By RICARDO GEBRIM*
A Political Front between different organizations is a concept with definition and history in the struggle of the working class. Its design, composition and objectives have to convey a clear message
The central fact in the current situation is the tragic acceleration of the pandemic, throwing our country into a catastrophic situation of world epicenter, with unpredictable consequences. The increasingly concrete prospect of hundreds of thousands of deaths in a few months will be decisive in political developments.
Bolsonaro assumed, from the beginning, the genocidal logic of opposing social isolation, the only way that science proposes as effective to contain deaths. Governors and mayors are already beginning to give in to business pressure and loosen containment measures, allowing the tragedy to gain unimaginable proportions.
Bolsonaro has been losing support in his base, especially in the Middle Class.
Bourgeois political representations increasingly detach themselves from the Bolsonaro government and swell the opposition. It is still early for the fact to prove an effective adhesion of the bourgeois fractions that, until recently, were cohesive around the Paulo Guedes program. We know that there is a relative political autonomy of these representations, which define and position themselves more quickly than their respective support bases, especially in turbulent moments of deep crisis.
The important thing is that the scenario is adding to the need, a potential to build a strong campaign for the removal of Bolsonaro, a decisive issue on which we must bet all our strength.
The more cornered, Bolsonaro and his movement become more aggressive and seek to stay on the offensive. A posture that frightens and intimidates the vacillating bourgeois opposition and even members of the judiciary.
The recent anti-fascist acts were important to curb the offensive of the Bolsonarist movement and prevent them from holding the monopoly of the streets. However, a likely skyrocketing growth in the number of deaths creates an inevitable difficulty for them to massify in the required proportion to obtain the necessary victory. The contradiction between the increasingly necessary social distancing and mass mobilizations is gaining ground.
A question arises for all popular organizations: how is resistance to fascism organized?
Fighting broadly, building actions and positions with everyone who supports Fora Bolsonaro and the defense of democracy is undoubtedly a political necessity. Knowing how to build an articulation that can attract the broadest sectors around concrete struggles is an urgent task.
For leftist forces, deepening their own unity and, simultaneously, articulating all sectors and representations, including bourgeois and conservative ones, becomes an immediate challenge.
But is it possible to combine challenges that keep such contradictions?
It is not a matter of simply “putting one foot on the boat and the other on the ravine”, as the people of Pará say. It is necessary to identify what is the central challenge of the tactic.
It is necessary to be clear that if the left-wing forces do not recompose their ability to represent the interests of the working classes – and the manifestations of the supporters demonstrated this weakness -, not only will they remain outside the political game, but there will also be no consistent resistance capable of defeating fascism.
As long as the political confrontation remains an interbourgeois dispute, there will be no solution favorable to popular interests and vacillation and conciliation inevitably tend to predominate.
Therefore, the center of the tactics of the left forces cannot be other than rebuilding their ability to express the interests of the proletariat and its fundamental allies. This is not simple. It requires a true tactical inflection and, as I have repeated in these articles, it requires the resumption of the strategic debate.
And how can we recompose this representation, which involves such complex challenges?
There is a primordial, decisive question, without which no effort will be enough to rebuild the representation capacity of the proletariat and the popular classes: the question of the program.
It is necessary to have a clear, unambiguous program that expresses the interests of the working classes. This program, with anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist and anti-landlordism measures, is the decisive assumption. We will participate and build wide common struggles, with all sectors that assume the slogan “out Bolsonaro”, but with its own program and alternative, the content of which limits the possibility of alliances with bourgeois factions.
A program that presents itself with immediate measures to ensure the living conditions of the poorest and working classes, which puts up a dispute over public resources with capitalist interests.
In our recent history, the example that comes to light is the “Campaign ofDirect now”, where the PT knew how to build and articulate large unitary mass actions, but always maintained its independence, using the platforms to agitate the Popular Democratic Program, which a few years later would present itself as the fundamental alternative in the 1989 elections.
I repeat. It is evident that in order to defeat neo-fascism, removing Bolsonaro from the presidency, we must not hesitate to ally ourselves, on this point, with any bourgeois leadership, however great our project incompatibilities. Punctual alliance, in struggles and concrete actions.
The way to combine these tasks, which are necessary but which contain contradictions, is not to propose two fronts and seek to do so by participating in both.
The so-called Frente Ampla, or Frente Democrática, if it were to be constituted, would inevitably be led by bourgeois political representations.
This is not a semantic nomenclature debate. A Political Front between different organizations is a concept with definition and history in the struggle of the working class. Its design, composition and objectives have to convey a clear message.
There is a proposal, in the heart of the left, formulated by important and representative organizations, defending the formation of a Frente Ampla, with programmatic developments to face the current crisis and, even, with the possibility of joint construction of electoral candidacies. For this very reason, the defenders of the Frente Ampla, or democratic, as it is usually called, do not admit that it is just a unit of action and want to invest energies in building it as the main organizing pole of the unit.
In turn, a Popular Front cannot be a mere summit articulation, although this is the first phase experienced in the effort to build it. It needs to take root, build joint, coordinated work and initiatives, and aim to formulate a minimum unitary strategy and, consequently, a program.
Your objective must be explicit. Seek to recompose the political representation of the proletariat, with the middle class, the petty bourgeoisie, the peasants and the so-called marginal masses. This must translate into your program, your messages, your actions.
Therefore, no ambiguity can be allowed in this definition. We must build a broad unit of action with everyone who fights against Bolsonaro, but considering this a Political Front creates confusion, miseducates and takes us in tow with bourgeois leaders. Everything we can't do right now.
*Ricardo Gebrim is a lawyer and member of the National Board of Popular Consultation.