Dossier
on Brazil & Unions Six Months After Lula’s Inauguration
1)
Declaration of the O Trabalho Current to the National Directorate of the
Workers Party of Brazil (PT): "Support the Striking
Public-Sector Workers!" -- issued July 8, 2003
2) Brazil Strikers Claim
Success -- BBC, July 9, 2003
3)
Landless Peasants Movement Confronts Growing Right-Wing Violence and
Inaction by the Government in Carrying Out its Agrarian Reform Program
-- excerpted and adapted from the "Open Letter to the Members
of Socialist Democracy, Brazilian section of the United
Secretariat" issued July 8, 2003, by the O Trabalho current of the
Workers Party
4)
"Not One of the 2,735 delegates to the CUT's National Congress
Defended the Government's Proposed Reform of the Pension System"
-- Editorial published by the O Trabalho current of the Workers Party,
June 16, 2003
5)
The Congress of the United Workers Federation (CUT) Discusses the Reform
of the Pension System -- reprinted from Issue No. 33 (July 2, 2003)
of the International Newsletter of the International Liaison Committee
of Workers and Peoples (ILC)
6)
Excerpts from Interview with Brazilian Union Leader Julio Turra:
"Join Us to Fight the FTAA!" -- reprinted from The
Dispatcher Newspaper (ILWU), February 2003)
7)
Declaration of the O Trabalho Current of the Workers Party: No to the
Disciplinary Measures Against the PT Members of Parliament! Let's
Join Ranks to Defend the Workers Party! -- issued May 21, 2003
8)
Brazil: Workers and Unions Say No to a Devastating Reform of Their
Pension System -- reprinted from ILC International Newsletter No.
27, May 19, 2003)
********************
1) Declaration of the O Trabalho Current to the National Directorate of
the Workers Party of Brazil (PT)
The National Directorate of the PT, the highest leadership body of
our party, is meeting at a particularly important moment in the life of
our country.
Six months ago, Lula took over the reins of government, having been
elected by 53 million Brazilians who voted for him so that their
immediate needs and demands could be attended to: land; jobs; vital
public services, including the defense and extension of the pension
system (Previdencia) to all workers; and the establishment of Brazil's
sovereignty.
All of us understood that the country and the newly elected government
would face a difficult situation. But today Brazil is headed for a major
crisis, with the concentration of multiple explosive factors:
- On the one hand, there is ever-growing pressure from President Bush to
impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as soon as possible,
so that the funds of the Public Pension System (Previdencia) can be
turned over to the financial speculators. There are increased attacks by
the large landowners, using private militias (jagunços), to dislodge
and even assassinate the landless peasants. There is a concerted effort
by the wealthy and mafiosi elite to sabotage the national economy with
the goal of undermining the vote that was expressed last October 27th by
the great majority of the Brazilian people.
- On the other hand, we can see that the workers, as well as diverse
sectors of the population and the youth, are beginning to mobilize
against these attacks. This fightback was expressed in the June 11th
March in Brasilia in defense of the Public Pension System, the increased
numbers of land occupations in various states, the marches and rallies
of the students in Rio against the increase in bus fares for youth --
and now, most recently, in the national strike of public-sector workers,
who were forced out on strike as they can no longer tolerate the
rollback of their rights and gains. Moreover, from all corners of the
country, there has been a proliferation of manifestos -- written by
economists and intellectuals, many of them founders of the PT -- as well
as resolutions and motions from official PT bodies sent to the National
Directorate -- expressing deep concern over the course taken by the PT,
thus revealing an intense debate under way inside the party.
At the root of this situation is the crisis of the so-called "free
market" system -- a system that is leading humanity to the
precipice. This is the system that was responsible, for example, for the
war in Iraq that has plunged that country into total chaos.
This is the system, as well, that is putting pressures on the government
of our country -- through the mechanism of the repayment of the immense
and unpayable foreign debt and the accompanying "agreements"
with the IMF and "structural adjustment recommendations" of
the World Bank -- thereby creating the difficult situation that everyone
now acknowledges.
This is the system in which multinational corporations fire workers at
will, or eliminate jobs through buyout plans (PDV), and announce new
"collective holidays" as they lay off more people -- while
other multinationals quite calmly default on their payments to the
National Development Bank (BNDES) in order to bankrupt it, and the
so-called "regulatory agencies" eliminate all controls and
tariffs ... all of this aimed at sabotaging the national economy.
But it was precisely to break out of this infernal situation that 53
million people voted for Lula and the PT last October 27th!
