The historic re-election of Lula da Silva in Brazil is a victory for BRICS, Palestine, Latin America, and the Global South, and a blow to the United States, Israel, oligarchs, and dollar hegemony.
Just because Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the United States, it would be foolish and premature to be lulled into complacency.
Jair Bolsonaro secretly left Brazil for Florida in the United States on December 30, 2022, two days before his presidential term ended.
When his supporters attacked government offices in Brasília on January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro was in Orlando, Florida.
So, Flávio Bolsonaro may be in the US plotting an even more serious attack on democracy in Brazil. The voters and courts don't have the final say, the capitalist ruling class and the military have the final say. And they support Bolsonaro. As does Trump.
Brazil's benchmark stock index, the Ibovespa, tumbled 13.9% on Monday, October 26, 2026, marking its sharpest single-day drop since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That tells us how much the capitalists wanted Bolsonaro to win.
The majority of the military officer corps undoubtedly leans towards Bolsonaro, and the cops are overwhelming for a coup, as we saw thousands of cops directly involved in organizing the January 8, 2023 coup attempt.
The working class can have the ultimate say only by millions going into the streets and out of the factories to use their decisive power to bring the country and economy to a halt in the event of another and likely more dangerous coup attempt. However, that requires working class leadership and a movement and party. They have none. Certainly not the capitalist PT, which will never mobilize the Brazilian working class against the capitalist ruling class, any more than the Democrat Party in the United States would mobilize against Wall Street and the Pentagon.
So it would be premature to write off the threat of a move to subvert or overturn the election results.
And in any case should Lula remain president, it would merely return to the status quo ante of a few months ago, with the same problems devastating the working class and farmers, and the same growing rightists with a sharpening polarization.
The PT offers absolutely no perspective for workers. They are too busy looking at the stock market.
It would be foolish to be complacent between now and January, in Brazil, or in the United States. Both Bolsonaro and Trump clearly are hostile to bourgeois democracy and seek to impose authoritarian regimes.
The most dangerous delusion of all would be to believe that the mere act of voting or filing lawsuits can resist individuals and movements that have already declared themselves above the law.
Only millions of workers mobilized in the streets and in our factories can resist an attack to overturn the Constitution and impose one man rule. Disciplined peaceful defense of our social and democratic rights needs to be calmly discussed and organized now before it's too late.
In the United States, public rallies—independent from the Democrat and Republican parties—should be called opposing any attempts to subvert, annul or overturn votes, or refusal to seat victors. This should not be seen as endorsing either of the two capitalist parties but a defense of the democratic rights of the working class.
Don't wait for tanks in the streets. Then it will be too late.
The defeat of rightist Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil should be celebrated by working people everywhere. It is a blow to the right and to Trump. But the struggle is far from over.
Lula da Silva won a fourth term with 51.79% of valid votes against Bolsonaro's 48.21%—64.26 million to 59.83 million. Bolsonaro had led the first round, 47.03% to 45.16%. Over 128 million voted in the runoff, nearly 3 million more than in the first round. Abstention fell from 21.08% to 19.22%. Yet over 30 million Brazilians, overwhelmingly workers and farmers, did not vote.
Millions voted not for what Lula promised to do, but against what Bolsonaro threatened to do. The PT's support remains lukewarm after years of governing for Brazilian capitalism. This was an anti-Bolsonaro vote against an admirer of military dictatorship and ally of Trump.
Ominously, Flávio Bolsonaro had refused to concede, still alleging fraud and seeking to annul the runoff. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted of plotting to overturn the 2022 election. On January 8, 2023, thousands of his supporters, drawn from the reactionary movement of agribusiness, gun enthusiasts and religious conservatives—the so-called “Beef, Bullets and Bible” constituency—stormed and ransacked the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all located around Brasília's Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza). This was an assault on all three branches of government—the entire constitutional structure of Brazilian bourgeois democracy.
Bolsonaro may have lost an election, but the capitalist class has lost neither its wealth nor its political power, and the police, military and other institutions of the capitalist state remain loyal to the ruling class and sympathetic to Bolsonaro. Further attacks before Lula's January 1 inauguration remain a danger.
