Iza Lourença: Brazil needs a radical left to combat right-wing radicalism.

By Pedro Alexandre Sanches, from Opera Mundi - The radical left needs to be a viable alternative to the right-wing radicalism that has dominated Brazil in recent years, in the form of Bolsonarism, according to social communicator, former subway worker, and union activist Iza Lourença, elected councilwoman in Belo Horizonte by the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) in 2020, and currently a candidate for federal deputy for Minas Gerais for the same party. This was stated in an interview with journalist Breno Altman on the program... 20 MINUTES This Tuesday (September 27th), she argued that PSOL should not be part of a potential third government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in order to preserve the freedom to demand so-called radical agendas.

“I understand the strategy of those who follow the path chosen by the PT, but I understand and believe in the path chosen by PSOL. I am part of the group that fought for PSOL to support Lula in the first round, because for me it is a historical duty to combat neo-fascism, but I think our path is not within the government,” she explains. For her, PSOL has more to contribute to Brazil by acting in the parliamentary front, in the responsible defense of the rights of workers and the majority of the population.

“The crisis that has plunged our people into a situation of great misery has brought the radicalism of the right as an alternative for many people,” she analyzes, from the point of view of someone who knows that Brazilian democracy must be defended despite being limited for young black people from the periphery, like herself. “Bolsonaro supporters have radicalized in that direction, and I identify with the opposite of the extreme right and neo-fascism. I am a young socialist, a radical leftist. We also need to present this alternative.”

Lourença ironically comments on what is commonly considered radical leftist proposals in Brazil today: “What is radical today? We need to discuss structural reform in transportation, a unified mobility system. Cities can't remain hostage to large bus companies, to mafias. People may find this very radical, but it's the only way to bring some dignity to our people.”

The current city councilwoman, who was 9 years old when Lula became president, says she remembers her mother's euphoria at the Workers' Party victory. "My mother remained very much a supporter of the Workers' Party, and I was a little more critical, disagreeing with some of their policies, especially regarding the fight against the genocide of Black people," says Lourença, who was the first in her family to attend a public university. 

When she was campaigning in schools in the peripheral neighborhood of Barreiro, where she lives in Belo Horizonte, to encourage young people under 16 to register to vote, she noticed that Bolsonaro's supporters were much more comfortable than Lula's supporters. “Lula's supporters are much more empowered today. Back then, we didn't think we could elect Lula in the first round. It's going to be historic,” she anticipates. In her view, the generation of young people who grew up under the PT governments witnessed the setbacks of recent years, but the same happened to those who were born into a PT-era Brazil: “The very young people, who understood themselves as people seeing their aunts and cousins ​​in university, also feel that their situation is worse than that of their older siblings, that they have no prospects for Prouni, Fies, or jobs with labor rights.” 

Addressing the genocide of Black people is another supposed "radical" issue that the candidate sees as a priority. "No war kills more; a young person is killed every 17 minutes. This is very serious. I hope to be able to put this on the agenda. It won't fall from the sky, from the executive branch, but with a Lula government we will be able to put it on the agenda." 

Parliamentary struggle can yield victories even when outnumbered, argues Lourença, citing the left-wing bloc in Belo Horizonte, with two representatives from PSOL and two from PT, among 41 city councilors. This small group managed to mobilize the population and secure the approval of the Auxílio BH (BH Aid), which had been shelved without discussion by the City Council: “We have to take this experience to Brasília. I only believe in the solution through popular mobilization; that's how the right to abortion was approved in Argentina.” 

Altman cited another reform that even sectors of the left would label "radical," in Cuba, which has just approved in a referendum a new Family Code, advanced enough to legalize marriage between same-sex couples (and in any family arrangements), adoption, and surrogacy for non-traditional families. She welcomes the transformations in Cuba: "It's a way for us to combat all the attacks that the Cuban people suffer, with the false idea that comes from the United States that there is no freedom in Cuba, as if in the United States people were free and not oppressed by a system that doesn't even have the right to health."

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