Rede de Intelectuais, Artistas e Movimentos Sociais em Defesa da Humanidade.

ADVISORY BOARD

Danny Glover
Actor

Estela Bravo
Documentary filmmaker

Piero Gleijeses
Professor, Author

James Early
Consultant: Cultural Democracy and Statecraft Heritage Policy, African Diaspora

Jane Franklin
Historian, author of Cuba and the U.S. Empire: A Chronological History

Jose Pertierra
Attorney

Thomas Gumbleton
Former Bishop of Detroit

Chelis Lopez
Cultural Worker, host of Radio KPOO in San Francisco and Radio Bilingue in Oakland

Michael Parenti
Author and lecturer

Nelson Valdes
Professor Emeritus, Retired, Sociology

Gayle Mclaughlin
Former Mayor of Richmond, CA

Peter Schey
Executive Director, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law

Cristina Vazquez
International Vice President of Workers United-SEIU

Felix Salvador Kury
Program Director & Faculty Advisor, Clinica Martin-Baro, SFSU-UCSF

Clarence Thomas
Past Secretary-Treasurer
ILWU Local10

James Cockcroft
Lecturer and writer

Daniel Kovalik
Labor and human rights lawyer, teaches International Human Rights at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Law

Rick Sterling
Investigative Journalist

In Defense of Democracy, in Defense of the Brazilian People

Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movement in Defense of Humanity

From the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity, we are witnessing with great concern the political developments that have been happening in Brazil.

When the parliamentary coup against the legitimate President Dilma Rousseff took place we denounced it, and we protested against the imprisonment, without any evidence, of President Lula, whose only crime was to lift millions and millions of Brazilians out of poverty, something that the transnational elites and American imperialism have never forgiven him for.

We are now witnessing with horror the rise of an openly fascist, misogynist, homophobic and racist candidate. A candidate who represents all the anti-values of a democratic society. This moment can only be framed in the deep crisis that the neoliberal economic model has provoked in our societies. It is mounted on on the hatred and frustration of broad layers of the population that has given rise to such figures like Trump, Le Pen, Salvini or Netanyahu.

The victory of an openly fascist candidacy like Bolsonaro in Brazil would not only be a tragedy for the Brazilian people, a social holocaust against the poor, women, blacks, the LGTBIQ community, and in general, against the very democracy of  Brazil. It would also be disastrous for the advances towards the emancipation of Latin America. Most importantly, the result would be a halt for the combination of forces and popular governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a setback for humanity as a whole. 

In this historical moment we make a call for the unity of all forces, not only left and progressive, but, above all, the unity of men and women who believe in democratic values, to form a front against fascism that prevents the return of the ghosts that left so many dead and disappeared in Our America in the past.

We therefore call for a united fight against the interests of the great economic and media elites, and for the defense of the legacy of Lula and democracy, a legacy which today is manifested in the Fernando Haddad-Manuela D’Avida candidacy. It is imperative that Brazil returns to the path that was derailed by the coup d’état instigators, a path of sovereignty and social justice for the Brazilian people. Because we believe in a happy Brazil once again, they will not pass.

October 9, 2018