Today, we can say with certainty that only two options are available:
- Either the government submits to the pressures by Bush and turns the
country over to the FTAA, destroying millions of jobs, liquidating
rights and gains in the name of "free trade"; either it
submits even more to the pressures of the large landowners and allows
the militias (jagunços) free rein to evict and kill the landless
peasants, including allowing Minister of Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues
to defend openly the violence perpetrated by the landowners; either it
submits to the pressures of the "market" -- that is, the
speculators and mafiosi who want to put their hands on the pension funds
of the public-sector workers as they demand adoption of PEC 40; in a
word, either the government goes down the path of the stepped-up
dismantling of the Brazilian nation,
- Or, on the other hand, the government rescues national sovereignty;
defends and extends our rights and gains; saves the threatened jobs;
keeps open the factories facing bankruptcy (including, if necessary,
nationalizing them to guarantee workers' jobs, as is being demanded by
the workers of Cipla/Interfibra in Joinville (Santa Catarina); withdraws
from the fake FTAA negotiations; revokes MP 2.183 [a law enacted under
former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to criminalize land
occupations and ban distribution of lands taken over by the landless
peasants]; begins immediate implementation of an agrarian reform
program, legitimizing the lands occupied by the landless peasants and
providing technical assistance, credit and commercialization to the new
farm units; and withdraws its proposed PEC 40 "reform" of the
public-sector pension system, creating the space for a solution that
guarantees the rights of all public workers and increases retirement
protection for all workers.
Where is the money to do all this?
To address the most urgents demands of Brazil's working and poor people,
a government of the PT should not hesitate to go after the money where
it can be obtained:
- The money that is lacking to pay for agrarian reform, education,
healthcare and infrastructure has been drained from the public coffers
to pay back the foreign debt. Sixty-four percent of the public budget is
earmarked for the payment of the foreign debt, with rollover loans from
the IMF still "contingent" on meeting IMF budgetary surplus
goals. These goals are expected to increase even further next year.
- The money needed to cover the pension payments to the public workers
can be found in the US$192 billion that are owed to the National Social
Security Institute by millionaires and corporations without scruples,
all of whose names are well known as the list was disclosed publicly by
the Minister of Previdencia himself.
- The money to restore all public services can be found in the US$107
billion that fled Brazil during the past 10 years through the CC-5
accounts of the Central Bank, $30 billion of which left the country
illegally and have already been located by the Federal Police and are
currently being investigated by the Banestado, where there is already a
$30 billion fine pending for illegal profiteering.
If all this money were repatriated, the government would be able to
provide solutions to all the urgent demands of the Brazilian people.
The government, in fact, must place strict controls over the entry and
exit of financial transactions and capital. No more loopholes for the
speculators and racketeers! End the financial sweetheart deals demanded
by the speculators and the IMF!
It is clear and undeniable: To be able to chart a course that is
favorable to the Brazilian people in this current situation, the
government must adopt such measures -- which are simple, easily
understandable and, in many cases, have already been implemented in
other situations by various governments.
True, there is pressure, and there are mounting acts of sabotage. But if
the government were to move forward with such a plan of action -- a plan
that corresponds to the will expressed by the majority of Brazilians on
October 27th -- it will be certain to receive the determined support of
the millions who brought Lula and the PT victory last October 27th.
The Workers Party (PT) must continue and move forward.
Today, there are some in the party who want to expel those who, as
members of Congress, have said no publicly to the proposed reform of the
pension-reform system (Previdencia). We must ask ourselves:
- Wasn't it the parliamentary fraction of the PT which over the years
prevented previous governments from taxing and securing payments from
inactive workers?
- Wasn't it the parliamentary fraction of the PT which, over the past
three years, prevented the Cardoso government from adopting Public Law
No. 9 (which has now been incorporated into the proposed PEC 40)?
- And wasn't it Lula himself who, when running for president signed the
"13 Commitments to the Public-Sector Workers" -- a text that
guaranteees and pledges to advance the social and labor rights of these
workers, returning, moreover, parity between active and retired workers?
No one can trace the PT government's current attacks on workers' rights
contained in PEC 40 back to the PT's past record in parliament or to its
electoral pledges to the workers. This is an incontrovertible fact. So
how then can some comrades in the PT leadership now propose to expel
from our party people who are simply defending the same positions the PT
has championed and fought for in the past? Such disciplinary measures
are totally unacceptable.
The PT must continue to be the party it has always been -- a party where
internal democracy is respected, a party that plays its role in
championing the interests of working people and the oppressed.
Today, the PT must support the legitimate strike which the public-sector
workers were forced to carry out. The PT must ask the government to
withdraw PEC 40 -- as the public-sector workers have requested, so that
true negotiations can take place. The PT must support the landless
peasants and demand that the government adopt measures of agrarian
reform, beginning with the repeal of MP 2.183.
If the PT continues to be the party it has always been, the PT will help
the Brazilian people find the positive and urgent solutions that the
current situation requires.
