The 2022 elections did not put an end to the Bolsonarist threat in
Brazil, in the same way that Biden's election in 2020 did not defeat
Trumpism. Throughout 2023 and now, in 2024, we have seen an
international organization mobilize to defend Jair Bolsonaro and his
reactionary political program. The governments of Bukele (El Salvador),
Milei (Argentina), Netanyahu (Israel) and Orbán (Hungary), each in their
own way, acted to give impetus to Bolsonarism and destabilize Brazilian
bourgeois democracy. More recently, South African billionaire Elon Musk
began a political crusade against the STF and the Lula-Alckmin
Government, being promptly supported by a legion of right-wing
politicians, intellectuals and groups: from the Portuguese André Ventura
to the Russian Aleksandr Dugin, passing through by the Spanish party Vox
and the Polish right-wing vehicle Visegrád. In Brazil, the movements of
the owner of
The extreme right cannot be understood as an "outlier" or as a series of
particular cases. There is a truly global articulation - sponsored by
big businesspeople, governments and religious fundamentalist groups - to
promote military coups, autocracies and regime closures. This movement
gained momentum after the 2008 financial crisis and is closely linked to
the neoliberal economic and social formation, seeking to distract the
popular classes from the effects of capitalism - such as inequality and
unemployment - with hate speeches against women, the LGBT+ community and
populations marginalized ethnic-racial groups.
DIGITAL COLONIALISM HAS A MATERIAL BASIS: MUSK'S INTERESTS IN LATIN AMERICA
Musk is a colonialist, a billionaire capitalist whose fortune comes from
the diamond mines of Apartheid South Africa. His interest in Latin
America is mainly economically motivated. The billionaire covets South
American lithium reserves, essential for the production of his electric
cars. Lithium, also called "white oil", is one of the strategic minerals
for the production of high-tech batteries. To give you an idea, 84% of
global lithium consumption in 2023 was already used in batteries. The
so-called "lithium triangle" (bringing together Argentina, Bolivia and
Chile) is one of the strategic reserves of this ore in the world and
Musk and company's digital colonialism therefore has strong material bases.
In November 2019, Evo Morales suffered a coup in Bolivia supported by
the USA and was ousted from the presidency, among other reasons, for
having opposed the multinational exploitation of Bolivia's mineral
reserves, and for having defended fairer forms of division of
exploration. Asked at the time if he had a role in the coup, Musk
tweeted: "Let's coup whoever we want! Deal with it." Tesla and other
mining companies have shown avid interest in Bolivian lithium. Still
keeping an eye on these mineral reserves, Musk also personally welcomed
the election of Milei and his government. In 2022 Musk came to Brazil
(which has the 7th lithium reserve in the world) and met Bolsonaro in
person.
All these movements prove that behind the discourse of "freedom of
expression" imperialist economic and political interests are hidden.
These interests of Musk and big tech are associated with the
strengthening of far-right organizations and political groups, whose
surrender and submission to imperialism can facilitate the delivery of
the valuable natural resources needed by these companies.
BIG TECH AND THE NEW OLIGOPOLY
Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the open and explicit
political actions of large technology companies have been exposed. The
control of algorithms through large platforms can politically
destabilize a given country, as it is linked to the US intelligence
services and the Silicon Valley business environment. Facebook was
instrumentalized to favor the extreme right through the collection of
user data, on the one hand, and the propagation of fake news, on the
other. This pattern started to be repeated continuously in countless
countries and on several different social networks. After the
Bolsonarist uproar on January 8, 2022, a weak attempt to regulate
digital media was quickly nullified by a counter-offensive by Big Techs.
Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Telegram, Alphabet (Google,
YouTube) and Tiktok (an exception, linked to China) came together to
prevent the bill against fake news from being approved.
Contrary to what many seem to believe, social networks are not neutral.
They are inscribed in the context of a neoliberal phase of capitalism,
where economic and social policies deepen misery, income concentration
and social differences. The logic of networks, operated by big tech,
intensifies the production of individualistic social values, stimulating
competition, disputes over differences of opinion and the "war of all
against all" within the oppressed classes. They also spread the idea of
collective and individual entrepreneurship as values of this new subject
living in this neoliberal phase, incapable of organizing collectively.
