This May 1st, on which Workers’ Day is celebrated, in a video posted on social media, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended that the post coronavirus pandemic world needs to transform in terms of social relations.
“History teaches us that huge tragedies tend to birth huge transformations. What we hope for, what I hope for, is that the world that comes after the coronavirus will be a universal community in which man and woman, in harmony with nature, at the center of it, with technology and economics working for them and not the other way around, as has happened till today. In the post coronavirus pandemic world that I hope for, the collective will triumph over the individual and generosity and solidarity will triumph over profit”, affirmed the former head of State.
Lula pointed to capitalism as responsible for the crisis and highlighted that it is the workers who guarantee global production. “300,000 cadavers were necessary for humanity to see the truth that we, the workers, have known since we were born. The coronavirus tragedy has shed light on an immutable truth: what sustains capitalism is not capital. It is us, the workers. It is this truth, long known to us, that is leading the major economic publications in the world, the Bibles of the global elite, to claim that capitalism has its days numbered. It surely does. It is moribund. Now it’s in our hands, the hands of workers, the task of constructing the new world to come”.
When referring to Jair Bolsonaro, he suggested that great tragedies reveal “the true nature of people and things”. “I am not only referring to the president’s trivialization of the memory of more than 5,000 Brazilians who have died from covid. The pandemic has left capitalism naked”.
The ex-president also spoke of the importance of solidarity within the working class at this moment in time. “Brasil has always been a land of hope. Regardless of the extreme difficulties, we that were born and grew up here know how to face them, and how to reinvent ourselves in order to grow. Hate and ignorance feed off each other and are the opposite of what’s inside the Brazilian soul. As a Brazilian, I am certain we will overcome this tragedy and enter a better world, a better Brazil. It is now, in the middle of the storm that Brazilians are showing who they really are, what we are: generous, tolerant and full of solidarity. It is with this spirit, this joy and this creativity that we are fighting to leave the darkness and bring about, as quickly as possible, the dawn of social justice, of equality and freedom”.
Coronavirus
This Friday (30), Brazil registered a new record number of cases over a 24 hour period, with a rise of 7.218 in the statistics, reaching a total of 85.380 people infected with covid-19. The number of deaths also rose, with 435 deceased, for a total of 5.901, or an 8% increase. With these figures, the mortality rate is now 6,9%.
Read the full speech:
“My friends,
Workers from Brazil and across the world,
I would like to begin by extending my solidarity to the families of all coronvirus victims and all workers who are fighting to save lives worldwide.
An unknown virus has managed to close borders, place more than 3 billion human beings under lockdown, and drastically change the lives of each and everyone of us. For three months we have been inside what seems like an endless tunnel, everyday getting updates that are worse than the previous day. Humanity wakes up every morning hoping that today’s death toll will have been smaller than yesterday’s. We are living in the scariest times of our lives.
The virus which attacks all, indiscriminately, showed us that the human race is not immortal and can even cease to exist.
However, history teaches us that huge tragedies tend to birth huge transformations.
What we hope for, what I hope for, is that the world that comes after the coronavirus will be a universal community in which man and woman, in harmony with nature, at the center of it, with technology and economics working for them and not the other way around, as has happened till today.
In the post coronavirus pandemic world that I hope for, the collective will triumph over the individual and generosity and solidarity will triumph over profit.
A world in which nobody exploits the labor of another, a world that respects the differences between people, a world in which all, absolutely everyone, has the necessary tools available to emancipate themselves from any type of bondage or control.
Moreover, major tragedies also reveal the true nature of people and things. I am not only referring to the president’s trivialization of the memory of more than 5,000 Brazilians who have died from covid.
The pandemic has left capitalism naked. 300,000 cadavers were necessary for humanity to see the truth that we, the workers, have known since we were born. The coronavirus tragedy has shed light on an immutable truth: what sustains capitalism is not capital.
It is us, the workers. It is this truth, long known to us, that is leading the major economic publications in the world, the Bibles of the global elite, to claim that capitalism has its days numbered. It surely does. It is moribund. Now it’s in our hands, the hands of workers, the task of constructing the new world to come.
Brasil has always been a land of hope. Regardless of the extreme difficulties, we that were born and grew up here know how to face them, and how to reinvent ourselves in order to grow. Hate and ignorance feed off each other and are the opposite of what’s inside the Brazilian soul. As a Brazilian, I am certain we will overcome this tragedy and enter a better world, a better Brazil.
It is now, in the middle of the storm that Brazilians are showing who they really are, what we are: generous, tolerant and full of solidarity. It is with this spirit, this joy and this creativity that we are fighting to leave the darkness and bring about, as quickly as possible, the dawn of social justice, of equality and freedom”.
I hope that the coronavirus tragedy will create the truly new world which we dream of.
Long live the working class. Long live May 1st.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Edited by: Camila Maciel