Sao Paulo, July 8, 2003
********************
2) Brazil Strikers Claim Success
BBC -- July 9, 2003
By Tom Gibb
BBC Correspondent in Brazil
Striking public sector workers in Brazil have claimed success after the
first day of what they have promised will be a campaign of strikes to
try to derail sweeping pension reforms.
Estimates suggest between 40% and 50% of the country's 900,000 federal
workers joined the strike.
But the country's president, former union boss Luis Ignacio Lula da
Silva has vowed to press ahead with the reforms upon which he has staked
the success of his government.
The public sector unions that organised the strike are threatening to
close the government down unless the pension reforms are withdrawn from
congress.
But it is not at all clear that they will have the force to do so. On
the first day of the strike in the capital, Brasilia, ministries carried
on working as normal as most workers turned up.
The greatest disruption appears to have been in ports, airports and at
frontier posts as customs officials stopped all but essential goods from
entering and leaving the country.
Lula unmoved
Lula, as the new president is known, was helped by the fact that the
largest union confederation has not joined the strike, instead opting to
try to negotiate changes in the reforms.
These at present will limit the size of public sector pensions, change
the age of retirement and make pensions taxable.
Economists say they are essential to stop Brazil from going bankrupt.
Lula himself brushed off the strike saying he would only be worried if
congress had joined in as well.
He appears to be gambling that public sector workers will gradually go
back to work rather than follow union calls to deepen the strikes in
coming weeks.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/3051667.stm
Published: 2003/07/09 02:18:16 GMT
*********************
3) Landless Peasants Movement Confronts Growing Right-Wing Violence
and Inaction by the Government in Carrying Out its Agrarian Reform
Program
The landless peasants in Brazil continue to take matters into their
own hands, occupying fallow lands they've been denied for decades.
During the six months since the PT government took office under Inacio
"Lula" da Silva, the landless peasants have increased their
land occupations by 140% over the previous six months. The movement of
landless peasants, along with that of the rural workers, is urging the
new government to adopt immediate agrarian reform measures.
The reason for this increase in land occupations is not hard to find.
Thirty-five thousand large landownders (or latifundiarios) -- often
simple agents of the large banks or multinational corporations for whom
the land's value is mainly speculative -- possess expanses of land in
the tens of thousands of acres. In fact, 45 percent of all cultivated
lands are in the hands of just 1 percent of the landholders.
Meanwhile, 3 million people (according to the official statistics of the
National Institute for Agrarian Reform) have been deprived of lands and
must roam the countryside looking for work in jobs where they are at the
mercy of the jagunços (or hired foremen), who abuse and harass the
landless peasants, to the point of assassinating those who dare to stand
up for their rights.
During the six months of the Lula government, nothing has changed for
the better for the landless peasants. On the contrary, the right wing
and large landowners have increased their threats and attacks on these
landless peasants. Their private goons, or jagunços, are purchasing
more weapons. In fact, the number of assassinations in the countryside
has increased significantly. (It is estimated that more than 2,000
landless peasants have been assassinated over the past 30 years.)
On July 3, the Military Police, under orders from the Justice
Department, evicted violently the Chico Mendes encampment of the
Landless Peasants Movement (MST) in Pernambuco. For the past six years,
600 families have lived here. The destruction of the encampment was
massive: 180 houses, numerous schools, a church and all the crops were
destroyed. The same day, in the state of Paraná, another squatters'
camp was invaded by the Military Police, leaving many workers severely
injured. Right-wing Senators are seeking a government edict to
criminalize the MST.
[The MST was born in 1984 out of this brutal struggle for the land.
Today it organizes all the landless peasants in Brazil. It benefits from
close relations with the Workers Party and the Unified Workers
Confederation (CUT), both of which arose at about the same time as the
MST.]
What has been the response of the PT government to this dramatic
situation? What have the cabinet members in charge of the ministries of
Agriculture and Agrarian Development said about the escalating violence
and the struggle for the land?
In response to the large landowners' massive rearming, Minister of
Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues declared publicly, "I consider that
everyone who owns something has the right to defend it. Otherwise, that
person is not worthy of owning it in the first place" (Folha de
Sao Paulo, May 7, 2003). Even though Minister Rodrigues later said
his comment was a "slip of the tongue," his declaration
revealed that he is a representative of the latifundiarios, of the
exploiters, of the assassins of landless peasants throughout the
Brazilian countryside.
One must not forget that Minister Rodrigues is the past president of the
Brazilian Agribusiness Association and that he campaigned vigorously
last fall for José Serra, the ruling-class candidate who ran against
Lula but lost in the second round of the election of October 27.
