Moves to impeach Brazilian MP Glauber Braga! Solidarity and mobilisation in defence of his mandate!

The moves to impeach the popular left-wing MP Glauber Braga have been stepped up. The case goes back to April last year when Glauber, a Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) member of parliament for Rio de Janeiro, was assaulted in parliament by members of the far-right Free Brazil Movement (MBL). He confronted them and physically ejected them from the parliamentary building. Now, he is being accused of conduct unbecoming of an elected representative, and the Chamber’s Ethics Council has started a trial to remove him as a member of parliament.

The Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) stands unconditionally in defence of Glauber’s democratic rights as an elected representative. We offer our full solidarity and support to the campaign to defend his mandate. We republish here a statement written by the Internationalist Communist Organisation (OCI), the Brazilian section of the RCI.

Deputy Paulo Magalhães (PSD-BA), the rapporteur of the case against federal deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) in the Chamber's Ethics Council, has voted to revoke Glauber's mandate. The vote still needs to be completed in the Ethics Council itself, which will probably happen next week. Then it will go to the plenary of the Chamber, where the trial will end with the approval of the revocation or the maintenance of the mandate.

It's clearer than ever that Arthur Lira (PP-AL), former president of the Chamber of Deputies and a political opponent of Glauber, has been organising behind the scenes for his removal from office. The absurd allegation that opened this trial concerned Glauber's correct reaction to the provocation by members of the Free Brazil Movement (MBL). We at the OCI support Glauber's decision to expel these far-right provocateurs, and we expressed our solidarity with him immediately afterwards.

Glauber is being persecuted by Arthur Lira and his allies precisely because he is the most militant federal deputy in parliament. He has stood firm in the fight against the ‘New High School’ counter-reforms, in the fight against privatisations, against measures contrary to the interests of the working class, in support of the fight to end the 6×1 scale [6-day working week]. He has also widely denounced the secret budget, which is a blatant form of political cronyism which makes it possible to buy votes and exchange favours within the Chamber of Deputies. In the PSOL, Glauber is against the party's adaptation to the Lula government and the Worker’s Party (PT).

The leadership of the PT, for its part, is not defending Glauber's mandate in the face of this absurd attack, which goes against the basic principles of bourgeois democracy itself. The PT's stance is not surprising, given that Arthur Lira's PP and Paulo Magalhães' PSD are part of the Lula-Alckmin government.

Hypocritically, while the trial to revoke Glauber's mandate is progressing in the Chamber, Chiquinho Brazão, who is the main person accused of planning Marielle Franco's murder, continues to be in parliament with his mandate untouched.

The National Congress is a rotten institution, and this is once again evident in this political persecution against a militant, left-wing MP. We stand in solidarity with comrade Glauber Braga and will join forces in the demonstrations that will take place over the next few days in defence of the most militant MP in the Chamber of Deputies.

• In defence of Glauber Braga's mandate!
• An attack on one is an attack on all. They shall not pass!
• Glauber stays!