By WAGNER PIRES*
The worst Congress in history is a club of rich people, farmers, and extremists both religious and right-wing, whose regard for democracy is nil.
1.
The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies meets for dinner with 50 billionaires. During the banquet, or at the end of it, only those who were present know, he was hailed as a hero. Why? There are several alternatives: not to vote on the income tax exemption for the poorest people for those who earn up to R$5 or to end the inhumane 6 x 1 scale? Is it because of the unconstitutional overturning of the Executive Decree that established new IOF rates? Or because he maintains the hope of an amnesty for the January 8 coup plotters, a movement largely financed by the super-rich?
If I had to bet, I would say it is because of the whole work. The worst Congress in history is a club of rich people, farmers, and extremists, both religious and right-wing (sometimes with representatives moving through two or more, if not all, spheres), whose appreciation for democracy is nil. Using neoliberalism as a shield (after all, who dares to go against the economic and behavioral consensus of our days?), they vote on the greatest absurdities without listening to the people.
See the party in Congress, which still wants to increase the number of deputies, when it should be reduced, contrary to what the majority of the population wants, and see how parliamentarians in Brazil seem to see themselves as gods, who must be idolized and worshipped by mere mortals, who pretend not to see from their luxury properties.
The Greek gods were irascible, jealous and despotic and, with few exceptions, did not care about mortals from whom they demanded offerings and sacrifices in order to be appeased. From time to time they moved to intercede for some human being with whom, sometimes inexplicably, they sympathized. From the heights of Olympus they lived in eternal orgies and drunken binges, while on earth it was every man for himself and trying not to displease the deities.
The upper and lower houses of the Brazilian parliament and their extraordinary ability to hold debates that are far from what is necessary for the Brazilian population seem to be assuming the role of ancient gods, leaving the population to foot the bill for the party, just as in ancient times, it was humans who paid for their gods with their sacrifices. Now, we pay for the perks and privileges with our taxes.
“The problem is taxes,” says the uninformed, enchanted by neoliberal discourse and hypnotized by the colorfulness of betting sites. No, the problem is not taxes. If it were, why the delay in approving income tax exemption for the poorest? If it were, why not change the consumption tax that penalizes society? If the problem is taxes, why are the salaries of PJotizados still a little higher than those of the CLT, if not lower, given the workload and demands that “entrepreneurs” have to meet.
In fact, taxes are voraciously swallowed up by subsidies to agribusiness, by super salaries, by the secret budget, which continues to be an instrument for perpetuating the political power of parliamentarians. And what does Congress want? To allow retirement and salaries to be accumulated by deputies. Again: it is not enough for the gods to live lavishly on Olympus; they need to come down to earth and torment unfortunate mortals with their presence.
That said, the Brazilian elites and their representatives in the National Congress seem to forget that, instead of inhabiting a distant Olympus, they live in the same country as the working classes. That they are just as subject to the bad weather, diseases, violence, famine and other ills that afflict Brazilians. That they are not immortal and are not outside of history as they must think they are.
2.
Brazilian parliamentarians, as irascible and volatile as the gods, are capable of attacking benefits for the poorest and defending the expansion of aid for the richest in the same speech. Amazingly, in the midst of his talk of fiscal austerity, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the hero, sees no problem in filing bills that expand privileges and increase inequality. And he even receives applause for being an advocate of fiscal responsibility. After all, there are no more vestals or gloomy priests, but we have the subservient media always lending a helping hand to keep everything as it is.
What we are experiencing today is not mythology. It is the complex reality of a country on the periphery of capital. Where labor exploitation is brutal and the ideological domination of the wealthy classes has created a repulsion among workers toward their own rights, seen as obstacles to greater gains.
And all of this is part of the scenario of the Brazilian class struggle. The state continues to serve the bourgeoisie and, with the rise of neoliberalism to consensus, both on the right and on the left, there is increasingly less space for public policies of social welfare.
Neoliberal narratives about the State being the root of all social ills and individual responsibility for success or failure have led part of the working class to demonize labor rights, the tools of the working class' struggle such as unions, and to see the State's role as negative, by collecting taxes and not offering quality services in return.
And every year, Congress, assemblies and city councils are taken over by parliamentarians with a neoliberal bias. And along with this discourse comes other discourse: sexism, LGBTphobia, xenophobia; the parade of barbarities is enormous. Parliamentarians who are not concerned with the debate to improve the country, but with making cuts so that they can be praised by their fans on social media.
Marina Silva, who is attacked every time she visits Congress, shows the level we have reached. A dissenting voice in this time of passing the buck, defending sustainability and the environment, Minister Marina has become a target. There is no ethics committee or shame on her face for this. As some have pointed out, this was an enemy to be defeated, not a woman whose story should be respected.
3.
They resort to proselytism, lies and all kinds of authoritarianism to stay in power and prevent the State from acting to reduce inequalities. Neoliberalism exempts them from this.
And, once they are exempted from acting in favor of establishing a minimum level of social well-being, these parliamentarians are busy taking away rights and legislating in their own interests. An agenda of setbacks in all sectors, from environmental legislation to labor relations, including education, health and all public areas. Privatizing, granting concessions, releasing the brutal extraction of profits, transforming society into a large market.
An anything goes that even involves preventing internet regulation, responding to the call of BigTechs, after all fake news, they make a lot of profit. And votes. And the algorithms continue to amplify right-wing voices and silence those who row against the tide.
Speaking of the internet, betting sites continue to rip off the working class's little earnings with promises of illusory gains. The audacity of the deputies is so blatant that the traditional Boi (Agribusiness), Bala (repressive forces) and Bíblia (fundamentalists) parties, which have always lived off moral panic to boost votes, are now receiving yet another B, that of Bets, which they continue to exploit without taxation equivalent to the profits they extract from our people.
And the parliamentary gods or parliamentary gods continue to believe piously in their powers and that in the next election, they will repeat the miraculous arts that will lead them back to Congress.
Who, having so much power, without having to answer to anyone, would not end up thinking that they are more than those who sustain their whims and privileges. And what is left for us, who are the poor beings who feed the bacchanal? All that remains is to seek our organization, act collectively and block the setbacks.
Even gods, however powerful, can be overthrown. They can be killed, driven into non-existence. It was not easy to do this with the products of human imagination, which in ancient times men and women constituted upon themselves. It will not be easy. But we can begin by showing them, the holders of power, that they are men and not gods. Overthrowing these gods is one of the great tasks of the working class in this period.
*Wagner Pires it's dPhD student in Education at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel).
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