AND Editorial – Change the government, so that nothing changes

Editorial Staff of AND

30 September 2022

Editorial of AND No. 249 – Change the government, so that nothing changes

The false polarisation between Lula and Bolsonaro marks the current edition of the electoral farce. It opposes, on one side, a representative of all the unfulfilled promises of the Constitution of ‘88, and on the other, a defender of the fascist, corrupt and bloodthirsty military regime. Demagogic rubbish versus reactionary rubble, in short.

The candidates, without exception, defend the interests of the dominant classes, namely, the latifundium – nicknamed “agribusiness” – which kills peasants, indigenous people and quilombolas, in addition to plundering our soil and subsoil; the financial system, which had record profits of R$132 billion reais last year, despite the unemployment and hunger that devastate the Brazilian people; big businessmen, who pocket fortunes at the expense of trampled labor rights and the most shameless tax evasion (legalized in the form of indecent “exemptions”). All are subordinated to the interests of imperialism, principally North American imperialism.

Above all, this polarization faithfully portrays the degree to which the division of the ruling classes has been reached. Both sides represent different fractions of the ruling classes in the dispute over which regime can save the old order seriously threatened with collapse: whether the corrupt and bloodthirsty fascist military regime or the corrupt old democracy tutored by the generals. The electoral farce cannot save this putrid old order, and even less save the people from exploitation, oppression and misery.

Meanwhile, in a country that produces oil and gas, families have returned to cooking with firewood; in the world’s largest exporter of meat, starving workers quarrel over piles of bones.

We must ask: since the end of the military regime, various parties and candidates – who presented themselves as the negation of each other – have passed through government and what has changed in the lives of the people? Nothing, except the crumbs that the rich throw at us during periods of bonanza, ever shorter and rarer. Nothing, beginning with the military themselves, who continue to control national political life and blackmail and threaten to preserve their indecent caste privileges. In the countryside and in the city, those who struggle are persecuted and murdered. A young black and poor person has more chances of dying murdered in Brazil than in countries in declared war.

Voting in elections is the same as legitimising this unacceptable state of affairs. Far from being the “House of the People”, the National Congress is, if anything, a Circus of Horrors, a business counter in which the sweat and blood of the population is exchanged for amendments, commissioned posts and secret budgets. Bolsonaro, the Big Shot, the same one who said he would “change everything that is there” governed with the same “center” that he promised to fight; Lula, the Pelegão, has already brought Geraldo Alckmin, Renan Calheiros and other mummies with him, as he did in the first government.

From this tribune we call on workers, peasants, small and medium owners, honest intellectuals and all democrats to reject the rotten and corrupt elections. Only through the mobilisation, politicisation, organisation and consistent struggle of the oppressed will it be possible to build a New Brazil and Peoples Power. Only the struggle of the masses, beginning in their workplaces and homes, and extending to the whole country, will sweep away the parasites and scoundrels who profit from the sweat and blood of the Nation.

This old democracy is a farce and must fall: let us raise the banner of New Democracy with vigour!

A worker greets members of the editorial staff of AND as soon as she hears the agitation of the megaphone and reads the banner. Photo: AND Database