By JULIAN RODRIGUES*
Federal deputies from the PC do B, PSB and the vast majority of petistas voted in favor of a law that gives more money to fundamentalist religious leaders
Bibo Nunes is a federal deputy from Rio Grande do Sul. Proudly Bolsonarist and affiliated with the PSL. It had never been anything in life. Typical grotesque figure elected in 2018 surfing the neo-fascist wave. The third line of your profile on Wikipedia highlights the following: “until April 2021, Bibo presented a 99% alignment with the Bolsonaro government in the House votes”.
In 2019, Nunes filed a bill to regulate the granting of tax immunity to charitable entities that provide assistance services.
The degree of specificity added to the complexity of the project made its character clear. It was an order: provision of service.
Bibo pleased reactionaries of various stripes by proposing the inclusion of such therapeutic communities in the list of entities that could benefit from tax exemptions. In other words, more money in cash for faith entrepreneurs disguised as saviors of “drug addicts” lost in life.
Talíria Petrone, the spectacular PSOL deputy from Rio de Janeiro, inserted an amendment removing therapeutic communities from the list of entities that could qualify for the new government gift.
For some mysterious reason (or not so much) PC do B, PSB and PDT guided their deputies to vote against Talíria's highlight! How ugly.
And the worst came later: the gaucho Elvino Bohn Gass, leader of the PT in the Chamber of Deputies released general. Each one to do as he pleased.
It went bad. There are 53 PT federal deputies. Only nine followed the righteous line. Each one deserves to be mentioned individually: Alexandre Padilha (SP), Arlindo Chinaglia (SP), Erika Kokay (DF), Natália Bonavides (RN), Paulão (AL), Paulo Teixeira (SP), Pedro Uczai (SC), Rogério Correia (MG) and Zé Neto (BA)(1).
Erika Kokay, the PT deputy from the DF – a reference for social movements – at the forefront in any and all struggles of women, LGBT, for human rights, who was never afraid to face supposedly controversial issues, shone a lot in the plenary battle.
Therapeutic communities are the negation of everything that specialists, social movements, sanitarians, intellectuals and leftist parties have been building in the last 40 years in terms of mental health and public policies.
Religious indoctrination centers, apparatuses of Christian right-wing leaders, sinks of public money, these communities do not do any good, nor are they points of support for the reconstruction of anyone's trajectories.
The PT has in its DNA the struggle for psychiatric reform: the end of asylums, harm reduction, construction of CAPS, advanced mental health policies. Paulo Delgado, Telma de Souza, David Capistrano, Roberto Tykanori, so many fighters. It is the Party of SUS and harm reduction.
A PT parliamentarian could never even consider supporting something that could benefit such private groups – great exploiters of people's faith and vulnerability.
The Workers' Party governed the city of São Paulo with Fernando Haddad, the creator of “Braços Abertos”: the most advanced public policy in Brazilian history focused on drug abusers. The PT and the left have experience and knowledge on this topic. We know what must be done.
Conservative common sense feeds stigmas and taboos that support the “war on drugs” policy, this machine for imprisoning and killing poor black youths.
This is one of the biggest knots that we will have to untie in a possible future third Lula administration (in addition to reforming the Military Police, decriminalizing drugs and stopping killings).
That the majority of PT parliamentarians (in addition to the PCdoB and PSB benches) do not feel comfortable or are not convinced of the need for a new drug policy, come on. It is even understandable in the current context.
But everything has a limit. Becoming a support base for Osmar Terra and the obscurantist right was a little too much. Focus and light – distinguished companions and fellow deputies. Don't embarrass us. And don't be ashamed.
Human rights, citizen public safety, police reform, new legal framework on drugs, stop genocide now.
Lula Presidente is a journey of struggle, based on a civilizing and transformative commitment.
May the PT leadership and our parliamentarians reconnect with the thread of popular struggles.
The present is pregnant with hope – that everyone prepares to help build a radically transformative tomorrow.
Anyone who doesn't want to reposition themselves (catch a ride on this comet's tail), that's okay. But, please, make way – that the new always comes!.
* Julian Rodrigues is a professor, journalist and activist of the LGBTI and Human Rights movement.
Note
(1) Deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP) was on medical leave. In an email to the author he assured that he would have voted as the nine.
