“We see this in Brazil today. (…) And it is consolidated with this trial, for which we already know the outcome: Lula will be convicted”, said Maria do Carmo in an interview with Real World Radio on January 24 in Porto Alegre city, while the trial against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was being carried out on corruption and money laundering charges.

The activist of the World March of Women ensured that the trial against Lula is a political trial so that he can´t win the national elections to be held in October. “He is leading all polls to win on first ballot”, she said, and highlighted that the women of the March arrived to Porto Alegre to “defend democracy” and the possibility to choose Lula because “he understands social movements, he understands the hunger of the people”. “Black women and children are the main targets of poverty in Brazil”, she added.

Maria believes that the social movements of the country are facing a new “cycle of struggle” and that it is necessary to continue increasing political awareness on the population.
Meanwhile, peasant activist from the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil (MST), Silvia Reis Marques, highlighted in an interview with Real World Radio the unity of the Brazilian left wing in the resistance against de facto president Michel Temer, and the judicial attacks against Lula. “The people united and strengthened will make changes and transform Brazil in favor of a country free from coup perpetrators”.

Silvia stated that “Lula will be the candidate of the working class” on October elections. “The workers have made a decision, we will make these transformations real, with the people in the streets. Brazil belongs to the Brazilian people, who are the ones producing wealth, working”, she said. The MST leader added that the struggle will be long and hard, but she said that “if the struggle is big, big will be our courage and resistance”.