By Nalu Faria <\/a><\/a> <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This year will be decisive for women and for social movements in general in Brazil. A year of struggles, crucial for us to say no to neoliberalism, to authoritarianism, to denialism, and to develop and state what the country we want to live in will look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every day and also during the elections that will take place in October, we have the task of removing the far right from power. The current political situation in Brazil has its origins in the 2016 coup against President Dilma Rousseff (PT) and her government. Soon after the coup, neoliberal austerity policies were resumed, and the policies of the previous government were dismantled. Projects that represented a regression were approved, such as Constitutional Amendment 95, which froze social spending for 20 years, and the labor-rights counter-reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this scenario of ongoing ideological attacks against the left, Lula was the favorite candidate in the polls prior to the 2018 elections. In April of that year, Lula was arbitrarily arrested, in a lawfare[1]<\/sup> process that kept him in prison for 580 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the course of this political dispute, the elites joined the campaign of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. His election campaign was based on fake news, invoking conservative values in the name of family and religion, and associating communism with corruption. He did not attend public debates but spread his ideas with the aid of a digital network for sharing lies and fear, with many bots and also a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro\u2019s government continued the process of dismantling public policies that serve the population. It intensified the liberalization of the economy at all levels, particularly regarding deforestation, mining and privatization. The genocidal character of his government was already visible in its racist and militaristic stance and was made even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a denialist approach, attacks on social isolation measures, and boycotting the purchase of vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The presidential election process that will take place in October this year could mean the defeat of Bolsonaro\u2019s far-right and neoliberal government. There is a concrete possibility of consolidating a strategic change in political direction at the governmental level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering this dispute that is present today in our society, it is essential that we elect a government guided by another project for our country. A popular, feminist and anti-racist project, which, in order to be put into practice, needs to be permanently anchored in social struggles and organizations. Lula\u2019s candidacy under the Workers\u2019 Party has the support of this set of movements and parties that were part of a broad leftist front in the Out with Bolsonaro Campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social movements are mobilizing themselves to support Lula\u2019s election, with a widespread process of grassroots organization\u00a0 as a key element in the construction of this project. A deep break with neoliberalism is needed, connected to the recovery and construction of a democracy with broad popular participation. This is the only way we will be able to ensure the State will be transformed, to put into effect its public duties and guarantee the people\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women are at the forefront of resistance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Lula was imprisoned, social movements and progressive parties vigorously maintained the campaign for his freedom, with mobilizations throughout the country and a permanent vigil in front of the place where he was being held. Women were very active in the struggle against the coup and also in the Free Lula campaign. Subsequently, this process was linked to the construction of a broad front that organizes the Out with Bolsonaro movement and the fight for emergency policies, vaccines and health care during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the remarkable facts about the 2018 election campaign was the participation of women. Demonstrations for \u201cNot Him\u201d were organized and women took a strong stand against Bolsonaro\u2019s candidacy. There were massive protests, organized and carried out by the feminist movement in all its diversity and expressions. With that, women rejected Bolsonaro\u2019s political project and exposed his retrograde, conservative character as an enemy of the working class, women and black, indigenous and LGBTQIA+ peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This stance was expressed in how women voted in the election \u2013 according to the agency G\u00eanero e N\u00famero<\/a>, based on electoral polls, 52% of women declared their vote for Fernando Haddad (PT), while 59% of men were in favor of Bolsonaro. They also found this in their assessment during the Bolsonaro government, where rejection has been the majority \u2013 67% disapprove of the president\u2019s management, according to a survey by PoderData<\/a> published in January of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This rejection is part of a broader process that is now acknowledged: women play the main roles in resistance struggles and in the construction of responses to the social current model \u2013 which we define as a model based on the capital-life conflict.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women are at the forefront of struggles against transnational corporations, war, neoliberal policies, police violence that kills their children, racism and the genocide of black and indigenous peoples. They defend their autonomy over their bodies, demand a life without violence and are at the forefront of struggles in communities defending their territories, their culture, their ways of life. It is an endless list because the attacks are diverse, and all of them face resistance and collective-strength building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women are also part of agroecological production, solidarity economy, solidarity actions, meal centers; they aid those who suffer violence, socialize care, produce counter-hegemonic communication, promote the recovery of cultural and health practices. It is another endless list that makes us state that women are central for sustaining life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this resistance coexists with the construction of everyday responses to support life. By resisting, we point out the necessary transformations to build a society that guarantees well-being, with equality, freedom, democracy, centered on the construction people\u2019s rights. This is not just a reality in Brazil or in the Americas \u2013 it is worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the pandemic, inequalities were evidenced, as were the attacks on life, which were intensified by conservative sectors of society. Women have been and are on the front lines of the fight against the pandemic and represent the majority of health workers and workers in various service sectors, providing domestic work and care in homes and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, women were most impacted by unemployment. Since the beginning of the pandemic, service sectors that are mostly occupied by women workers have experienced a decrease in jobs, including the domestic work sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data from the second quarter of 2021 from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show that women experience a higher level of unemployment, reaching 17.1%, while unemployment among men reaches 11.7%. This situation is added to the fact that women hold the most precarious jobs. It is part of their life to look for jobs that they can reconcile with housework and care. The fact is that women faced more difficulties in guaranteeing their living in a scenario of high inflation, in particular regarding the price of food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marchemondiale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-31.png?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
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