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Brazil’s social movements oppose institutional coup against Dilma Rousseff, demand ‘Temer Out’

May 13, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Brazil’s Federal Senate voted on May 12 to proceed with the impeachment process against Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in a move that many see as an attempt by the right-wing opposition to carry out a “institutional coup”. Below Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing translated version of statements released by the Popular Brazil Front, a broad coalition that involves the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), and the National Student Union (UNE), among others, and by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil’s largest social movement in the wake of the Senate vote. They have been translated from the Brazil Popular Front site by Federico Fuentes

Brazil's social movements: We will not accept a coup against democracy and our rights! We will defeat the coup in the streets!

Statement by the Popular Brazil Front and the People Without Fear Front, translated by Federico Fuentes April 19, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In response to the recent vote in the lower house of Brazil’s parliament in favor of impeaching president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s two main coalitions of social movements issued the below statement on April 17. Both the Popular Brazil Front and People Without Fear Front were formed as a response to the recent right-wing mobilizations against Dilma, while at the same time remaining critical of the government’s austerity measures. Between them they unite many of Brazil’s largest social movements including Unified Workers' Central (CUT), the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), and the National Student Union (UNE), among others.

Party of Socialism and Freedom (Brazil) - Why we voted against the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff

PSOL legislator Jean Wyllys speaking out against the vote to impeach Dilma Rousseff By Party of Socialism and Freedom, translation by Sean Seymour-Jones April 19, 2016 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, originally posted in Portuguese on the PSOL website - Brazil’s lower house voted on April 17 to impeach Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in a move that many see as an attempt by the right-wing opposition to carry out a “institutional coup”. The vote came after a series of massive protests - both for and against Dilma - that have rocked the largest country in Latin America. In October 2014, Rousseff was elected to a second term, and a fourth consecutive term for the Workers Party (PT) after Lula da Silva’s two terms in office. It will now be up to a vote in the upper house, scheduled for May, as to whether she is impeached. Among those to vote against the impeachment process was the Party of Socialism and Freedom (PSOL), the largest party to the left of the PT, and which has maintained a strong oppositional stance towards the current government. Below is a translation of a PSOL statement released just prior to the vote explaining why they would be voting against the impeachment process.

Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) on the political crisis engulfing the Dilma government

April 16, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Over 700,000 Brazilians took to the streets on March 31 across dozens of cities in Brazil in defence of democracy. The demonstrations were called by the Popular Front of Brazil, of which the Landless Workers Movement (MST) is a key part. The demonstrations demanded an end to the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, which protestors say is equivalent to a coup.

Below, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is republishing two articles reflecting the views of the MST on the current political crisis in Brazil which have been translated by Friends of MST. The first is the MST's analysis of the origin of the political crisis and the role of the social movements and working class in this struggle. The second was written by MST leader João Pedro Stedile, and looks at how the crisis has been accompanied by rising rural violence, including the killing of two farm workers on Thursday April 7.

Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff: It’s class war, and their class is winning

Supporters of former Brazilian president Lula da Silva confront police officers in front of Lula's apartment in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, 4 March 2016. By Alfredo Saad Filho March 23, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project -- Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of the state jams; the veils of consent are torn asunder and the tools of power appear disturbingly naked. Brazil is living through one of those moments: it is dreamland for social scientists; a nightmare for everyone else. Dilma Rousseff was elected President in 2010, with a 56-44 per cent majority against the right-wing neoliberal PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) opposition candidate. She was reelected four years later with a diminished yet convincing majority of 52-48 per cent, or a majority of 3.5 million votes. Dilma's second victory sparked a heated panic among the neoliberal and U.S.-aligned opposition. The fourth consecutive election of a President affiliated to the centre-left PT (Workers’ Party) was bad news for the opposition, because it suggested that PT founder Luís Inácio Lula da Silva could return in 2018. Lula had been President between 2003 and 2010, and when he left office his approval ratings hit 90 per cent, making him the most popular leader in Brazil's history. This likely sequence suggested that the opposition could be out of federal office for a generation. The opposition immediately rejected the outcome of the vote. No credible complaints could be made, but no matter; it was resolved that Dilma Rousseff would be overthrown by any means necessary. To understand what happened next, we must return to 2011.

Is South America’s ‘progressive cycle’ at an end? Neo-developmentalist attempts and socialist projects

By Claudio Katz, introduction and translation by Richard Fidler

‘Venezuela defines the future of the progressive cycle’ An interview with Claudio Katz

Introduced and translated by Richard Fidler, article original published in Spanish in La Llamarada July 14, 2013 -- Life on

World soccer corruption, Africa’s ‘illicit financial flows’ and elite silences