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CANDIDATES DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018

Boulos vs Bolsonaro: “All of Brasil knows you’re male chauvinist, racist and homophobic”

PSOL Presidential Candidate Guilherme Boulos opened the first televised Presidential debate, on 9th August on the Band Network, with a greeting for former President Lula, and denunciation of  both his controversial absence and politically motivated imprisonment in Curitiba. Lula’s running mates Fernando Haddad and Manuela D’Ávila were also refused participation in the broadcast, instead holding a “parallel” debate […]

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DEMOCRACY ENERGY PETROBRAS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS SOVEREIGNTY

Hunger strikers denounce attacks on Brasil’s sovereignty

By Diego Sartorato. Original article at Brasil de Fato. Republished with permission. Targeted by the Michel Temer administration, Brazil’s sovereignty is the key topic of the debate about the political and economic paths the country should take. And sovereignty is also highlighted in the “Hunger strike for justice in the Supreme Court” manifesto released by activists […]

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CANDIDATES DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018

Brasil’s Progressives See New Hope In “Triple Candidacy” Of Lula, Haddad and Manuela.

Faced with continuation of Temer’s Post-Coup programme of extreme austerity, discarded rights and bargain sell-off of the country’s resources, be it under right-winger Geraldo Alckmin or actual fascist Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian left were caught for months under the cloud of uncertainty surrounding Lula’s candidacy, despite him streets ahead in all polls. Finally they have […]

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ELECTION 2018 SOVEREIGNTY UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Candidate Positions On Privatization: Top 2018 Campaign Issue

Selling strategic state-owned enterprises to private capital is a sensitive issue in Brazil’s upcoming elections This article has been reprinted, with authorization, from Brasil de Fato . Twenty years ago, on July 29th, 1998, the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange held an auction for the largest privatization move ever made in Brazil, selling 12 companies of then […]

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DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018 LAVA JATO LAWFARE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

AFL-CIO Demands Lula Released/Allowed to Run for President

For the past two years, Lula has been the target of mainstream media attacks and persecuted by politically motivated parts of the judiciary. He has been denied the presumption of innocence and his right to a fair trial and appeals. The AFL-CIO’s Executive Council recently issued a statement in solidarity with Luiz Inácio Lula da […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018 HOUSING MOVEMENTS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Supreme Court Guards Push and Kick Journalists/Hunger Strikers

Brasília. On July 31, as a group of 6 hunger strikers held a press conference in front of the Brazilian Supreme Court, a group of security guards came up and started pushing activists and journalists. A video that is circulating in the social media shows Gegê, 68, national leader of the CMP, being knocked over […]

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DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018

Low Voter Turnout – The Right’s Electoral Weapon

Unable to mobilize the majority in their favor, the conservative strategy is to demobilize the most critical voters so that they protest by casting a blank ballot or abstention. By Marcio Pochmann* The 2018 general election – the 8th since the return to democracy in 1989 – is limited by an important contradiction. Despite its […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM CENSORSHIP DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018

Free Lula Festival Draws 80,000 in Rio de Janeiro

On Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 80,000 and to chants of “Free Lula”, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil sang the legendary protest song Cálice for the first time together since 1973, on a night when Military Dictatorship censors turned off Buarque’s microphone. It was a highlight of an evening with poetry and […]

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DEMOCRACY LAVA JATO LAWFARE POLITICS

Bernie Sanders and Progressive Democrats Demand Lula’s Release

In a letter addressed to Brazilian Ambassador Sergio Silva do Amaral dated July 26th, a group of 29 US lawmakers, including Bernie Sanders and Congressional Black Caucus members Bobby Rush, Keith Ellison and Maxine Waters, demand that the Brazilian Government release the political prisoner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been held in solitary […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM CENSORSHIP DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018 POLITICS SOCIAL NETWORKS

Brazilian Fake News Empire Falls, Questions Remain

by Brian Mier On July 25th, Facebook announced that it was shutting down 196 pages connected to the Koch Brothers/Atlas Foundation supported Movimento Brasil Livre (Free Brazil Movement/MBL) a fake news organization disguised as a social movement that is also funded by the DEM party (which is rooted in the official dictatorship party, ARENA). Since the 2016 Coup, […]