Dear Colleagues:
The run-off presidential election in Brazil is perhaps the most important election in Brazilian history. Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate with many extreme positions is leading in the polls and will possibly defeat the democratic coalition led by PT candidate Fernando Haddad.
On September 29, women led marches throughout Brazil, as hundreds of thousands of people said: “Ele não”, Not Him, in their rejection of Bolsonaro’s reactionary misogynist, racist, homophobic positions, his defense of torture and the former military regime, and many other statements and policies that undermine all of the gains that Brazilians have made over the last four decades.
Seventy-five scholars and activists are initial sponsors of a Manifesto against Bolsonaro and in favor of Brazilian democracy, which can be found on the following website:
- Defend Democracy in Brazil
Say No to Jair Bolsonaro!
We, the undersigned, academics, activists, and others, Brazilians and non-Brazilians, people living, working, and studying in the United States, wish to express our growing alarm at the imminent threat of Jair Bolsonaro’s election to the presidency on October 28, 2018. The potential victory of a far-right radical in Brazil would reinforce a dangerous international trend of extremely reactionary and anti-democratic politicians gaining state power in recent years.
Bolsonaro explicitly defends the Brazilian military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964-85 and praises torture and torturers. He denigrates human rights efforts. He has expressed aggressive and vile hostility toward women, people of African descent, the LGBT+ community, indigenous people, and the poor. His proposed policies would effectively undo all of the political, social, economic, labor, and cultural gains of the last four decades, efforts by social movements and progressive politicians to consolidate and expand democracy in Brazil. A Bolsonaro presidency also threatens to undermine the still fragile democratic politics that people throughout Brazil have risked so much to build.
Jair Bolsonaro must be stopped!
In defense of Brazilian democracy, we say: Ele não / Not him!
Please only sign this petition if you live, work or study in the United States. We plan to announce the results of this signature campaign to the Brazilian press on October 20th.
For more information, contact: democracybrazil@gmail.com
Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond , University of California, San Diego
- Amy Chazkel, City University of New York and Columbia University
- Ana Lúcia Araújo, Howard University
- André Pagliarini, Brown University
- Barbara Weinstein, New York University
- Beatriz Silveira de Arruda, Brown University
- Benjamin Bradlow, Brown University
- Benjamin Cowan, University of California, San Diego
- Brodwyn Fischer, University of Chicago
- Bruno Carvalho, Harvard University
- Bryan Mc Cann, Georgetown University
- Cecília MacDowell Santos, University of San Francisco
- Christopher Dunn , Tulane University
- Colin Snider, University of Texas at Tyler
- Cristina Mehrtens, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
- Edith Wolfe, Tulane University
- Elizabeth Leeds, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Studies
- Elizabeth Qual Hutchison, University of New Mexico
- Erika Robb Larkins, San Diego State University
- Fábio de Sá e Silva, University of Oklahoma
- Fabiola López-Dúran, Rice University
- George Reid Andrews, University of Pittsburgh
- Geri Augusto, Brown University
- Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University
- Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Gregory Duff Morton, Bard College
- Heloisa Maria Galvão, Journalist
- Isadora Moura Mota, University of Miami
- James N. Green, Brown University
- James Woodard, Montclair State University
- Jean Segata, Visiting Scholar, Brown University
- Jeremy Lehnen, Brown University
- Joel Wolfe, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- John Burdick, Syracuse University
- John H. Hammond, Hunter College, Graduate Center, CUNY
- Juliana Moraes-Pinheiro, American University
- Karyn Mota, Brown University
- Kathy Swart, Pierce College
- Keisha-Khan Perry, Brown University
- Leah K. VanWey, Brown University
- Leila Lehnen, Brown University
- Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Princeton University
- Marc Hertzman, University of Illinois, Urban-Champagne
- Marcelo Paixão, University of Texas at Austin
- Marina Dias Lucena Adams, Brown University
- Mark Langevin, George Washington University
- Marshall C. Eakin, Vanderbilt University
- Maxine L. Margolis, University of Florida
- Michael Rom, Yale University
- Micol Seigel, Indiana University, Bloomington
- Misha Klein, University of Oklahoma
- Myriam Marques, Defend Democracy in Brazil/New York
- Nelson H. Vieira, Brown University
- Pamela Voekel, Dartmouth College
- Patricia de Santana Pinho, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Paula Halperin, State University of New York, Purchase
- Pedro Meiro Monteiro, Princeton University
- Peter Beattie, Michigan State University
- Peter Evans, Prof Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
- Rachel E. Harding, University of Colorado, Denver
- Rafael R. Ioris, University of Denver
- Rebecca Atencio, Tulane University
- Seth Garfield, University of Texas, Austin
- Severino J. Albuquerque, University of Wisconsin
- Sidney Chalhoub, Harvard University
- Sidney Greenfield, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, emeritus
- Stanley A. Gacek, Esq, U.S. labor lawyer
- Steven F. Butterman, University of Miami
- Stuart Schwartz, Yale University
- Sueann Caulfield, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Susan C. Quinlan, University of Georgia, Athens
- Teresa Meade, Union College
- Tianna S. Paschel, University of California, Berkeley
- Tracy Devine Guzmán, University of Miami
- Túlio Ferreira, Visiting scholar, Brown University
- Victoria Langland, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Vivaldo Santos, Georgetown University
- Yuko Miki, Fordham University