In these elections, we call on workers to cast blank votes. To defeat the far right and fascism, it is necessary to defeat the Popular Front!
The following is translated from our Brazilian comrades of the Grupo de Trabalhadores Revolucionários do Brasil (GTR-BR)
Against the far right and fascism, organize self-defense committees!
On the one hand, we denounce the bourgeois democratic regime and bourgeois elections as tools of domination by the ruling class against the workers. The government is the bourgeoisie’s business counter, as Marx said.
On the other hand, we say that the crisis of the bourgeois regime, very well expressed in the current crisis of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), is a consequence of the global crisis of capitalism and that only the socialist revolution, with the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the seizure of power by the working class, can bring about any change in the interest of the workers and the poor.
The 2026 election is being marked by a major crisis, caused by the Master Bank economic fraud case, which revealed a large corruption scheme where no power of the Republic escapes. Although the Supreme Federal Court (STF) is at the center of the crisis at the moment, the case involves deputies, senators, the Attorney General of the Republic, state executives, the head of the Federal Police, political spectrums from right to left, government supporters and opponents, no one is safe!
In the 2026 elections, the polarization between left and far right remains, expressed in the Lula vs. Bolsonaro dispute. As Bolsonaro Sr. is imprisoned for an attempted coup d’état in 2023, he is represented by his son, Flavio Bolsonaro.
The crisis in the elections and in Brazilian bourgeois institutions is a reflection of the global crisis of capitalism in a semi-colonial country, which historically has been exploited by imperialism and suffers from great political and economic instability, mixing times of stability of the bourgeois democratic regime with periods of crisis and dictatorial regimes.
In the imperialist era, national bourgeoisies ceased to be progressive; they are no longer capable of carrying out the bourgeois revolution and achieving independence from imperialism. In the imperialist era, the world was already divided among the dominant powers, and the only way to achieve independence, “sovereignty,” is through socialist revolution. That is, democratic tasks can only be achieved by the working class. This is Lenin’s theory of imperialism.
The current crisis of the bourgeois democratic regime, very well expressed in the crisis of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), is a consequence of the global crisis of capitalism, which for more than a decade has been plaguing the entire world and shaking bourgeois democratic regimes, leading the bourgeoisie to the need to resort to authoritarian regimes and fascism against the working class and poor people who resist in order not to pay the price of the capitalist crisis.
Faced with the decadent bourgeois democratic regime, the reformist left positions itself as its greatest guardian. Lula and the PT government today represent the status quo, the stability of the bourgeois regime, while the extreme right positions itself as the anti-system, therefore, the current crisis has affected Lula in the electoral polls. It happens that the bourgeoisie is in crisis and divided and disputes over which regime can best govern and maintain the “stability” of the power of the ruling class. For revolutionary workers, it is necessary to destroy the capitalist system, regardless of which regime is in place, whether democracy or dictatorship.
Faced with the fascist offensive of the bourgeoisie, defending democracy means defending workers’ democracy, its methods of struggle and organization, and not defending the moribund bourgeois democracy increasingly discredited by workers and the poor. The “democratic” bourgeoisie and the Popular Front are not the “lesser evil.” The Popular Front is the force that demobilizes and demoralizes the working class and eliminates any chance of resistance to the far right and fascism. The Popular Front does not fight fascism; it paves the way for reactionary forces!
The decline of the reformist left is so great that they have become the biggest defenders of corrupt and authoritarian ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), such as Alexandre de Moraes, whose wife’s law firm received 3 million reais per month from the Master banker, and whom the police investigation showed consulted with the minister about his possible escape from the country! What is the justification for such defense? The STF minister who released the investigation data was appointed by Bolsonaro. For us, revolutionary workers, the enemy of our enemy is not our friend! We do not take sides in disputes between the bourgeoisie!