In addition to the private and class interests of their owners, their
fundamental structure, algorithms, tend to favor publications of a
sensationalist nature and rapid dissemination, which means that the more
distorted and simplified the information, the better. Thus, initiatives
like Brasil Paralelo and pages that promote right-wing conspiracy
theories have more reach and repercussion than progressive YouTubers or
left-wing influencers on the old Twitter. Furthermore, social networks,
applications and other initiatives require a large infrastructure to
operate, which implies an equally large capital investment. In a context
in which the working class and the revolutionary left are disorganized
and under offensive, the monopoly belongs to the dominant classes,
whether the bourgeoisie or the state bureaucracy.
In this way, unless the correlation of forces changes, every
propagandistic initiative on the part of the revolutionary wing of the
left - websites, videos, images, etc. - will continue to have limited
reach. This does not mean denying or invalidating any publicity and
propaganda initiatives, but understanding that our ability to intervene
does not depend on our will, on voluntarism, but on the real process of
the class struggle, which is material.
TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND OLD OLIGOPOLY
It should also not be forgotten that traditional media still has its
influence on the propagation of bourgeois ideology, in particular Rede
Globo. Formed by radio and television channels, magazines and
newspapers, this oligopoly was behind the co-option of the popular
uprising of June 2013, the 2016 parliamentary coup, Operation Lava-Jato
and the neoliberal measures of the Temer and Bolsonaro governments, such
as unrestricted outsourcing, labor reform and pension reform. All of
this with the support and connivance of the Judiciary, the Public
Ministry and Congress.
The relationship between traditional media and Bolsonarism was dubious.
Some groups, such as Record, SBT and Jovem Pan, openly embarked on the
coup, promoting reactionary speeches, revisionism about the military
period and scientific denialism. Others, such as Globo and written press
outlets ( Veja, Folha, Estadão), adopted a policy of critical support or
damage containment: they made some criticisms of the Bolsonaro
government while supporting Paulo Guedes' economic plan.
This second group's criticism of Bolsonarist absurdities made the new
Lula-Alckmin government and part of the party left believe in the
possibility of an alliance - of a new conciliation between antagonistic
classes. This media sector became one of the guarantors of a new liberal
pact, in a version with social elements, led by the PT and part of the
institutional left, which includes PCdoB, PDT and, more recently, PSOL.
Giving up a minimally left-wing program and approving liberal and
right-wing projects, such as the New Spending Ceiling ("fiscal
framework") and the privatization of prisons, Lula became the public
face of a "broad front" alongside the Globo, by Geraldo Alckmin, Simone
Tebet and Alexandre de Moraes - who, it is worth remembering, have
always been linked to financial monopolies, agribusiness and police
violence in the outskirts. On an international scale, the Federal
Government began to get closer and closer to names from the
pseudo-progressive face of imperialism, such as Biden and Macron, under
the banner of democracy and human rights. It is these same "democratic
governments" that currently profit from the war between Russia and
Ukraine and Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people.
BUILDING PEOPLE POWER AND REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
We, at the Libertarian Socialist Organization (OSL), assert that one
cannot have any trust in bourgeois institutions. Throughout history,
military and fascist dictatorships came to power with the support and
connivance of these same bourgeois institutions and imperialism, which
were supposed to defend liberal democracy. It is through popular
organization and class struggle that fascism and coupism are stopped,
and not through behind-the-scenes agreements and the old bourgeois
political game.
We understand that the fight against the extreme right, the
capitalist-statist system and imperialism involves the independence of
the working class, and this independence also involves controlling news
and information.
We have no hope that laws or legal interpretations will be enough for a
true democratization of the media in Brazil. The popular classes must,
when necessary, build their own means of communication, such as
community radio, popular newspapers, podcasts, etc. and, when possible,
act to directly affect existing means of disseminating knowledge.
As long as there is no strong popular, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist
movement that seeks and guides the radical democratization of the media,
there will be no possibility of having "freedom of expression", but
rather, the freedom of expression of the national and/or international
bourgeoisie . Along with the relentless fight against the dominance of
big techs, we need to advance in the social control of national media,
which are dominated by oligopolies of national elites or lackeys of
imperialism.
Libertarian Socialist Organization
OSL April 15, 2024
https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/04/15/a-extrema-direita-internacional-e-as-big-techs/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Brazil, in the same way that Biden's election in 2020 did not defeat
Trumpism. Throughout 2023 and now, in 2024, we have seen an
international organization mobilize to defend Jair Bolsonaro and his
reactionary political program. The governments of Bukele (El Salvador),
Milei (Argentina), Netanyahu (Israel) and Orbán (Hungary), each in their
own way, acted to give impetus to Bolsonarism and destabilize Brazilian
bourgeois democracy. More recently, South African billionaire Elon Musk
began a political crusade against the STF and the Lula-Alckmin
Government, being promptly supported by a legion of right-wing
politicians, intellectuals and groups: from the Portuguese André Ventura
to the Russian Aleksandr Dugin, passing through by the Spanish party Vox
and the Polish right-wing vehicle Visegrád. In Brazil, the movements of
the owner of
The extreme right cannot be understood as an "outlier" or as a series of
particular cases. There is a truly global articulation - sponsored by
big businesspeople, governments and religious fundamentalist groups - to
promote military coups, autocracies and regime closures. This movement
gained momentum after the 2008 financial crisis and is closely linked to
the neoliberal economic and social formation, seeking to distract the
popular classes from the effects of capitalism - such as inequality and
unemployment - with hate speeches against women, the LGBT+ community and
populations marginalized ethnic-racial groups.
DIGITAL COLONIALISM HAS A MATERIAL BASIS: MUSK'S INTERESTS IN LATIN AMERICA
Musk is a colonialist, a billionaire capitalist whose fortune comes from
the diamond mines of Apartheid South Africa. His interest in Latin
America is mainly economically motivated. The billionaire covets South
American lithium reserves, essential for the production of his electric
cars. Lithium, also called "white oil", is one of the strategic minerals
for the production of high-tech batteries. To give you an idea, 84% of
global lithium consumption in 2023 was already used in batteries. The
so-called "lithium triangle" (bringing together Argentina, Bolivia and
Chile) is one of the strategic reserves of this ore in the world and
Musk and company's digital colonialism therefore has strong material bases.
In November 2019, Evo Morales suffered a coup in Bolivia supported by
the USA and was ousted from the presidency, among other reasons, for
having opposed the multinational exploitation of Bolivia's mineral
reserves, and for having defended fairer forms of division of
exploration. Asked at the time if he had a role in the coup, Musk
tweeted: "Let's coup whoever we want! Deal with it." Tesla and other
mining companies have shown avid interest in Bolivian lithium. Still
keeping an eye on these mineral reserves, Musk also personally welcomed
the election of Milei and his government. In 2022 Musk came to Brazil
(which has the 7th lithium reserve in the world) and met Bolsonaro in
person.
All these movements prove that behind the discourse of "freedom of
expression" imperialist economic and political interests are hidden.
These interests of Musk and big tech are associated with the
strengthening of far-right organizations and political groups, whose
surrender and submission to imperialism can facilitate the delivery of
the valuable natural resources needed by these companies.
BIG TECH AND THE NEW OLIGOPOLY
Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the open and explicit
political actions of large technology companies have been exposed. The
control of algorithms through large platforms can politically
destabilize a given country, as it is linked to the US intelligence
services and the Silicon Valley business environment. Facebook was
instrumentalized to favor the extreme right through the collection of
user data, on the one hand, and the propagation of fake news, on the
other. This pattern started to be repeated continuously in countless
countries and on several different social networks. After the
Bolsonarist uproar on January 8, 2022, a weak attempt to regulate
digital media was quickly nullified by a counter-offensive by Big Techs.
Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Telegram, Alphabet (Google,
YouTube) and Tiktok (an exception, linked to China) came together to
prevent the bill against fake news from being approved.
Contrary to what many seem to believe, social networks are not neutral.
They are inscribed in the context of a neoliberal phase of capitalism,
where economic and social policies deepen misery, income concentration
and social differences. The logic of networks, operated by big tech,
intensifies the production of individualistic social values, stimulating
competition, disputes over differences of opinion and the "war of all
against all" within the oppressed classes. They also spread the idea of
collective and individual entrepreneurship as values of this new subject
living in this neoliberal phase, incapable of organizing collectively.
In addition to the private and class interests of their owners, their
fundamental structure, algorithms, tend to favor publications of a
sensationalist nature and rapid dissemination, which means that the more
distorted and simplified the information, the better. Thus, initiatives
like Brasil Paralelo and pages that promote right-wing conspiracy
theories have more reach and repercussion than progressive YouTubers or
left-wing influencers on the old Twitter. Furthermore, social networks,
applications and other initiatives require a large infrastructure to
operate, which implies an equally large capital investment. In a context
in which the working class and the revolutionary left are disorganized
and under offensive, the monopoly belongs to the dominant classes,
whether the bourgeoisie or the state bureaucracy.
In this way, unless the correlation of forces changes, every
propagandistic initiative on the part of the revolutionary wing of the
left - websites, videos, images, etc. - will continue to have limited
reach. This does not mean denying or invalidating any publicity and
propaganda initiatives, but understanding that our ability to intervene
does not depend on our will, on voluntarism, but on the real process of
the class struggle, which is material.
TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND OLD OLIGOPOLY
It should also not be forgotten that traditional media still has its
influence on the propagation of bourgeois ideology, in particular Rede
Globo. Formed by radio and television channels, magazines and
newspapers, this oligopoly was behind the co-option of the popular
uprising of June 2013, the 2016 parliamentary coup, Operation Lava-Jato
and the neoliberal measures of the Temer and Bolsonaro governments, such
as unrestricted outsourcing, labor reform and pension reform. All of
this with the support and connivance of the Judiciary, the Public
Ministry and Congress.
The relationship between traditional media and Bolsonarism was dubious.
Some groups, such as Record, SBT and Jovem Pan, openly embarked on the
coup, promoting reactionary speeches, revisionism about the military
period and scientific denialism. Others, such as Globo and written press
outlets ( Veja, Folha, Estadão), adopted a policy of critical support or
damage containment: they made some criticisms of the Bolsonaro
government while supporting Paulo Guedes' economic plan.
This second group's criticism of Bolsonarist absurdities made the new
Lula-Alckmin government and part of the party left believe in the
possibility of an alliance - of a new conciliation between antagonistic
classes. This media sector became one of the guarantors of a new liberal
pact, in a version with social elements, led by the PT and part of the
institutional left, which includes PCdoB, PDT and, more recently, PSOL.
Giving up a minimally left-wing program and approving liberal and
right-wing projects, such as the New Spending Ceiling ("fiscal
framework") and the privatization of prisons, Lula became the public
face of a "broad front" alongside the Globo, by Geraldo Alckmin, Simone
Tebet and Alexandre de Moraes - who, it is worth remembering, have
always been linked to financial monopolies, agribusiness and police
violence in the outskirts. On an international scale, the Federal
Government began to get closer and closer to names from the
pseudo-progressive face of imperialism, such as Biden and Macron, under
the banner of democracy and human rights. It is these same "democratic
governments" that currently profit from the war between Russia and
Ukraine and Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people.
BUILDING PEOPLE POWER AND REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
We, at the Libertarian Socialist Organization (OSL), assert that one
cannot have any trust in bourgeois institutions. Throughout history,
military and fascist dictatorships came to power with the support and
connivance of these same bourgeois institutions and imperialism, which
were supposed to defend liberal democracy. It is through popular
organization and class struggle that fascism and coupism are stopped,
and not through behind-the-scenes agreements and the old bourgeois
political game.
We understand that the fight against the extreme right, the
capitalist-statist system and imperialism involves the independence of
the working class, and this independence also involves controlling news
and information.
We have no hope that laws or legal interpretations will be enough for a
true democratization of the media in Brazil. The popular classes must,
when necessary, build their own means of communication, such as
community radio, popular newspapers, podcasts, etc. and, when possible,
act to directly affect existing means of disseminating knowledge.
As long as there is no strong popular, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist
movement that seeks and guides the radical democratization of the media,
there will be no possibility of having "freedom of expression", but
rather, the freedom of expression of the national and/or international
bourgeoisie . Along with the relentless fight against the dominance of
big techs, we need to advance in the social control of national media,
which are dominated by oligopolies of national elites or lackeys of
imperialism.
Libertarian Socialist Organization
OSL April 15, 2024
https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/04/15/a-extrema-direita-internacional-e-as-big-techs/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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