“The battle for Brazil matters for socialists, trade unionists and all progressives across the globe.”
By Siân Errington
In October this year, Brazil will go to the polls for the Presidency and the battle for Brazil matters for socialists, trade unionists and all progressives across the globe.
The context of this election is already one of US imperialism’s increasing intensity in the region and escalating actions that have been shocking and rapid in their development. This year started with the US kidnapping the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a night of violence that saw 100 Venezuelans and 32 Cuban security personnel murdered. In April, the New York Times reported that 180 people had been killed to that point this year in US naval strikes in the Caribbean against people it claims are smuggling drugs. And Trump has made clear the US has Cuba in their sights.
Brazil itself has in recent years seen huge political upheavals. Latin America’s most populous country has, like the rest of the region, been subject to a history of coups, becoming a democracy in 1985. Lula, candidate of the Brazilian Workers Party (the PT), was first elected President in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 before being succeeded by the PT’s Dilma Rousseff in 2010.
This was the period of the ‘pink’ and ‘red’ tide across the region – with the common element of more countries seeking to move out of the US’ shadow and prioritise using national resources for their own populations’ benefit. ‘Lawfare’, the use of legal pretexts to illegitimately remove such leaders, and the smearing and discreditation of election processes, has been one of the methods used by US backed political actors in the region.
In Brazil itself, one of the methods of ‘lawfare’ used was of course the wrongful jailing of Lula ahead of the 2018 Presidential election, preventing him from being a candidate in a race in which he was widely expected to win against his far-right opposition. It meant that the Trump-supporting Jair Bolsonaro was elected and able to wreak a huge amount of damage on the country through aggressive neo-liberal economic policies and increasing political violence directed at those opposed to Bolsonaro. Released from jail after an international campaign, which the Brazil Solidarity Initiative here in Britain, the TUC and many British trade unions supported, Lula defeated Jair Bolsonaro and was re-elected President in October 2022, the term that is now coming to an end.
In this election, Lula will face the far-right Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son.
Over this term in office, Lula has increased the minimum wage above the rate of inflation, and cut the income tax of millions of low paid Brazilian workers. The extreme cuts in public spending Bolsonaro’s Presidency enacted were stopped. Services saw increased spending, including investment in housing and school building returning. Restoring and strengthening the Unified Health System has been a major endeavour; the health sector was one of the hardest hit by budget cuts and then experienced the Covid-19 pandemic. The ‘More Doctors for Brazil’ initiative immediately created 15,000 new vacancies for those with medical degrees and guaranteed primary health care services for 96 million people. The Bolsa Familia (Family Fund) Lula had introduced during his first two terms also returned, meaning that some 21 million families receive a monthly basic subsidy of US$ 150 for each child under six, ‘Fome Zero’ which aims to eradicate hunger and there is a programme of affordable childcare.
A key demand of climate justice campaigners had been to review the areas of deforestation under Bolsonaro. Results were fast – according to Greenpeace, deforestation in the Amazon in July 2023 had already been cut by 66%. A Ministry of Indigenous Affairs has been created, and in 2024 Lula recognised the Indigenous possession of 11 territories.
Internationally, the difference between Lula and the far-right is clear. On Gaza, Lula described the situation as genocide; in July 2025 Brazil formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Lula has joined forces with fellow regional presidents to criticise Trump’s trade war and defend greater regional integration as a way to shield Latin American economies.
Lula has restored Brazil’s relationship with Cuba. Recently condemning the US’s January 3rd illegal assault on Venezuela, he said: “These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.” Brazil sent medical equipment and medicines to Venezuela in the wake of the attack.
The far right in Brazil remains a force however, drawing strength from its US backing and the example of Trump. In January 2023, just after Lula was re-elected, a mob of far-right protestors stormed the capital, attacking the Congress, Supreme Court and Presidential Palace holding banners and placards calling on the military to carry out a coup.
The political and economic weight of Brazil in the region, the global South and the world as a whole, means that a switch from Lula and the Brazilian Workers Party to a far-right regime will have enormous and far-reaching impact; on international pushes for peace and an end to US imperialist attacks, endeavours on climate justice and of course for the Brazilian population itself – at 214 million people, accounting for 2% of the world’s population. The US and the international far-right will also be aware of this.
The Presidential poll later this year is one of grave importance for all of us and international solidarity with the country’s vast progressive movements will be crucial in the run-up to the election – and afterwards no matter what the outcome.
- Find out more about Lula and Brazil from the Brazil Solidarity Initiative, who are now regularly updating again on Facebook, Twitter and at www.brazilsolidarity.co.uk
- Check out a newsletter on Lula’s first 3 years here.
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