I get his (mild) attacks on Bolsonaro make him look better, but he's not done any actual fucking reforms. At all. All he did during his first government was create some means tested welfare programs and keep public funding going, all while not combatting the bourgeoisie's interests. Which in turn, left ample time for fascism to grow, he even funded some of the exponents of it like Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (evangelical cult that is much like US prosperity gospel). Not to mention shooting incarceration rates sky high by kicking off the war on drugs by law in 2006 and invading Haiti on behalf of the UN in 2004
His ministries are all commanded by neolibs, and even far right União Brasil in communications and tourism.
His main deed as of this year has been pushing new fiscal policy for the government which will deepen the already horrible one that was put in by Temer. It even has penalties for "overspending" like forbidding the government from creating new public jobs and such!
Fucking interest in loans is the actual highest in the world at 13.25%! (~9% per year accounting for inflation)
Just because a government doesn't outright support the public sanctions on Cuba, China and the DPRK it doesn't make it a fucking ally, hell, many European countries do the same and I don't see y'all praising it.
Lula is not moving Brazil any, and I mean any, closer to liberation. This job is up for the communists, nominally the Brazilian Communist Party (which is at the moment undergoing a split due to a complacent and persecutory petit-bourgeois central committee that doesn't want to oppose Lula but that's beside the point)
Every time I see Lula praise here one of my neurons explodes with anger
Edit FYI: I am actually organized in the youth of the Brazilian Communist Party. If y'all want any more info just ask (ofc nothing confidential)
Of course he is. But that bar is incredibly ridiculously low.
If you're a Marxist championing for the actual interests of the working class Lula and his government is an incredibly limited perspective of true change.
It's hard to even call him left-reformist, because he isn't even presenting any reform policy. His government is an alliance of liberal forces in the center-left and right, pushing neoliberal agendas with a sprinkle of "social sensitivity". The best he can do is boosting a few timid redistributive programs. But it doesn't come even close to be a left-reformist government like Gustavo Petro on Colombia, for example.
I'm a Brazilian. If you're not Brazilian you can't even imagine how fucking relieving it was to vote Bolsonaro out last year. And yes, I voted for Lula, campaigned for him on the runoff, and was super happy when he won.
But I only did that because I'd rather be a left-wing militant on a liberal bourgeois democracy than in the fascist military dictatorship that Bolsonaro was planning to implement. It doesn't mean Lula has my support for his policies AT ALL.
Yes, I will support him against a literal fascist. I will vote for him and even blast his campaign song on my stereo for my neighbors to hear.
But don't expect me to not point at him and criticize when he implements policies that benefit the banks and media conglomerates. When he defends legislation that will entrench an austerity fiscal policy that is impoverishing our country and shackling the government's own hands, making it impossible to invest enough to get us out of the hole liberals dug for us.
Don't expect me to be satisfied and happy with Lula in power. I'm only happy with a true Brazilian workers government, by workers for workers, after our very own Brazilian Revolution.