The surreal real Brazil

Abstract

12 | International Union Rights | 27/3 FOCUS | IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON WORK AND THE CHALLENGE FOR UNION RIGHTS The surreal real Brazil There is a popular Brazilian saying that sums up the last years of our policy: ‘Brazil is not for amateurs’. Even though this construction is generic enough to apply to any nation-state, and perhaps it is not even an exclusive peculiarity of Brazil, for our conversation there would be no better way of introducing the problems we will address. In a very short period of time, 4 years, Brazil has gone from a possible model of inclusive and democratic socio-economic development to an international pariah, insensitive to minorities, a persistent violator of human rights, constantly flirting with neo-fascist movements and opinions. The social and economic roots that allowed this phenomenon escapes the analytical and synthesis skills of this author. Some emphasise the persecution process of the Workers’ Party, the culmination of which was the coup suffered by President Dilma in 2016, disguised as impeachment, and the incessant and illegal search for the arrest of the former president Lula. Others will highlight the lack of real commitment by our economic elite to democracy and human rights, for whom the important thing is capital gains regardless of who is in governing, even if this is a belligerent defender of military dictatorships, torture, and executions of political rivals. Surely there will be no shortage of material for historians, political scientists, and sociologists. From the perspective of law, this period was also one of profound changes. In 2016, an amendment to the Constitution was approved that froze public spending for 20 years, which will make it impossible for the Brazilian State to play an active role in the economy or make investments in health and education. The Labour Reform of 2017, denounced by CUT in the international arena, has dismantled the organisational and political power of the unions, made labour relations even more flexible and opened the way for an intense process of withdrawing workers’ rights. Following this intense and extremely complex political-social process from 2016 to 2017, in 2018 President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was elected, an unimpressive extreme right politician from Rio de Janeiro, whose great banner was the defence of the police and of the army. His campaign was based on the construction of an image of a non-traditional politician, defender of traditions and the ‘typical Brazilian family’, anti-corruption, and the only one capable of defeating the true evil of the nation, the Workers Party. His campaign motto was ‘Brazil above everything, God above everyone’. Even though then Federal Deputy Jair Bolsonaro was the opposite of the image built in the electoral campaign, even though he had publicly defended the Civil Military Dictatorship that prevailed from 1964 to 1985 in our country, claiming that it killed few citizens, which should have killed much more, besides having paid homage, during the 2016 impeachment process, to the military man who tortured ex-president Dilma, he was elected president of the republic with a 1/3 of the total voters. Our president’s contempt for human rights and the most basic principles of democracy is a public and notorious fact and his election was received by a large part of society as a great announced tragedy. However, no one could have expected that the tragedy would be so great that it would characterise a crime against humanity, and genocide. The way President Jair Bolsonaro treated, and has been treating, the Corona Virus pandemic is irresponsible, unscientific, denialist and has directly contributed to the death and infection of thousands of Brazilians. As a result of this conduct, on 27 July, UNI Global and several other unions and social movements filed a case in the International Criminal Court against the Brazilian president for crimes against humanity, with the Brazilian people being victims. In summary, Bolsonaro’s actions, and omissions, since the beginning of the Pandemic, are: • Minimise the severity of the disease by referring to it constantly as ‘petty flu’. • Promote intentionally agglomerations by visiting commercial establishments and public places. • Participate and call for public acts that openly defended a Military Coup in Brazil. • Defend indiscriminately and without...