Though the influence of the Pentecostal churches which form the backbone of Bolsonaro’s influence, puppets of American imperialism and the plutocratic elites whose rapacious eye ogles the immense wealth of Brazil with a covetous gaze, this month’s elections have dealt a blow to his fascist tyranny and to the hegemony of power and privilege of which it is an instrument.
Most hopeful of all is the rise of a Socialist Mayor in Sao Paulo, the nations most populous city and a vast warren of poverty and crime I can only compare to the old Forbidden City of Kowloon. This was the city of the birth of my political awareness, my first solo foreign travel in the summer before I began high school and my first experience of the living conditions of much of humankind outside of my own social sphere and of the borders of America. The details are unpleasant, but I have always retained a deep sense of kinship with the people of Brazil since that summer of my thirteenth year.
From the moment I saw the guards of the aristocratic family with whom I was a guest firing on the crowd of homeless children and beggars swarming the food supply truck at the manor gate, naked and skeletal in starvation, scarred and crippled and misshapen with diseases unknown to any people for whom healthcare and basic nutrition are free and guaranteed preconditions of the universal right to life, desperate for a handful of food which could mean one more day of survival; in that moment I chose my side, and my people are the powerless and the dispossessed, the silenced and the erased.
May we all be granted the gift of vision of our interdependence and the universality of our humanity, and wounds which open us to the pain of others.
As written by Ana Carvalhaes in Jacobin; “ The political situation in Brazil remains quite reactionary, even after Jair Bolsonaro’s party lost ground in Sunday’s election. But the far-right president’s violent agenda took a hit — and that’s worth celebrating.
“the Brazilian electorate has replaced the extreme right with the more traditional right. Right-wing mayors who “followed the science” were returned to office, or at least made it into the second round. These conservative mayors enacted various measures such as closing down schools and gyms, encouraging the use of masks, and enacting social distancing orders, all of which Bolsonaro opposed vigorously with threats of prosecution, crude public pronouncements, and even the firing of his own ministers. In the open conflict between Bolsonaro and state governors over the pandemic — which has killed 165,000 Brazilians and infected more than 5 million — the far right has suffered a blow.”
“The idea of diversifying political representation — that is, running more women, black, indigenous, and transgender working-class candidates, has gained traction on the Left.”
“Looking ahead to the 2022 elections, the most likely development is that the progressive electorate — with its concern for social, environmental, anti-racist, and feminist demands — will coalesce around an openly anti-Bolsonarist identity and pressure the Left parties (PSOL, PT, PcdoB) to seriously consider an electoral alliance capable of defeating the Right. The absence of the Left in Rio’s second round will only reinforce this dynamic. In order to cohere this bloc, it will be necessary to negotiate an alliance that doesn’t take for granted the PT’s dominance.
Perhaps even more important, the Left must use this campaign’s victories (both large and small) to act as raindrops fertilizing the ground, reviving people’s willingness to join resistance struggles against Bolsonaro’s plans as well as those hatched by all right-wing, neoliberal governors and mayors. The pressure for unity among the Left is coming mainly from below, from the social movements and communities, and we must achieve it in order to defeat Bolsonaro’s violent agenda.”
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/brazil-election-results-jair-bolsonaro
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/brazil-runoff-elections-guilherme-boulos-psol-pt-lula
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/06/brazil-bolsonaro-jose-dirceu-workers-party
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/jair-bolsonaro-fuck-you-march-brazi
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/colombia-paramilitaries-bolsonaro-militias-fascism
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/brazil-bolsonaro-security-guns-sivuca-militias
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/brazil-election-fascism-bolsonaro-haddad-pt
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/bolsonaro-military-pt-haiti-lava-jato-lula
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/02/brazil-lula-conviction-roundtable-intro
Torch of Liberty 
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