The national question in 2022

The options are becoming more radical in the behaviors and speeches of candidates and voters; there is a certain fear of violence and a coup in the air. But what is being discussed, what is being examined in the country? Its colonial status, deepened by successive governments since the last one of the military period?

No, dear readers, we are discussing communism (!), the distribution of weapons, abortion, corruption, even the existence of God, recalling the 15th century, with monks debating whether angels had a sex and what it would be, while the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople.

Brazil is going through a very serious moment in which its institutions are being deliberately dismantled, its wealth alienated to foreign companies and states, for ideological reasons, due to submission to neoliberalism and neo-Pentecostal religion.

And at this moment, when we are witnessing a profound shift in world power, from the unipolar situation of the last 30 years to the multipolar situation of this 21st century, which is taking over the most populous continent, Asia, and is already spreading to Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin American countries.

Why this national alienation, on both the right and the left?

We will not seek philosophical answers; the facts suffice. After Getúlio Vargas and the victorious revolution for national sovereignty in 1930, the enterprising governments of JK in industrialization and transportation, and Jango in education and culture, and the three governments of Rio Grande do Sul (1967-1980) during the military period, Brazil emerged as a rising power.

And, possessing a full range of natural resources to grow autonomously, it was seen as an undesirable competitor to world power.

The world was also being transformed by the dominance of stateless finance, heavily constituted by illicit and marginal capital. And the concepts of sovereignty are questioned both in the theory of neoliberal power and in the practice of actions that transcend national territories.

Let's briefly discuss two of these actions: financial leverage and blockades and embargoes on free trade between nations.

State sovereignty is undermined when capital in tax havens multiplies without corresponding marketable assets. Many crises since 1987 have originated in financial securities, mere painted papers without the backing of real assets. The so-called US "subprime crisis" of 2008, spreading to Europe until 2010, had its origin and expansion in the risk of securities that did not offer sufficient guarantees to benefit from more advantageous interest rates, leading central banks to make resources available to guarantee their own currencies.

Now, what becomes of the sovereignty of any country that, through irresponsible and unassailable capital flight to tax havens, puts its own currency, an expression of sovereignty, at risk? And what then to say of countries that, for an unattainable ideal of peace and prosperity, abdicate monetary sovereignty, like those in the "eurozone"?!

And what about trade embargoes, blockades to free trade between nations due to disputes that end up harming others who have nothing to do with these issues? Look at the situation in Europe, the Near East, and North Africa, facing the dispute between the United States of America (USA), bringing with it the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the multilateralism of the Russian Federation and its military technological might.
Even Brazil is being affected by these embargoes on fertilizer supplies, as neoliberalism has led to the closure and alienation of our factories.

But where is the National Question, the discussion about Brazilian SOVEREIGNTY, in this election?

Research, dear friends, because what is truly at stake is not race, in a country that is entirely mixed-race, nor sex, which is the result of prenatal physiological and psychological conditions, nor faith, which is an intimate matter for each individual. What is at stake is the possibility of working, of educating oneself and one's children, of having access to healthcare in the best network in the world, which is the Unified Health System (SUS), and for this, Brazil must be sovereign, free from ideological shackles that enslave it.

The National Question is the real electoral issue.