Brazil’s new president, far-right Jair Bolsonaro, was sworn into office just a couple of months ago, and he’s made it clear from the start that he intends to act upon campaign promises to weaken social protections and dismantle human rights policies. His government has already taken actions that include reducing projected minimum wage growth, weakening the land rights of indigenous people and traditional communities, pulling out from the UN Migration Accord, and considering pension reform proposals that would hit the poorest the hardest while keeping the privileges of the military and government officials.
Brazil is already a famously unequal country, and Bolsonaro threatens to reverse the feeble achievements in reducing inequalities made by previous governments. Bolsonaro is not alone. Brazil’s new Congress is its most conservative since the country’s re-democratization in the 1980s, and the far-right also notably expanded in state-level elections for governors and legislative assemblies. Considering the recent growth of the far-right across the world, as well as Brazil’s weight in global geopolitics, the relevance of these domestic trends certainly goes beyond national boundaries.
Despite this hostile setting, and in part because of it, a new generation of progressive politicians and political movements is also emerging in Brazil. Its main representatives are closely connected to grassroots groups, savvy in their use of new technologies – something the emerging far-right has already mastered – and willing to explore political innovations online and offline to reverse the current crisis of confidence in institutions.
Ocupa Política, a coalition that brings together politicians and movements from across the country, exemplifies this new generation of progressives. The initiative has already seen success, with the election of 16 legislative candidatures at the federal and state levels in 2018. Ocupa Política’s members come from multiple parties, and the initiative is managed independently, rather than by partisan structures – allowing it to operate with autonomy, despite its relationship with the party system.
Most of the people involved with Ocupa Política come from social movements, and are brought together by the common goal of occupying institutional politics to fight inequalities, defend human rights, deepen democracy and promote civic engagement.
Áurea Carolina, for example, who was recently elected to Congress by the state of Minas Gerais, emerged from black and feminist grassroots activism to become a political phenomenon. She is a member of Muitas, a movement bringing together representatives of various causes that range from right to housing, health and education to the promotion of culture and diversity, which has gotten four parliamentarians elected for legislative houses at the city, state and federal levels since 2016. Despite operating at different levels of government, all four unified their staff in a joint team to coordinate action and maximize impact.
Another example is Bancada Ativista, a movement out of São Paulo that has focused on electing activists in recent years. In 2018 they brought nine activists together in a single collective candidature for state deputy which became one of the most voted in the country. These nine activists will now share a single mandate in São Paulo’s legislative assembly, focused on strengthening progressive agendas and the voice of civil society by building bridges between the streets and the institutions.
Muitas and Bancada Ativista are two of the founding members of Ocupa Política – by building a common platform, they strengthen each other and their members both during their campaigns and throughout their periods in office, raising their potential to make an impact.