"Incêndio: trabalho e revolta no fim de linha brasileiro" ("Wildfire: work and revolt in Brazil's dead end") is a short book composed of the introduction and two short essays: "'Olha como a coisa virou'" ("'Look how things have turned out'"), originally published in Passa Palavra (passapalavra.info), and "Masterclass de fim de mundo" ("A Masterclass on the end of the world"), originally published in a website improvised by the authors (https://neblina.xyz/).

Both portraits present a very particular reading of the most radical events of Brazilian politics in the last four years, as seen from São Paulo from a radical leftist point of view: the crisis of a certain left that became conservative in the wake of the great demonstrations of 2013; the rise of #bolsonarismo in the peripheries; the deepening of #fascism in #Brazil; the truckers' strike of 2018; workers' #struggles during the period of most intense social isolation due to the #COVID-19 #pandemic ; the #brequedosapps of #motorcycle #couriers and #delivery workers; the struggles of #telemarketing and #callcenter workers; the struggles around health protection measures for workers and entire communities; the weak results of the avalanche of strikes of the 2010s. ... it's all in the book's two essays.

Personally, I have certain reservations about the "cebrapian glasses" with which "militantes na neblina" ("activists within the fog") reads Brazilian and world reality. (CEBRAP being a prominent Brazilian center for scholarly research in the social sciences.)

I also dislike certain emulations of the very peculiar essayistic style of Paulo Eduardo Arantes -- not because his unique style is bad, but precisely because it is so unique, almost idiosyncratic, something between literature and philosophy, possible only to those capable of mastering a much wider range of styles and writing skills than the writers of the essays in this book.

Someday I will manage to organize these and other criticisms in order to establish a dialogue with the authors; for the time being our daily exploitation prevents me from doing so.

In spite of all my very personal reservations, I strongly recommend the reading of this book to anyone who intends to understand what has happened in Brazilian politics over the last four years, outside all the palace intrigues, social network bickering and press gibberish.