Over the past six years, Brazil has suffered not one, but a series of devastating coups. The impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. The imprisonment of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The imposition of austerity economics. The devastation of ancestral lands in the Amazon. The robbery of state resources by outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro in the largest corruption scheme in the country’s modern history.

But on 1 January 2023, Brazil turns a page to a new chapter of its history with the inauguration of Lula da Silva for his third presidential mandate. Who will write this new chapter? And what will it say?

The answers to these questions have global consequences. Whether it is Brazil’s role in the re-integration of Latin America, its leadership in the bloc of BRICS, or its governance of the world’s largest rainforest, Lula’s four-year mandate will be decisive for the direction of the planet.

That’s why the Progressive International is today launching a new Blueprint collection that invites social movements, trade unions, and political and civil representatives from across the country to answer a single question: What is the Brazil we want?

During the presidential campaign, fears of a military coup dominated the headlines. We heard about highway police, about supreme court judges, and about electronic voting machines that Jair Bolsonaro attacked as fraudulent.

But we rarely heard from the people of Brazil — the people on the frontlines of the fight not only against Bolsonaro, but also against Bolsonarismo; the people building a program to address the urgent social crises like hunger and homelessness that have come to haunt the country; the people pushing for a fair ecological transition that defend Indigenous sovereignty while delivering economic growth for the country.

This collection is an invitation for those voices of Brazil to be heard in the world at large, and an invitation for peoples beyond Brazil to join the Progressive International as we pursue concrete acts of solidarity with their ambitious project of democratic refoundation.

Essays in this collection:

Click here to read the essay by Gerson Castellano, from the Federação Única dos Petroleiros do Brasil (FUP), The neoliberal offensive on sovereign Brazil.

Click here to read Ana Penido's essay, If you want peace, prepare for it.

Click here to read Juliane Furno's essay, The labor market we want. 

Click here to read the essay by Rud Rafael, from the Homeless Workers Movement in Brazil, (MTST), Reimagining the urban struggle after Bolsonaro.

Click here to read the essay by Antonio Lisboa and Fernando Vicente Vivaldo, from the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT Brasil), President Lula’s election, the confrontation with the extreme right and the tasks of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT Brasil)

And more: essays from, OPEB and Movimento Brasil Popular.

Join the conversation

If you are interested in submitting an article or essay for publication by Progressive International, please email Aline Piva at [email protected].

Illustrations: Gabriel Silveira