----- Original Message ----- From: "mario kontra klass" <occupato at yahoo.com> To: <a-infos-en at ainfos.ca> Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 12:42 AM Subject: (en) alt. Media: Brazil's Red Star Goes Dim: "Workers' Party" for Sale [aren't them always?]
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> Brazil's Red Star Goes Dim: "Workers' Party" for Sale
> by James Wilson, 8/14/02
>
> Lately there have been a number of articles in business
> papers pointing out that as popularity increases for the
> "Workers' Party" (PT) so does capital flight. (1) As
> international investors "make the economy scream" (2) ,
> Lula, the party's candidate for President, is being
> disciplined with the choice: maintain political ideals and
> lose election, or bow to the rich and win.
>
> For him, like other "radical" politicians, winning the
> election is most important. In a switch he has soothed
> capitalist fears by notifying the World Bank/IMF that he's
> now committed to the repayment of loans. A hundred years
> ago the US was more forgiving. When it took over Cuba ,
> they cancelled the debt to Spain on grounds that the burden
> was "'imposed upon the people... without their consent and
> by force of arms.'" No such luck for Brazil and its
> neighbors today. The region's assembly workers, peasants,
> and street vendors never consented to taking out loans,
> especially not on condition of neoliberal "adjustments".
> Yet former dictators and other heads of state borrowed
> recklessly for their pet projects, knowing they personally
> wouldn't be the ones repaying their debts. That burden has
> historically been left for the ruled, not the rulers.
>
> In another attempt to befriend business elites, the former
> steel worker has named a wealthy textile boss as his VP. To
> be clear, Jose Alancar is no traitor to his class. As for
> the landless families that have occupied fallow areas on
> vast estates in order to live and farm, they are
> ?criminals?. If that isn't a clear enough signal of their
> intention to prosecute a war on the poor rather than a war
> on poverty, the two have sent their economic advisor North
> to reassure Bush on their promise to defend private
> property (3). The 3 percent of the population that owns
> 2/3rds of the arable land can sleep well. (4)
>
> In making the trip to the center of global power Lula shows
> he's studied South American history. In 1962 Brazilian
> President Goulart talked of instituting a minimum wage and
> agrarian reform. John F. Kennedy wasted no time. America's
> leading liberal stepped up donations to Brazil's military
> commanders and opposition parties friendly to "US
> interests". The new formula at the State Department worked.
> On March 31st 1964 the military followed up on their word
> to Kennedy. They ousted the elected President in a
> bloodless coup, and established the hemispheres first state
> that followed Nazi practice of using death squads to
> eliminate political opposition.(5) (6). As the Constitution
> was erased to nothing "and the investment climate improved,
> the World Bank offered its first loans in 15 years and US
> aid rapidly increased along with torture, murder,
> starvation, disease, infant mortality -- and profits." Two
> years after the coup, Ambassador Gordon testified before
> Congress that a "democratic rebellion" had taken place and
> was nothing short of "the single most decisive victory of
> freedom in the mid-twentieth century". (7)
>
> In the mid 1970s Lula's brother was one of the many
> unionists arrested, tortured, and sometimes killed. Still,
> in the context of a "'Stalinist State on top of Dodge
> City'", labor unrest continued.(8) In 1978-79 a strike wave
> by outlawed unions overwhelmed the multi-national auto
> industries of Ford, GM, and others. Settling the strikes
> with bribes to a few "leaders" proved futile. The strikes
> were won so industry turned to the state for help.
>
> That hard won rights of millions were in fact later
> restricted by the government, disheartened many at the
> grassroots level. The idea of forming a party to campaign
> for elections, take power and change the laws, seemed
> easier and too promising to resist.
>
> In forming this "Workers' Party", its activists took note
> of Brazilian history. During the 1940's dictatorship of
> Getulio Vargas, state controlled unions in the traditon of
> fascist Italy dominated. Vargas even went so far as to
> adopt Mussolini's labor code. The main preoccupation of
> these "unions" was mobilizing their members to the ballot
> box in local elections,(recall: student government powers),
> rather than organizing shop floor dissent. When a Vargas
> loyalist approached Lula in 1979 and said "We are reaching
> the river and it is necessary that we, as leaders, show the
> people where to cross it.", Lula replied, "I think it is
> time that the people should learn where and how to swim by
> themselves."
>
> Besides the fascist labor tendency, there was the Brazilian
> Communist Party. While respected for their work against the
> military, the PCB was most known for crushing internal
> dissent of policy advocating collaboration with local
> elites against imperialism. Not surprisingly, their primary
> goal of kicking out foreign imperialists meant an
> inter-class alliance at all levels, not just political. As
> with the Vargas era, strikes were to be avoided at great
> costs.
