The left may miss the train of history.

If the statistics from research institutes that identify voters' opinions on the electoral process in Brazil are confirmed, we can affirm that the left has a great opportunity to continue a left-wing, center, or at least progressive government.

According to data from research institutes, both Datafolha and Ibope, if the elections were held today, adding up the points from the left and center-left, we could say that the elections would be decided in the first round.

In the PT (Workers' Party), we have Lula with 33% of the votes. In the PDT (Democratic Labour Party), we have Ciro with 8%. In Rede (Sustainability Network), we have Marina with 10%. The others, such as PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party), PCdoB (Communist Party of Brazil), and PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party), together total 10%. Taking the margin of error into account, we would have approximately 63%.

In this scenario, with the support of one or more smaller parties, the deal would be sealed.

The right wing, adding together Bolsonaro's PSL with 18%, PSDB with 5%, and the remaining parties in the alliance with the Centrão (center-right bloc) – SD, DEM, PP, and PR – does not exceed 25%.

The right wing would undoubtedly be defeated in the first round of elections, suffering a landslide defeat that would forever be etched in history. However, reality isn't as we want it to be; it's as it is. The laws governing our reality are the laws of dialectics, where everything transforms and takes a course according to the conveniences of each party leader – and the concrete reality of the situation is forgotten in favor of an egoism with a vanity greater than the nation itself.

And in this field, the left is full of "I think." This "I think" mentality takes over concrete reality and fuels the vanity of those who lead the parties. They're "thinking" about everything, except the path to defeating the bourgeoisie through popular vote.

Analysts in their air-conditioned offices and luxurious apartments are unable to perceive the movements of time, nor do they have any idea what factory halls are like, much less the dust on the floor.

They want to believe that the current elections are the same as those in 2010, when President Lula chose a "puppet" as his candidate and elected him president of Brazil.

Incidentally, this was a political figure accompanied by the worst kind of politicians we had in Brazil. It's good not to forget that the stubbornness of the time and the commitments made were broken. Ciro didn't run for office. As history never fails, the commitments abandoned by the roadside find themselves at the same crossroads now in 2018, but with one small detail: Ciro is a candidate and demands the same reciprocities as years ago, without realizing that times have changed and the memories of those without commitments have been forgotten in the distant past.

The facts confirm the history; the alliances, besides putting the party's main figures in jail, also ensured that former president Lula would not be running in the 2018 elections.

The PT (Workers' Party) is not giving up on Lula's candidacy, and Lula, from his cell in Curitiba, dictates the rules of the game regarding the alliances the party must make. Ana Arraes was sidelined from a candidacy with every chance of winning the governorship of Pernambuco, and, going against the grain of history, Lula and the PT authorized alliances with the coup plotters Renan Calheiros in Alagoas and Eunício Oliveira in Ceará.

They made a deal for the PSB to remain neutral in the elections, and in doing so, they stabbed Ciro in the back. This mistake will cost the PT and Lula dearly, as Ciro has always been present in the PT's alliances and governments. It is certain and well-known that Lula will not be a candidate. Who will Lula's voters choose? Lula's puppet or Ciro Gomes? The answer already exists: between the puppet and Ciro, the people will vote for Ciro.

In the 1952 elections, when the people elected Getúlio Vargas as president of the republic, the communist Luiz Carlos Prestes declared his support for Getúlio. The entire left wing of the time harshly criticized Prestes, calling him a traitor to the people and the party, since Getúlio had sent his wife to be killed in the gas chambers of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany during World War II.

Prestes thus responds: “My wife’s feelings cannot be above the interests of the nation and the Brazilian people.” This lesson could be repeated and serve as an example for our greatest leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in public opinion polls, and also be followed as a practice because we represent the feelings of a people.

So, imprisonment is part of the suffering we are subjected to for defending the just cause of the wronged. How many have paid with their own lives to defend this cause? Santos Dias is an example to be followed, as are Marighela, Chico Mendes, Margarida Alves, and so many others who lost their lives in this struggle.

 Our left-wing leaders insist on believing that we'll each go into the first round of elections on our own, and then in the second round we'll form coalitions and win the election.

We've seen this movie before in recent elections, particularly in the São Paulo municipal elections, where everyone was absolutely certain that the second round would be between center or right-wing candidates, with Fernando Haddad of the PT party leading. However, reality contradicted everyone, and the right-wing candidate João Doria won the election in the first round.

It's good not to forget the old sayings, "elections are a box of surprises, for those who believe in surprises." The October elections draw our attention due to the current political climate, and they should be approached with class analysis, taking into account both Science and Art.

The financial and media industrial complex is not interested in allowing the left or center-left to govern Brazil. If that were their plan, they wouldn't have staged a coup and overthrown the legitimate government of Dilma Rousseff, who committed no crime, much less fabricated a case that incriminated former president Lula and sentenced him to prison, where he has been incarcerated for over a hundred days.

It shows a great lack of analysis, or at least a lack of intelligence, on the part of our leaders to believe that a judiciary entirely committed to the reactionary elite will register and legitimize Lula's candidacy for the 2018 elections. The PT (Workers' Party) is making a mistake in not supporting Ciro and not helping to build unity among the left.

There is only one way to reverse the electoral game: the unity of the entire left around a national project that reverses all privatizations, returning the Brazilian people's patrimony, defining a policy of confrontation with the banks by eliminating abusive interest rates and their billion-dollar profits, having an investment policy in health and education, a housing program in the country, a land reform program that allows the settlement of thousands of families camped on the sides of roads, strengthening INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform), and creating the Ministry of Family Agriculture Development (MDAF) with investment compatible with our production, which is responsible for more than 70% of the production that reaches the table of the Brazilian people.

The investment in production to generate jobs is a disgrace. Today we have more than 13 million unemployed. We need an investment plan for the recovery and protection of the environment, including the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, which the fascists want to hand over to American imperialism. That is what all left-wing activists and social, union, and popular movements expect.