Brazil: Out to the Streets to Bring Down the Temer Government!

For a United Front of Struggle! Organize a General Strike and Popular Uprising Now! No to the Ongoing Coup of the Ruling Class! For a Workers’ and Popular Government!

 

Statement of the Corrente Comunista Revolucionária (Section of the RCIT in Brazil), 19 May 2017, http://elmundosocialista.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

1.                   The Temer government is in a deep crisis. What everybody already previously knew has now been proven by audio tapes. Temer himself, as well as other leading figures of the government, are deeply entangled in the web of corruption of the ruling class; grotesquely so, as this government itself illegitimately came to power last year under the banner of the "struggle against corruption" which in fact was an institutional coup d'état against the elected PT-led government of Dilma Rousseff.

 

2.                   The real reason for this coup was the desire of the ruling class to accelerate the attacks on the working class and the popular masses. This is why Temer wants to push through the widely despised labor and pension reforms. These reforms would destroy our social gains for which we fought so hard in the past!

 

3.                   Given the popular resistance against these reforms – including the biggest general strike for decades on 28 April with 40 million people participating – the ruling class is now prepared to let Temer fall. They will try to continue their coup and to enhance its achievements for them, via parliamentary maneuvers (and with lots of bribery!) to bring another hard-line reactionary figure to power (e.g., the current president of the Supreme Court, Carmen Lúcia).

 

4.                   We must put an end to the cynical power games and institutional coup d'états of the ruling class! We must take advantage of the current crisis of their corrupt government! We can and must strengthen the power of the working class and the popular masses!

 

5.                   How can we achieve this? First, we must stop the conspiracy of the ruling class with their obscure parliamentary maneuvers. We must bring down the corrupt Temer government ourselves! For a general strike and a popular uprising!

 

6.                   We must call upon the CUT, MST, MTST, Frente Brasil Popular, Frente Povo Sem Medo, PT and all popular mass organizations to form a united front for struggle. We call these organizations to organize a general strike! We must force the vacillating and conservative bureaucrats at the heads of these organizations to organize the resistance.

 

7.                   But we must not trust them! These bureaucratic leaders have proven in the past that they are willing to subordinate the struggle for our interests in exchange for the participation in the bourgeois power institutions. We must put demands on these leaders, but we must carefully watch and control them.

 

8.                   We must build popular action committees. These committees should be elected in popular assemblies in which all workers in workplaces and all people in neighborhoods participate. They should discuss the most important issues of the struggle and elect their delegates. These delegates should then convene a national congress that will discuss how to advance our struggle. These action committees should also control the leaderships of the mass organizations and lead the struggle against the Temer government themselves if the bureaucrats hesitate and betray it. Furthermore, such action committees should also create popular self-defense units to defend the people against the unavoidable attacks of the police and the army.

 

9.                   Many people are calling for a direct election for a new president. While we understand the motivation for such a demand, we think that it is misplaced. The elections are controlled by the ruling class. They will do everything in their power to get rid of Lula – currently the most popular candidate for president – by putting him on trial. And even if Lula should be elected, they would do everything to undermine his government as they did with Dilma Rousseff.

 

10.               In light of the fact that many people are currently following the lead of the CUT, MST, MTST, FBP, FPSM or PT, we call upon these popular organizations to take power into their own hands in the wake of the general strike and popular uprising. For a government of the CUT/INTERSINDICAL/CTB/MST/MTST/FBP/FPSM/CMP/PCO/PT and all popular mass movements! This could be a first step towards the creation of a workers’ and popular government!

 

11.               Naturally, we call upon the workers and poor not to put any blind trust in the leaders of these organizations. They must be watched and controlled. Such a government should be put under the control of a national congress of action committees. In the end, it is such action committees, expanded to authentic workers’ and popular councils, which should form their own government – a workers’ and popular government!

 

12.               In order to advance such a strategy and to put it into practice, we need to create an authentic revolutionary party. We call upon all activists to share such a perspective of struggle and to join the CCR in our efforts to build such a party as part of a new revolutionary workers' international!

 

 

 

CUT- Central Única de Trabalhadores

 

INTERSINDICAL-

 

CTB- Central dos Trabalhadores do Brasil

 

MST- Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem terra

 

MTST- Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem teto

 

FBP – Frente Brasil Popular

 

CMP-Central dos Movimentos Populares (CMP)

 

FPSM – Frente povo Sem Medo

 

PT- Partido dos Trabalhadores

 

PCO- Partido de Causa Operária