Social movements are preparing for 2022: "We will do everything to elect Lula as president."

Brasil de Fato - The left has no doubt about the main challenge facing the year 2022: the defeat of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), with the consequent victory of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in the elections that will define who will lead the country from 2023 until the end of 2026.

With some variations on the theme, social movements interviewed by Brasil de Fato pointed to the elections as the major challenge facing organizations, entities, activists, and left-wing parties in 2022.

“We will do everything to elect Lula as president and the majority of progressive governments and parliamentarians throughout the country. It is necessary to defeat Bolsonaro, Bolsonarism, Moro's lawfare, and the right-wing opportunists. Elections are part of the class struggle, and we will wage this battle to strengthen popular power,” explains Kelli Malfort, from the National Coordination of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), who lists reasons to fight next year.

“Our biggest challenge is to confront hunger, a direct product of agribusiness and Bolsonaro. And this is done through organization, the fight for agrarian reform, and the occupation of large rural and urban estates,” Malfort concludes.

Gilberto Cervinski, national coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), follows the same line of thought. “In 2022, we believe everything will be focused on the elections, which should be decisive for the working class, giving them the opportunity to decide whether they want to continue with a government with neo-fascist characteristics, exclusively for the bourgeoisie, or whether they want a government that can act on behalf of the working class,” explains the activist, who sees a broader symbolic significance in a potential victory for the Workers' Party candidate.

“With Lula, the balance of power in the country and in South America changes completely. We can move forward on issues that were destroyed by Bolsonaro's policies, such as the fight against hunger, recovering wage levels, generating jobs—in short, these are important reasons to fight,” he concludes.

In 2022, in addition to the president and governors, Brazil will elect federal deputies, state deputies, and senators. Raimundo Bonfim, national coordinator of the Central of Popular Movements (CMP), affirms that he will work for Lula's election, but understands that the left needs to elect a legislature that can support a potential government led by the Workers' Party candidate.

“We will finish 2021 in a better position than we finished 2020. In 2022, I hope we can reap the rewards. It is very important that we bet everything on the election of former President Lula and a large bloc in the National Congress. We need a popular democratic government that can repeal the spending cap and combat social inequality.”

Eliane Martins, an activist with the Workers' Movement for Rights (MTD), argues that in 2022, the perspective should be "the horizon of survival." As a tactic, she calls for the organization of the working class, before the election, into committees to discuss national problems.

“The committee is the space we need to bring to the forefront, a place that problematizes and energizes; it has to be a space for the critical participation of our activists. This is much more than just voting. Our great challenge for 2022, which was already a challenge before, is to position ourselves, to organize ourselves, at the risk of getting bogged down in the swamp of neo-fascism. Then, it's death,” Martins concludes.

Finally, the MTD activist reminds us of the “70 million excluded people” who live in poverty and unemployment in Brazil. “The discussion in the elections cannot be reduced to who will be the best manager of this surplus mass. We understand that this debate is fragile and superficial, and the bourgeoisie will try to set the agenda. We understand that Lula is trying to shift this debate to another level, which is to include the poor in the budget.”

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