ew Resistance Brazil, or locally known as Nova Resistência (NR), held their first historic congress over the Easter weekend, April 19-21. The monumental event was hosted in Latin America’s largest city of São Paulo and saw NR members from all across this giant country arrive to participate.

The Center for Syncretic Studies Research Fellow Paul Antonopoulos made the 950 kilometer (600 mile) journey from Espirito Santo to São Paulo to participate and contribute.

The Congress was opened with a 20 minute video message and support of solidarity from Alexander Dugin, the Russian Philosopher and Political Scientist who explicated that a Fourth Political Theory is emerging.  The Center for Syncretic Studies own Joaquin Flores, some four years ago, explicated for the public some of what the Fourth Political Theory may look like, and how it may take hold, in the United States. For further reading, see: The Disintegration of the United States and the Fourth Political Theory: A Brief Overview

Antonopoulos himself transcribed the text into English so it could be orally translated by an NR member into Portuguese. Dugin encouraged NR members to not give up their battle against liberalism and to create a model of the Fourth Political Theory that is suited to Latin America and to find their own philosophers to follow and expand their theories. Of course, when we think of Brazilian philosophers and political inspiration, the immediate names that come to mind are Leonel Brizola and Enéas Carneiro – to be discussed in a future article.

With the conclusion of Dugin’s video message, the panel of presenters for the Congress was opened by the General-Secretary of NR Brazil, Raphael Machado, who gave an in-depth presentation on Fourth Political Theory.

Following Machado’s presentation, comrade Lucas Pilares gave a presentation on “Puritan Theology in the Formation of North America.”

Comrade Luis Campos then gave a presentation titled: “Folia de Reis in the south of Minas Gerais and Caretos Portugueses: Similarities and Origins.”

The final presentation of the day was given by comrades featuring André Luis who gave a lecture on “The Multiple Interpretations of Brazil.”

Day Two of the Congress also saw more presentations made as well workshops to further organization NR Brazil. The results of the workshops will be revealed by NR Brazil in their own time – if they choose.

Comrade Ewerton Alipio was the first to present on the second day of the Congress, giving a lecture on “The Armorial Movement and QTP: An Invitation to Imagination.”

Among the most impressive ideological-historical feats of NR, of which CSS has taken a keen interest in observing, has been its success in moving beyond the realm of the politics of the French ‘new right’, ‘far right’, or any other Third Position framings associated with so-called right-wing radicalism. 

For its part, NR holds open an ‘invitation’ to all those of the ‘far right’ Third Position as well as the ‘far left’ Second Position, who are prepared to let go of those trappings and seriously examine the emergent ideological framework of the 21st century.

In the second presentation for Day Two, CSS’ own Paul Antonopoulos then presented a paper titled: “A Revolutionary-minded Gringo’s Perspective on the Current Situation in Brazil.” Although read out in English, a power-point presentation was made with a Portuguese transcription.

In his lecture he makes a cross comparison on the colonial experiences of Australia and Brazil and how they differed, the former being a colony that exploited the wealth of the land for itself to become successful and developed, and the latter being a colony to enrich Portugal and the United Kingdom and help the latter industrialize.

He then moved onto talking about the dirty history of the CIA weaponizing evangelical strands like the Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals to change Latin American culture and thinking to be more welcoming of US corporate domination and neo-liberalism. He then criticized the Brazilian left for engaging in identity politics and attempting to normalize mental illnesses like gender dysphoria, which then meant right-wing Jair Bolsonaro was able to be seen as a “defender” of Brazil’s natural conservatism. With him being viewed as a defender of the faith, doubled with the evangelicals changing Brazilian thinking, people in Brazil are now accepting the privatization of Brazil’s resources and industries, the destruction of the Amazon, and the imposition of rampant free market capitalism/neo-liberalism. His presentation will later by available as an article in an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Syncretic Studies.

Prior to his presentation however, he also spoke out an encouraging and heartfelt message on behalf of Joaquin Flores in his capacity as New Resistance Evropa’s Director.

A part of his message said:

Brazil is an emerging world power, and will require a world-class ideology, which New Resistance uniquely holds.

The history of the 20th century had its successes and failures. The mechanisms of liberalism, fascism, and communism were developed. But they were all burdened by being the products of modernity.

We are unique in identifying modernity itself as that which must be overcome.

In developing this, we have in fact influenced many others who today do not recognize us as the source of their new-found ideas. But we are satisfied in knowing that they will be starved of any future solutions without our instructions to them.

Following the CSS representation, comrade Yuri called from Russia through video and spoke about “Dissident Anthropology,” being followed up by comrade Lucas Leiroz who made an informative presentation on “Carl Schmitt as a Pioneer of Fourth Political Theory: The Theory of Big Spaces and Multipolarity.”

This ended the presentations with what being followed up only being able to be revealed by NR Brazil themselves in their own official channels. What can be said is that collaborative projects over the long term will see both organizations prosper and grow alongside each other.