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Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) on the political crisis engulfing the Dilma government

April 16, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Over 700,000 Brazilians took to the streets on March 31 across dozens of cities in Brazil in defence of democracy. The demonstrations were called by the Popular Front of Brazil, of which the Landless Workers Movement (MST) is a key part. The demonstrations demanded an end to the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, which protestors say is equivalent to a coup.

Below, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is republishing two articles reflecting the views of the MST on the current political crisis in Brazil which have been translated by Friends of MST. The first is the MST's analysis of the origin of the political crisis and the role of the social movements and working class in this struggle. The second was written by MST leader João Pedro Stedile, and looks at how the crisis has been accompanied by rising rural violence, including the killing of two farm workers on Thursday April 7.

Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff: It’s class war, and their class is winning

Supporters of former Brazilian president Lula da Silva confront police officers in front of Lula's apartment in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, 4 March 2016. By Alfredo Saad Filho March 23, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project -- Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of the state jams; the veils of consent are torn asunder and the tools of power appear disturbingly naked. Brazil is living through one of those moments: it is dreamland for social scientists; a nightmare for everyone else. Dilma Rousseff was elected President in 2010, with a 56-44 per cent majority against the right-wing neoliberal PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) opposition candidate. She was reelected four years later with a diminished yet convincing majority of 52-48 per cent, or a majority of 3.5 million votes. Dilma's second victory sparked a heated panic among the neoliberal and U.S.-aligned opposition. The fourth consecutive election of a President affiliated to the centre-left PT (Workers’ Party) was bad news for the opposition, because it suggested that PT founder Luís Inácio Lula da Silva could return in 2018. Lula had been President between 2003 and 2010, and when he left office his approval ratings hit 90 per cent, making him the most popular leader in Brazil's history. This likely sequence suggested that the opposition could be out of federal office for a generation. The opposition immediately rejected the outcome of the vote. No credible complaints could be made, but no matter; it was resolved that Dilma Rousseff would be overthrown by any means necessary. To understand what happened next, we must return to 2011.

Is South America’s ‘progressive cycle’ at an end? Neo-developmentalist attempts and socialist projects

By Claudio Katz, introduction and translation by Richard Fidler

‘Venezuela defines the future of the progressive cycle’ An interview with Claudio Katz

Introduced and translated by Richard Fidler, article original published in Spanish in La Llamarada July 14, 2013 -- Life on

World soccer corruption, Africa’s ‘illicit financial flows’ and elite silences

Brazil's right wing exploits scandal to promote coup calls

Marta Harnecker: Decentralised participatory planning based on experiences of Brazil, Venezuela and the state of Kerala, India

Lateinamerika: Ende der 'Rosa Welle' vorschnell prognostiziert

Latin America: Why predictions of an ebb in the 'Pink Tide' proved premature

Challenging the globalisation of indifference: Pope Francis meets with popular movements

Brazil: MST's Alexandre Conceição: 'Our big challenge is to continue the fight for structural reforms'

France: Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the Movement for the 6th Republic

The first of a three-part video (other parts below) features the address of Jean-Luc Mé