Brazil, and Knowing the Enemy

Greetings all!

This post is directed at something that has irked me and some communists like myself in the past few days. I speak of the Brazilian popular protests going on right now, which have only just begun recently but already are consuming large portions of the population. This week’s quote comes from Jon Stewart, a political comedian I absolutely love.

The first thing I will tell you is that you should not pay attention to what the rest of the world (at least, non-Brazilians) is telling you about the protests, and from what I hear my friends around the world telling me about their media reports, do not listen to them either.

The protests which are currently going on are severely dynamic, but they have taken a definite turn towards conservatism.

The context of the protest is as follows:

The initial wave of protests were organized by the MPL (Movimento Passe-Livre) which is an autonomist anarchist movement, based primarily in public universities. Their main goal is and always was free, public funded transportation. The protests were organized in response to (left-wing, social democrat/liberal PT Worker's Party) Mayor Fernando Haddad's and (right-wing, conservative, social democrat in-name-only PSDB) Governor Geraldo Alckimin's hikes in bus and metro fares.

The media, at first, launched a total offensive against the protests, accusing it of vandalism, and of being made-up by extreme leftists. They justified the actions of the armed Military Police of Brazil (which is a Gendarme), which was, at the time, shooting rubber bullets at people's faces (which is lethal), beating up primarily women, using lots of tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the movement, as well as several intimidation tactics, such as baseless arrests (including the famous arrests for vinegar possession).

The media realized that despite all of their efforts, the movement had a popular agenda and had been garnering support across progressive sections of the population. One very popular ultra-conservative anchor attempted to ask the extremely loaded question to his viewers: “Do you support vandalism in ongoing protests?” Only to have his primarily reactionary audience humiliate him live by voting yes. The media, realizing they could no longer discredit the movement, and noticing that their most reactionary viewers were ready to take the street, switched strategies.

Soon afterwards, the raging anti-communist pundit withdrew his previous opinion and started favoring the protests, but also started claiming that the protests were about "much more", and started to tell his viewers that the protests were about the long running list of anti-leftist complaints that were traditionally presented by the media against the left leaning worker's party and used electorally by the right-wing PSDB. The rest of the media did exactly the same thing. They even set up the narrative on the international level, using Youtube as the means through which we became aware of the protests. This would later serve to legitimize the conservative coup in the eyes of the international audience.

Now here is the tricky part. You will notice that there is nothing intrinsically progressive about the video. It is unfortunately common that so-called "socialists" in developing nations, just as much as conservatives, are loathe to corruption, wasteful spending and the degradation of public services. However, this has to be looked at in the context that the Brazilian media has built over the years that the semi-leftist PT government has been in the presidency of the country.

Maybe one example some will be familiar with is the Venezuelan media and its participation in the attempted 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez, who was a friend to pink-tide Brazilian president Lula Da Silva who was current president Dilma Rousseff's predecessor. What was the Venezuelan media's strategy? To constantly pound on the viewer's minds the idea that all leftism is corrupt, to fabricate accusations daily and to create the general feeling of constant crisis. The same has been absolutely true of Brazilian media since 2000.

In fact, Rede Globo, which has the near-monopoly of TV audiences, which is owned by the billionaire heirs of Roberto Marinho, who had a personal fortune of 60 billion dollars, had previously attempted in 2007 to spark an artificial "popular" march against the PT government led by several celebrities on its payroll.

I should also strongly remind everyone that the 1964 Brazilian military coup was preceded by a million-strong reactionary march on the state of Guanabara asking for conservatism against the reformist social-democrat João Goulart. So to those who are simply enamored by any public protest thinking it's impossible that the right can muster popular support, please keep in mind the realities of the situation.

Now, you're probably asking, "How can you suggest that the current protests are conservative? You're out of your mind!" Well, to be fair, you are reading this and you are probably not in Brazil, watching how giddy the media is with the whole thing. You are probably not aware that the agenda against "corruption" was suggested by the military chief of police when negotiating with MPL. You are also probably not aware that the large majority of the opposition to the Worker's Party does not come from the radical left, as I wish it did and as MPL does, but it comes from the PSDB and half of their electors are nostalgic of the Brazilian fascist dictatorship. So they are going out there and asking for a new one.

For those blissfully unaware, the period between 1964 and 1986 was far from heavenly for Brazil under dictatorship.

As I write this, thousands of right wing militants are burning red flags on Paulista Avenue and demanding the impeachment of president Rousseff. These militants are those who think that democracy only exists when married to neoliberalism, so in her place they want to install PSDB or the Brazilian equivalent of Pedro Carmona (the man who took power for two days during the 2002 Venezuelan coup).

Many of us are only now waking up to this fact, as there have been some interesting attempts to make people aware of the oncoming conservative coup by some artists, which are conscious of the media and right-wing hijacking of the initial protests.

Now, the leftist parties have attempted to reclaim their movement and to fight against the reactionary agenda which always masquerades as "apolitical" demands for the moralization of politics. The right wing and the media have as such appropriated the anarchist "anti-party" discourse to denounce the left-wing in the protests, and some radical right wingers are demanding the extinction of parties, much like the 1964 military dictatorship proceeded to do. MPL and the anarchists are failing to react to this and are fueling the right wing rhetoric.

There are also sections of the left which are too isolated in their group of friends to realize that the majority of people participating in the marches are not their friends. The majority of people joined in after the calls of reactionary media pundits. In many cities the protests were not started by the left, and instead the protests are solely about the right-wing protesting against left politics. Do not be fooled, as true Occupiers would not gather up and protest near former president Lula's house.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Industries of São Paulo State (a business owner's union, pretty much the opposite of progressivism) is supporting the protests. The Brazilian Pedro Carmona sharpens his fangs.

So I find it extremely upsetting that many people, especially those who claim to be progressive-inclined, are basically providing international support for a movement which works directly against what Brazil needs to be fighting for.

So when the judiciary, which the media has built up as the great moralizing institution, its hero being the Supreme Court Justice Joaquim Barbosa, does some kind of maneuver to oust the left-leaning Rousseff in favor of elections that bring back the neoliberal PSDB to power, the international community will be ready to validate the coup. I should remind you all that this is the textbook tactic of 21st century dictatorships, as taught to us by Honduras.

Brazil is in danger of going in the wrong direction, and I am continually annoyed by eager-beavers who find out about what is going on through some Youtube video sponsored by some think tank like the Millennium Institute or by the Brazilian equivalent of Miami Cubans and think that this is an overall positive development simply due to a bandwagon effect.

That is all for this week, and I hope I've shined some light on this issue. As always, your feedback through comments and my email at zerospintop@live.com are always welcome. I can also be reached through Facebook, DeviantArt, Twitter, Steam, Google+, Tumblr, and my new Youtube account. Good night, and this is KnoFear, signing off.