The tasks of the Moment

Masses, 31^st year, n. 583 – March 21^st to 31^st, 2019.

There are several fronts of struggle. The problem is how to respond to all of them and unify them in one movement. Ford is adamant in its decision to close the São Bernardo plant. The leadership of the union refuses to put the problem in the hands of the workers and the working class as a whole. Assemblies and passive demonstrations are simply unknown to the US multinational. Negotiations with governments and parliamentarians serve the passivity. An urgent turnaround is required in this political conduct. The resistance to Ford’s closure is the responsibility of the working class as a whole and the others exploited. The more restricted the movement is and bureaucratically controlled by the leadership, the greater the risk that the automaker will definitely meet its objective.

It is necessary for the union to convene the general assembly, with the aim of mobilizing, organizing and raising the awareness of all metallurgists to the severity of the dismissal of hundreds of workers. It is necessary to form a support committee, involving the unions of the most diverse branches of production, able to extend the mobilization and guarantee unity in the struggle, based on workers’ democracy. In short, Ford’s flag of non-closure and the defense of jobs as the responsibility of the entire working class are placed. This is one of the fronts of struggle.

The process of the Bolsonaro-Guedes Social Security project is proceeding for approval. Rodrigo Maia, calmly, pushes his progress, according to the rush of the financial capital. There can be no doubt that the exploited are at great risk. Alongside the labor reform and the outsourcing law, pension reform represents a brutal attack on the living conditions of the oppressed majority. The trade union centrals, however, are reluctant to immediately prepare for the general strike. The second “National Day of Struggle” will be held, and the flag that should guide the movement and unification tactics of unions, movements and bases is not clear. The assimilation by the union bureaucracy that some welfare reform must be done pushes the movement to the abyss. The masses are waiting for a single, firm banner: “Down with the pension reform of Bolsonaro-Guedes.” They await organizational action from work and housing. They await the formation of a network of committees throughout the country. And they await the orientation that will lead the movement to the general strike. This front of struggle directly confronts economic power, imperialism and government.

Bolsonaro-Guedes put their privatization and denationalization plan in action. The auctions of the airports were hailed by the monopolistic press as a great achievement of this government. Guedes has triggered a sequence of privatizations, which affects sensitive sectors of the economy. Financial capital is eager to get hold of state and natural resources, which it does not yet control. It is another boost to the denationalization of the economy and the greater dependence of the country on the powers. The flag of Guedes is to privatize everything. If it depends on his decision, Petrobras, Eletrobras, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, etc. will be delivered to financial capital. Of course, internal conflicts with the bourgeoisie and the state make it difficult to fully comply with this plan. But, it is pointing the way. The coup d’état of 2016, the constitution of Temer’s civilian dictatorship and the election of a fascist and militarist government opened a new stage in the political situation and the class struggle. This new stage is marked by the greater submission of dominant bourgeois politics to imperialism and by the frontal attack on the lives of the exploited. This front of struggle is also broad and strategic. It demands to set up an anti-imperialist movement for national independence and a revolutionary break with imperialism.

It is symptomatic that Alcantara’s agreement for the United States to set up a launching base for missiles and other artifacts. Bolsonaro’s initial goal was to allow US imperialism to set up a military base on national territory. This flag was lowered at half-mast. There can be no doubt, however, that Alcântara is a step in this direction. The Trump-Bolsonaro agreement dressed itself in the commercial mask, in order to reduce resistance to approval in the National Congress. Not coincidentally, this antinational agreement preceded the delivery of Embraer to Boeing. It is noted that this front of struggle is part of the fight against a more general plan of alignment from Brazil to the United States.

In short, the working class and others exploited are facing the closure of Ford, the implementation of labor reform, outsourcing, approval of pension reform and privatization and denationalization.

Bolsonaro’s trip to the United States concerns this offensive against the national economy and the masses. This alignment is even broader. Bolsonaro aspires to place Brazil as an instrument of intervention by US imperialism in Latin America. The Venezuelan crisis has become a strategic point of interventionism. The anti-national government is being dragged by Trump’s policy. In sharing its trade war, Brazil is lining up to imperialist nationalism, interventionism and the arms race.

The task is to unify the workers’, peasants’ and ruined middle-class movements by a program that responds to the attacks of the bourgeoisie and the pro-imperialist directive. It is necessary to direct the forces of the masses against the militarizing and fascistizing government. Confronting pension reform opens a door for uniting the oppressed majority and for joining it with the program. We know that the absence of a revolutionary leadership is the great obstacle. But there is no other solution than to work within the working class, enhancing its instinct for revolt and raising its class consciousness. The task of organizing the single anti-imperialist front, under the strategy of the working class’s own power, is objectively placed.