A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL: Prison for Bolsonaro for all his crimes, without any trust in bourgeois institutions! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We publish content from the OSL's internal resolution regarding the 
trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro for attempted coup d'état, 
which will take place in the coming days. Rather than echoing calls for 
conviction, we seek to analyze the true role of justice, the dispute 
between factions of the ruling classes, and the need for the oppressed 
classes to struggle, without any illusions about the institutions of the 
state and capital. ---- 1. The superficial polarization in the Brazilian 
political scene and the structural reorganization of Brazilian capitalism
The political scene remains marked by a superficial polarization between 
Lulism and Bolsonarism. This dichotomy, reproduced especially by the 
bourgeois media, obscures the structural elements of capitalism's class 
domination in Brazil. An example of this is the coverage of the recent 
Supreme Federal Court (STF) decision to charge Bolsonaro and his allies 
with attempted coup d'état, which, despite being widely discussed, fails 
to reveal that the episode is part of a movement to reorganize factions 
of the ruling classes. This measure, far from representing an act of 
justice, serves rather as a tool to restore the limits of liberal 
democracy, shaken by the military and the far-right in general, who have 
broken with the traditional bourgeois pact. In other words, it is an 
attempt, from the outset, to be illusory for the working class, as it 
reduces the true polarization (ruling classes vs. oppressed classes) by 
reinforcing the bourgeois institutional framework, while continuing to 
prioritize the neoliberal project.

The denunciation of Operation "Green-Yellow Dagger"-with plans to 
assassinate Lula, Alckmin, and Alexandre de Moraes-confirms the 
coup-like nature of Bolsonarism. However, it is essential to question 
the belated and selective actions of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) 
and the Federal Police (PF), as well as to understand why these agencies 
did not act similarly at other times. During the Bolsonaro 
administration, crimes such as the murderous handling of the pandemic 
were treated with significant institutional complicity. The change in 
stance only reinforces that this is an intra-bourgeois dispute, not one 
of effective justice or a possible rupture with the current 
authoritarian model. Proof of this is the current administration's 
complete unwillingness to remove Bolsonaro-supporting military personnel 
from strategic positions, such as the Institutional Security Office 
(GSI) and the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN). One of those 
indicted for the coup, Lieutenant Colonel André Luis Cruz Correia, 
provided Lula's personal security. If the most basic ethical principles 
were considered with any priority, Bolsonaro and his accomplices would 
have at least been convicted after the COVID Parliamentary Inquiry 
Commission (CPI).

2. The Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the Political Function of 
Bourgeois Institutions
The Supreme Federal Court (STF), as a legal apparatus of the bourgeois 
order, acts in accordance with the interests of the ruling classes, not 
out of a commitment to abstract democratic values. The history of 
Brazil's so-called "redemocratization" is marked by the impunity of 
torturers and the continuation of the repressive apparatus of the 
military dictatorship. The punishment of Bolsonaro and the military is, 
therefore, an exception that proves the rule: it only occurs because 
their autocratic project has exceeded the limits of tolerable stability 
for the bourgeois regime, especially through the systematic attack on 
the Supreme Federal Court (STF), one of the pillars of class society. It 
is not irrelevant that the military is being held in the dock for an 
attempted coup for the first time in Brazilian history, but this cannot 
be confirmed without due criticism.

Let us return to the example of the Covid Parliamentary Commission of 
Inquiry (CPI), which is quite illustrative: the scandal was hushed up, 
and no concrete accountability was given. The true objective of the 
judiciary is to preserve the structures of capitalism-statism and 
operate to keep the pillars of class domination intact. The current 
movement is moving toward a possible recomposition between sectors of 
the judiciary, the government, and the Armed Forces, to seal a new pact 
of conciliation without real ruptures with systemic injustice and the 
authoritarianism rooted in the institutions.

3. Fiscal Adjustment and Continued Exploitation
While the far-right is being tried in the Supreme Federal Court (STF), 
the Lula-Alckmin administration is deepening fiscal austerity measures, 
cutting social investments, and preserving the interests of 
agribusiness, banks, and large corporations. State violence continues to 
operate in peripheral territories with the same brutality as in the 
Bolsonaro era, whether under right-wing or center-left governments. The 
official narrative of "defending democracy" ignores that this democracy 
is, in essence, a dictatorship of capital.

The pact with the Centrão and sectors of the business community shows 
that the electoral defeat of Bolsonarism did not imply the defeat of its 
economic base or its political agenda.

Liberal. The silence of institutional political forces in the face of 
these agreements reveals the weakening of progressive mediation within 
the regime.

4. Liberal 'Antifascists' and the Continuity of Authoritarianism
Bolsonaro's arrest may represent a momentary defeat for the far-right, 
but it does not eliminate its material bases: agribusiness, the 
reactionary business community, the militarized police, and a 
significant portion of the Armed Forces remain intact. The "antifascism" 
propagated by sectors of the media and the legal elite is limited to 
judicial spectacle and the defense of institutional order.

