PREFACE

On September 11, 2020, Brazil crossed the six-month milestone of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most Brazilians lost jobs and income: the country now has 13 million unemployed , 5.6 million discouraged (who gave up looking for a job) and 40 million precarious informal workers , in addition to 600,000 micro, small and medium-sized companies that closed their doors.

The global economic crisis caused by the pandemic leaves half a billion people on the brink of poverty. Four hundred million jobs are gone and 430 million small businesses are at risk of bankruptcy. They are data from an Oxfam report, which was launched on the eve of the global alert six months ago.

In the latest IBGE brazilian Social Indicators Summary (2019) there were 25.3% living in poverty with an income of up to $ 5.5 per day . In 2018 (the year to which the data refer) there were 55 million Brazilians in this sad condition. Unfortunately, in 2020 we broke all records. About 100 million workers signed up to obtain the “ coronabonus ” (Emergency Aid).

The articles published here provide a revealing na overview of criticism unleashed in and by p andemia. The ongoing tragedy is cruel and selective, with very different incidents depending on the different social classes and different regions. Among the insane and abysmal rifts that govern our society, to this  global epidemic naked especially the dichotomous separation between health and economics, making it clear that the market when guided solely by their interests, devours and destroys life. Our acute weaknesses and severe repressed tensions explode triggered by the pandemic.

In pre-pandemia was ongoing delegitimization and dismantling of state structures in all areas, including the social and health care. This health crisis opens wide the crucial importance of the state and its public policies. In a country like Brazil, in particular, where one quarter of the population lives precariously without the minimum conditions, the National Health Service (SUS) and Social Assistance ( ITS ) proved to be robust and indispensable.

The performance of this immense complex entity involving family health teams, public hospitals, systems of surveillance, research Institutes and public policies of minimum income (such as Bolsa Familia and “coronabonus"), prevented the opening of the gates of hell, much downplayed the horror we experience, avoiding the complete collapse of society.

In this edition, the account of the performance of an unit of CRAS (Reference Center for Social Assistance) in Arapiraca (Alagoas), plucked from thousands of other examples, shows one the flawless and precious sample of the power of the born state organizations of political achievements sculpted in the 1988 Constitution . What the article of Torres, Lima and Breda unveils, we also see in the Leilah Bufrem, as well as in Marta Castro reflection. They all show how survival heroic of public bodies, threatened by privatizing rage in recent years, it is now essential to contain and fight against the coronavirus and save lives.

This unprecedented extreme event triggered a painful social crisis, with enormous challenges, but it also revealed opportunities that allow us to break through and go beyond the daily necropolitical absurdity that was “normalized”.

More than oppose the dismantling and the strengthen of state institutions, the pandemic acts as a “great accelerator" in the transitivo from the old normal for other forms of corporate organization, more sustainable and healthy , opening opportunities for alternatives to experiencing a partner state and new development paths.

These opportunities are pointed out by Michel Bauwens ; Guilherme Preger ; André Souza and Fausto Augusto Jr .; Márcio Gomes, Andrei Emmer , Estela Oliveira, Gabriela Nabozny , Lilian Elias and Tiago Silva; João Torrens ; and Dorival Fagundes, Felipe Machado and Lucas Cabral. It shines especially in the potential of Aldir Blanc Law, which rescues the importance of artists and poets for the post-pandemic world, as reveals Célio Turino .

They are not flowers at all , as is obvious in pandemic times . In this scenario of the Covid19 pandemic, a very tough battle is underway, especially in the virulent salons of Brasília, as shown by George Oliveira and Alexandre Vaz. Another hard fight takes place in the informational level, with the epidemic information, many of them fraudulent, contaminating the face of the toilet crisis laughed. This situation is addressed in this special issue of P2P by Ivana Oliveira, Maíra Souza and Giovanna Abreu, to whom they bring the experience of the State Secretariat of Public Health in Pará State.

In addition to the labyrinthine and performance games of power and informational wars, Lima,  Röder, Carvalho and Günther warn that the urgent needs for epidemiological control can serve to implement surveillance and control measures that limit fundamental freedoms. This "nightmare" is the other side of the immense possibilities emancipatory that digital technologies allow, environment that engenders and builds smart cities.

Another ambiguous reality in this pandemic is the break-in of school gates, forcing the school institution to enter the 21st century once and for all to reinvent itself, by exponentially boosting the use of the internet in teaching. Jovino Pizzi's article provides us with a balance of the controversy generated by the rapid and absolute generalization of digital platforms in the pedagogical field.

Good reading!

Rio de Janeiro, September 24, 2020

Armando de Melo Lisboa and Clóvis Ricardo Montenegro de Lima

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