By FRANCISCO FERNANDES LADEIRA*

PCO activists believe that the party would be able to influence the direction of the main events in national politics

Last week, I wrote an article entitled “PCO and the extreme right”, explaining that the Workers' Cause Party is an organization whose objective is not necessarily electoral, but to serve the private interests of its president. Continuing the debate, in this text I point out that the PCO finds itself in a kind of parallel reality. It is no coincidence that the party is often a reference in posts by far-right individuals (also known for their constancy in parallel reality).

As it has no electoral relevance, nor space in the left-wing press, to “draw attention”, the PCO uses a modus operandi Basically composed of three stages. First, the PCO releases one of its empty polemics (mere “engagement bait”), like “Bolsonaro is persecuted”. Subsequently, these controversies have positive repercussions on Bolsonarist bubbles and negatively on progressive media outlets (in fact, the PCO has been characterized by being “tigger” with the left, and “tchutchuca” with the extreme right). Finally, party activists, in droves, publish on social media that the party is growing, disturbing the bourgeoisie and what they call the “petit-bourgeois left”. Thus, they believe that the PCO (one of the smallest legal parties in the country) would be capable of influencing the direction of the main events in national (perhaps global) politics.

In this “alternative” and megalomaniacal world, there is a (supposed) persecution by US imperialism of the PCO. Think carefully! It is surreal to think that the greatest war and espionage machine in the history of humanity, responsible for countless coups d'état around the world, would worry, precisely, about the PCO, which has elected only one councilor to date (and even then in an alliance with parties right-wing).

In this “logic”, all the media outlets that denounce the PCO’s daydreams – A Terra é Redonda, Fórum, DCM, GGN, Carta Capital, among others – are at the service of imperialism, the PSDB, Zionism and/or are financed by NGOs.

One of the main tactics used by the PCO to corroborate its “parallel reality” is to parasitize popular movements and politicians. In this way, the party positioned itself as a spokesperson for Lula's candidacy, the campaign for “Fora Bolsonaro” and for the defense of the Palestinian cause.

In this smokescreen strategy, anyone who criticizes the PCO and its flirtations with the extreme right would not only be “attacking the party, but also Lula and the Palestinian Cause” and is “an agent of imperialism infiltrated on the left”. For example, if someone denounces that the statements made by the president of the PCO, Rui Costa Pimenta, give fuel to Bolsonarism (such as stating that “Bolsonaro is persecuted because he is the only name capable of defeating Lula”), the party press immediately releases a delirious note, like “the party has been confronted, as it carries on the struggle in defense of the Palestinian people”. In other words, one thing has nothing to do with the other.

Furthermore, members of all the “organisms parasitized” by the PCO try to stay away from Rui Costa Pimenta's party. Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the PT, has already referred to the PCO as a promoter of fake news and causing intrigue among the left. According to Valter Pomar, also a member of the Workers' Party's national directory, “the PCO is Bolsonaro's objective ally” and “will quickly take the PSTU's place, as 'the left that the right likes'”. In a live broadcast at DCM, the Youth Secretary of the Palestinian Arab Federation of Brazil (FEPAL), Maynara Nafe, when commenting on the PCO's participation in pro-Palestinian acts, stated that the party “has nothing to do with us”.

But the parallel reality of the PCO does not operate only in relation to the present. The past is also rewritten. All Brazilian historiography is wrong. Only party members know the “truth”. In this version of our history, the discovery of Brazil was a revolutionary event, the bandeirantes are national heroes and the movement of January 8, 2023 was not an attempted coup, but “a mere manifestation of poor things” (evidently, the Bolsonarist friends cannot be represented negatively).

However, the PCO's biggest daydreams, without a shadow of a doubt, are related to the party's “analyses” on football. In the parallel reality of the party, the Brazilian team and Menino Ney are persecuted by imperialism, by Globo, by Casagrande, by Galvão Bueno, by VAR, by FIFA, by Conmebol, by UEFA and by the “petit-bourgeois left”.

Speaking of the “petit-bourgeois left”, for the PCO, current federal deputy Guilherme Boulos was responsible for Brazil's famous 7-1 defeat against Germany in the 2014 World Cup.

Evidently, a text alone would not be able to cope with pepper's daydreams. With each “Political Analysis of the Week” (the PCO’s equivalent to the Bolsonarista playpen), the party’s parallel reality gains a new item.

And the activists, consequently, have to replicate everything the party president says, without questioning and without fear of being embarrassed on social media. As Zé Ramalho sings: “Eh, oô, cattle life”.

Finally, it is important to highlight that, according to the parallel reality of the PCO, this article was sponsored by imperialism, by George Soros, by Zionism, by NGOs and by the PSDB. I'm just waiting for the pix to arrive!

*Francisco Fernandes Ladeira is a doctoral candidate in geography at Unicamp. Author, among other books, of The ideology of international news (CRV). [https://amzn.to/49F468W]

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