At the same time, the repression of strikes, occupations, and popular 
protests remains active. The broad-front approach promoted by the 
Lula-Alckmin administration prevents any structural confrontation with 
authoritarianism-which will continue to operate as long as the 
conditions of its reproduction (poverty, racism, patriarchy, 
militarization) are not addressed. The same government that was elected 
on the "anti-fascist" agenda is confronting social and union movements 
(such as the strikes at the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and 
Statistics), the INSS (National Institute of Social Security), and 
federal universities and institutes). Since its electoral victory in 
2002, the Workers' Party (PT) project has positioned itself as a brake 
on the autonomy of popular struggles and, especially, on the workers' 
historical method: direct action. Therefore, any left-wing analysis must 
be clear that the justice system is not neutral and has class-based 
political and economic interests in its decisions. Whether or not 
Bolsonaro should be imprisoned is not merely a technical issue; 
technical issues are used to validate a decision that was deliberated in 
advance by important sectors of the ruling classes.

A recurring argument among progressive sectors is that punishing 
far-right coup plotters would set a dangerous precedent for the future 
criminalization of the left. While this concern alone reveals the 
repressive nature of the State and capitalism, it inverts the logic of 
political struggle: it is not the punishment of the far right that paves 
the way for the repression of popular movements, but rather the very 
selective and class-based functioning of justice under capitalism that 
represses social struggle. The judicial and police apparatus does not 
need a "precedent" to attack strikers, occupations, combative unions, or 
housing movements-these are already historical targets of repression 
even under progressive governments. Justice does not operate with legal 
impartiality, but is an expression of the balance of power between 
classes. Therefore, it is not the formal coherence of judgments that 
guarantees or threatens democratic rights, but the level of organization 
and resistance of the working class. The people will be criminalized 
whenever they challenge the interests of the ruling classes-with or 
without "precedent." The central task is not to fear repression and thus 
absolve class enemies, so as not to create legal precedents, but to 
organize to confront it with solidarity and unity of action.

5. Bourgeois Justice, Imperialism, and the Correlation of Forces
Further complementing this situation, another example is the use of the 
50% tariff increase imposed by Donald Trump on Brazilian products, 
albeit partially adjusted, and the retaliation against Supreme Court 
justices leading Bolsonaro's trial, through the Magnitsky Act. Both 
measures are another clear demonstration that so-called "justice" or 
"legality" never operates neutrally, but as an instrument of power. Just 
as the Supreme Court uses technical and legal arguments to validate 
decisions that correspond to a readjustment of the internal interests of 
the ruling classes, Trump mobilizes commercial and legal measures to 
give legal form to a political and economic attack that expresses the 
strategic interests of US imperialism. Technique, therefore, is merely a 
disguise for the real political struggle.

Therefore, it is not about justice or institutional balance, but about 
the correlation of forces. Bolsonaro's trial by the Supreme Federal 
Court and Trump's imperialist offensive are part of the same logic in 
which the ruling classes, both internal and external, use the legal and 
political apparatus to guarantee (or expand) their domination. The 
illusion of impartiality serves only to mask the class interests behind 
every judicial or tariff decision. Understanding this is essential so 
that the working class does not place its trust in institutions that, 
whether in Brasília or Washington, act as arms of capital against the 
people.

6. Build political and class independence through self-managed popular power
The independence of the oppressed classes in struggle is the only way to 
consistently confront systemic injustices and neoliberalism. Trusting in 
bourgeois justice or state institutions is a path to demobilization and 
defeat. The fight against the far right cannot be limited to demanding 
the arrest of its leaders-it is necessary to attack the entire system 
that produced it.

It is essential to strengthen concrete and independent struggles: 
against wage squeezes, the destruction of public services, state 
violence, and the precariousness of work, etc. A truly class-based left 
needs to build organizational alternatives based on direct action, 
grassroots democracy, and autonomy from the governments and institutions 
of the ruling classes. Only with our historical principles of 
organization can we articulate a truly anti-fascist struggle and fight 
for social justice.

7. Immediate and strategic tasks of the working class
To intervene in the current situation without falling into the traps of 
institutionalism or bourgeois moralism, we propose:

Advocate for the punishment of Bolsonaro, the military, and the business 
leaders involved not only in the attempted coup, but also with an 
emphasis on holding them accountable for the crimes of the pandemic. 
Always emphasizing that this process is an internal dispute within the 
ruling classes, with no decision-making power on the part of the 
oppressed classes over the course of this episode.
Denounce the selective and anti-popular nature of bourgeois justice, 
exposing its function of preserving the interests of the elites.
Reject trust in the regime's institutions as a path to popular 
emancipation. Justice is not possible under the tutelage of capital.
Articulate economic and social struggles with a direct critique of the 
political and economic system, denouncing the limits of the Lula-Alckmin 
administration.
Emphasize that justice will only be achieved after building spaces for 
independent organization, with a territorial, union, student, and 
popular base, that resist co-optation and act from the perspective of 
self-managed popular power.
Bolsonaro's arrest momentarily alters the balance of power, improving 
the conditions for progress in working-class organization, but it does 
not break the authoritarian hegemony and does not address any structural 
problems in our society. The current democracy remains controlled by a 
class bloc that manages exploitation, represses revolt, and co-opts 
resistance. True justice-the kind that can transform lives-will come 
from the independent and organized action of the working class, breaking 
with all forms of capitalist domination.

https://socialismolibertario.net/2025/09/01/prisao-para-bolsonaro/
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