Opposition to attempts to overturn the election result cannot be entrusted exclusively to the courts, Congress or the military high command. Workers' organizations, trade unions, students and poor farmers must prepare independent mass mobilizations against any attempt to overturn the vote. The democratic rights of millions cannot be left at the mercy of the institutions beholden to the ruling rich.
A Bolsonaro victory would have reinforced the narrative of an unstoppable rightist march across Latin America, following seven consecutive rightist electoral victories in Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica and Colombia. It would also have strengthened Trump's international offensive. Bolsonaro's hostility toward Cuba and the Palestinians threatened to reinforce Washington's economic strangulation of Cuba and its support for Israel's war against the Palestinians. A Brazilian government more closely aligned with Washington would have weakened regional opposition to US intervention.
The PT's class collaboration has not overcome the causes that breed the right. It has helped preserve the social conditions from which the right draws strength. By subordinating workers' demands to Brazilian capital, agribusiness and financial markets, the PT has repeatedly frustrated millions who looked to it for fundamental change. Bolsonaroism exploits that disillusionment while offering an even more reactionary capitalist program. After 18 years in government, the PT has neither broken the power of the big landowners nor led workers to fight the capitalists for better wages and conditions.
Workers in Brazil and everywhere need genuine working-class parties—not merely to contest elections, but to organize and lead the struggle against capitalist exploitation: defend strikes, fight for higher wages and land reform, support land occupations by poor farmers, mobilize against racism and attacks on immigrants, and defend social and democratic rights in the streets and workplaces.
Above all, we need parties that fight for working people to take political power into their own hands, replace undemocratic capitalist rule and establish their own truly democratic governments of workers and farmers representing the vast majority of humanity.
Can I be the first to provide condolences to Lula’s family / friends on hearing of his unfortunate 'accident' next week?
Just because Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the United States, it would be foolish and premature to be lulled into complacency.
Jair Bolsonaro secretly left Brazil for Florida in the United States on December 30, 2022, two days before his presidential term ended.
When his supporters attacked government offices in Brasília on January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro was in Orlando, Florida.
So, Flávio Bolsonaro may be in the US plotting an even more serious attack on democracy in Brazil. The voters and courts don't have the final say, the capitalist ruling class and the military have the final say. And they support Bolsonaro. As does Trump.
Brazil's benchmark stock index, the Ibovespa, tumbled 13.9% on Monday, October 26, 2026, marking its sharpest single-day drop since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That tells us how much the capitalists wanted Bolsonaro to win.
The majority of the military officer corps undoubtedly leans towards Bolsonaro, and the cops are overwhelming for a coup, as we saw thousands of cops directly involved in organizing the January 8, 2023 coup attempt.
The working class can have the ultimate say only by millions going into the streets and out of the factories to use their decisive power to bring the country and economy to a halt in the event of another and likely more dangerous coup attempt. However, that requires working class leadership and a movement and party. They have none. Certainly not the capitalist PT, which will never mobilize the Brazilian working class against the capitalist ruling class, any more than the Democrat Party in the United States would mobilize against Wall Street and the Pentagon.
So it would be premature to write off the threat of a move to subvert or overturn the election results.
And in any case should Lula remain president, it would merely return to the status quo ante of a few months ago, with the same problems devastating the working class and farmers, and the same growing rightists with a sharpening polarization.
The PT offers absolutely no perspective for workers. They are too busy looking at the stock market.
It would be foolish to be complacent between now and January, in Brazil, or in the United States. Both Bolsonaro and Trump clearly are hostile to bourgeois democracy and seek to impose authoritarian regimes.
The most dangerous delusion of all would be to believe that the mere act of voting or filing lawsuits can resist individuals and movements that have already declared themselves above the law.
Only millions of workers mobilized in the streets and in our factories can resist an attack to overturn the Constitution and impose one man rule. Disciplined peaceful defense of our social and democratic rights needs to be calmly discussed and organized now before it's too late.
In the United States, public rallies—independent from the Democrat and Republican parties—should be called opposing any attempts to subvert, annul or overturn votes, or refusal to seat victors. This should not be seen as endorsing either of the two capitalist parties but a defense of the democratic rights of the working class.
