Bolsonaro government putrefaction

Bolsonaro government putrefaction

What is the task at the moment?

Masses 641, Editorial, June 27, 2021

The confluence of sanitary, economic, political and moral factors boosts government instability. The political crisis has dragged on for most of Bolsonaro’s term. There were countless ministerial disasters. Obstacles grew in the way of its ultra-rightist economic policy and ideological guidelines. The conflict that broke out in the military clique exposed a crack in Bolsonaro’s main pillar of support. At the beginning of his term, the denunciation of the “rachadinha” scheme in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro grew, involving the family clan and advisors – the proximity to the militias left one of the most serious suspicions of gangsterism.

Having no way to impose a Bonapartist dictatorship – that was his objective, for which he had the bureaucracy of the High Command of the Armed Forces -, the president was forced to throw himself into the arms of the parties that form the “Centrão” and control the National Congress. Bolsonaro relied on his canine alignment with President Trump of the United States, to implement a militarist and fascist regime, capable of overcoming the National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court, which loomed large as an organism of open political intervention. Trump’s downfall took the ground from = Bolsonaro’s feet and his horde of reactionaries. As much as he tried to create the conditions for a Bonapartist coup, he lacked the economic and social conditions.

Every public demonstration of the Bolsonarists, supported by the rich middle class, the landowners, and sectors of the commercial and service bourgeoisie, mainly, evidenced that, without the possibility of a coup, there was no way for the ultra-right to stabilize in power. Attempts by Bolsonaro and his clique to promote a broad social movement that would give them political support among the population did not prosper. The Pandemic undertook to further undermine the shaky ground, on which the ultra-right was built, which strengthened itself politically amidst the coup d’état, promoted by the impeachment that ousted Dilma Rousseff, struck down the PT, and led Lula to prison.

This favorable scenario for the return of generals, as direct definers of government directives and occupants of key positions of political-administrative command of the State, has been seriously altered. The lawsuit against active general Eduardo Pazuello, for a crime of responsibility, and for serving Bolsonaro in a public demonstration, is one of the most evident symptoms, after the change of the Defense Minister and the entire High Command of the Armed Forces. The military has made it clear that no other power will interfere with its domain. Its function is to preserve the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, so that this noblest mission is above any inter-bourgeois conflict. The governors and politicians of the National Congress know that this is how relations are structured within the state machine, and the weaker the bourgeoisie, the greater the weight of the military in politics. The twenty-one years of military rule are definitive proof. Democratization took place with the consent of the generals, and they failed to keep them out of the command of politics.

The instability of elected governments is due to the impossibility of boosting the development of the productive forces, alleviating the misery of millions of Brazilians, and cushioning the polarization between the bourgeois minority and the working majority. This structural contradiction is strongly manifested in the gut of the economic power of the bourgeoisie, oligarchic democracy and party forces.

The more than 4% drop in economic growth in 2020, impacted by the Pandemic, hit Bolsonaro’s government hard. The growth estimate for this year indicates that only what was lost will be restored. High unemployment and underemployment will continue to crush the lives of the exploited. Misery and hunger collide with economic-financial guidelines and measures, which favor the concentration of wealth in possession of the capitalist ultra-minority, and protect the interests of imperialism.

Bolsonaro cannot escape responsibility for the mortality caused by the Pandemic and the increase in the social crisis. The accusations and investigations into the existence of a parallel office at the Planalto Palace, the discovery of a secret budget scheme to serve government parliamentarians (“tratoraço”), the resignation of Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, accused of trafficking in loggers, the scandal of the purchase of the Indian vaccine Covaxin, and the demonstration in the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the Pandemic of how much the government blocked actions to combat the spread of contamination and deaths, together, result in the political and moral decomposition of the government. Reasons for impeachment are not lacking, but Bolsonaro continues with a parliamentary majority, support from the Armed Forces, from sectors of the bourgeoisie and from the middle class. This bourgeois way is not presently in place. Thus, the banner of “Fora Bolsonaro” continues to serve the 2022 elections.

After a year and three months of passivity by the union and political leadership, the masses have returned to the streets across the country. Everything indicates that it will grow even more. The task is to unblock the unions and organize the working class to take the lead in the demonstrations. The concentrated and uncompromising defense of the program of  the exploited own demands is decisive in changing the bourgeois character of the orientation imprinted by the leaderships towards the mobilizations. The class-conscious vanguard must expend every effort in the struggle for the class independence of the workers’ and popular movement. This fight is being waged based on the basic needs of the exploited, which are jobs, wages, labor rights and vaccination for everyone.