brilliant comment overall.
i'd like to bring to discussion, though, the fact that many 20th century theorists have associated fascism to industrial and financial capital, but to me it seems that 21st century fascism is more tightly linked with landowners and agribusiness. if you check voting patterns in Brazil, the US and Italy it seems to corroborate that - at face value it looks like a fight between god hating cosmopolitan globohomos and common folk.

one of the best takes i've ever seen on hexbear

trotsky wasn't reformist though

is this a bit

the tiny dildo soothers are pretty much the most iconic part of the 2018 election. he pretty much won that election on the back of fake news like that. :yea:

I mean... the radical left is taking these protests pretty seriously. Even MTST, which is pretty reformist and supported Lula from the first round, has instructed their chapters to organize themselves to help end fascist road blocks . Even if that weren't the case the fact that "no one is taking these protests seriously" is not an argument in itself. People keep shrugging at fascists as incompetent goobers (which, to be clear, they are) up until the point that they take power, and then it's way too late. Either we smash fascism before it's born or we'll suffer defeats to it in control of the State.

Not being a radical has never stopped the CIA from killing or couping popular leftist leaders in LatAm. A lot of CIA-backed repression in LatAm in the late 20th century eas against lame ass reformists or socdems. It doesn't have anything to do with radicality, any vaguely leftist economic program will go against American interests, which is why despite being a super republican socdem Lula was politically persecuted.
He isn't being smart, he's being naive.

They have had plenty of socdem blunders since 2014, but I'll limit myself to 2020 onwards. Last year a united leftist front organized protests against Bolsonaro's government, his mishandling of the pandemic and the increase in hunger among the brazilian people. The Worker's Party and a few other reformist parties tried to boycott the protests, when it became obvious that wasn't feasible, some tried to call off their members from going to the protests the day before, attempting to weaken them. The protests ended up being a massive success, they were being scheduled every few weeks and Bolsonaro's approval rate was melting off. After a certain decline in his approval, the reformist parties decided not to rock the boat too much and consciously avoided pressuring congress to go ahead with an impeachment process. They stopped participating in the protests. It is worth mentioning that at this point there were talks of organizing strikes to further undermine Bolsonaro and that the biggest unions in the country are aligned with the Worker's Party. They wanted Bolsonaro in the presidency with a weaker government so that Lula would get what they thought would be an easy dub come this october. I don't even have to explain what a fucking dogshit approach this was. They let up on Bolsonaro to double down on electoral politics when they could've dealt Brazilian fascism an absolutely massive blow.

Now, they double down yet again on bourgeois institutions against fascism, when historically that has never played out in the working class' favor. It is also important to note that in 2016 Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil and member of the Worker's Party, was couped through a sham impeachment process. After thar PT members started being persecuted for corruption, notably ending in the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of Lula. So after years of being failed by bourgeois institutions the party leadership still refuses to be the masters of their own destinies. They have the apparatus of the biggest party in Brazil (and probably LatAm) at their disposal, yet their petit-bourgeois sensibilities stop them from doing so. Their (lack of) decision making is not only shameful and pathetic, it is borderline irrational.

it'd be significantly less cringe if that were the case. they are socdems, don't need any help betraying working people with naive idealism.

This article offers a decent summary, just keep in mind that the military is not distancing itself from politics lol They are probably just weighing their options, most notably the complete lack of international support for a coup. Still, if push comes to shove and the Worker's Party keeps cowering from any show of force from the people I have no doubt that either we'll see a coup before Lula takes office or a very organized, emboldened fascist movement that will take power before the end of the decade.

gonna stop poisoning my mind with the internet after Lula's win and going to read some Pashukanis instead. have a good one, hexbears.

concordo craque.

You're right, but from what I've seen it's not outright support from the entire military as it is in Brazil. or at the very least the Bolivian military is afraid of popular pushback, which really doesn't seem to be the case in Brazil. there's more military personnel in the federal executive branch today than there was during the brazilian military dictatorship.

i 100% agree. the radical left is growing rapidly and i really hope it can become a serious political force by 2026. we'll see how things turn out. thank you comrade :soviet-heart:

the Brazilian radical left has had an incredible resurgence from 2018 to now. ironically, Bolsonaro put communism in public discourse again. the situation in Brazil is dire, but I truly do believe that the Brazilian people have revolutionary potential right now. if we are able to defeat fascism ideologically (if there's an outright confrontation they will win with the backing of the military) things will look really, really good. people already distrust liberal democracy and are tired of living in poverty, we just need to show them an alternative where they become the masters of their own destiny.

this is pretty much it, yeah. Lula has the same blind admiration for liberal democracy and its procedures that the Democrat party in the US has. the thing he doesn't seem to understand is that when push comes to shove, the bourgeoisie sees him as an enemy because he wants the Brazilian people to live with a shred of dignity. i really, really hope that the Worker's Party radicalizes and mobilizes the people to support the government, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it.

Jeanine didn't have the backing of the military like Bolsonaro does. MAS is also more popular than the Worker's Party is in Brazil. i don't mean to be a doomer but we need pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. our situation still isn't good, but the Brazilian people are at a crossroads right now and there's tons of revolutionary potential.

i meant he won't take office, not that he wouldn't be elected. my bad.

lula means squid haha

tipo na real eu concordo o ponto era meio o lula naturalmente vai remover peças do bolsonarismo, por ser natural ao presidente colocar seus ministros e bla

o certo mesmo era um PUTA de um expurgo nas nossas Forças Armadas. um mandato com supervisão direta do presidente pelos quatro anos. se a gente não submeter as FFAA ao Estado e ao governo a esquerda não tem chance. mas como eu disse, não há força nem vontade política para isso.

eu concordo pra você que se o centrão ver benefícios em governar com Lula eles vão, porque os parlamentares burgueses não têm consciência senão o auto-interesse. agora, esse apoio vai ser muito caro pro que vai ser um governo enfraquecido do Lula. só povo na rua pra contornar isso. a esquerda radical tem uma tarefa histórica importantíssima.