internationalcommunistpress
Communists in Brazil call for unity against the rise of fascism


Fascist candidate elected president, communists in Brazil declared their determination to continue their resistance against the advent of fascism.

ICP, 31 October 2018

On Sunday, fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil by receiving 57 million votes (55% of the registered votes) while his social-democrat rival Fernando Haddad received 47 million votes. Striving for showing different aspects of the danger for a long time, communists declare their determination in continuing their resistance against the rise of fascism.

The President of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) Luciana Santos and the National Executive Committee of the Party declared in a statement that the election of a candidate who is clearly determined to establish a dictatorial government, to implement, with blood and fire, an ultra-liberal and neo-colonial program opens a new period in the country, a period which is marked by threats to democracy, national patrimony, the sovereignty of the nation and the rights of the people. Referring to the incidences that threatened the Republic's institutions, basic guarantees of the Federal Constitution and the autonomy of universities during the electoral campaign, the PCdoB points to a twist towards regression, deconstruction, and even the destruction of historic gains and achievements of the Brazilian people. It is asserted that this reactionary rupture that was triggered by the coup of August 2016 will have a strong regressive impact in Latin America. Expressing their conviction in the future victory of the Brazilian democracy against Bolsonaro, the PCdoB addressed the people and the democratic forces of the country, calling on starting today to "build a broad unity with the objective of unveiling horizons for a civic, patriotic, democratic and popular journey."

In its statement on the results of the second round of the elections, the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) defined Bolsonaro's victory as the defeat of the cycle of class conciliation in Brazil, marking a new period in capitalist domination. Taking into consideration the fraudulent propaganda financed by large businessmen and disseminated by ultraconservative groups for spreading irrationality and hatred, the PCB warned about the risk that the hatred and violence already practiced during the election campaign, provoking physical aggression and several deaths, may be further disseminated by the fascist hordes encouraged by the Bolsonaro clan and supporters in the period between the announcement of the election result and the inauguration of the new ruler. The PCB predicted that the new government will deepen measures of criminalization of social movements and left in particular, that it will intend to push forward the process of privatization and subordination to the interests of US imperialism and that it will accelerate the withdrawal of civil, political, social and labour rights. Underlining the unity of anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist social movements against fascism, the PCB declared, "It is necessary immediately that all popular and democratic forces should unite around the construction of a broad anti-fascist front, which shall mobilize various social sectors dissatisfied with the election of Bolsonaro and those who will have their rights hit by the upcoming attacks."

Carolus Wimmer, International Relations Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), put forward that Bolsonaro's election means a serious threat to democracy, which was financed by the stateless entrepreneurs and transnational corporations looking for dismantling the nation-state in order to plunder the wealth and the heritage of the peoples and which will institutionalize in Brazil the coup of August 2016. Wimmer added that the advent of fascism in such a developed economy belonging to the BRICS determines the beginning of the worsening of the class struggles in Latin America. Emphasizing the urgency of the unity of the workers, Wimmer declared that only socialism, only the organization and the formation of the working class has been able to defeat fascism in all its demonstrations.

See the link for the statement of the PCdoB in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
See the link for the statement of the PCB in Portuguese.
See the link for the statement of the PCV in Spanish.