Against the aggression and blackmail of the USA! Down with imperialism!: PCB

Trump in August, 2025 -- public domain image

Political Note from the Central Committee of the PCB

The Central Committee of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), meeting on August 15th and 16th, assesses that we are living through a complex, unpredictable, and challenging national and international situation, marked by three central elements: a) the relative decline of the USA as the main power of the imperialist system in the face of the rise of new poles such as China and, militarily, Russia; b) the unpredictable and aggressive actions of the Trump government, seeking to reverse this decline; c) attacks and provocations directed at Brazil by US imperialism, as part of its global strategy to recover hegemony.

The Trump government, an expression of a majority sector of the dominant classes of its country, was brought to power with the mission of facing three strategic tasks: restructure the international economic order in the face of the emergence of China, the BRICS, and militarily Russia; reverse the decline of US imperialist economic power and reindustrialize the country, seeking to recover its former economic supremacy achieved in the post-World War II period, materialized in the role of the US dollar in the international monetary system.

To achieve these goals, Trump has been imposing a brutal policy that combines threats, blackmail, and intimidation. He acts like a dealer who seeks to disorient his adversary to impose agreements from a position of strength. His tactic, apparently irrational, hides a method: to exploit chaos and instability to reposition US imperialism.

Recent examples are illustrative: sending troops and submarines to the Caribbean, direct threats to Venezuela, military attack on Iran, tariff pressures on over 90 countries, forcing Europeans to increase military spending by 5% of GDP, and attempting to impose on allies a solution for the war in Ukraine negotiated between Trump and Putin in Alaska. This conduct reveals that Trump seeks to concentrate political initiative in his own hands, acting as the boss who imposes discipline on his subordinates to save the system.

However, Trump's strategy faces deep contradictions. The reindustrialization of the US cannot be achieved only with protectionist tariffs, typical of a mercantilist policy of the past. In a scenario marked by artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic engineering, and quantum computing, the US, with this policy, is in no condition to catch up to China, which tends to further expand its technological and industrial advantage.

Furthermore, the policy of widespread sanctions against the world is doomed to failure. Unlike the period of consolidation of US hegemony post-war or the period after the fall of the USSR, today there are multiple economic and political poles, such as China, the BRICS, and regional articulations in Asia and the Global South, which hinder the unilateral imposition of the US.

Domestically, Trump accumulates enemies due to his authoritarian and obscurantist policy: he attacked universities, fired thousands of workers, abolished public agencies, decreed intervention in Washington, intensified state repression and the racist ideological offensive against Black, Latino, and immigrant populations, systematically seeks the destruction of women's reproductive and social rights, operates the dismantling of various labor rights, is trying to manipulate the electoral map, and openly supports the genocide of the Palestinian people. The aggressive, racist, and ultra-xenophobic anti-immigrant policy is earning him opposition even from segments historically aligned with the US right, such as the self-exiled Cubans in Florida. This conduct has been generating rifts within the bloc of the ruling classes and strong popular discontent, especially among the youth, who are rising up in mass protests against his government.

Thus, Trumpist policy, although it has achieved partial successes, carries within it the seed of its own failure. The greatest risk lies precisely in the reaction of the sector of the ruling classes that supports it, in the face of a possible collapse of this strategy. History demonstrates that no imperialism has surrendered without resorting to violence. Therefore, the possibility of wars in various regions of the planet is not ruled out, nor even an escalation into a third world war.

The Brazilian Communist Party warns that the international situation, marked by the US imperialist offensive, finds fertile ground in our country for provocations and risks that cannot be underestimated, far beyond the treacherous, sell-out core of Bolsonarism which is about to see its leader convicted and imprisoned. We are facing an aggressive escalation by the Trump government through ultimatums, provocations, and demands made precisely for Brazil not to accept, and thus justify an escalation of sanctions, which could even evolve into economic blockades and internal political destabilization.

This escalation against Brazil stems from a strategic fact: since the United States is unable to constrain China economically or Russia militarily, they have elected our country as a veritable testing ground for their imperialist policy. Brazil is a priority target for some fundamental reasons: our geographical location is distant from other BRICS countries and very close to the US; the country lacks the military strength to oppose the United States; Brazil's economy is intertwined with financial and commercial flows controlled by US capital; foreign exchange reserves are held in US banks and bonds; furthermore, Brazil is part of BRICS, which has become a bloc of countries considered enemies by Trump due to their economic and political weight in the international situation.

