The Brazilian Group for Socialist Equality interviewed AK Party candidate Joseph Kishore about the political crisis and the prospects for socialism in America.

On October 24, Tomas Castanheira of the Brazilian Socialist Equality Group (GSI) interviewed Socialist Equality Party (USA) presidential candidate Joseph Kishore. the interview aired Sunday evening on the GSI YouTube channelafter the second round of local elections in Brazil.

US AKP presidential candidate Joseph Kishore during an interview with the Brazilian Socialist Equality Group

The discussion concerned the global political crisis and its main manifestations in the USA and Brazil, with their many parallels and deep connections.

In his opening remarks, Castanheira referred to the GSI election manifesto: “No to fascism, war and capitalist barbarism! Break with the PT, PSOL and pseudo-leftists! Build ICFI in Brazil!”

The document “warned that the fate of Brazilian workers and youth was deeply linked to the unfolding” of a “new Third World War” and called for “the unity of the international working class to overthrow capitalism” by “creating the necessary revolutionary leadership based on the strategy of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) “

Introducing Kishore’s campaign, Castanheira defined it as “a critical component of the ICFI’s coordinated intervention in the global political crisis.” He pointed out that although “the workers and youth of Latin America are well acquainted with the United States of imperialist warmongers,” they now wanted to hear from a real representative of the revolutionary American working class.

Asked about the goals of US imperialism with its escalation of wars around the world, Kishore replied: “What is Washington trying to achieve? World domination. The corporate and financial oligarchy seeks to establish its global hegemony… to restore the shackles of colonialism in any region of the world where (its) direct access has been restricted in one form or another.”

According to the AKP candidate, despite the fact that these are “elections that take place in the shadow of a world war,” “this is not something on which the population, like any other important political issue, is given the opportunity to vote.” “The military and foreign policy establishment’s journals talk about an era of ‘total war’… but it is not discussed because it is generally unpopular.”

Castanheira noted that the rightward shift in official US policy and, in particular, episodes of “state repression and political censorship against opponents of the war” made a “deep impression on the Brazilian public.”

Kishore argued that “if one wants to understand the movements of the American ruling class towards dictatorship, censorship and repression, then it is due to the great fear that, although it is waging war around the world, it does not have what is called its own house”.

He described the six-week strike and second refusal by 33,000 workers at Boeing, “one of the largest defense contractors supplying the US war machine,” to refuse a sales contract as an expression of “real anger, social opposition, determination to fight.” for their rights among the working class.”

Kishore emphasized Republican candidate Donald Trump’s focus on the “enemy within,” which he said is even more dangerous than China or Russia. What does it mean? He talks mainly about the working class. … He articulates the interests of powerful factions within the corporate and financial oligarchy … They fear that workers’ anger will develop into a political struggle that will raise the question of power.”

Castanheira noted the existence of “very similar sentiments in the Brazilian working class,” as evidenced by the recent “rejection of the contract with Embraer, which, along with Boeing, is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world.” He asked about the AKP’s attitude to the growing strikes in the US and clashes between workers and the trade union bureaucracy.

Kishore emphasized: “There are really serious problems in the development of class struggle,” adding:

It is not enough for workers to simply refuse contracts. There must be the development of rank and file committees through which workers can fight for their interests, resist the conspiracies of the trade union apparatus, the state and corporations and assert their independent power…

Related to this was the development of an international movement… the creation of the International Workers’ Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) as a structure through which workers around the world could unite (to fight) corporate and financial problems. oligarchy.

“Most fundamental of all,” according to Kishore, “is the development within the working class of a political struggle… Political not in the sense of elections… but in the sense of a struggle for power.” He explained that this is “at the center of our election campaign.”

Castanheira noted that the US elections “were marked by a political issue that is especially important for Latin American workers, namely the attack on immigrants, both by Trump and the Democrats,” and asked about the AKP’s position on this issue.

“The Socialist Equality Party’s position is open borders,” said Kishore, “that is, that workers should have the right to live and work where they want. Capital has the ability to exploit workers throughout the world… Workers are united in the process of production and must be united politically.”

The AKP candidate noted, “Trump is focusing his campaign on a vicious, actually fascist attack on immigrants and refugees,” with the naked purpose of dividing the working class. The Democratic Party, according to Kishor, is not only adapting to these policies, but also “fueling conflicts within the working class over race.”

However, Kishore stated: “There is a strong objective basis for internationalism (in the US). … The idea of uniting the working class (on an international basis) has a very strong response, even from workers who might be influenced by Trump.”

The discussion raised political parallels with the rise of Trump in the US and similar fascist leaders in Latin America, including the role played by Democratic Party counterparts in the region. Castanheira mentioned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who rose “from the ashes of Workers’ Party (PT) governments that completely betrayed the working class.”

Castanheira stressed that Bolsonaro followed the political script of Trump’s last campaign, “including re-enacting the storming of the Capitol, but this time in Brasilia on January 8, 2023.” He said that, as in the United States, “we are seeing in local elections in Brazil… the development of this phenomenon that goes far beyond Bolsonaro himself.”

Continuing the theme of the Brazilian elections, Castanheira spoke about the political rise of Guilherme Boulos of the Party of Socialism and Freedom (PSOL), which has “very direct links with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), with Jacobin magazine”.

Kishore explained that “the pseudo-left is the backbone of all capitalist rule” and that the DSA in particular is “a genocidal left wing justifying support for the (Democratic) Party and the (Biden) Administration, which is drowning in blood. “

“Of course,” he continued, “they always bring up the question of the ‘lesser evil’ and the danger that Trump poses.” But the Democratic Party, Kishore said, “is responsible and determined to intensify the war, which could lead to the destruction of all humanity. It is politically meaningless to talk about a “lesser evil” within this framework.”

“I think all the ‘lesser evil’ arguments are pragmatic and politically untenable,” Kishore said. “We cannot fight fascism without fighting to mobilize the working class… and the DSA, Ocasio-Cortez, are tools to suppress class struggle.”

Kishore concluded the interview with a powerful statement about the AKP’s political goals guiding its election intervention:

We were fully aware that we were fighting to bring an international perspective to the American working class, that we were building a political movement within the United States based…on the perspective of the Trotskyist movement…as the basis for the development of a revolutionary movement. leadership is here. And we get a very powerful answer.