[Marxism] Re: Brazilians urged to take to streets

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The rightist opposition to Lula is now getting more support from
Wall Street -- if I read my New York Times correctly (a recent article,
pretending to sympathize with indigenous demandsthat a planned China
sponsored dam project should benefit their community or not be built at
all, ended by supporting rightist charges that Lula is selling out
Brazilian national interests to China).

At this point, Lula-phobia can prove to be at least as harmful -- and
possibly much more so -- to the interests of the oppressed and
exploited, as adaptation to Lula was at the time and in the wake of his
election.

Dirceu's identification of Lula with the bourgeois nationalist (and
therefore somewhat resistant to complete US imperialist domination)
tradition in Brazil is significant, in my opinion.

It is not unusual today to find among leftists dismissals of bourgeois
nationalism as completely discredited and no longer able to attract any
real mass support in conflicts with imperialism.  Iraq has shown that
this is simply not true.  It could only be true if one of two situations
applied: (1) the colonial revolution had been decisively rolled back,
and imperialism now had a free hand in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
-- which the setbacks to the US occupation in Iraq (where the opposition
is entirely bourgeois nationalist) show is not true; or (2) if the
struggles of the oppressed were generally giving rise to revolutionary
leaderships arising out of and committed to their interests.

This tendency does exist, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez being, I am
convinced, examples of this trend. I also think that the masses striving
to take that road in Bolivia are strongly backing Morales' presidential
candidacy.

But to put it mildly, this is not yet a generalized phenomenon.Bourgeois
nationalism going to remain a factor in the struggles in much of the
ex-colonial world. Islamism is basically the latest form of this in the
Arab and South Asian region, provide a new "uncorrupted"  "moral" and
"spiritual" image for bourgeois nationalist interests. The Islamist
currents basically defend the existing capitalist interests and social
hierarchies -- advancing their own claims to bigger piece of the action
-- while utilizing sections of the masses to defend their  relative
autonomy against the more complete domination sought by imperialism.

On the part of the left, failure to defend bourgeois-nationalist forces
when they come under imperialist attack can only weaken the effort to
bring together genuine popular-revolutionary movements.In fact, a
sectarian posture on this issue can facilitate devastating blows that
can throw back the prospects for a considerable time.
Fred Feldman



Brazilians Urged to Take to Streets

Sao Paulo, Dec 3 (Prensa Latina) Former Brazilian minister, Deputy
Jose Dirceu, urged the Workers Party (PT) to take to the streets to
defend the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against
rightwing attacks.

In his first public appearance since he was stripped of legislative
privileges and political rights for eight years, Dirceu spoke Friday
night to a gathering of solidarity with Deputy Joao Paulo Cunha, also
threatened with a similar sanction as are another four legislators.

Dirceu said mobilization should not only be in defense of the
threatened deputies, but also of the PT and the government, to
strengthen the alliance with social movements and prepare conditions
for a second Lula term.

He said the right is "doing to PT what the military dictatorship did
to Joao Goulart (ousted in 1964), Getulio Vargas and Juscelino
Kubitschek," all of them presidents who were victims of the right and
the Armed Forces of their times.
 [snip]


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