Brazil: rising of the women

Submitted by AWL on 31 October, 2018 - 10:59 Author: Hector Lopez
Ele Nao

Three weeks before the first round of the Brazilian presidential elections now won by the fascistic Jair Bolsonaro, some 150,000 people, the majority women, took to the streets in Brazil to declare their opposition.

In London protests against Bolsonaro have also been mainly women. They rebel against Bolsonaro’s aggressive sexism and his disregard for democracy.

Advance estimates of the second round poll on 28 October were that although Bolsonaro would win (as he did), he would be in a clear minority among women.

The anti-Bolsonaro women’s movement now needs our solidarity in its efforts to win the majority — those who voted Haddad, and those who didn’t vote — to resist.

The political battle, of course, will include winning over many women who voted for Bolsonaro.

Polls show that 82% of Brazilian women are against the legalisation of abortion (in Brazil, abortion is prohibited by the Penal Code, but exceptions have been set over the years in which women will not be punished); 40% are against same-sex marriage.

Like Duterte in the Philippines, Bolsonaro has won support from many women and working-class people by posing as the one who, although by harsh means, will establish order and repress crime.

But, even more than Duterte, Bolsonaro promises open violence against whole communities of workers and poor people.

The French socialists of ALPS write: “The question of self-defence of workers, peasants, students, homeless, universities, Indians, women, LGBT, and therefore the question of their armament, is raised.

“Self-defence requires unity and organization from below, in every locality. The goal is not to confront the electoral majority of Bolsonaro but to defend the bastions of democracy...

“Not to provoke, but to avoid or limit, the bloodshed, resist and counter-attack, it is necessary that the workers, the peasants, the students, have weapons. Awareness turned that way will be the first weapon...”

Brazilian unions move to resist Bolsonaro

Shortly after it became clear that Brazil had elected Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency [in the run-off round on 28 October], the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), the main confederation of trade unions in Brazil, issued the following statement:

“The majority of Brazilian voters just handed the Presidency to someone who has consistently… voted against the rights of the working class, has opposed social progress, voted for freezing investment into health and education… has threatened Left activists, women, people of colour and LGBT groups...

“Those who believe they have crushed our capacity to resist and fight are wrong. […] The CUT will keep the working class united, preparing it for the fight ahead, on the streets, in the workplaces, in the factories and in the fields, against the stripping away of rights and in defence of democracy.”

Bolsonaro’s election is a throwback to the 1964-1985 military regime, a regime that Bolsonaro and his vice-presidential running mate were both part of and see as a high point in Brazil’s history. In their own words, twenty years of “order and progress”.

The similarities to the Trump phenomenon are clear, both in their ascendancy as controversial “anti-establishment” figures and in the nature of the movements that have sprouted in opposition.

In the US, Trump’s sexist remarks led to a mass mobilisation of women and the Women’s March, catalysed by the leaked interview where Trump was recorded saying he grabbed women “by the pussy”, a “gotcha” moment that at one point threatened to destabilise his campaign. This didn’t stop 55% of white American women voting for him. The electoral lines were drawn much more sharply along class and race lines.

Bolsonaro has openly expressed vile sentiments on women and the LGBT community in general, once even saying he wouldn’t rape a fellow member of the Chamber of Deputies because she was “too ugly”. The major mobilisations against Bolsonaro in the run up to his election have been marked by the slogan “Ele Nao”, Not Him, a slogan typically brandished by women disgusted with his sexist remarks and his Evangelical Christian stance on abortion.

The demographic data on the election shows Bolsonaro won in 97% of Brazil’s 1000 wealthiest cities, while his opponent from the PT, Fernando Haddad, won in 98% of the poorest.

That is the consequence of an ascendant middle class that grew from Lula da Silva’s reforms, and the propaganda work of Capital willing to accept state repression in return for economic liberalisation.

Bolsonaro will push for a destructive economic agenda that will sell off national assets to private companies and crush workers’ rights whilst permitting corporations to plunder Brazil’s natural resources (specifically, the Amazon rainforest) for everything they have.

The consequences of the latter may be greater than the immediately obvious environmental ones, as the Amazon has been a battleground for indigenous rights for decades, with native indigenous populations coming into violent conflict with logging, farming and mining companies.

In 2017, 110 indigenous people were murdered in the countryside. Bolsonaro has stated that “not one centimetre of land will be demarcated for indigenous reserves or quilombolas (descendants of runaway slaves)” and intends to label Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) as a terrorist organisation.

Where is the base of the opposition to Bolsonaro? A key aspect of the Brazilian political climate is that with the multitude of parties and positions, as well as the sheer size of the population, the electoral field is primed for larger-than-life charismatic figures to succeed, rather than specific policy proposals. This becomes stark when we consider that, despite the fact that Haddad was the PT candidate and lost by a significant majority, all polls suggest that [veteran PT leader] Lula da Silva would have won, had he been allowed to run from prison.

The trade union movement is still heavily tied to the PT, and Lula himself still has a significant sway with the population, more than his party does.The fight against Bolsonaro will come from poor working-class communities, migrant women, and the indigenous and landless worker communities in the countryside. The mobilisations are already stirring.

As I write this, a massive anti-Bolsonaro protest is building in major cities across Brazil. Let us hope they succeed.

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