A group of Brazilian punkrock from the 1980s and 1990s sang ‘Que país e esse?’; singing to a people controlled by corruption, privatization, drug trafficking and the economic elite. Unfortunately, the same songs are in the mouths of today’s young people, because despite some years of cultural transmission has not been just musical, and as a hardcore group from Sao Paulo said, rats still wear tie and American on the streets. Ordem and progress.

He had been in the Workers’ Party (PT) for thirteen years and, after winning the 2014 election, the President of the Hour, Dilma Rousef,f, was dismissed in 2016. Unhappy with this, the conservative right filed a lawsuit against Luiz Inazio Lula da Silva, from the same party, until he was charged, convicted without evidence and imprisoned. Although it seemed that all the doors were open to drive the neoliberal coup project, Michel Temer’s corrupt policies have not created sympathy among the citizens. The sambódromo of Rio vibrated in the carnivals between the purpurpurine and the cry ‘Fora Temer!’, and the message ‘Lula Livre’ crosses Brazil today as a clear symbol of the lack of democracy that the country experiences. However, the neo-fascist offensive of the injured animal has been clear, systematic corruption and repression. A large, low-class sector survives in the misery of the peripheral neighborhoods of the cities, and only half a year has passed since the assassination of the female councillor and feminist activist of the socialist party Marielle Franco PSOL. It can be said that the country is experiencing the most severe political and economic crisis in recent years; the destruction of civil and democratic rights and the increase in social imbalance, deindustrialization, the significant increase in the unemployment rate, the growing sector living in misery, etc.

As the moderate parties linked to the coup coalition have been diluted, the political landscape has become more polarized. Prior to the elections on 7 October, former military Jair Bolsonaro is the image of the most traditional and conservative elite, the PSL candidate. Fascist and authoritarian tyrant. Last weekend, in Brazil and in several cities around the world, women took to the streets to reclaim their presence in public space, denounce the authoritarianism of Bolsonaro and cry out that they do not want a president like “Ele não, Ele never”; misogynist, homophobic, racist and capitalist. It does not dare to conceal its admiration for the military torturer Ustra, under the military regime of 64. In the multiple mobilizations, the multitude of women stressed that in the face of those who defend social imbalance, death and torture are in favour of democracy and life.

Haddad himself defined a week ago in a line the Bolsonaro project: “a dictatorship like today.” There's a lot at stake. Former Minister of Education Fernando Haddad has been Lula's rereading, and he will not be far from winning the election, according to the polls of recent days. Right to housing, property or balanced distribution of land, guarantee a free health service for the entire population, seek collaboration with the peripheral sectors; women, farmers, blacks, Lgtb communities, indigenous… A decent educational system and a free and secular university. Investments to promote the development of the internal market, such as the public management of strategic resources such as oil; neither privatisations nor denationalisations. In short, the means for sovereignty and sovereignty of rights are at stake.

In this polarized photo, taken in black and white, there is not much space for parties that do not lead within the frame of the photo, such as PSOL, the Socialism and Freedom Party or the Brazilian Communist Party.

On the other hand, what happens in Brazil will have a great influence on the general panorama of Latin America and the change in the correlations of strength. A ray of light was López Obrador's victory in Mexico, and if Haddad won, the United States. United States would lose much of its area of influence, reducing the possibility of manoeuvre. The strategy of the imperialist forces has been to stigmatize popular governments through corruption and chaotic management, Bolsonaro himself said that he will not accept the victory of another candidate than he, “so that Brazil does not look like Venezuela.” And the disaster of recent years is attributed without any embarrassment to the previous PT government opening room for social movements. However, the social support that neoliberal governments can obtain in their early stages will soon be left to nothing when they see that the ultra-sweetened promises for the future have little truth, they dry to enjoy their mouths and do not fill their belly. As has happened with Temer, in Argentina the Macri Government is losing support every day, and every day the streets of the Argentine capital explode with demands. The victory of Haddad in the border country would be a great respite for the entire territory.

Those who have worked the grave of too many citizens and their defeat have not killed their intention to touch any bell and the resistance is going to count their votes with nerves. On 7 October the Brazilian people will have to choose one model or another, there will be those who defend the recent past of Lula and Dilma, and also those who in the name of “order” use military interventions as threats and blackmail mechanisms. But the conflict and the economic crisis will not end on 7 October. Without radical social changes, the situation does not seem to improve. The unemployment rate is high, almost a third of the total population, the increase in crime has led to insecurity that demands a greater presence of the security forces. If we continue to pull this out, the only thing we can expect is precarious jobs and salaries, the militarisation of the streets and social exclusion. Let us not forget that today most of the poltronos of parliament are heated by rich white men linked to the latifundists and the economic elite, an image that does not correspond to the demographic photography of Brazil.

The colonization of new technologies, individualism, the uncertain future… have created a sense of instability in society. The right has taken advantage of it to build xenophobic speeches; to extend fear and hatred, and to sweeten the future with false promises, in the conviction that the anxieties of the sick society will be tempered. The key would be to search for peace or hope in the construction of collective projects. In the feminist and eco-socialist movements that have radical approaches, in the self-managed spaces, in the camps that occupy latifundia and demand “the land is one of those who cultivate it!”; in the lands that plant seeds to build a more just society.

On 7 October, he said, so that fascism does not succeed, and social transformation as an axis today, tomorrow and the past: You mourn for a comrade!

Maddi Gallastegi and Lur Gil, members of Askapena