What about the Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rosseto, who is
a well-known member of Socialist Democracy, a current in the PT
affiliated with the United Secretariat of Alain Krivine in France?
Minister Rosetto never took issue with Rodrigues' open endorsement of
the right-wing violence against the landless peasants, though he did
state that these armed militias in the countryside "are carrying
out irresponsible and illegal actions on a local level. These
irresponsible adventurers will not have any space to promote further
their violence in the countryside" (Folha de Sao Paulo, May
7). Still, at no time has Minister Rosetto proposed any concrete
measures to dismantle these armed militias.
Nor did Minister Rosetto propose at any time that the government adopt
measures to defend the Chico Mendes encampment. Nor did he propose any
actions to stop the destruction of the encampment in the Rio Bonito
estate in Pernambuco.
In San Gabriel (Santa Catarina), in the face of the suspension by the
Justice Department of a land expropriation, the large landowners
threatened physical violence against the MST, which mobilized to protest
this unjust decision.
What did Minister Rosseto do to defend the democratic right of the MST
to march and protest the government's decision? At a time when the
landowners are hiring goons and unleashing waves of violence across the
country, Minister Rosetto dared to declare, "We will not tolerate
violent demonstrations of the landless peasants, just as we will not
tolerate the armed militias of the landowners" (O Estado de Sao
Paulo, June 4, 2003).
Further still, Minister Rosetto declared, "The task of the
government is to ensure that the law is implemented" (Ibid.). But
what does this mean when none of the provisions on agrarian reform
projected by the previous government are implemented, and when new
agrarian measures promised by the Lula government are placed on the
shelf? Does this mean that certain laws -- such as those on agrarian
reform -- cannot be implemented, while others, favorable to the bosses,
can be?
What does it mean to respect the law, when PM 2.183, a presidential
edict adopted under Fernando Henrique Cardoso that prohibits the
expropriation of lands that have been occupied by the MST, has not been
revoked. This remains the case even though the National Directorate of
the PT voted last March to revoke this unjust law.
Minister Rosetto would have us believe that, "Agrarian Reform is
much more than access to the land." True enough! But shouldn't
providing access to the land be the first step of any agrarian reform
law? Hasn't the fight to own and cultivate the land been at the root of
the centuries-long battle of the rural dwellers in our country? Isn't
this why millions voted to place Lula in the presidency last October
27th?
On certain occasions, Minister Rosetto has acknowledged that providing
titles to the land is the "first step" of agrarian reform. But
what concrete steps have he and his Ministry taken to guarantee access
to the land by tens of thousands of families who have occupied hundreds
of thousands of acres of fallow land -- families who have been prevented
from receiving their land titles precisely because of MP 2.183?
The answer, alas, is absolutely nothing. This is why the landless
peasants are relying only on themselves as they pursue their difficult
struggle to obtain the land. But their struggle is become ever-more
difficult, as the government's failure to carry out its agrarian reform
program is simply emboldening the large landowners and further exposing
the landless peasants and rural workers to greater violence at the hands
of their armed thugs.
---
(The article above has been excerpted and adapted from the "Open
Letter to the Members of Socialist Democracy, Brazilian section of the
United Secretariat" issued July 8, 2003, by the O Trabalho current
of the Workers Party. For a full copy of this statement, contact The
Organizer newspaper at ilcinfo@earthlink.net.)
********************
4) "Not One of the 2,735 delegates to the CUT's National
Congress Defended the Government's Proposed Reform of the Pension
System"
(Editorial published by the O Trabalho current of the Workers Party --
June 16, 2003)
The more the content of PEC 40 -- the Lula government's proposed
reform of the public sector workers' pension system -- is discussed, the
more opposition to it grows. This is what motivated tens of thousands of
workers from across Brazil to participate in the March on Brasilia on
June 11, the first national protest against the government's reform
bill. The June 11th action was called by the National Confederation of
Workers in Education and by major public-sector unions, with the active
support and participation from the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT).
It is also why, during the four days of the Eighth National Congress of
the CUT, held June 3-6, not one of the 2,735 delegates defended the
government's proposed reform.
The presence at the congress of Minister of Previdencia (Pensions)
Berzoini provoked an indignant reaction on the part of delegates from
the public sector, who had held a rally against this "reform"
before the opening of the congress. Even the emotional speech by Lula
provoked boos when he referred to the firm intention of the government
to approve the "reforms."
The president-elect of the CUT, Luis Marinho, in spite of urging support
for "amendments" to the reform plan, explained that "the
CUT worked for the victory of President Lula, but it has the obligation
to separate this participation from its trade union duties. It cannot
have a policy of alignment. It must maintain its independence in
relation to the new government." (Folha de Sao Paulo, June
6)
Still, despite such widespread opposition to the plan from the
government's own union base, the president of the Workers Party (PT)
said that he wouldn't support any amendments from the PT in the National
Assembly and Senate. He said that he rejects "both the position of
the public workers as well as of the CUT."