The external offensive finds internal complicity. Brazil has a powerful fifth column, infiltrated in parliament, state and municipal governments, and sectors of the institutional apparatus, who act as a transmission belt for US interests. These sectors openly defend the measures imposed by Trump and work against the interests of the Brazilian people.

Despite this pressure, there is a feeling among the majority of the population that Brazil should not accept the ultimatums of the US president. This discontent, however, is far from manifesting itself in anti-imperialist mobilizations. The Lula government has reaffirmed national sovereignty and sought to adopt palliative measures, such as economic relief packages for business sectors harmed by Trump's tariff offensive. However, from a political point of view, it has limited itself to summit meetings and agreements with factions of the bourgeoisie, without decisively confronting the nature of the imperialist attack.

The PCB states clearly: resistance to imperialism without popular mobilization is suicide. One cannot trust the coherence of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, historically associated with big international capital and which, in all decisive crises, has sided with imperialism against the interests of the working people. Furthermore, no measures have been taken to meet the demands of workers. In this sense, the PCB reaffirms the importance and necessity of the struggle in defense of the working class's agenda, such as the repeal of the fiscal framework and the counter-reforms, reduction of the workday to 30 hours without a reduction in wages, an end to the "six for one" shift pattern, defense of natural wealth and the environment, breaking US pharmaceutical patents, monopoly on rare earths, taxation of large fortunes, and redirecting sanctioned products to the domestic market and school meals.

It is essential to understand the dimension of the attack. What US imperialism has done to Venezuela, Iran, and Russia should serve as a warning. Other equally dangerous aspects are the imperialist offensive on women's reproductive rights and the encouragement of racist policies that reinforce punitivism, the war on drugs, and the criminalization of poverty, which find resonance in the internal fifth column represented by Bolsonaro's neofascism. We workers cannot underestimate how far US imperialism is willing to go to defend its interests. Therefore, we must be organized and mobilized to face all scenarios.

To confront the crisis, diplomatic games or business negotiations are not enough. It is time for leftist forces to point in the direction that the conciliation government will not follow, that is, to call the people to the streets. It is time to summon trade unions, popular organizations, and youth to a broad mobilization, capable of facing imperialism decisively, with the working people in movement. The struggle cannot be restricted to offices: it must be waged by the organized strength of the people in the streets, on social networks, and in workplaces, homes, and places of study.

From an economic point of view, it is imperative to demand that the government's emergency measures are not restricted to supporting big export monopolist capital and agribusiness, defending the end of the fiscal framework so that the State can invest in production, more and better jobs, expanding regulatory stocks, dignified public services, and social protection. It is necessary to denounce that Brazil suffers financial bleeding with its reserves at the mercy of foreign blockades, requiring the immediate transfer of resources to institutions outside US control. It is not reasonable to leave over $380 billion under the guard of the enemy, subject to blockade and confiscation. In the international field, Brazil must expand its international relations beyond the sphere of US control, strengthening BRICS and expanding bilateral relations with countries that have contradictions with US imperialism.

Faced with this situation, the PCB warns that not only Brazil, but the peoples of the world must reinforce the anti-imperialist struggle, expand international solidarity, and prepare to resist the warmongering adventures of US imperialism. The destiny of humanity cannot be subjected to the irrationality of a ruling class in decline, willing to sacrifice the human species itself to preserve its privileges. To build anti-imperialist resistance in Brazil, the PCB proposes the formation of a Popular Mobilization Front, capable of unifying unions, popular movements, student organizations, and progressive forces around the defense of national and popular sovereignty and the decisive confrontation of US imperialism. Only with the people organized will we be able to resist Trump's aggressive escalation and transform this crisis into a trench for the resumption of the popular struggle in favor of the rights and interests of the Brazilian working people.

Resist imperialist blackmail in the streets!

NO AMNESTY! Prison for Bolsonaro and his accomplices and supporters!

Full solidarity with peoples attacked by imperialism!

In defense of the Palestinian people and Socialist Cuba!

For People's Power on the path to Socialism!

Central Committee of the PCB