Project makes products with hammer and sickle allusive to communism a crime

A bill that began to be discussed this month in the Chamber of Deputies makes it a crime to manufacture, market, distribute and broadcast products that contain emblems alluding to communism and socialism, such as the hammer and sickle.

The proposal by Deputy Capitão Fernanda (PM-MT) inserts an article in the Anti-Racism Law and equates the apology for these movements with Nazism.

According to the parliamentarian, the two movements have similarities in the performance of their leaders, of “dictators” like Adolf Hitler in the case of Nazism and Lenin and Stalin in communism. In the justification, Captain Fernanda says that “the number of people killed by communist/socialist regimes around the world is over 100 million”, citing calculations by the organization Global Museum Communism.

“Communism/socialism threatens the dignity of the human person, freedom, life and the democratic rule of law, therefore, the ban on Nazi parties must be extended to those who preach communism/socialism, because crimes committed in the name of this ideology were even greater than those perpetrated by Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism”, completes the deputy in the justification.

According to the deputy’s text, the article makes it a crime to “manufacture, market, distribute or convey symbols, emblems, ornaments, badges or propaganda that use the sickle and/or hammer, for the purpose of disseminating communism or socialism”. (see in full)

As in the article of the Anti-Racism Law aimed at emblems alluding to Nazism, such as the swastika cross or the swastika, the section referring to communism and socialism also provides for a penalty of two to five years of imprisonment and a fine. The project was presented to the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies and is awaiting processing in the thematic committees.

A similar project by Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) has been in process since 2016 and also criminalizes the apology for communism, including an article also related to the use of hammer and sickle in allusion to communism and the practice, induction or incitement of “discrimination or prejudice based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin or foment the clash of social classes”. (see in full)

The project has been stopped since 2021 at the Justice and Citizenship Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.