It seems that we cannot hope for a solution from this arena. So
everything depends on the mobilization in the streets.
If the government does not reconsider its present course, it will be
assuming the responsibility for placing its commitment to the
"Letter of Intention to the IMF" (February 2003) -- whose main
demand was the introduction of private pension funds (speculation and
privatization) -- above its commitment to the defense of the rights of
those who elected it.
As a consequence, it will push the public workers from all three levels
to use the legitimate instrument of a strike. And it will create a
crisis, playing the PT against its base, and the PT representatives
against the voters.
But Lula has an alternative:
If he wants to avoid wearing down the workers and if he wants to
preserve his party from the demoralization that has begun and has, in
fact, worsened with the announcement of possible "disciplinary
actions" against the PT national representatives who have spoken
out against PEC 40, he need take only one measure: Remove PEC 40 from
the current legislative agenda -- that is, withdraw it for a fuller
discussion.
In the end, there is no other serious way of doing what Lula himself
suggested at the National Congress of the CUT, when he said, "[I]nstead
of painting banners [in preparation for a strike], it would be better to
say what you want, for us to be able to attend to it. This would be
better and more prudent." Lula called for real negotiations with
the unions -- but the only way for there to be such negotiations is for
the government to withdraw PEC 40.
Of course, such an action would not please the bankers and the IMF --
but, without a doubt it would give working people across Brazil some
needed respite.
For our part, we pledge to assist the struggle of the public workers
against the so-called reform, and we will work with all our energy, for
the unity of the CUT, public and private sectors, and in the defense of
the PT - now more necessary than ever!
********************
5) The Congress of the United Workers Federation (CUT) Discusses the
Reform of the Pension System
[Note: The following is reprinted from Issue No. 33 -- July
2, 2003 -- of the International Newsletter of the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC).]
The Eighth National Congress of the United Workers Federation (CUT), the
most important union federation in Brazil, was held June 3-6 in Sao
Paulo. Six months after Lula, the candidate of the Workers Party, became
president of Brazil, embodying by the hopes and aspirations of the
people, the question of the relationship between the union federation
and the new government was at the center of the congress debates.
This question was raised, in particular, in relation to the pension
"reform" promoted by the Lula government.
What was the position taken at the congress of the CUT?
Three motions on this issue were put to a vote. The one presented by the
majority current, called "Articulation," called for some
amendments to the government's plan. It obtained 50% of the votes.
Another motion, defended mainly by activists of the United Secretariat,
called for other amendments. It obtained 25% of the vote. A third motion
submitted by the "Strengthen the CUT" current, supported in
particular by the activists of the ILC in Brazil, called for the
withdrawal of the legislative bill. It obtained 25% of the votes.
We are reproducing below the declaration addressed to all of the CUT
congress delegates by the "Strengthen the CUT" current after
the vote on these three resolutions was taken -- before the final vote
for the CUT leadership.
To the delegates to the 8th National Congress of the CUT
We, signatories of this declaration, have come to the 8th
Congress of the CUT to Strengthen the CUT, for the defense of labor
rights. The congress takes place in the aftermath of a new situation
opened by the election of brother Lula to the Presidency of the
Republic. Lula received our support to establish a new policy in this
country, a policy of sovereignty, free from the bonds imposed by the IMF,
in order to be able to satisfy the demands of the workers and the
Brazilian nation.
Today, the central question facing working people is the threat posed by
the proposed reform of the public-sector pension system presented by the
National Congress, a reform that follows the demands of the IMF,
reducing the rights of the workers for the benefit of the bankers.
We have seen, with great satisfaction, that in this 8th Congress not one
delegate, not one current -- in any professional category, from the
countryside or the city, from the public or private sectors -- has stood
up to defend this reform.
This is a fact.
For our part, we have worked steadfastly throughout the entire congress,
up to the very last minute, to try to unite the CUT -- the entire CUT
and not just the "left" -- in resolute defense of the rights
of retirees that are threatened today.
We received positive responses from delegates in all the currents.
Unfortunately, however, we have did not get the same response from
certain leaders in several of the tendencies in our federation.
The discussion will continue now within the federation, within the
unions, and above all, in workplaces and in the streets -- starting with
the march to Brasilia next Wednesday, June 11, against this reform of
the pension system.
This is so because the workers and public employees will not accept what
they have always fought against -- the reduction of their rights!
On the contrary, what they demand of the National Congress is that the
government reconsider and suspend the process of PEC 40, so that its
withdrawal will permit the negotiation that President Lula came to offer
in the opening of our 8th congress.
