Brazil's President Lula da Silva told a gathering of ministers in the city of Belo Horizonte that:
"If we want to make a revolution in this country, we don't have to read a book by [Karl] Marx, be a Leninist...Read the Brazilian Constitution and we will regulate all the rights of the people that are written there"
The president will sign a decree for the "Light for All" program to bring electricity to rural areas, with an investment of R$18.2 billion ($3.34 billion USD).
President Lula is still very popular among the working class, but his third term does not compare to the 87% approval rating he had in 2010 [1]. Nevertheless, his popularity could still have the capacity to mobilize a large percentage of the population in favor of social-democratic measures and put pressure on a government composed mainly of conservatives.
He won a narrow and historic victory in the 2022 elections, with 50.9% against Bolsonaro's (the far-right ex-president) 49.1%. His electoral slogans spoke of fighting fascism, reversing the terrible austerity measures of the previous government, and prosecuting those responsible for more than 700,000 deaths during the coronavirus pandemic [2].
The people of Brazil hoped that Lula would bring real change. That life might become easier for the average worker. And although it would most likely be much worse under a hypothetical second Bolsonaro term, most of Lula's promises have not been fulfilled, and some problems have even worsened.
For example, the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the main public body responsible for fighting deforestation and other illegal activities affecting the environment, has declared a strike for salary adjustments and more funding. The government has declared these strikes illegal [3].
University teachers were on strike until recently [4], and Lula, a former strike leader, said it had gone on for too long [5]. And recently, the government has determined a R$25 billion ($4.5 billion USD) cut in expenses for public services, with the Minister of Finance saying these cuts are non-negotiable [6].
Perhaps one of the most egregious examples of austerity and privatization is the project to privatize the country's prisons, which has been criticized by Brazil's Human Rights Minister [7].
If these austerity measures were only being pushed by the largely conservative parliament, Lula could at least mobilize a significant minority of the population to take to the streets and oppose these projects. But he doesn't, because austerity isn't just the work of conservative ministers, it's the goal of his Workers' Party and his government as a whole.
A supposedly left-wing president, says that all you need for a revolution is to read the Brazilian constitution, and yet he gives the impression that he hasn't done so himself since he pushes for austerity measures that go against the constitutional minimums for health and education. These minimums were put in place to protect the reproduction of laboring power which the capitalists need to work the means of production. However, capitalism has become so reactionary that even these minimums are violated - the workers are often left with less than the bare minimum to survive and reproduce.
This is happening even under Lula because he works for a capitalist government which operates within a capitalist state and economy; therefore it’s confined to pushing for measures that increase profits and benefit big business owners. Collaboration with the capitalist class cannot serve the interests of the working class.
And even the most "well-intentioned" government, if it is not armed with a truly revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist theory, cannot free itself from the grip of capital. Trying to change the system through reform has been tried countless times in the past and failed every time. In fact, "making socialism through reforms" has been the cornerstone of opportunist theories for more than a century, yet it never worked. On the contrary, "socialists" have consistently betrayed the real interests of the workers, once they have their place in parliament - either consciously selling out, or unable to advance through the powerful bourgeois currents they have unconsciously waded into. Either way, the result is the same, the workers' movement is disarmed by its reliance on reformists, and easily crushed.
It is still being tried today, as in the recent British elections, which brought in a Labour government that, despite promises of change, will not challenge big business and will continue to impose austerity measures not unlike those of Lula's government.
Only a truly communist party, armed with a revolutionary theory and with the aim of achieving socialism, can work in the interests of the working class and provide it with a permanent solution to its exploitation and misery. Join Politsturm and help build a party capable of real change.