>
> By forming a new party controlled by activists at the local
> level, the PT attempted to build a combattive workers
> alliance capable of determining their own path. (9) Yet
> today Lula heads a party he has steered into a fatal
> coalition with Brazilian oligarchs. Rather than people
> learning to swim for themselves, he advocates the ritual of
> visiting the polls every 4 years to vote in a few
> individuals that will supposedly solve the problems of the
> many.
>
> Instead of direct actions for a return to parliamentary
> government, general strikes with political demands for the
> junta to stay out of the class wars* would have been more
> promising then, and now. After all, without labor there is
> no money to pay bosses, their politicians, and militaries
> to protect them. They are far more dependent on us than we
> are on them. Further, as Brazil's history shows, a union
> movement controlled by its members isn't so easily dealt
> with by the powerful. There's no central office to break
> into, no opportunistic politician to buy off, no
> principaled leader to shoot.
>
> That is not to say that politics should have been fully
> abandoned for a single focus on the economic plane. Without
> a break from neo-liberal orthodoxy of barring import
> tariffs, it's unlikely major manufacturing would have even
> come to Brazil (10). Given that it was cheaper for heavy
> industry to export from North America, Brazil would have
> remained a banana republic- precariously selling only a few
> resources to unstable world markets, susceptible to
> fullblown economic crisis if the price of sugar dropped. To
> the contrary, a class as self aware as the auto & steel
> workers of Brazil would serve itself well to bypass the
> parliamentary game for more direct forms of democracy, such
> as neighborhood assemblies and regional ballot initiatives.
>
>
> Besides regional strikes, the necessity of cross border
> labor action is becoming more apparent as multinationals
> increasingly use their mobility as a major bargaining chip
> against labor. A few years ago the UAW launched a strike in
> Michigan that was about investment. GM wanted to relocate
> to cheaper areas like Mexico.(11) . GM workers wanted job
> security. In Brazil GM workers struck in solidarity. If we
> can make an injury to one an injury to all like that, the
> global capitalist game will be all but over as the
> tradition of "American corporations" fleeing to cheaper
> areas no longer shows a positive dollar sign.
>
> For us Lula represents the bankruptcy of the electoral
> strategy & the idea of "democratic capitalism". He started
> out producing capitalisms goods and services, encouraging
> the people around him to fight for themselves. Today he's
> becoming a manager of capitalism in the South. Like other
> radical politicians before him, Lula gives testimony to the
> old saying,"The liberation of the working class is the task
> of the workers themselves".
>
>
> footnote: The phrase "class wars" is used in reference to
> the fact that in addition to the conflicts between wage
> labor and capital, a major segment of Brazil's population
> exists outside the formal economy, as peasants and
> self-employed. Many are actively engaged in a struggle over
> land with an aristocratic class in tact from the colonial
> era.
>
> Bibliography
>
> 1. Oppenheimer, Andres. 'Brazil Will Shift Left But Only
> Slightly', (2002).
> "http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/3839085.htm".
> (Last accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 2. Barsamian, David. 'Secrets, Lies and Democracy
> (Interviews with Noam Chomsky)' (1994).
> "http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sld/sld-3-02.html". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 3. Vann, Bill. 'Brazil?s Workers Party chooses textile
> magnate as candidate' (2002).
> "http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/braz-j22.shtml".
> (Last accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 4. Mark, Jason. 'Brazil's MST: Taking Back the Land'
> (2001).
> "http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/labor/0227mst.htm".
> (Last accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 5. 'Brazil' (1997)
> "http://www.unl.edu/LatAmHis/20thCenturyBrazil.html". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 6. Chomsky, Noam, Herman, Edward. 'The Washington
> Connection and Third World Fascism' (1979).
> "http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/NaziParallelFascism_Herman.html".
> (Last accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 7. Chomsky, Noam. 'Year 501' (1993).
> "http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/year/year-c07-s05.html". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 8. Chomsky, Noam. 'Jubilee 2000'
> "http://www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/jubilee2000.htm". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 9. Brazil Election Information Committee. 'Brazil: The PT,
> Democracy, & Socialism' (1990).
> "http://www.stile.lboro.ac.uk/~gyedb/STILE/Email0002091/m10.html".
> (Last accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 10. Shapiro, Helen. 'The Mechanics of Brazil's Auto
> Industry' (1996).
> "http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42/037.html". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
> 11. Bacon, David. 'GENERAL MOTORS -- A POLITICAL STRIKE
> CONFRONTS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY' (1998).
> "http://www.ainfos.ca/98/aug/ainfos00003.html". (Last
> accessed: 8/13/02)
>
>
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