Social movements, conservatism and Brazilian conjuncture: outlines of a critical analysis

Abstract

This article aims to make a fundamental analysis of the current Brazilian conjuncture, focusing on the historical process of criminalization of social movements in the city and in the countryside, providing preliminary reflections about the narratives and actions of the Bolsonaro government. Conservatism gains space worldwide, subsidizes the deepening of neoliberal policies, but its particularity in the country reveals a fundamental element for a contextual examination. From a methodological point of view, a bibliographic and documentary research with a qualitative approach was performed, when we sought to analyze the situations that portray the process of criminalization of movements for housing and land. Governmental actions and the process of society's adherence to the architecture of this project indicate the objectives of government, which refer not only to widening inequalities between social classes in contemporary capitalism, but also to the return to archaic and conservative sociability standards, whose policy is based, among other things, on intensifying the exploitation of workers and the persecution of social movements that confront or question private property and social inequalities. We conclude that we are in a historical period that is drawing from conservative values and repressive strategies to movements, leftist parties and progressive sectors to deepen liberal policies that favor capital over the social rights of workers.