Defense of human rights is a cause of humanity – 04/10/2023 – Maria Hermínia Tavares

In several countries, the left is debating how to accommodate its traditional commitment to struggles for the redistribution of the fruits of collective work with the so-called identity agenda, which transports the issue of equity to other spheres: family models, racial relations, attitudes towards different genders , ethnicities and cultures.

Especially in the United States, the discussion is bitter. Proof of this are the recent books by philosopher Susan Neiman, “Left Is not Woke” (the left is not identitarian, in free translation), and by political scientist Yascha Mounk, “The Identity Trap” (the identity trap).

Just as the French economist Thomas Piketty speaks of a Brahmin left, equating it with the caste of priests in ancient India, both authors locate the origin of the identity agenda in the university elite.

Critics point out an angry indicator against what they understand to be the lack of attention to the anxieties of the most needy workers and the impoverished middle sectors. And they believe it is absolutely impossible for the two ways of conceiving social justice to be reconciled in a politically viable progressive project.

Echoes of this debate are beginning to be heard in Brazil, in reaction to extreme manifestations of identity rhetoric. But here the issue has other contours.

In the PT, since its founding, demands for the rights of specific groups have coexisted — not without conflicts — with the fight against poverty and income inequalities. As well as giving life and its own appearance to the PSOL, in addition to being tensely represented in the Lula 3 government.

The main challenge common to their peers is finding ways to speak to the many Brazilians who are politically located beyond the borders of the left. These, even though they hold the Presidency, have the support of only a small portion of society. That majority alien to the left is today diligently disputed by the reactionary right, which mobilizes emotions in defense of the values ​​and traditions put into question by identity struggles but is opposed to all forms of social justice, be it the better distribution of wealth socially generated; the respectful treatment owed to a black fellow citizen; or the recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to the lands of their ancestors.

In his inauguration speech as President of the Federal Supreme Court, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso stated that the defense of human rights, including the aspirations of different minorities, is a cause of humanity — not just of progressives.

But it is up to them to find a way to persuade others of this elementary truth.

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