Don't wait for tanks in the streets. Then it will be too late.
________________________
BRAZIL: DEFEAT OF THE RIGHT—THIS ISN'T OVER
_________
https://substack.com/@aaronruby/note/c-370755416?r=7jhui4
The defeat of rightist Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil should be celebrated by working people everywhere. It is a blow to the right and to Trump. But the struggle is far from over.
Lula da Silva won a fourth term with 51.79% of valid votes against Bolsonaro's 48.21%—64.26 million to 59.83 million. Bolsonaro had led the first round, 47.03% to 45.16%. Over 128 million voted in the runoff, nearly 3 million more than in the first round. Abstention fell from 21.08% to 19.22%. Yet over 30 million Brazilians, overwhelmingly workers and farmers, did not vote.
Millions voted not for what Lula promised to do, but against what Bolsonaro threatened to do. The PT's support remains lukewarm after years of governing for Brazilian capitalism. This was an anti-Bolsonaro vote against an admirer of military dictatorship and ally of Trump.
Ominously, Flávio Bolsonaro had refused to concede, still alleging fraud and seeking to annul the runoff. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted of plotting to overturn the 2022 election. On January 8, 2023, thousands of his supporters, drawn from the reactionary movement of agribusiness, gun enthusiasts and religious conservatives—the so-called “Beef, Bullets and Bible” constituency—stormed and ransacked the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all located around Brasília's Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza). This was an assault on all three branches of government—the entire constitutional structure of Brazilian bourgeois democracy.
Bolsonaro may have lost an election, but the capitalist class has lost neither its wealth nor its political power, and the police, military and other institutions of the capitalist state remain loyal to the ruling class and sympathetic to Bolsonaro. Further attacks before Lula's January 1 inauguration remain a danger.
Opposition to attempts to overturn the election result cannot be entrusted exclusively to the courts, Congress or the military high command. Workers' organizations, trade unions, students and poor farmers must prepare independent mass mobilizations against any attempt to overturn the vote. The democratic rights of millions cannot be left at the mercy of the institutions beholden to the ruling rich.
A Bolsonaro victory would have reinforced the narrative of an unstoppable rightist march across Latin America, following seven consecutive rightist electoral victories in Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica and Colombia. It would also have strengthened Trump's international offensive. Bolsonaro's hostility toward Cuba and the Palestinians threatened to reinforce Washington's economic strangulation of Cuba and its support for Israel's war against the Palestinians. A Brazilian government more closely aligned with Washington would have weakened regional opposition to US intervention.
The PT's class collaboration has not overcome the causes that breed the right. It has helped preserve the social conditions from which the right draws strength. By subordinating workers' demands to Brazilian capital, agribusiness and financial markets, the PT has repeatedly frustrated millions who looked to it for fundamental change. Bolsonaroism exploits that disillusionment while offering an even more reactionary capitalist program. After 18 years in government, the PT has neither broken the power of the big landowners nor led workers to fight the capitalists for better wages and conditions.
Workers in Brazil and everywhere need genuine working-class parties—not merely to contest elections, but to organize and lead the struggle against capitalist exploitation: defend strikes, fight for higher wages and land reform, support land occupations by poor farmers, mobilize against racism and attacks on immigrants, and defend social and democratic rights in the streets and workplaces.
Above all, we need parties that fight for working people to take political power into their own hands, replace undemocratic capitalist rule and establish their own truly democratic governments of workers and farmers representing the vast majority of humanity.
A luta continua!
The struggle continues!
Bolsonaro did NOT admit in court that he conspired with the military to try to hold on to power. Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes testified that Bolsonaro presented him and other military heads with a draft decree that outlined steps to prevent Lula da Silva from taking office. Freire Gomes stated he explicitly warned Bolsonaro that the Army would not join a coup and threatened to arrest him if he attempted to execute the plan. https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-11/this-is-how-bolsonaro-concocted-a-coup-in-brazil.html#:~:text=This%20is%20how%20Bolsonaro%20concocted%20a%20coup,%2D%20FEB%2011%2C%202024%20%2D%2009%3A00%20EST.