It is the best solution, for the workers, for the unions and, finally,
for the government itself.
We lament that the leaders who rejected our proposal to forge a common
position capable of uniting the federation against this reform, have,
de-facto, opposed the application of direct proportionality, based on
the votes of the main orientation motions, for the election of the CUT
leadership. This is a retreat from positions we all held in common in
previous CUT congresses.
In such a situation, we address all the delegates to ask that they vote
for the list that we propose and we call on them to forge with us
- and that they continue to forge following this congress -- the fight
for the defense and extension of the rights of the Brazilian working
class and nation.
Sao Paulo, June 6, 2003
Signatories
- Francisvaldo Mendes (Left Articulation, Financial Council of the CUT,
Bankers Union Sao Paulo)
- Julio Turra (O Trabalho Current, Executive Committee of the CUT)
- Gilberto Jorge (Unidade Socialista, General Secretary of Condsef)
- Josemilton Maurício da Costa (Independent, rank and file of Consef)
- José Rubens Decares (Sinsprev Sao Paulo)
- Sérgio Silva e Araújo (National Confederation of Chemical Workers -
CUT)
- René Rodrigues de Souza (Petroleum Workers Union/Sindipetro Norte
Fluminense Rio de Janeiro)
********************
6) Excerpts from Interview with Brazilian Union Leader Julio Turra:
"Join Us to Fight the FTAA!"
(reprinted from The Dispatcher Newspaper (ILWU) - February 2003)
[Note: Following are excerpts from an interview conducted by The
Dispatcher, the monthly newspaper of the ILWU, with Julio Turra,
national executive director of the CUT. The interview was published in
the January 2003 issue under the title, "Workers Win - Now the Real
Fight Begins." The excerpts below focus mainly on the fight against
the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the preparation of the upcoming
Western Hemisphere Conference Against the FTAA, slated initially for
mid-July but sinced moved back to Dec. 12-13, 2003, in Sao Paulo,
Brazil. You can subscribe to The Dispatcher, c/o ILWU, 1188
Franklin St. 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94109.]
Julio Turra visited the San Francisco Bay Area in December to talk with
activists here about the hopes raised by Lula's election and the
challenges of making them real. The comments quoted in this article come
from Turra's public appearances as well as a special Dispatcher
interview with Marcy Rein, communications specialist for the ILWU
Organizing Dept.
Turra started out as a teacher in the São Paulo area, Brazil's
industrial heartland. He helped found the teacher's union there as well
as the CUT. For years he served as CUT's Director of International
Affairs. Now, because of CUT's rotating leadership system, he is deputy
director. He has held a seat on the CUT Executive Board since 1997.
CUT includes unions representing the full spectrum of workers -- auto
and metal workers, bank workers, public sector workers, chemical workers
and agricultural workers. A survey by Brazil's Ministry of Labor found
that 66 percent of the unions affiliated with a federation belonged to
CUT. The next largest federation, Força Syndical, has 19 percent
of the unions. Brazilian unions operate under an "open shop"
arrangement, so some 21-22 million people work under contracts
negotiated by unions affiliated with CUT, but only nine million hold
union cards.
During his Bay Area visit, Turra highlighted the importance of Lula's
victory -- and the political savvy unions and social movements will need
to make the most of it. He talked about Brazil's international debt and
the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which stand as the
greatest obstacles to progress for workers, and strategies for
organizing against them.
BREAK THE GRIP OF DEBT
"Brazil is swamped by the foreign debt and interest payments on
the debt. They estimate the debt at $217-$230 billion in the last 20
years. Brazil has already paid $270 billion in interest in the last 18
years.
"As long as that debt exists, the IMF imposes austerity measures,
as we all know. Lula inherits from the previous administration a budget
that was already voted by the current administration. It has already
been earmarked for the first fiscal year. It ties his hands.
"People understand you can't take the sky by assault. People want
simple, basic things -- but it is impossible to obtain these small
things without a rupture with the current economic model, where all the
resources of the country have been committed in advance to pay interest
on the foreign debt and where the machinery of the economy has been
geared to earn dollars to pay back the foreign debt. And that's why even
in this country of 175 million people the priority is not the internal
market, but export to get money to pay back the debt. That's why wages
have to be cut to be competitive. That's why you see privatization, so
our national patrimony can be sold off for dollars to pay the debt.
That's why the best lands can't be distributed to the MST (Movimento
dos Trabahaldores Rurais Sem Terra, the Landless Rural Workers'
Movement), because they're going to plantation crops geared to the
foreign market."
