By BRAZIL POPULAR MOVEMENT*
Letter from the National Assembly of Men and Women Fighters People – Luiz Gama
Between March 17th and 20th, more than 500 fighters of the Brazilian people, militants from the most diverse popular, youth, black, feminist, LGBTQIA+, peasant, trade union and social rights movements, gathered in Belo Horizonte (MG), with the aim of debating the deep crisis Brazil is going through, but above all, discussing what organization is needed to defeat fascism together with and in a complementary relationship with the political forces committed to democracy, while we face the problems of the people and cultivate the perspective of emancipation of the Brazilian people.
We live in a complex international scenario, marked by the offensive of imperialism on the global south, provoking new wars and threatening the right of peoples to self-determination; by an international economic crisis that has deepened the overexploitation of male and female workers, the unbridled and irresponsible exploitation of natural resources, looting the riches of dependent countries, accelerating the climate emergency and environmental crimes around the world; and also marked by strong questioning of the international political order, commanded by the United States of America.
In Latin America we have witnessed the resumption of large mass mobilizations, with emphasis on the struggle of women for the decriminalization of abortion, of indigenous peoples, and for the radicalization of democracy, which were combined with important electoral victories in Peru, Chile and Honduras, a process which, if the democratic and popular forces are also victorious in Colombia and Brazil, opens the possibility of a new cycle of progressive governments in the continent.
In Brazil, we have seen the deepening of political, economic, ecological, health and social crises. The Bolsonaro government is primarily responsible for the more than 650 Brazilian men and women killed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, for the more than 19 million who are hungry and for the more than 14 million unemployed in the country.
Therefore, our fundamental task for the next period is to defeat Bolsonaro and elect Lula president of the Republic. For these reasons, we are affirming that the reconstruction of the Nation goes through the construction of a strong mass political movement, that elects Lula president and that combines the different forms of struggle: social, institutional and ideological, with centrality in the strengthening of the popular organization.
This political movement understands that the structural transformations in Brazil will be the work of millions of Brazilian men and women who fight. It also understands the importance of changing the institutional correlation of forces, with the election of progressive parliamentarians, to reverse the set of anti-democratic and anti-popular measures implemented after the 2016 parliamentary coup that removed Dilma Rousseff from the Presidency of the Republic.
For this, we need to transform the strong political reference that Lula has in the Brazilian people into a popular organization, and for this task we point to the construction of Popular Lula President Committees, which dispute the hegemony in society through a National Development Project that can contribute to the reconstruction of Brazil.
Thus, our political and organizational tasks for the next period are: (1) to build itself as a political, social and cultural movement, with a national and mass character; (2) build, in all territories where we operate, the Popular Committees of Lula's candidacy; (3) strengthen the unity of the democratic and popular field, especially our relationship with the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and the Workers' Party (PT).
At the same time, we claim a significant part of our previous political trajectory, especially our commitment to the construction of a Popular Project for Brazil, which contemplates the diversity of our people; commitment to grassroots work and an organization dedicated to mass struggle; the commitment to the unity of popular forces and the strengthening of the various popular movements in the country.
Inspired by the story of Luiz Gama and the Brazilian radical abolitionist movement, we add the commitment to ethnic-racial equality as one of the fundamental pillars of the construction of the Popular Project, as we understand that the anti-racist struggle is a structural part of the struggle of the working class in Brazil. Each militant leaves this assembly reaffirming their commitment and excitement with the popular struggle and the great political confrontations that will come this year, being sure that the Brazilian people are the subject of the great social transformations in our country.
Starting today, our organizational tool will be the Movimento Brasil Popular, which carries in its name the expression of the national struggles for the liberation of the Brazilian people, at the same time that, in the year of the bicentennial of independence, we point out that we want a Brazil at the service of its people, to carry out the second independence and true abolition, realizing a national, sovereign, popular and socialist project.
Free Homeland. We will win!
*Brazil Popular Movement is formed by the group of militants who left the Popular Consultation in 2021.