By the leadership of PSTU, Brazil

This is the first statement we have received from any revolutionary current inside Brazil. Radical Socialist is a permanent observer of the Fourth International, and our comrade organisation in Brazil works wthin the PSOL. However, we have received no statement on the elections either from the Brazilian fourth Internationalists or from PSOL as a whole. Meanwhile, the PSTU, the Brazilian section of the International Workers League– fourth International (LIT-CI) has issued the following statement,which we carry.

Lula won the elections in this second round. Across the country, workers, youth and oppressed sectors feel relieved and rightly commemorate Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat.

National Directorate of the PSTU Brazil

Now, we of the working class, must remain attentive to Bolsonaro’s movements so that, in the event that he does not accept the results of the polls, carry out massive mobilizations and guarantee, in the streets, with strikes and self-defense, that the will of the people be imposed.

The PSTU called and campaigned for a critical vote for Lula in this second round, to defeat Bolsonaro and his authoritarian dictatorship project in the elections. We saw how the government used, in an unprecedented way, the state machine to perpetuate itself in power, as well as having generalized sieges, carried out by a large part of the bosses, with threats and intimidation. The Federal Rodoviária Police (PRF) [road police] itself was mobilized in an absurd way to carry out blitz [surprise police operations] and prevent or hinder the opposition from voting.

The PSTU vote was critical because, despite the importance of removing Bolsonaro from the Presidency, the alternative represented by Lula-Alckmin, in our opinion, will not definitively defeat the extreme right or meet the needs of the working class. . It is a relief to defeat Bolsonaro at the polls and, we insist, we must reject any attempt by Bolsonaro against Lula’s inauguration.

However, the extreme right is not defeated by elections and can be further strengthened if we do not change the conditions that made its emergence and rise possible, that is, the deep setback experienced by the country in recent decades, aggravated by the crisis, unemployment, famine and famine.

Posted at www.pstu.org.br

Translation: Natalia Estrada.