New Brazil Bulletin #14

The Struggle for Land

On April 29, gunmen and military police attacked peasants who set up camp in an unoccupied area near the border of Rondônia. After the attack, the peasants were forced to walk 21 miles to another village due to the military police towing their car.

The peasants of Maranhão won a great victory when five peasants were acquitted on May 7 after being charged with tying up a military police officer at a protest in 2023. A parade was held in celebration.

On May 10, gunmen working for the latifundium (big landlords) of Campestre were repelled by organized peasants after the former tried to steal the land and destroy peasant property with a tractor.

On May 14, Brazil vice president Geraldo Alckmin announced a plan to accelerate building a railway through more than 40 indigenous lands in the North. This railway, called the “Ferrogrão”, was first introduced in 2013 and will connect the two municipalities of Sinop and Miritituba, giving rise to latifundium land speculation at the cost of the peasantry and the indigenous.

On May 15, the 135 families living at the Marielle Franco occupation were evicted by unannounced military police, who, in the process, shot rubber bullets and tear gas indiscriminately at the peasants, hitting a child with a rubber bullet in the process. The military police, as part of the eviction, bulldozed the homes at the occupation. Prior to its occupation in 2024, the land was unused.

Workers’ and Peoples’ Struggle

In Salvador, Bahia state, striking teachers mobilized on May 15 to denounce the recent court actions criminalizing the teachers’ current struggle, attempting to fine them and force them back to work. Through the mobilization, the teachers pledged to keep up the struggle. The teachers are fighting against their salaries lowered below the minimum wage for teachers nationally. Their strike has entered its second week and has seen teachers demonstrate across the city.

On May 6, educational workers held a protest in Rio Branco, Acre state against the scrapping of public education and poor conditions for rural schools. The local government had been postponing the matter, putting funding for the ruling class’ spending before essential services.

On May 7, transport workers of the city of Manaus protested at their company headquarters, shutting down operations due to issues such as delayed wages and unpaid overtime.

Also in Manaus residents blocked a road May 10 in protest of inadequate public transit, chanting slogans such as “we are workers, we need respect!” Another demonstration was held on May 12 and continued into May 13, where barricades were set up and set on fire.

On May 12, another militant demonstration took place in São Paulo against police brutality and evictions. Barricades were put up and set on fire, and the protesters resisted attack from military police.

On May 14, workers at the Alagoas Sanitation Company marched in protest against the company being privatized after it was sold by the state government to a mining company for 19 million dollars. The main demands were: recognizing water as a right of the people, reduction of tariffs, and adequate water for neighborhoods of the city of Maceió.

For international workers’ day, activists associated with the Liga Operária (Workers’ League) held an agitational event in Rio de Janeiro, demarcating themselves from the pacifist festival held by opportunist organizations in the same city. Several copies of A Nova Democracia (AND), Brazil’s popular and democratic newspaper, were sold and over 1,000 leaflets against the 6×1 scale were distributed.

Activists in the city of Recife formed a red bloc of the local May Day demonstration, whose central demand was an end to the 6×1 scale. Pamphlets from the Anti-Imperialist League were distributed, and a banner reading “Anti-imperialists of the world, unite!” was held.

In Belo Horizonte, a May Day march was held against the 6×1 scale, for an hourly reduction of the workday, and in support of the Agrarian Revolution. Banners of the Poor Peasant League (LCP), the Anti-Imperialist League, and the Workers’ League were displayed.

Student Struggle

Student activists with AND carried out several sales brigades and flyering actions. At the University of Passo Fundo, activists won the support of students by bringing up the rising cost of attendance.

On April 29, students at the State University of Maringa occupied a church building after being ignored by university administration when complaining about poor infrastructure, the employee hiring process, and the queues at the cafeteria.

On May 7, students at the Federal University of Maranhao held a cultural event of independent and progressive artists. At the event, the portraits of revolutionaries were painted and violence against the peasantry in the countryside was denounced.

Brazil’s National Situation

Newly-released documents and recordings support the possibility that militarized far-right groups, with politician and police involvement, worked to carry out the attempted Bolsonarist coup of 2022. One federal police officer who had a role in the attempt was recorded saying that he intended to “kill half the world”, referring to both the opportunist Left and true progressives of Brazil.

In the United Nations’ 2025 Human Development Report, Brazil fell 21 places in its ranking from 2023. The report also revealed that Brazil now falls on the low end of their “medium human development” classification when accounting for inequality, whereas in 2023 Brazil fell into the “high human development” class. AND, when analyzing the associated data, pointed out that it “[expresses] the global trend of concentration of wealth, economic stagnation and worsening social and living conditions of the popular masses, all characteristic of the current stage of decomposition and general crisis of imperialism.”

On May 12, the Brazilian old State handed over natural resources and commodities to China. Chinese social-imperialism has and is continuing to install and buy out energy facilities such as wind turbines and mines at the cost of the Brazilian people.

Image: The May Day march in Belo Horizonte. Demonstrators raise flags of the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) and a banner of the Anti-Imperialist League. Credit: A Nova Democracia.

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