Vagner Freitas: the price of the coup is handing the country over to foreigners on a silver platter.

Da Current Brazil Network "We had the audacity to point towards a new world order, to form the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), to say that we could have another currency with backing other than the dollar. We had the audacity to invest in national technology and, for that reason, we had the coup in Brazil," stated the president of CUT, Vagner Freitas, during a panel discussion on the national situation, part of the 15th Extraordinary and Exclusive Congress of CUT: 100 years later, the struggle continues! Not one right less.

The event marks the 34th anniversary of the largest trade union federation in Latin America, also commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and the first general strike in Brazil. In addition to the host, Vagner, the panel included the national coordinator of the Homeless Workers' Movement (MTST), Guilherme Boulos; the leader of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, João Pedro Stédile; and the secretary of International Relations of the PT (Workers' Party), Mônica Valente. The meeting was moderated by the vice-president of CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores), Carmen Foro, and also by the federation's secretary of Relations with Social Movements, Janislei Albuquerque.

For Vagner, Brazil is going through a moment of "attack on sovereignty," and social and labor movements see the need to fight against this situation. "We, from CUT, only exist because of its more than 4 unions and more than 25 million workers represented. Workers with the same ideal who built the main instrument of struggle and resistance (...) against this union of the Brazilian right wing and international capital," he said, assessing that "the price of the coup is not only preventing the growth of the working class, but handing the country over to foreigners on a silver platter."

This surrender of national assets, according to Freitas, goes beyond the interest of the national elites in maintaining their privileges. "When would we have imagined that we would have contractors in jail? That we would have the dismantling of the meat industry, the oil and gas industry? In the name of the coup they want to carry out, with the objective of preventing the country's growth, they are handing over part of themselves. They are destroying large production chains. This demonstrates how arduous our struggle will be," he stated.

As a focus of resistance, the union leader stressed the need to develop grassroots work with the population. "What allows us to continue is working in the factory, in the fields, in the bank, discussing and dialoguing. It's about confronting the labor reform, which for us is illegal (...). We have the tools to demand what the workers we represent deserve. This union warned about the coup; we said the coup was against the workers. We have to say that the alternative struggle we presented was correct," he said.

"We say that workers have to participate in politics, not letting others make their history. We have to say that we have the conditions to reverse this situation. This coup was built in parliament. With the judges as well, but at the request of parliament. We have to tell workers to stop voting for bosses. That they build a representative bloc. We have to fight in all spaces, and parliament should be occupied by workers and not just by dominant economic classes," he concluded.

The president of CUT also announced the next proposed actions for the labor movement and social movements: on September 3rd, Petrobras' anniversary, a day of struggle in defense of the state-owned company; on September 14th, a national day of struggle in defense of rights and against the pension reform; and on November 11th, the date on which the new Labor Law comes into effect, CUT and the Popular Brazil and People Without Fear fronts will once again be in the streets to protest against this law that nullifies rights under the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws).

Stédile, leader of the MST (Landless Workers' Movement), echoed Freitas's speech about the nature of the coup and its main agents. "The main purpose was to implement an economic plan for the elite to save themselves and shift the burden of the crisis onto the workers. There's no mystery; there's no way to increase the profit rate without increasing exploitation. To that end, they took measures like the labor reform," he pointed out. "Another objective was the plundering of public resources. To that end, they implemented the Spending Cap Amendment and granted incredible tax breaks. Now, in April, after Joesley denounced Temer, he spent 15 billion reais of public money on parliamentarians to stay in power. And he also spent 108 billion reais on businessmen in tax breaks in April alone. The result is that it worked; he sustained himself," he said.

In his presentation, Stédile outlined what he believes to have been another objective behind the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016. "It was to appropriate natural resources. As Rosa Luxemburg taught, natural resources are ways for the bourgeoisie to acquire extraordinary capital beyond human capital. When brought to market, these resources provide stratospheric profit rates. For example, pre-salt oil yields a 240% return on investment; water, 700%," he said.

2018 Elections

For those present, the final act of the right-wing agenda against the working class would be to make former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ineligible to run in 2018. "The last point of the bourgeoisie's Machiavellian plan is to prevent Lula's candidacy. They cannot risk losing hegemony in 2018, so they will do anything. That's why Lula has become the center of resistance against the coup. His role is to become the spokesperson for the working class, in the trenches against the economic blows that affect it," argued Stédile.

Mônica Valente also spoke about the importance of the former president in the country's current political climate. "During Lula's government, Petrobras regained importance (...) so, the struggle seems thankless, but it has positive outcomes for the future. The PT's strategic challenge is defending Lula, guaranteeing his candidacy and the conditions for his election. This is the path to defeating the coup. The bourgeoisie knows it needs to make his candidacy unviable," she said.

Meanwhile, Guilherme Boulos, representative of the MTST and the People Without Fear Front, pointed out that the next steps for the left in the country should be to annul the measures taken by Michel Temer (PMDB) during his presidency, such as the Spending Cap Amendment and the labor reform. "At this moment, winning the presidency without addressing the revision of these measures will leave us tied to their economic policy," he said.

Boulos argued about the importance of raising public awareness and participation in the political process due to the crisis of representation in the political system. "The system is crumbling, there is a crisis of credibility. Who believes in Congress? This generates anti-politics, a diffuse dissatisfaction that has taken dangerous paths," he reflected.

Among the "dangerous paths," Boulos highlights three projects. "The anti-politics of the judiciary, represented by the Lava Jato operation, which, with its exceptional measures, seeks to establish setbacks while presenting itself as savior of the nation, as if the Judiciary were not a den of privilege. They galvanize, with Globo [a major Brazilian media conglomerate], the image of heroes against corruption," he argued. "On the other hand, the anti-politics of the suit, like João Doria. It's difficult to find someone more political than him, but he wears the shirt of a manager. This isn't just here; it also happened in Argentina with Mauricio Macri and with Donald Trump in the United States. Finally, the anti-politics of the uniform, represented by Jair Bolsonaro (PEN-RJ). Speeches of order and harshness, which capitalize on part of the feeling of disillusionment, including among the youth."