Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The absurdities in the campaign for president of Brazil

Bruno Lima Rocha and Rafael Cavalcanti | 13.06.2010 00:44 | Analysis | Repression | World

We see with deep regret the rating of terrorist circulates abundantly by the Brazilian Internet, targeting the 44 million voters-users of the network. The term, associated with economist Dilma Vana Rousseff is, at worst, a historical injustice.

By Bruno Lima Rocha (political scientist and journalist) and Rafael Cavalcanti (student of journalist)

We have the impression that with this text, we will be challenged by the campaign teams of all presidential candidates, including themselves. If this is the price of intellectual honesty, it comes up cheap. The issue is the conceptual definition of left and terrorism. We see with deep regret (the terms are different, but here they do not fit) the rating of terrorist circulates abundantly by the Brazilian Internet, targeting the 44 million voters-users of the network. The term, associated with economist Dilma Vana Rousseff (Minister of Civil House of the current government) is, at worst, a historical injustice. And the absurdity does not stop there.

Let us begin by thinking of the left and then get to terrorism. To be or not fan of these matrices of thought implies that at least one is a critique of capitalism both in it's production mode and in it as a civilization milestone. Is not and never has been possible to affirm that position in the singular. There are lefts. These can be basic or statist federalism, parliamentary or rupture, or democratic centralist. There are hues among these stated positions, and each new issue legitimated by fighting and clashes, there is a struggle to set up marks on collective rights.

In our view, Roussef (candidate for the Workers Party - PT, the same as Lula) is not anything like that. Even if she does not admit it, she is a Keynesian nationalist, opting for the development of Brasil at the cost of pacts between classes and the strengthening of major economic groups in the country. It has both positive numbers from the government (irrefutable), as the huge volume of corporate mergers, the increased weight of the state in the Brazilian social organization and the disputed infrastructure projects, such as the Belo Monte power plant. Another economist, José Serra (candidate by the Brazilian Social Democratic Party - PSDB, the same of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso), has been adept this Keynesian pathway although now abandoned, but is now more right. Third name in surveys of voting intentions, the former environment minister, Marina Silva (former Environment Minister of Lula, a candidate for the Green Party - PV, left the PT in 2009 after 30 years of militancy in the acronym) even being in favor of inclusion, environmental sustainability and cultural diversity in this sense, neither is left.

Matrix of socialist thought running for the office of president, we have only two names, and with little focus. The first corresponds to a post-graduate degree in economics, the retired prosecutor Plinio de Arruda Sampaio (candidate for the Socialism and Freedom Party - PSOL, was affiliated with the PT 1980 to 2005) that, far from being a revolutionary, reformist advocates trigger and vindictive. The second is the metalworker and union leader Zé Maria (the Workers Party candidate Unified - PSTU, Trotskyist line Morenism, from Argentine Manuel Moreno). More politically aggressive than the PSOL, are also advocates strengthening the state benefit the working class. Ie, the left one sees represented by two positions and two models of reformist parties (type broad front, as the PSOL; or centralism, as is the case of PSTU). None of the three candidates can be marked today as being left under no known view.

About terrorism and other charges

Let us move to "terrorism" and of dubious accusations against the minister of Lula. Terror implies attacks against undetermined targets. The episode on Pump Riocentro (famous trial of two army officers in placing an explosive in Riocentro Pavilion during a concert celebrating Labor Day in Rio de Janeiro in 1981; that ended up going wrong when the bomb exploded in the lap of the military) would have been a terrorist act. Two militaries were blamed for it when in fact the action was ordered by the parallel of the military in counter-insurgency (known as the DOI-CODI). The same pattern was inconclusive terrorist attack on the Gasometer (gasworks) in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, which was looking to kill hundreds of thousands of people just for the government put the blame on so-called subversives. No guerrilla organization has operated this way. The only terror practiced in Brazilian soil was to state in 21 years of military dictatorship (1964-1985).

Dilma neither was a terrorist, but guerrilla. She fought against the dictatorship of way extinguished by subsequent Armed Revolutionary Vanguard Palmares (Palmares-VAR) guerrilla organization had even planned to hijack the then symbol of Brazilian economic miracle, professor Antônio Delfim Netto, nowadays a consultant for Lula. She behaved very well when fell prey to survive in the dungeons of Operation Bandeirantes (center of clandestine detention and torture in São Paulo) without saying a single name under savage torture. Jose Serra was a student leader, president of the National Union of Students (UNE) of the moment when the coup of 1964 (completed on April 1) and ended up exiled, after integrating the Popular Action (AP) political movement of Christian bias. The same crossed the path of exile Plinio de Arruda Sampaio, while the prison was the fate of Zé Maria already in the 80s. Marina Silva, in turn, was forged in political activism for social Acre, during the swan song of the dictatorial period. Too bad the respective fields of the top three alliances (Dilma, Sierra and Marina) in the polls do not respect their trajectories.

Thus we arrive at two conclusions. These five presidential candidates, with different levels of risk and commitment, had a good conduct before the regime of exception. And to the delight of the heirs of ARENA (civil political wing allied to the militaries) and widows of the dictatorship, the way the campaign is going, nobody will remember after the 2nd round last Sunday of October.

In time, Orlando Geisel, minister in chief of the Armed Forces when in the decree of the AI-5 (13th December 1968, when the regime decreed state of inner war), was the commander of state terrorism in Brazilian soil. Those who agreed not to revise the Amnesty Law, the act of acquitted for his crimes against humanity and undermines homeland. From hell or where else a man like him and others migt be, they are celebrating the Brazilian political campaign, for the shame of martyrs and all of the live people’s fighters.

Bruno Lima Rocha ( blimarocha@gmail.com) is a political scientist (phd. And msc.), journalist (bsc.) and professor; Rafael Cavalcanti ( butigahn@gmail.com) is a student of journalism and media activist. They produce the Brazilian and Latin American based political analysis website Estratégia & Análise (www.estrategiaeanalise.com.br).

Contacts: website – www.estrategiaeanalise.com.br / skype: bruno.lima.rocha / msn:  blimarocha@hotmail.com

Bruno Lima Rocha and Rafael Cavalcanti
- e-mail: blimarocha@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.estrategiaeanalise.com.br

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech