(en) Brazil, Uni?o Popular Anarquista - Interview of UNIPA with the anarchist journal Meydan Turkey (pt)

[machine translation]

The popular struggle in Brazil had international repercussions from the revolt of June 
2013 and the protests against the World Cup. The UNIPA placed side from the beginning of 
the demonstrations and defended a class and autonomous way to the masses. As this process 
continues we had the honor to grant an interview to the anarchist newspaper Meydan Turkey. 
The interview was published in late July with the title "People's Union Anaquista talks 
about the World Cup", and can be accessed by link: 
http://meydangazetesi.org/gundem/2014/07/ahbduyakupasi/ . We welcome the comrades and the 
people of Turkey also faced heavy fighting against the state and the bourgeoisie. Good 
reading to all / as! ---- Meydan: Could you tell us about the current situation in Brazil, 
please? ---- UNIPA: Since 2013, Brazil has seen a collapse in the socioeconomic and 
political conditions of bourgeois hegemony. Three important factors have contributed to 
this context: 1) the global macroeconomic crisis, which destroyed many tools of the state 
to secure the support of the masses; 2) the formation of a new class fraction, as a 
consequence of exploitation and neoliberal reforms; 3) new forms of resistance, strategy 
and organization of workers, such as factory committees and other informal organizations. 
Thus, we can talk about a new cycle of class struggle, characterized by many specific 
situations, such as strikes, violent demonstrations and clashes on the streets. After the 
largest mass demonstration in the history of Brazil, in June 2013, we have seen major 
strikes in public services (eg, public schools in Rio de Janeiro), transportation system 
(such as bus drivers of the Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and other states), security 
system of banks (contract workers), and street cleaning services (Rio de Janeiro). This 
last strike was very important for the organization of the Brazilian working class due to 
resistance to state repression and the answer to the union bureaucracy. The strike by 
workers of urban sanitation happened during the carnival, which caused a disruption in 
garbage collection, forcing the state to meet the demands of the workers.

Meydan : What was the situation of the period prior to the World Cup urban gentrification 
process? What degree of state repression against the demonstrators?

UNIPA : We have seen many types of social conflict in Brazil. In the major capitals (Rio 
de Janeiro, S?o Paulo, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre), slum dwellers are particularly brutalized 
by violence and gentrification of the State. Thousands of people were displaced and had 
their homes demolished. Many people were also killed by the police (which now also acts in 
these slums through pacifying police units, the UPPs) in a genuine policy of 
extermination. Thus, gentrification was conducted in order to meet a particular urban 
project, subordinated to economic interests (FIFA, international tourism, etc), regardless 
of the Brazilian people, who will benefit from these processes.

So far, this conflict has been administered by the state in two ways: political 
persecution and paramilitary murder. Therefore, thousands were arrested and beaten by 
police. Heard on twelve activists who were mysteriously murdered last year, and 
paramilitary forces acting in order to intimidate through kidnappings, rapes and assaults. 
Protesters have suffered persecution in their jobs (staff reduction, termination 
processes), schools and universities. We could say that in Brazil we are living under a 
police state right now.

Meydan : Who are the people who adhere to the protests? Because the mainstream media has 
informed us that the protests are basically made by students, but we know that the 
protesters are people who have to face policies of the State and capitalism, living in 
areas included in these projects of gentrification. Currently, it is obvious that the 
projects of gentrification will continue after the event, as happens anywhere. But what do 
you expect these manifestations, believe that social opposition will maintain its power in 
the streets?

UNIPA : This point is very important. To tell the truth, in 2013 and 2014, new segments of 
the working class exercised leadership in street demonstrations. We speak of outsourced 
workers, unemployed, poor, overexploited youth, informal workers, students and other 
groups. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, the largest street demonstration took place on 
June 20, 2013, involving about two million people. So, the bourgeois and the state tried 
to convince society that the protesters were not "employees" because people in the streets 
are not perfectly ecaixavam the social democratic pattern of industrial workers. We 
understand that this was a discursive strategy to preserve the monopoly of legitimate 
representation in the hands of the PT and the union bureaucracy. These workers have faced 
in recent years different types of exploitation and gentrification projects were the 
latest blow.

Thus, the complex environment in Brazil does not allow us to make predictions, but we have 
some hypotheses about the future of the demonstrations in the coming years. From our 
perspective, we believe that we have entered a new cycle of class struggle in Brazil and 
the reformist and bourgeois hegemony is weakened. This does not mean that a new mass 
movement and a revolutionary new organization will emerge inexorably, nor does it mean 
that imperialism or capital will decline. On the other hand, we can say that subjective 
and objective conditions were created to forge new non-bureaucratic, popular and workers' 
organizations, revolutionary syndicalist type. Probably, the protests will develop 
qualitative and quantitative aspects in the coming years.

Meydan : What role anarchists have played in these protests? What is the vision of UNIPA 
with respect to understand the situation? What UNIPA think about the situation (not only 
the event but also the clashes, etc.)? We know that international solidarity is important 
in these periods, you believe there are sufficient acts of solidarity happening around the 
world?

UNIPA : Anarchism has a strong tradition in Brazil. We can speak of two types of roles 
played by anarchists: 1) diffuse individuals claiming anarchism and 2) anarchist 
organizations. But many protesters identified themselves as anarchists during 
demonstrations. But this identification was more a negative way of expressing their 
feelings against the political parties and the trade union bureaucracy, than a positive 
claim the anarchist revolutionary ideology. The fundamental way to accomplish this was 
through the Black Bloc tactics and destructive actions (attacks on banks, police stations, 
etc.). Although these actions are important, are not enough to make a revolution. It is 
essential to spread the form of organization of revolutionary syndicalism to different 
levels, especially for new forms of struggle of the residents of slums and peripheries and 
the mass strikes against overexploitation. With regard to anarchist organizations, many of 
them acted marginally in the events mentioned. Many anarchist organizations act only to 
propagate general ideas and collaborate (consciously or not) with the reformist 
bureaucracy. On the other hand, the revolutionary anarchist organizations played a central 
role in many of these street demonstrations and strikes throughout Brazil, creating formal 
and informal organizations, leading strike committees, organizing riots and black bloc 
tactics to confront state violence. Therefore, the role of anarchism was not homogeneous, 
but reflected the contradictions of anarchism, and the current state of development in 
Brazil. Consequently, we believe that revolutionary anarchism was potentiated by the 
events of recent years and will continue to develop and strengthen.

The UNIPA believes that violent protests will continue and that is the task of anarchists 
organizing self-defense of the oppressed workers against police and the State. But we 
believe it is imperative to organize self-defense as part of the revolutionary syndicalist 
mass organization. You must create grassroots organizations to oppose the union and 
reformist bureaucracies. We believe that the role of revolutionary anarchism is to 
organize the revolutionary violence of the masses, as well as the economic and political 
struggles, otherwise this new cycle of class struggle will not be able to build a new 
socialist alternative. For this reason the revolutionaries around the world anarchists 
should advance the development of internationalism. Despite international solidarity is 
crucial, is not enough. Thus, we must build an organization of international bodies to 
coordinate solidarity and struggles around the world, more precisely, an organization of 
the type of AIT (International Workers Association), to combat imperialism, nationalism, 
social democracy and the Communism. The UNIPA is calling revolutionary anarchists around 
the world to build this organization.