We are publishing an inofficial translation of the weekly editiorial of the Newspaper ANOVADEMOCRACIA that has been send to us:
Photo: Nelson Almeida / AFP
Despite the discredit they cause, the polls bring to light a fact that is one of the most important to measure the degree of decomposition of the old democracy: the rejection of both candidates. The latest Datafolha poll (14.10) calculates a rejection of both: Bolsonaro has 51% and Lula 46%. Of the 49% who supposedly voted for the PT, 20% - almost half - did so with the priority of "defeating Bolsonaro". For its part, 63% of Bolsonaro's voters attribute "great need" to religion in the hour of the vote, of which an enormous proportion voted for him because of the notion that Luiz Inácio is an anti-religion rabble-rouser. The campaigns of both sides are getting to the point where they can only talk about the putridity of the competitor, aiming to increase the rejection, as was seen in the last debate.
These are clear signals of the rottenness at which the political system of this old state of the big bourgeois and owners of the latifundium, who serve imperialism, mainly the North American, Yankee, has arrived. These corrupt elections are only important for the ruling classes, because only they need them to decide which of their factions will take the lead and which regime will rule to manage their colossal crisis and save the old order of exploitation and oppression from the threat of collapse. The next elected one, whoever it will be, will be a legitimate representative of nothing but himself, and the same goes for the political regime that will follow.
He will inevitably be elected by a minority - about 50 million, almost a third of all eligible voters - and, in this minority, almost half do not support the elected, and yes, reject the "opponent". This shows that those who will vote to actually support the elected person are only about 17% of all eligible voters. And what there is to note is that this particularly small part of the population does so without even a little enthusiasm, while the vast majority simply cast their useless vote in despair.
This reality is no accident, nor is it indifferent to the old order. It is not a coincidence, but neither is it indifferent to the historical and political bankruptcy of the old democracy. The current pact imposed by the ruling classes - the 1988 Constitution - which promises "citizenship" and basic rights "at any price" to the people, has not been able to fulfil its promises, nor has it been able to prevent the disintegration of the system of exploitation and oppression which it covers and legitimises, and which (the disintegration - conotation of the translator) is questioned by the ruling classes. A system that, in order to survive, must destroy the few rights that the struggle of the people has won, and whose old democracy could not be anything other than a complete farce that becomes more obvious every time. Just think of the "social security reform" that practically took away the right to pensions from the next generations; the "labour reform" that destroyed the trade unions and the historical rights of workers and public sector workers. To stay only with the most recent attacks, which were part of a long process that took place during successive periods of government.
The lack of legitimacy of the electoral farce is also not an indifferent fact. The reactionaries fear in their hearts the repetition of a popular uprising as in 2013-2014, but more conscious, more energetic and much more profound, through the most proletarian and poorest comrades of our country, who could transform it into the most determined and fiercely expressed revolutionary violence. Such an uprising is inevitable, the reaction can only give survival to the old order by attacking even more vigorously the historically won rights and suppressing even more brutally and cowardly the masses who are fighting to defend them. The old democracy can only prevent the struggle of the masses against such attacks with some success if it is endowed with a certain popular credibility. And what credibility has, to "pacify" the increasingly rebellious mood of the masses, a government - whatever it will be - , which is elected by a minority, and in whose minority only a small part actually votes out of approval of its proposals, and even this does so without any hope and out of rejection of the candidate? Not to mention the disgust felt by the masses towards the other institutions of the old genocidal and corrupt state. Disillusionment is guaranteed and resentment comes in the form of large mobilisations, whether early or after some time.
A picture emerges of the advanced decomposition of the old state, in the midst of whose general crisis the military have been drawn, making the high command of the armed forces, not only guardians of the old order of exploitation and oppression, but also guardians and even covert agents in the institutions and in the weak governments elected during the electoral farce.
Therefore, it is an innocent dream of some and a malicious discourse of others to propose the "useful vote" to prevent the re-election of Bolsonaro, when in reality all votes are useless for the people in this electoral farce. The extreme right, at the head of which he is, will not disappear because they have emerged from the historical and political bankruptcy of the old democracy; a bankruptcy that cannot be circumvented. This extremist force will continue to exist and act with even stronger reactionary violence if it is defeated in the elections. The coup aspirations of the generals, whether active or retired, will not disappear either, but will grow in direct proportion to the explosion of popular uprisings. This march towards fascism, which is also inevitable, cannot be extinguished by the electoral farce of the old democracy because it was brought about by the failure of the old democracy and its torturous political system. Today, in Brazil and in the world, we are living these historical moments in which the old regimes are beginning to fall because the new regime - in our country that of the democratic revolution, agrarian revolution and anti-imperialist - will advance to replace it bit by bit in the country until it triumphs in the whole. The new revolutionary order must be built, and the longer this pending task is delayed and postponed by clinging to illusions, the more golpism (something like „coup d'état -ism“ - translator's note) and the march towards fascism will advance. Only the democratic revolution will defeat them.
