By Alicia Sagra
Zezóca is closely linked to my militant life. Starting with my first international experience when we taught theoretical courses, organized by the Socialist Convergence (CS), in February 1983. Later, in 1992, we were, together with Bernardo, in the first International Secretariat, when we began the process of rebuilding the IWL. At the same time, we shared the C.S political education secretariat. We were, along with Cecilia Toledo, organizers of the IWL seminars on Women Oppression and elaborated the conclusions of the last seminar. (1). We were part of the Editorial Board of Marxismo Vivo and we suffered, together with Martín Hernández, Ronald León, Marcos Margarido, Daniel Ruiz, the expulsion from that Council, decreed by the IWL leadership. With Margarido, we founded the David Riazanov Marxist School and kept it running for 10 years. Together with comrades who were, at different times, part of the BDI 10 Opinion Group, the TIBA, the FDR, we developed what he considered the main battle of his life: the fight against the bureaucratic degeneration of the IWL and PSTU leadership. Finally, with Bernardo we had the sad privilege of accompanying him during the last months of his life.
Participation in these revolutionary tasks built strong bonds of camaraderie and friendship, which were expressed in walks, at end of year parties, with his partner Rita and friends such as Alex, Bernardo, Raquel, Rose, Martín, Sandra.
On May 7, 2025, this dear friend left us. When we remember the moment of his departure, the feeling of sadness returns for not being able to say goodbye with the great act he deserved, as we did with Didí, Cilinha, Américo. We fulfilled his explicit request. We respect his will, with which we agree, but at that time we could not explain the reason for that decision.
Zezóca did not want to be honored by his political persecutors, he did not want to be used for that hypocrisy. In any case, hypocrisy appeared and we had to keep quiet, when we heard and read, the inflammatory praise that both IWL and PSTU leadership made to him after his death: «An essential», «the most intelligent cadre after Moreno»; when we knew that those who spoke like this were those who had not only persecuted him in life, but who continued to persecute him after death. Those who made those praises, once again ratified the prohibition of his website, thus ignoring his last will: to leave for the new generations of revolutionaries, his elaborations and conclusions of 50 years of militancy.
We did not accept this bureaucratic imposition, which had nothing to do with the democratic centralism advocated by Lenin. Under the responsibility of Bernardo and Martín, his page Perspectiva Marxista was published and is, as he wanted, at the service of all revolutionaries, especially the youth.
On the first anniversary of his death, we want to remember Zezóca in his different aspects, expressing everything we couldn’t when he left us.
As a Marxist scholar and elaborator
From a very young age he was attracted by Marxism, by its study and by the activity of educating new comrades. His political, theoretical-programmatic contributions were of great importance in the process of IWL reconstruction.
He was our greatest specialist in the Middle East and a great defender of the Palestinian cause. His elaborations on the subject are expressed in Marxismo Vivo(2), in Correo Internacional and in the enormous number of courses and talks he gave. Like other revolutionaries of Jewish origin, he felt almost obliged to repeat, to propagandize, that Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism, Zionism is synonymous with Nazi-fascism, and he did so until the last moments of his life
But that was not his only topic, he studied and wrote about the Arab world(3), about the working class and the Brazilian revolution, about Engels(4), about reform and revolution, about Historical Materialism (he was one of the organizers of the IWL seminar on that subject)(5).
His book Citizenship and Class had a lot of relevance in the formation of our militants when, after the restoration of capitalism and the fall of the Stalinist regimes, reformism, postmodernism, replaced Marxist concepts of class with definitions such as «citizenship» and «universal democracy».
