In a letter entitled “Defending democracy is a cause of all the Brazilian people,” the signatory entities recall the beginning of the re-democratization process, 40 years ago, with the election, albeit indirect, of Tancredo Neves, the first civilian president after the 1964 coup, whose election marked the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1985.
The letter was signed by the presidents of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores, the Fuerza Sindical, the General Union of Workers, the Central of Workers and Workers of Brazil, the New Central Union of Workers, the Central of Brazilian Trade Unions, the Central Public, and the general secretary of the Intersindical.
The letter celebrates the period of democracy experienced by Brazil since that year. However, it warns that “insistent reflections of a recent past, the nostalgic Bolsonarism (followers of the ultra-right former president Jair Bolsonaro) of the military dictatorship, warn us of the fact that democracy is a system in permanent construction, which must always be cultivated and improved.”
The signatories of the letter called on everyone to get involved in this cause that is the defense of democracy. “It is necessary to strengthen political parties, the social movement, workers’ organizations and the institutions that organize our country,” they say, and emphasize that “with all the challenges presented, only in a democracy can we fight and conquer together the valorization of work and social and human progress.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended democracy on Wednesday in the symbolic act for the two years since the violent episodes of January 2023. He called for never again dictatorship and “democracy always,” otherwise, he warned, “many of us could have been trapped, exiled or killed, as happened in the past and we would not allow it to happen again.”
Da Silva considered that “democracy will be complete when each and every Brazilian, without exception, has access to quality food, health, education, security, culture and leisure. When they have the same opportunities to grow and prosper, and the same rights to dream and be happy.”
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