By Hernan Corbalan-A Marx Brasil 

If you want to read the original in portuguese click here

The results of the first round of elections in Brazil sparked important conclusions and a profound debate among activists across the country. One of these is that Lula's defeat demonstrates the exhaustion of the Workers' Party (PT), a consequence of the break between millions of workers and the old party that has led capitalist governments that have plunged the people into poverty and misery. On the other hand, the victory of a conservative candidate like Flavio Bolsonaro, who garnered 54,104,502 votes, represents only 35% of the 158,745,502 eligible voters. Bolsonaro seeks to implement a monumental austerity program to benefit the ruling classes and pull capitalist Brazil out of its crisis. The PT government's candidacy lost more than 3 million votes, reflecting the discontent and rupture of mass sectors with the PT.

Another shocking fact, which the bourgeois media ignores, is that 39,444,714 Brazilians did not vote, while 2,300,798 cast blank ballots and 3,674,249 cast invalid ballots. This means that more than 45.5 million Brazilians, representing almost 30% of eligible voters, did not vote for anyone and turned their backs on the electoral charade and all the candidates who participated in it. The confirmation of the election results has directly impacted the working class and the most exploited and oppressed sectors, such as maintenance workers, cleaning staff, restaurant workers, and those in the informal sector, who have expressed a certain bewilderment at the possibility of a full return to Bolsonaro's policies. Significant segments of the working class are aware that a government led by Flavio Bolsonaro will mean a further deterioration in their living conditions.

The political revolution is expressed in Brazil

The distancing of the working class from the PT (Workers' Party) is not due to an ideological shift to the right among the masses, but rather to the objective deterioration of living conditions suffered by the people as a result of Lula's capitalist policies and the class conciliation policies of the Broad Front government, which subordinated the historical demands of the proletariat to the interests of corporate capital and the Centrão (the center-left bloc in Congress). Lula promised to eliminate the 6x1 work schedule but immediately capitulated to employers and the Centrão bloc. Companies continued to openly advertise vacancies under the 6x1 scheme without state oversight, and, for example, in highly precarious sectors such as the hotel industry, chambermaids face de facto 7x1 schedules without a weekly day off. The working class expected a recovery of purchasing power and social welfare that never materialized.

It is false that Lula's capitalist government will bring improvements for workers and the people, because capitalism cannot bring improvements anywhere in the world. The promises of substantial improvements in the income and quality of life of working families were met instead with the reality of a wage freeze that persisted throughout the four years of his administration. The government attempted to compensate for the material adjustment with symbolic concessions and celebratory rhetoric ( "joy and music" ), while the cost of living devoured the income of working-class households. In this sense , the Brazilian political process bears a close theoretical and practical resemblance to the exhaustion of Peronism in Argentina under Alberto Fernández. Both projects represent the breakdown of class conciliation as a mechanism for social containment. By assuming control of the bourgeois state, implementing the program of capital, and demobilizing the workers' vanguard, the PT eroded its own social base.

The result of the first round constitutes a direct "protest vote " from the working class against the PT, a process unfolding worldwide as the masses break with their traditional leaderships across all continents, such as social democracy, Stalinism, and bourgeois nationalist movements—a process Marxists call "political revolution ." This is what is happening in our country: a process of disillusionment among the masses with a government that perpetuated precarious employment. To evade political responsibility for the balance of their socio-economic management, the PT leadership and its media outlets have constructed a conspiratorial narrative that functions as a mechanism of evasion and ideological propaganda, speaking of alleged "Imperialist Interference," attributing the defeat to alleged covert CIA operations in the national territory, a "Techno-Electoral" challenge , or alleged spread of complaints regarding the alteration of 16,000 electronic ballot boxes by alleged resolutions of the Superior Electoral Court.

These "conspiracy theories" are intended as a smokescreen to conceal the fact that the true cause of the decline was not external sabotage, but rather the disastrous policies of a government that targeted the working class. By characterizing popular discontent as solely the product of manipulation, the PT refuses to acknowledge that it was its own austerity policies that alienated the proletariat from the government's project.

Bourgeois elections are essentially inter-bourgeois contests, where the various sectors of the ruling class vie for control of the profit rate. Although the factions of the Brazilian right were fragmented at the beginning of the process, they accelerated their unification around Flávio Bolsonaro. Should he consolidate his victory in the October 25 runoff, the Bolsonaro bloc projects an offensive agenda regarding labor that will entail deepening the Labor Reform: eliminating the remaining regulatory frameworks to grant absolute flexibility to hiring and cheapen labor. They will seek to punish and suppress land occupations. Criminal prosecution and repressive deployment will be deployed against rural and urban occupations, dismantling the struggle for land. They will seek to nullify the rights of Indigenous peoples through territorial demarcations, preservation initiatives, and the constitutional rights of Indigenous communities to enable the expansion of agribusiness and mining.

Leftist groups capitulate to capitalist government and bourgeois democracy

Faced with the prospect of Bolsonaro's victory in the second round, groups that define themselves as "Trotskyist" or "Marxist, " such as the PSTU (through its publication Opinión Socialista), the PSOL, anarchist currents, and related sectors, have called for a "critical vote " or "strategic vote " for Lula's candidacy. From the perspective of class independence, this orientation represents an open capitulation to the bourgeois regime. By channeling workers' mobilization toward supporting a capitalist administration that froze wages and made work more precarious, these organizations act as a left-wing counterweight to the government. Subordinating the proletariat to a bourgeois bloc by invoking the threat of fascism neutralizes the working class's defensive capacity and politically disarms it in the face of future attacks.

It is essential to draw a sharp line in the sand with the reformist policies of these groups. We, the workers, must not support any of the bourgeois blocs in conflict; we must pursue a policy of class independence by calling for a null vote, which must increase to further weaken any capitalist government that assumes power. A Marxist, class-based campaign is necessary to educate the working class in rejecting bourgeois democracy, which is democracy only for the ruling classes. This campaign calls for the challenge of bourgeois elections, against which independent organization from employers' blocs is more necessary than ever. Bolsonaro supporters will accuse us of disseminating propaganda that "breaks the democratic fabric ," because they too defend bourgeois democracy. It is false that Bolsonarism is a "fascist" force . All the groups belonging to the CPAC, the Conservative Action Conference headed by Donald Trump, promote legislative action and the passage of laws, as did the previous Bolsonaro government along with the Centrão.

The extension of the electoral calendar to the October 25 runoff is not merely an institutional waiting period, but a tactical window of opportunity for socialist agitation. In working-class neighborhoods, workplaces, and operational centers, a massive debate has opened up regarding the course of action to take in the elections, and the revolutionary vanguard must aggressively seize this time to intervene in the deliberations of the working class. It is not enough to proclaim a symbolic rejection of the regime. A systematic campaign for blank ballots, accompanied by organizing for struggle, is essential, clarifying that spoiling the ballot is a tool for conscious rupture aimed at unmasking the farce of bourgeois democracy and building the collective strength necessary to confront capitalist austerity. From Marxist Brazil, we invite you to join this campaign.