Of special importance in the formation of our current was the document on revolutionary morality prepared by Zezóca, approved in 2008 by the IWL-FI World Congress and published on the international’s website. In that document, made on the basis of the conceptions of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Moreno, it is stated that the problem is not that there are moral problems within the party, but in the way in which the leadership acts in the face of these facts. It talks about the problems we faced, most of them of machismo, and it defined categorically, that these violations of revolutionary morality cannot be accepted, that all these cases must be punished, that the sanctions against the leaders must be much more rigorous and that the leader who commits acts of this nature must never be protected. This differentiated us from most of the Trotskyist currents that acted in the opposite direction
Ironically, the author of this document was sanctioned(6) for refusing to hide, from the base, the sexist action committed by one of the main IWL leaders, for which he had received only a symbolic sanction.
As a builder of the International.
Zezóca stood out as a preparer, educator, but his militancy was not only intellectual, he was a party builder and he fulfilled that task not only in the Brazilian party but also Internationally.
As soon as we began rebuilding the IWL, he traveled for several months to Europe to help build the Spanish and Portuguese parties.
He was the first leader of our current to travel to the Middle East, to Syria, Lebanon and to him we owe the first contacts we had in that region.
He traveled, several times, to the different countries in South and Central America. He initiated and concretized the relationship with the Italian current that later became a section of the IWL.
From 1992 to 2024 he participated in the IWL leadership. From 2018-2020 he became part of the critical minority of that leadership. It can be said, then, that, until that moment, he is part of the successes and also of the mistakes the IWL had in those almost 30 years since its reconstruction.
Zezóca was not perfect, perfection does not exist. He had strengths and weaknesses. He was well aware of his weaknesses and following the Moreno tradition, he openly recognized them. For example, he always said that he was a bad organizer, so he tried to team up with others who had different characteristics and he was very good at teamwork, it was a pleasure to work with him.
There’s no doubt that, in this relationship of strengths and weaknesses, the determinants were the strengths, with his departure our cadre group was greatly weakened.
As a human being
Nahuel Moreno always said that our current had originated a special human type, people happy with what they did, fraternal, supportive. He explained this by considering that revolutionary activity was a source of disalienation.
Obviously, major party crises cause effects contrary to this process of disalienation.
Zezóca is one of the best examples of that human type that Moreno spoke of.
Not coincidentally, all those who worked and shared moments of life with him, remember him as a cheerful, affable, supportive, very humble person. He was passionate about soccer and as a young man he was a great futsal player, he liked theater, movies, samba. He loved to receive friends, to meet old comrades.
His characteristic distractions were the cause of many jokes. Zezóca had the ability to laugh at himself. Many remember the anecdotes he told about it, such as the one in which while in prison he mistook detergent for cooking oil and did not understand why the other prisoners looked at him in amazement, until he perceived the large amount of foam that came out of the pan where he was making fried eggs.
A common expression among those who knew him was: «It is impossible to fight with Zezoca.» It was true, but that affability, characteristic of his personality, in no way meant that he did not defend his ideas.
His last battle
Zezóca was one of the drafters of the documents with which we faced the battle against the process of bureaucratic degeneration of the IWL and PSTU leadership.
He was, along with Martín Hernández, one of the most persecuted by that leadership. He was sanctioned by the IWL leadership, disrespected by the PSTU leadership whom ignored his offer to collaborate with the party’s elaborations and formation; he was not integrated, despite his request, in the construction of the theoretical seminars and his request for authorization to publish a website with the elaborations he wanted to leave as a legacy was denied, despite knowing that he had only a short time to live.
Zezóca suffered with all that. Especially with the treatment he received from the main leaders of the PSTU, whom he considered his friends for a long time. But that did not break him. Disappointment was transformed into rage, into readiness to fight. He never lost confidence in the working class, in the socialist revolution, in the need and the possibility of building a new revolutionary party in Brazil and the world.
If he were alive, he would be one of those expelled and would be on the front line building the MPR and IRC.
In all fairness, he must be considered one of the founders of the new revolutionary party of Brazil and of the new International, supported by Lenin, Trotsky and Moreno, which we aspire to build.
Rest in peace, dear comrade, your battle continues.
Visit the Zezoca Special MPR page https://mpr–nacional.org/especial–zezoca/
