MST's Biweekly Analysis - Issue 3 - September 23, 2020

Issue 3 - 23 September 2020

The daily life of the Brazilian people, in view of the consequences and developments of the action of capital, confirms the analysis that we are experiencing a moment when the structural crisis of capitalism is deepening in its economic, social, political, environmental and civilizing dimensions, even more aggravated by the health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, which already exceeds the mark of 136,000 deaths in a universe of 4.5 million infected in our country.

The pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities where the poorest, in the countryside and in the city, are the main ones affected by the virus, with the highest number of contaminations and deaths, and are also the most affected by the lack of conditions of survival, the most essential right to food or access to public health, to the lack of employment or housing.

The structural dimension of the crisis is added to the project that began in 2016 with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, architected by and to serve the interests of the American empire. This enabled the withdrawal of workers' rights, through labor and social security reforms, the 20-year freeze in health investments, the destruction of programs and policies that for years encouraged the distribution of income and access to social rights, as well as the end of policies for small agriculture that contributed to the strengthening of food production.

Today, this project continues to strengthen the ultra-neoliberal and neofascist  policies of the Bolsonaro government, which in addition to still destroying achievements and rights of the working class, has also served the agenda of capital in agriculture – agribusiness – delivering and destroying natural resources, attacking peasant agriculture and criminalizing social movements and peoples who fight for land in Brazil.

In recent days we are living in a country literally on fire, from the Amazon to the Pantanal and the Pampas. Since  last year, fires have increased greatly in the Amazon, as indicated by data collected by the government itself through the National Institute of Space Research - INPE. In September alone there are more than 20,000 outbreaks of fires that have advanced in the destruction of fauna, flora, biodiversity and affecting peoples in various territories of these biomes. 

The situation is extremely worrying and already draws the attention of the whole world. On the other hand, the federal government does not take any action to face the fires and destruction, it continues dismantling public agencies responsible for the environmental issue, cutting budgets, criminalizing indigenous peoples,  environmentalists and environmental protection entities, serving once again the agenda of ruralists and agribusiness.

Food prices are rising as fast as the fires are spreading, generating a crisis of food insecurity where basic food items of Brazilians, such as rice, beans, milk, rose by up to 40%. The most significant has been the situation of rice, which, motivated by the high dollar, has been exported by the sector, generating an internal shortage, raising the price and forcing a decrease in consumption.

In addition to the speculation and capitalist interests that prioritize the foreign market, this situation stems from the policy of dismantling family farming, the destruction of the National Supply Company (CONAB) and the absence of a food security and supply policy. Aggravated by the presidential veto of the entire Assis de Carvalho Law that provided emergency support for the strengthening of food production.

This happens at the same time that the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) announces the increase in the Brazilian population living in food insecurity in the years 2017 and 2018, with more than 10.3 million Brazilians. Brazil returns to the hunger map. And undoubtedly this number has risen in the years 2019 and 2020.

This is the dysfunctional Bolsonaro government, marked not only by the attack on workers' rights, environmental destruction and international submission, but also by political instability, scandals and change of ministers. So far the president has not answered why Fabrício Queiroz deposited R$ 89,000.00 in the account of first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. Queiroz was an advisor to the president's son and the main person responsible for the corruption scheme of the salaries of officials of the office of Flávio Bolsonaro in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro.

In the composition of this Government, the armed forces join the genocidal project and contradict its principle of defense of national sovereignty. The government even authorizes U.S. Ambassador Mike Pompeo to use the Brazilian territory to provoke Venezuela, hurting the Brazilian Constitution that upholds the self-determination of peoples.

In addition to all these attacks, the federal government continues to pursue the organizations and in particular the MST, with the illegal invasion of settlements of the Movement in the extreme south of Bahia at the request of the Director of Land Affairs Naban Garcia, militiaman and licensed president of União  Democralist  Ruralista - UDR, a group that brings together large rural landowners with the declared objective "the preservation of the right of property"..

All these issues pose great challenges for the Brazilian left as a whole: political parties, social and popular movements, Indigenous peoples, quilombolas and all the people who are directly affected by this government.

Our challenges are to continue performing and encouraging symbolic actions by Bolsonaro Out as a condition for the restoration of democracy in our country.

We continue to fight for the annulment of Lawfare's lawsuits against Lula and for him to regain his legitimate rights that were taken in a manipulated and illegal manner. Operation Lava Jato, orchestrated by the U.S.  and which is at the foundation of all this post-coup context that we live in, has been increasingly discredited in Brazil and in the world, with strong opinions of great jurists from various countries on the farce  set up by Sergio Moro to persecute and arrest Lula, paving the way for Bolsonaro in the 2018 elections.

Irrefutable evidence is  the removal of the coordinator of Lava Jato in Curitiba,  Deltan Dallagnol; the annulment of the denunciation of Palocci against Lula; the statement of the Minister of the Supreme Court,  Edson Fachin that the Brazilian Court should have allowed Lula to participate in the 2018 elections, and even statements at the highest levels of  the Globo network and Bolsonarism that an injustice had occurred with Lula. When Globo speaks, it is the spokesperson of the bourgeoisie. So there are signs that the bourgeoisie has realized the historical mistake it made in illegally arresting Lula, preventing his candidacy and still maintaining this weird situation.

We will continue to resist in our territories, confronting the government, the state and agribusiness,  which even in the midst of the pandemic insist on carrying out evictions of landless and homeless families.

We will continue to resist the attacks of agribusiness and build agroecology, with the production of healthy foods and the strengthening of our territories.

We will continue to strengthen the alliance between the countryside and the city through solidarity actions, from the donation of healthy food in the villages, outskirts of cities, and starving communities, in order to share the fruit of the struggle for land and the hope of a better future through organization and popular struggle.