To remember another April 1st: the Spanish Civil War.

"To the ships that are returning"
marked by a dark journey,
to the men who return to them
with scars on the body
or of a mutilated body,
I'm asking for news from Spain.
Carlos Drummond de Andrade

"It was in Spain where my generation learned that one can be right and still be defeated, that strength can destroy the soul, and that sometimes courage goes unrewarded."
Albert Camus

Eighty years ago, on April 1, 1939, General Franco declared the end of the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist troops under his command had entered Madrid without resistance, and on the Mediterranean coast, the last combatants of the Republic were trying to escape certain imprisonment and possible death by boat. It was the end of a dream. In the 80th century, the Spanish Civil War was the first great conflict between barbarism and civilization, between dignity and cowardice, between freedom and submission. As in no other previous conflict, the Spanish Civil War mobilized workers, intellectuals, writers, and artists worldwide in defense of the young and vibrant Republic. Many volunteered to fight in Spain or acted as war correspondents, such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, George Orwell, Simone Weil, André Malraux, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Tristan Tzara, and Emma Goldman, to name just a few. Pablo Neruda was then, in 1936, the Chilean Consul in Barcelona, ​​and when his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was assassinated by Francoists three days before the start of the armed conflict, Neruda became involved in the fight against fascism. Due to his speeches and political activism, Neruda ended up losing his diplomatic post, but he still managed to organize the audacious departure of about 2000 Spanish refugees and their families to Chile after the defeat of the Republic, where they obtained political asylum. In 1938, Neruda published "España en el Corazón – Himno a las Glorias del Pueblo en la Guerra" (Spain in the Heart – Hymn to the Glories of the People in War).

For a short but intense period, from 1936 to 1939, the Spanish Republic embodied, like no other country before it, the dreams of building a more just and dignified society. It was the first and most powerful symbol of the international struggle against the fascism that was spreading across Europe. It is crucial to remember this conflict because there are many similarities between Brazil and Latin America today and what happened at that time.

It is important to remember, for example, that the main bourgeois democracies of the time, the United States, France, and Great Britain, opted for "neutrality" in the face of the Spanish Civil War, leaving the fascist powers – Germany and Italy – free rein to arm and support General Franco's army. The US, Great Britain, and France did not support the Spanish Republic in the same way that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported General Franco and his movement, including the bombing of Spanish cities like Guernica. Faced with the choice between fascism, with the consequent maintenance of capitalism and its inherent hierarchy, and socialism, the industrial and financial elite that effectively governed Western democracies opted for fascism. A fundamental lesson we cannot forget. Faced with the choice between a minimum of social justice – which they call "communism" – and the homegrown sub-fascism of the Bolsonaro government, the Brazilian elites also had no doubt in opting for fascism.

Just as in that era, contemporary forms of fascism seek to seize power in various parts of the world. No longer through brute force – although this always remains an option – but through more modern and efficient methods, especially in Latin America through lawfare, coups d'état conducted by parliaments and judicial systems supported by intense campaigns led by the mainstream press. The objective, however, remains the same, then as now: to preserve capitalism, its power relations, its hierarchies, and its conception of the world and society. For Latin America in general and Brazil in particular, this means a return to colonial status and complete submission to the interests of international capital centralized in the seat of the Empire, the USA. The Bolsonaro government perfectly represents this sub-fascist neocolonial project. Steve Bannon's public statements of support for President Bolsonaro should be taken very seriously, as they clearly reveal the interests behind this government and its function: to hand over the country's public wealth to international capital. Until this is done, mainly through the privatization programs advocated by Minister Paulo Guedes, the Bolsonaro government will continue to have the FULL support of the Empire for its maintenance. We must remember that, even after the defeat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in World War II, the Fascist General Franco remained in power in Spain until his death in 1975, which would not have been possible without the explicit support of the USA.

Regarding privatization policies, they actually serve two purposes: the clear goal of transferring public wealth to international private capital, which is the fundamental function of neoliberal capitalism, is followed by the transfer of POLITICAL power from the public to the private sphere. Beyond a certain level of economic privatization, the truly fundamental decisions for the governance of a nation can no longer be made within the public political sphere, but are instead taken directly by the private sector, which thus acquires TOTAL control over society – which has always been the real objective of neoliberal capitalism.

In other ways, by other means, but for the same reasons, we are living through our own Spanish Civil War in Brazil and Latin America today. As Albert Camus wrote in the quote above, we too seek to defend our dreams and the dignity of our existence from the overwhelming force that tries to destroy our souls. We too see today, frightened, that we can be right and still be defeated. And even if courage receives no reward, we must continue the fight, believe in humanity, and above all have the clarity to understand that the real threat is not Franco, Bolsonaro, or Trump, but the system that makes them possible.