insist on the need for workers' self-organization, the only way capable of providing a counterweight to capital in the post-pandemic and the defeat of this land devastating government. Defeated Bolsonaro and Mourão, the working class must be prepared to also defeat those who will present themselves to continue the economic project of the government.
More than ever, class solidarity is fundamental. We welcome, support and promote initiatives to form solidarity brigades and build popular committees. The self-organization of workers and the strengthening of popular associations and movements, student organizations and class unions are fundamental elements for us to advance in the counteroffensive against capital and the ultraliberal government.
The PCB reinforces the need to promote the widest unity of action against coup threats, in defense of democratic freedoms and social rights. In this sense, we support and participate in the construction of unity of action with the opposition parties, prioritizing the construction of the socialist left front and strengthening the main organizations representing popular movements. We continue to participate in the Union, Popular and Youth Forum for Democratic Rights and Freedoms, which at this conjuncture presents itself and consolidates itself as an important space for articulation and unitary struggles.
Major crises have short, medium and long-term consequences. We must be prepared, not discarding dynamic changes in this situation and in the post-pandemic period, which tends to be marked by the intensification of the class struggle and the intensification of imperialist aggressions. We understand that there is no way out of the crisis within the framework of capitalism. We underline the strategic need to move forward in building Popular Power and the Socialist Revolution.
Life must be above profits!
In defense of the rights of the working class and democratic freedoms!
For peoples' self-determination! Down with imperialism!
Out with Bolsonaro and Mourão! Dictatorship never again!
FOR POPULAR POWER ON THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM!
