From: magellan at netrio.com.br (R. Magellan)
There is NO social upheaval in Brazil, nor "massive, violent responses" etc. ----at least for the time being... The town mentioned in the Guardian report (below) is a very liitle one with no importance whatsoever and very far from any big or medium-sized city. I didn't read anything about this riot in the newspapers and didn't heard about it in the radio either (well, I'm not used to watch TV).
Much more important than that riot in a remote village has been the occupation of one of the Ford car factories by 2,000 workers who were fired on Christmas. Their families, including new-born babies, also joined them. This action has shaken the moribund trade union movement, now under feeble or corrupt leaderships and weakened by the rising unemployment.
Nevertheless, Brazil is slipping down into a Russian-like situation, step by step (and Argentina will follow, due to the close relationship between both countries). Let's enumerate some features of it:
a) The prevailing interest rate is the world highest in order to satisfy both national and international financial capital, what is wrecking everybody, including the productive sectors of the bourgeoisie, not to mention the Federal Union, States and Municipalities;
b) Unemployment has continuously been surpassing its historic records each new month and knows no age, sex, race, profession, class or regional boundaries;
c) The Minas Gerais State (the 3rd. of Brazil) has decreed a non-negotiated moratorium of its debts for 90 days (wages excepted) and other states may follow, though risking a federal intervention;
d) Both heavy and light industries have been either closing their doors or changing owners (the president of the Central Bank, Gustavo Franco, has stirred the bourgeoisie up at saying that Brazilian companies are now quite cheap thanks to the neoliberal policies and so foreign investors are invited to buy them at bargain prices);
e) The world's largest privatization program it is still in course, to the benefit of big capital, both Brazilian and foreign, besides growing suspicions of widespread corruption (surprisingly, FBI has voluntereed to cooperate with its Brazilian counterpart on the matter, but its behavior has seemed to be of throwing a smoke screen on the facts);
f) In several places the payments of wages of civil servants are in delay of up to 4 months and many private business are ilegally reducing salaries and increasing labor journeys and failing to comply with social security and labor statutes and agreements (this is called "flexibilization" of labor contracts); in some cases salaries are being paid in merchandises produced by the employing company;
g) The rate of insolvency and bad debts in the economy (both consumer's and corporate's ones) grows each new month and has reached its historic peak;
h) The growth of urban slums has sky-rocketed in several big cities and now are the new "homes" of decaying middle class people;
i) The minimum wage was practically frozen at its June, 1994 level, despite the rise of prices of the basic staple since then;
j) It is not so uncommon that workers with regular jobs (low paid ones) sleep in the streets for having no money enough to pay for transportation back home; in the cold times and places some of them frozen to death;
k) 60% of the emergency care in public hospitals in 1998 was ascribed to hungry and malnutrition causes (hospitals serve meals, after all); etc. etc.
About one year and half ago there were clashes between PM (the military police, an equivalent to the National Guard in USA, controlled by the states) and the federal Army in two states because the state soldiers had not received wages for more than 3 months and rebelled. It had never happened such a thing in Brazil.
Though being very calm by now, Brazil may happens to be a political time bomb, as Russia already is. By the way, Brazil's GNP is larger than the Russian one (the world's 9th GNP) and the exposure of US banks and of the international financial system in Brazil is very larger than in Russia. The domino effect will be worse if the country crashes, as it will eventually happen.
While the permanent crisis of global capitalism goes on, MST (the landless movement) has taken the political lead and has been pushing agrarian reform ahead through the occupation of idle lands. "Organize, occupy and produce" is its successful motto.
In solidarity,
Roberto Magellan
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans (....)
Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grand PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS. (L' Internationale)