Movement for Black Lives Statement on the Upcoming Elections in Brazil

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is in solidarity with poor, oppressed, and disenfranchised folks in Brazil as they build power to change conditions for their people by not only electing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but also by electing Black movement leaders like Douglas Belchoir and Vilma Reis.

We know that our Black, indigenous, poor, and working-class siblings in Brazil have faced heightened crises and terror under the racist and right wing regime of Bolsonaro. This election is an opportunity to reject authoritarianism, neoliberalism, racism, and patriarchy. It is also an opportunity to amplify demands that call for the healing of the Amazon, respect for the humanity and dignity of every Brazilian, and an end to state violence.

Those of us engaged in the struggle for economic democracy, Black liberation, climate justice and gender justice, see this election as a potentially critical pivot in the global struggle for a free and just world.

The organizing campaigns and debates underway in Brazil, especially Black, indigenous, working class, landless and feminist groups, has already shifted the balance of power. M4BL understands that our liberation is intertwined with the liberation of Black and oppressed people everywhere, and we commit to the work that is required of us. As with every election, everywhere, in Brazil, we hope for an electoral outcome that affirms the needs of oppressed people, empowers movements for justice, and puts our friends, family and comrades on a better footing to fight for freedom and liberation. The struggles there continue to inspire us in the United States and around the world.