The Popular Front policy, that is, the abandonment of class independence to form an alliance with the bourgeoisie, has been the general policy of the left throughout the world. Especially at the moment of degeneration and total bankruptcy of capitalism, when the order established as an agreement at the end of World War II is shaken by the economic crisis of capital and we see the growing inter-imperialist dispute between the USA and China.
The capitalist crisis has severely shaken American imperialism and its hegemony, opening a dispute with the rising imperialism of China and Russia. Just as with the inter-imperialist disputes that led us to World Wars I and II, this dispute has no other outcome than war and destruction. Decadent capitalism threatens to lead humanity to extinction with the climate crisis and nuclear wars.
The alliance with the “democratic” bourgeoisie on the national stage translates, in the international arena, into an alliance with one or another imperialism in dispute. Some sectors of the reformist left capitulate to the “democratic” imperialism of the USA, supporting Ukraine in the proxy war with Russia. In the case of the Stalinist left and some false Trotskyists, they support Chinese imperialism as the great alternative to American imperialism.
After the years of economic boom of the Lula 1 and 2 governments, the Dilma government, from 2011 to 2015, faced the effects of the 2008 economic crisis and ended up suffering impeachment. After the experience with Bolsonaro’s right-wing government, Lula returned to power promising the prosperous times of his first terms, which, obviously, would no longer be possible. Therefore, the illusion of a new Lula government in 2022 that would bring the prosperity of the 2000s no longer exists in the 2026 elections. Workers are increasingly disillusioned with bourgeois governments and institutions, however, there is no revolutionary alternative.
The more capitalism decomposes with economic, political, social, and climate crises and wars, the more the left sinks into populist frontism and reformism. Parties like PSOL have become appendages of the PT, which today is the party of the bourgeoisie. Others like PSTU reproduce syndicalist economism in which socialism is reserved for festive occasions. Even small organizations that call themselves revolutionary and even Trotskyist use the excuse of the backwardness in the consciousness of the masses to justify the absence of defending a socialist program for the workers.
Defending a revolutionary program is a mandatory task for revolutionaries who participate in bourgeois elections. A revolutionary program must call for a break with Lula, the PT, and the Popular Front. Revolutionaries give no support and do not call on workers to vote for the Popular Front. Lenin and Trotsky gave their lives fighting any alliance with the bourgeoisie. Socialist revolution is not possible without the organization of the class in grassroots committees in workplaces and neighborhoods, without the construction of self-defense militias. It is necessary to tell the workers that it is necessary to organize the revolutionary General Strike, with pickets and grassroots committees, ensuring that workers’ militias resist the inevitable reaction of the bourgeoisie.
The workers’ struggle must advance to the seizure of the means of production and the most important sectors of the economy, expropriate the bourgeoisie and establish a Workers’ Government.
If a revolutionary program is not put into practice today, it is not due to the backwardness of the consciousness of the masses, nor to the objective conditions, but to the crisis of revolutionary leadership. The decadence of capitalism, the inter-imperialist rivalry between the USA and China, the wars and the climate crisis make us affirm Trotsky’s maxim: the crisis of humanity is the crisis of leadership of the proletariat! The left’s justification in the “consciousness of the masses” or the fear of “sectarianism” in not propagating the revolutionary program to the workers (in practice propagating a reformist program) only shows its total bankruptcy!
Down with the Popular Front! For class independence! Null vote in the 2026 elections!
For the organization of grassroots committees of workers, students, and the poor people of the city and the countryside to discuss a program of interest to the working class! For a National Workers’ Congress!
For a United Workers’ Front to oppose the Popular Front with the bourgeoisie!
For the Revolutionary General Strike! Organization of workers’ committees by workplace!
Against the far right and fascism, organize self-defense committees!
For the seizure of power and expropriation of the bourgeoisie! For a workers’ government!
For a Socialist Brazil and Latin America!
For the construction of the World Party of Socialist Revolution, based on Trotsky’s revolutionary program of 1938!
