Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies

Sabrina Fernandes

Sabrina Fernandes has a PhD in Sociology from Carleton University, Canada, with a specialization in political economy, and is an ecosocialist activist in Brazil. She has geared her activist, research, and publishing work in the past years towards promoting political syntheses in the fragmented Brazilian Left with a focus on ecosocialism and its potential to foster resistance on the ground. She is the creator and producer of YouTube channel TeseOnze, a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine, and lead editor for Jacobin Brasil. 

Ecological Strategies of Resistance in Brazil: Against the Far-Right and Beyond

Brazil has undergone great political turmoil, from the coup against Dilma Rousseff to the wrongful conviction of Lula to the election of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. In less than a year, Bolsonaro has implemented cuts in social spending and rights while strengthening the elites across the board. Bolsonaro’s discourse normalises violence against indigenous peoples, campesinos, and the Black youth of the favelas. This research project will theorise and build upon struggles that can be connected through an ecological perspective. It will explore pathways linking indigenous struggles, food sovereignty demands, landless workers’ movements, campaigns against climate change, and mobilizations surrounding issues such as water, mining, and conservation, and how they tend to result in fruitful articulations despite leftist fragmentation. The results will be published academically but also disseminated through online videos and activist materials. 

Publications

Fernandes, Sabrina. “Ecosocialism from the Margins.” NACLA Report on the Americas 52, no. 3 (2020): 137–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2020.1768731.

Fernandes, Sabrina. “Environmental Contradictions: The Need for an Ecosocialist Paradigm on the Brazilian Left“. In: Robert Latham; A. T. Kingsmith; Julian von Bargen; Niko Block. (Org.). Challenging the Right, Augmenting the Left: Recasting Leftist Imagination. 1ed.Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2020. https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/challenging-the-right-augmenting-the-left 

Fernandes, Sabrina. Sintomas Mórbidos: a encruzilhada da esquerda brasileira. São Paulo: Autonomia Literária, 2019. https://autonomialiteraria.com.br/loja/teoria-politica/sintomas-morbidos-a-encruzilhada-da-esquerda-brasileira/ 

Fernandes, Sabrina. „Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil is a nightmare that could get worse“. Jacobin Magazine, 2019. https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-austerity-education-disorganization 

Fernandes, Sabrina. “Pedagogia crítica como práxis marxista humanista: perspectivas sobre solidariedade, opressão e revolução.“ Educação & Sociedade 37 (2016): p. 481-496. https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0101-73302016000200481 

All Publications from Sabrina Fernandes:

  • Global Crisis – Global Solidarity #2 with Sabrina Fernandes [Video]

    Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has struggled to keep his administration under control in recent months, destabilized by the government's failure to stop the spread of COVID-19, confusion among his supporters, and now, potentially, an impeachment trial initiated by former supporters.

  • Afraid to #StayAtHome: Bolsonaro’s mobilization of fear during the pandemic

    Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president, is known internationally for his far-right stances. He supports loosening gun control and frequently rants against human rights and “political correctness”. His motto of “God above all” pleases the more fundamentalist sectors of his evangelical base and he promotes a particular idea of the “good citizen”, often represented by a white middle-class Christian family man. His government employs a neoliberal economic agenda and is completely dismissive of environmental concerns. He was elected on a “tough on crime” platform full of false promises on how to solve the crime and violence problem in Brazil. His racist and sexist positions are well-known and add to the conservative positions of his government.

  • Florestan Fernandes: Explaining Authoritarianism Beyond the Fascist Experience

    One of the main challenges for understanding the concept of authoritarianism is the many different meanings it has. Already in the 1970s, Brazilian sociologist and political militant Florestan Fernandes analysed the ambiguity of the concept of authoritarianism and its use in political mainstream discourse. He assessed that if we explain authoritarianism only through the liberal lens – as being in opposition to “democracy” -, we ignore the inherent authoritarian tendencies of liberal democracy and its everyday abuse of power. Florestan proposed a different understanding instead.

  • Will Lula Get a Second Chance?

    Brazil’s presidential election will decide whether the country continues down the path of reaction or joins the new Pink Tide

  • Housing crisis in a time of democratic backsliding | CAPS22

    By looking into housing status, entitlements, infrastructure and policies, the panel “Housing crisis in a time of democratic backsliding” provided an analysis that helps to explain social contradictions and what kind of political action is possible by people excluded and/or repressed given authoritarian spatial dynamics in a society