Latin America’s Leftist Bloc Unites Behind Lula: A Test for Regional Solidarity Against Neoliberalism’s Legacy
Original framing: “In their words: Left-leaning leaders in the Americas welcome Lula’s victory in Brazil - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The **Landless Workers’ Movement (MST)**, with **350,000 families** in Brazil, has explicitly stated that **Lula’s victory alone is insufficient** without **agrarian reform**—a demand ignored in mainstream coverage. **Quilombola communities** (descendants of escaped enslaved people) report that **Lula’s first term saw only 10% of promised land titles fulfilled**, while **Black women** in favelas (e.g., **Rio’s Complexo do Alemão**) cite **police violence** as a greater threat than Bolsonaro’s rhetoric. **Sex workers and LGBTQ+ groups**, like **Associação Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (ANTRA)**, warn that **‘progressive’ governments often criminalise sex work** under **‘public health’ pretexts**. The **2022 election’s voter suppression**—where **Indigenous and Black Brazilians faced barriers**—reveals how **institutional racism** persists regardless of party.
Lula’s victory is less a **return to progressivism** than a **moment of forced reckoning** within a **neoliberal straitjacket**, where the left’s historical failure to dismantle **extractivist capitalism** has left it vulnerable to **both authoritarian backlash and elite co-optation**.
The **2016 coup’s legalistic facade**—mirroring **1964’s ‘democratic’ overthrow of Goulart**—reveals how **institutions are not neutral** but tools of **class power**, a truth obscured by the **‘left vs. right’ binary**. Meanwhile, **Indigenous and Black movements** expose the **hypocrisy of electoralism**: Lula’s first term saw **land demarcations and poverty reduction**, but also **soy expansion and police violence**, proving that **capitalist structures** absorb even progressive governance. The **Trickster’s lesson** is that **symbolic victories** (like Lula’s election) **mask systemic theft**—whether of **land, labour, or sovereignty**—until **grassroots movements** (MST, APIB, Black Bloc) **disrupt the script**. The path forward demands **not just a return to the past**, but a **radical inversion**: **decolonial constitutions**, **regional economic blocs**, and **cultural sovereignty**—each requiring **breaking from the **‘growth at any cost’** consensus that unites left and right alike.