SOMEONE HAS TO PAY
"The debt is not an ideological issue. It is a concrete
problem. Sixty-seven percent of the government's budget goes to pay the
debt. If people are going to eat three meals a day, as Lula promised in
his campaign, the money has to come from somewhere. I prefer it come
from the pockets of the international bankers than from the pockets of
the workers who still have some sort of a job.
"There's a lot of pressure saying, 'Those of you who are
privileged, who still have a job, you should give up so that we can
share with those who are hungry.' There's a lot of pressure from people
who want to keep the status quo to say, 'Well, we can't buck the debt.
If we want to redistribute wealth, we have to redistribute poverty.
"Now 54 million Brazilians live on less than $25 per month. 54
million. That's last week's statistic. [as of Dec. 8, 2002-Ed.] A
guy who makes minimum wage, which is $50 per month, is privileged in
relation to the guy who makes $10.
"Brazil has one of the greatest income disparities in the world. It
also has tremendous wealth and resources and could make a lot of money
to redistribute. It has industries, it has auto-it's not a banana
republic."
NEGOTIATE, DEMONSTRATE
DEMONSTRATE, NEGOTIATE
"If Lula wants to move in the direction of responding to the
needs of the Brazilian people, particularly with the 10 million jobs, at
a certain point he will have to take measures in defense of national
sovereignty in relation to the debt-re-negotiate, not pay, whatever form
that may take. We are going to mobilize the trade union base in support
of any measure the government may take towards breaking out of this
stranglehold of debt.
"On the other side, the bosses, big businesses, are going to be
putting pressure on Lula. It has already begun. They are saying there
should be a social pact where the employers and the workers should give
a little. The president of the employers' association in São Paulo, the
most powerful in the country, said openly that there should be a wage
and price freeze. He said this would mean the unions would have to
accept a wage freeze, and there would be a price freeze. The CUT has
said there's no way for a wage freeze. We have been sacrificing, over
the last years we have lost much. We want to negotiate too. As a trade
union we're about negotiating.
"But we will also fight with our traditional means of struggle:
rallies, demonstrations, strikes if necessary. For example, the
president of CUT, João Feliciao, declared that if the bosses give
nothing as an increase in wages, the CUT will call for strikes in all
the sectors where we can't make some headway in wages.
"There is a very great understanding in the leadership of the CUT
that the Lula government will be buffeted by constant conflict within
the government itself. The vice president is a big businessman. The
political alliances Lula made around PT are very broad, including
parties that represent the interests of the employers.
"Recognizing this, CUT Secretary-Treasurer João Vaccari, who is a
Lula supporter, said at our last national meeting two weeks ago, 'There
is nothing more normal than that we in CUT with autonomy in relation to
the government defend our position in the different struggles over
policy and direction that will develop.'
"Lula even said in a meeting he organized with unions following the
election, 'You have to remain organized because I don't want to have to
be in a situation where I have to give in to pressure from the bosses
because you weren't there to create the counterforce.' We have no
illusion that this government has a free hand to move ahead and respond
to every one of our needs. It is a government of coalition which has
contradictory interests reflected within it."
STOP THE FTAA
"Lula in his campaign said clearly that the FTAA as it has
developed in the ongoing negotiations amounts to an 'annexation' of
Brazil by the U.S. The FTAA is an extension of NAFTA throughout the
continent. Its goal is to bring down anything it considers a barrier to
deals, to the business of the multinationals. In this continent, that
means mostly U.S. multinationals.
"In CUT, in the PT, in the popular movement, in the MST, in student
unions we had a great mobilization to stop the FTAA, to prevent it from
being signed. We held a plebiscite last September and got a spectacular
response. More than 10 million people mobilized and voted massively
against the FTAA, in favor of withdrawing from negotiations around the
FTAA and against allowing the United States to use the island of
Alcantara off northeast Brazil as a military base.
"We organized brigades and had voting booths in the public squares,
in union halls, in schools, in churches. The largest organizations like
CUT put more resources into the infrastructure so the vote would be the
same everywhere. In all 26 states and the Federal District there was a
popular vote organized by the activist base.
"This was unofficial but now we are discussing whether under the
Lula government it could be repeated as an official plebiscite that
would have the force of law. Given the relative weight Brazil has in the
hemisphere-half the territory and half the population of South
America-what happens in Brazil has massive repercussions in neighboring
countries.
"Without Brazil, the FTAA can't continue. The main target of the
U.S. government is Brazil. Mexico is already in NAFTA. Argentina has
collapsed. Now there is the Brazilian market, which alone is larger than
all the rest of the countries. So Brazil wields tremendous weight to
prevent the destruction of its economy and the whole regional
economy."
