What does the aggression of the criminal Roberto Jefferson have to do with Bolsonaro's pro-gun policies?

By Jair de Souza 

To begin with, I wanted to refresh readers' memories on the topic that was coming to the forefront at the time of the criminal attack against Federal Police agents by the Bolsonaro-supporting thug Roberto Jefferson.

Three days ago, the plan of Bolsonaro's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes to end the policy of adjusting the minimum wage based on the inflation index was revealed to the public. If implemented, this measure, in addition to directly affecting the total wages of workers, will also impact the value of pensions and all other social security benefits, which are expected to suffer a significant reduction after its implementation. The suffering of our most vulnerable population will certainly increase.

Many people suspect that, once again, Bolsonaro's supporters are using their usual tactic of diverting our attention to remove topics that threaten to severely erode their reputation among the less informed from the debate, replacing them with issues that do not threaten the essence of the exploitative system from which the rich obtain their privileges.

Bolsonarism acts in defense of the interests of the dominant classes. These classes know that they cannot win the sympathy of the popular majorities on socioeconomic issues that concern their concrete living conditions. Therefore, Bolsonarism strives to ensure that the discussion agenda does not go beyond the realm of morality and customs. It is through this means that they hope to create and emphasize bonds of affinity between human groups that live in social realities with almost nothing in common. This is how they develop a strategy aimed at unifying, for example, bankers and landowners, on the one hand, with low-income workers and middle-class people, on the other.

However, I have the impression that this recent aggression by the criminal Roberto Jefferson against the Federal Police officers is intrinsically related to the anti-labor policies of Bolsonaro's supporters and also to his encouragement of armament. In other words, it has everything to do with the material interests of the dominant classes and their attempt to preserve them. The policy of liberalizing the acquisition and carrying of weapons plays an important role in this scenario. In the following lines, I will try to clarify how these links are intertwined.

Since the coup against Dilma Rousseff's government in 2016, an overwhelming process of destruction of our basic industries has begun in the country, combined with a project of brutally stripping workers of their rights. As a consequence, unemployment and poverty have grown as never before. The streets of our major cities are now full of human beings surviving on the streets, without any kind of social assistance from government structures.

Undoubtedly, the ideologues of the ruling classes are fully aware that it will be impossible for them to prevent a social explosion in a relatively short period of time. And that is why Bolsonarism, in the name of the interests of these classes, dedicates itself with such zeal to its campaign to expand gun ownership in our nation.

However, the Bolsonaro slogan that says "an armed people is a people that will not be enslaved" was not designed to include landless peasants, unemployed workers, the millions of inhabitants of our favelas, and even less so our indigenous communities. For Bolsonarism, the freedom to bear arms should be broad and unrestricted, as long as it is limited to those who act in accordance with the interests of the powerful lords of capital, whether financial capital or agribusiness capital. In the event that those who appear wielding firearms are people from the popular countryside, the old tradition of "shooting them in the head" should be rigorously observed.

When Bolsonaro's leaders preach the free right of everyone to acquire and carry firearms, we know very well what that means. A quick internet search is enough to show that a machine gun costs between R$150.000,00 and R$300.000,00; the price of a rifle is in the range of R$10.000,00 to R$20.000,00; I couldn't find the market value of a grenade, but I suppose it's not insignificant.

In light of this, we can ask ourselves: Who will benefit from the liberalization of the sale and possession of firearms in our country? Do our workers and our middle class have sufficient resources to feed their families and also buy a rifle, a machine gun, or a submachine gun? As for the bankers, the landowners, the big capitalists and their representatives, there is no doubt that they, indeed, will be able to take full advantage of such liberalization.

It's no coincidence that the Bolsonaro government prefers to encourage the growth of shooting clubs rather than the creation and improvement of public schools. Bolsonaro supporters seek to transform these places into cells for the formation and training of their private militias. Several of these institutions are linked to international neo-Nazi organizations. In a documentary produced by journalist Joaquim de Carvalho, we find valuable information about one of these establishments in Santa Catarina, which was frequented simultaneously by the person accused of stabbing the Bolsonaro leader in Juiz de Fora and his son. For those who haven't seen it yet, now is the time to watch it.https://vimeo.com/741280632To keep so many people subjugated and unable to react, Bolsonarism will depend on the armed support of these militia groups.

In summary, under the conditions of rampant neoliberalism that Bolsonaro's regime intends to maintain in our country, guaranteeing the exclusive firepower of the ruling classes becomes a factor of great relevance. In the vast inequalities of our nation, while millionaires and their cronies isolate themselves in their private condominiums with all the luxury and comfort that money can buy, the helpless majorities are left to fend for themselves. To prevent their discontent from escalating into threats to the integrity of the oligarchies' assets, the armed militias that serve them must be on standby.

This concept of selectivity in the release and expansion of firearms in our country is evidenced in the episode involving the Bolsonaro-supporting criminal mentioned earlier.

How can one justify that Roberto Jefferson, a convicted felon under house arrest, had the opportunity to acquire grenades and machine guns to resist a summons from Federal Police agents? How can one explain the attitude of the Federal Police agent sent to negotiate his detention after he committed the assault? Why such reverence and docility towards someone who had just thrown a grenade and fired rifle shots at other police officers? Could this be because Roberto Jefferson, despite being a known criminal and corrupt individual, tried and convicted, is a staunch ally of the interests of the ruling classes and a leading figure in Bolsonaro's movement?