We publish the unofficial translation of an important editorial of the A Nova Democracia newspaper, issue 210, on the important struggle of the workers and revolutionaries in the country and the imminent military intervention in the State management.
The stoppage of the truckers clearly showed the deepness of the general crisis of the country in all meanings. Apart from displaying the fragility of the road transportation modal (which is a result of a bureaucratic capitalism based on the semi-feudal backwardness wrapped up with modernity and submitted to the semi-colonial imperialist domination) it also reveals the general situation of the country in an inclined plan. An inclined plan that no facade solution or supposed “management efficiency” (like the electioneering political parties and the media monopoly cackles) could invert. Not even the moralist and redeemer rant of the scammer military “boot-lickers”1 of the USA could do it. Brazil is shaken and its true sane forces started to stir it up. Starting from this, nothing will be where it was until now.
The broad accession of the truckers can not be ascribed to a simple lockout, like some electioneering opportunists and official discourse do. It is true that a big part of the movement is led by companies interests (which have bigger access to negotiation channels and preference on attending their demands), but the great number of employed drivers of these same transportation companies are subjected to absurd working conditions. Equally absurd is the fact that more than 40% of the truck fleet belongs to workers who invested their last economies in buying the vehicle and getting exhausted in inhuman work conditions imposed by the transport companies and big transportation contractors, who degrade the value of the transport and impose impossible deadlines, making the survival of the drivers and the maintenance of the trucks impossible. Added the extortive toll collection on the roads.
Even facing the shortage of fuel and food and the chaos in public transportation, there was a great popular support to the mobilization, including other categories joined the protests their way, like the van drivers, taxi drivers and motorcycle taxi drivers. The oil workers also signaled to strike, by the time of the closure of this issue.
The illegitimate management of the political corpse Temer, who seemed “caught by surprise” with the dimension of the movement and cornered against the wall, was divided between temporary measures of tax and diesel oil price reduction and negotiations with the representatives of the big transportation businessmen. One first agreement was announced in May 24 but the autonomous truck drivers rejected to cease the stoppage and forced new negotiations on the weekend.
Maybe a more planned act, under the torn mantle of the “deal” made with the supposed leaders of the truck drivers, was the Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) decree which authorized the Armed Forces to intervene against the workers in the name of “restoring order” on May 25. such decree was a direct request of the army command. In the speech to announce the authorization, Temer filled his lungs to release the old fascist cackle of “radical minority” among the striking workers.
Would this “radical minority” be, by chance, the far right military-men who openly proclaim in the name of the Armed Forces calling the strike movement to create maximum chaos until the government is deposed with a military intervention? Of course not. It is the old catchphrase of the reaction to accuse workers and revolutionaries. This far right wants to push the military coup, but the conspirators headed by USA want to generate a broad public opinion in favor of the idea that only the Armed Forces is trustworthy to take the country out of this inclined plan.
Troops of the Armed Forces started to move in various places, headed to the blockade points, mainly in the roads of the refineries to ensure the circulation of the truck-tanks, which started to be done on 28th.
In many issues ago we have been denouncing the march of a preventive counter-revolutionary State military coup against the inevitable rebellion of the masses against this system of exploitation and oppression. In the scenery of chaos in transportation, general shortcoming of fuel and repression, not to force the end of the strike movement is, by the circumstances, the possibility of starting it more immediately. However, the tendency of the conspirators is to wait for the elections (which already points to a complete failure). On this perspective, it is enough to observe that there are neither political party forces nor candidates who could represent a minimum of reliability and capacity to stabilize the country. This bankruptcy will pontentialize the crisis with greater loss of capital.
It is necessary that the true democrats and revolutionaries decidedly support the strike, defending the rights of the employed drivers, the autonomous, the small and medium companies against the big companies groups that want to use the workers to “take nuts for them from the fire”. These big businessmen of transportation were historically linked to the reaction and the military-fascist regime. Therefore, it is not the case of advocating any retreat of the mobilizations by the fear of a military coup, something likely of the electioneering opportunism who, ignoring its own part of guilt in the current national situation, puts everything in the bet for the nest electoral sham, from where nothing good can come for the people.
It is imposed to the true democrats and revolutionaries the duty to defend the interests of the workers in this strike, to mobilize and increase the popular support aiming to build the general strike of all the workers of the country, against the “reforms” that suppressed and tramples on historical rights, which were so hard to achieve. For this, is needed to politicize the masses to resist and oppose the just popular rebellion to the ongoing counter-revolutionary State military coup.
No military coup, nor electoral sham. Only the democratic revolution can liberate the people and the nation from chaos, misery and the imperialist plunder.
1. it is an expression that means to be subservient, lackey, etc.[translation note]
