As we closed this week’s editorial, Congresswoman Sâmia Bomfim was announced as the best Congresswoman in Brazil, elected by the traditional Congress in Focus award, both in the journalists’ category and in the popular vote. Sâmia stood out during the first half of the year for her defense of the MST (Movimento Sem Terra) and other social movements in the CPI (Comissao Parlamentar de Inquerito, Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry), giving a voice to the poor peasants, farmers and smallholders of this country. She was a voice against sexist and gender-based political violence. It’s worth noting that PSOL deputies were very prominent in various spheres of the awards, with Fernanda Melchionna, also from the MES, being chosen as the best deputy from the South region.

On the same Thursday, a major event in defense of the rights of indigenous peoples also deserved to be celebrated. As a result of an intense battle by the indigenous peoples, the STF finally overturned the Temporary Framework project, another setback for the ruralists, land grabbers and loggers. In the same week, São Paulo councillor Luana Alves led the fight that ended with the removal from office of the racist councillor Camilo.

It is against this backdrop that we want to talk to activists about the tasks of the PSOL Congress, on the eve of it. There are many proofs of the importance of the PSOL, its political achievements and parliamentary strength. The congress is once again divided by the debate within it about the Party’s political independence, profile and character.

As we approach the final articulations to define the party’s orientation and priorities for the next three years, as well as electing the new leadership, we want to update you on the discussions that are taking place beyond the usual “backroom negotiations”.

Data from the congress

The penultimate stage of the 8th PSOL Congress has concluded. After the end of the grassroots conferences, the new 27 state delegations were elected, defining the delegates for the National Congress, which will take place next week in Brasilia. The plenaries brought together around 50,000 members and there are still some definitions to be made after the state congresses. The “Popular PSOL” has around 53% and the “Semente” group around 12.5%: both were on the last congressional slate, supporting the party’s electoral and orientation tactics over the last two years. Around 35%, on the other hand, are with the sectors on the left, which have been waging a democratic battle in defense of an independent PSOL.

Almost 10,000 members voted for the “Militant” thesis, promoted by the MES, regional collectives and independents. We acted, in partnership with other comrades, in 22 states, as part of a struggle for the direction of the PSOL, but also to respond to the needs and desires of the militancy as a whole, building a thesis that combines public figures and parliamentarians with weight in mass sectors, intellectuals and leaders of the social movement, with hundreds of active cadres, with ideological firmness and the ability to dispute the best of activism.

An update on the situation

Since the publication of the “Militant” thesis, some general milestones in the situation have confirmed the prognoses we made:

– The international scenario is one of a deepening multidimensional crisis. The war in Ukraine continues, there is a strong clash between sectors of the bourgeoisie, with the resilience of the weight of the extreme right in the mass movement. The environmental crisis is dramatically imposing itself on social life with simultaneous tragedies in Rio Grande do Sul and Libya, caused by unprecedented storms and floods, as well as the earthquake in Morocco. The highest temperatures in the history of measurements have been observed all over the world, such as in the summer of the Northern Hemisphere and now, in the middle of winter, the hottest days in the history of Brazil are being recorded;

– There is an interesting political situation, with Bolsonaro’s arrest on the agenda. We need to take this policy forward, defending the fight against amnesty for the coup plotters. With struggles and strikes breaking out in São Paulo, we may be moving towards a more favorable situation for the social struggle in the country;

– The Lula government continues to articulate a pact with Lira and applies an even more severe adjustment. The replacement of Ana Moser by André Fufuca and the shameful role of Zeca Dirceu in the episode of the legislative “jabuti” that removes resources from health only confirm this trend. On September 7, Lula reaffirmed his pact to collaborate with the military, including the openly coup-plotting wing.

PSOL’s place as an independent force was confirmed, with the party projecting itself at the forefront of various struggles. The expression of the week, which was marked by the removal of a racist councillor in São Paulo after a struggle led by Luana Alves, and by the results of the choice of the best deputies in the country by the “Congress in Focus” award, are signs of the need for a real, independent and combative left.

What is being debated within the PSOL?

After the first exposition of theses and votes, the debate has narrowed to burning and urgent issues such as the democratic nature of the PSOL, which is at the center of concerns because there is a risk of aparatist hegemonism, imposing exclusively electoral needs on the party to the detriment of construction and the anti-capitalist struggle, with the promotion of uncritical affiliations that distort party dynamics in favor of apparatuses linked to governments.

The problem of the relationship with the federal government was once again demonstrated this week, for example, in the votes on healthcare and on the electoral mini-reform, in which the PT was rapporteur and Lira sought to impose both the end of collective candidacies and the recalculation of leftovers, directly benefiting the parties of the order, as well as the billionaire amnesty for parties that disrespected the quotas for women and blacks on the lists and in the distribution of resources from the electoral fund. The timid or null confrontation of these measures by the PSOL sector that wants to enter the government is the greatest example of the limitations of a policy that pretends to declare independence, but doesn’t act in the same way.

The PSOL’s presence in the Ministry of Cities, headed by Jader Barbalho, must be reversed.

The political struggle is to prevent the crystallization, in form and content, of a qualified majority that stifles party democracy, imposing a reformist and adherent line on the Party.

Double down on a militant, independent and anti-capitalist PSOL

For all these reasons, next week, during the 8th National Congress of the PSOL, we will reaffirm our fight for a party with a militant profile, which seeks to confront the extreme right on all fronts, as well as intervene and organize the struggle in defence of the rights of the working class and the masses.

We will advocate that our party truly affirms its independent profile by not taking up positions in the federal government. Such a position is fundamental so that the PSOL can present itself with its profile and its program, without committing itself to the agreements with the centrão and the bankers, which have unfortunately guided the policies of Lula and Haddad so far. It is through this haughty position that we can have the authority to denounce Bolsonaro and demand punishment, without amnesty, for all the extreme right-wing coup plotters. Use the situation to strike together, supporting the ongoing struggles, putting the far right on the defensive.

We will fight for an anti-capitalist PSOL, connected to the needs of the Brazilian people and in defense of structural changes for our country. That’s why we created this party, and that’s how we’ve been able to achieve the audience and respect we’ve accumulated. In the 2024 electoral battle, we want our party to present this accumulation in defence of the transformation of our cities, organized to generate business for the big bourgeoisie and marked by segregation, unemployment, poverty, lack of housing and sanitation. We want a PSOL that speaks the truth to the people, and not the sweetened lies of the millionaire marketeers at the service of old politics.