UNIONISTS CALL WESTERN HEMISPHERE CONFERENCE
To press the fight against the FTAA, Brazilian union activists
decided to call brothers and sisters throughout the hemisphere together
for a conference to be held in July 2003 in São Paulo. [Note: This
conference date has been moved back to Dec. 12-13, 2003.] Several dozen
union leaders from Brazil and the U.S. have already signed the
Conference Appeal. Brazil and the U.S. are co-chairs of the FTAA
negotiations between now and 2005.
"For the trade union movement in Brazil to call for a
conference, starting with 50 unionists from Brazil and 50 from the U.S.,
demonstrates that workers in the U.S. and Brazil have the same problems
and are confronting the same opponents. For example, you in the U.S.
campaigned against Fast Track, and that was very important to us."
[The U.S. Congress will have to approve the terms of the FTAA, but
"Fast Track," or as Bush called it, "Trade Promotion
Authority," short-circuits debate. The agreement will have to be
voted up or down with no discussion, amendments or changes. Congress
passed Fast Track last summer.-Ed.]
"The attention of the continent is turned to Brazil, and this call
which begins small I am convinced will have a gigantic impact. It can
help, for example, in the debate in Brazil, to make it clear Brazil will
not be isolated if it rejects the FTAA.
SOLIDARITY HITS THE AGENDA
"Let's imagine the situation if Brazil says no to the FTAA, no
to the IMF, and begins to organize its economy on the basis of the needs
of the immense majority of its people -- for example, recovering for its
own national patrimony the services that were privatized, the
enterprises that were privatized. That will provoke a clash of interests
the U.S. will try to resolve by sending Marines to Brazil.
"We would hope the U.S. working class and youth will stand in
solidarity with us, and mothers would say, 'Don't send our boys to
Brazil, Brazil has the right to be a sovereign nation.' That's the road
we seek to open. We can be sure that if our government takes policies
not in the interests of multinationals and the U.S., the U.S. will seek
to isolate Brazil from the interests of the majority of the blacks,
Latinos and working people in the U.S. We are working so that will not
happen. We are certain such a move by Brazil will be viewed as an
enormous incentive to the struggle by people in Argentina, Chile,
Bolivia, Mexico, in all the countries suffering from the implementation
of these policies."
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE -- ORGANIZE!
"The relationship of forces now is more favorable to the
popular and mass movements, which could even compel Lula to go farther
than he intends. That has happened many times in history. But that can
happen only under certain conditions. The movement must continue to
organize, there can be no social pact with our employers that is a
freeze or truce in our struggle, and the dynamic must be set by the mass
movement itself.
"That's where the CUT is. Our goal is to help develop that movement
to break with the policies of the IMF. The deep significance of the
movement of the Oct. 27 elections is the affirmation of a sovereign
Brazil where the workers can have their demands met. That can reinforce
the struggle of workers throughout the continent of the Americas and
around the world."
[Box at end: For more information on the Western Hemisphere Workers'
Conference Against the FTAA (to be held December 12-13, 2003, in São
Paulo, Brazil), call 415-641-8616, go to the Open World Conference web
site at www.owcinfo.org or e-mail ilcinfo@earthlink.net ...]
********************
7) Declaration of the O Trabalho Current of the Workers Party:
* No to the Disciplinary Measures Against the PT Members of Parliament!
* Let's Join Ranks to Defend the Workers Party!
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
From all corners of Brazil, members of the Workers Party (PT) are
speaking out loudly against the disciplinary measures that are expected
to be taken by the National Executive Committee of the PT against
Heloisa Helena (PT Senator), Luciana Genro (PT National Deputy) and Babá
(PT National Deputy).
These comrades are accused of "party indiscipline" because
they announced publicly that they would refuse to vote in support of PEC
40, which would "reform" the pension system in Brazil in
accordance with the demands of the IMF.* The action to discipline these
nationally elected leaders of the PT was approved by the PT's National
Executive Committee by a vote of 13-7, and was later referred to the
PT's Ethics Commission for determination of the sanction to be applied.
What's involved is a concerted attempt at preventing them -- and others
in the PT -- from expressing their point of view. The accusations are
all based on quotations lifted selectively from newspapers and past
actions that are totally unrelated to the current charges. The entire
affair is a gigantic juridical frameup that represents a blow to the
PT's democratic traditions. The charges, as the revered PT Senator
Suplicy put it, are an "affront to freedom of expression inside the
PT."
The renowned jurist Dalmo Abreu Dallari noted that "the
parliamentarians of the PT had every reason to indicate their intention
to vote against a measure that would tax the inactive workers. ... This
is a very debilitating debate inside the PT; the party should come to an
agreement on what to do."
Economist Chico de Oliveira stated that "the Party is not a
religious sect; therefore it cannot ban ideas or excommunicate its
members." Philosopher Renato Janine Ribeiro noted that "the
measures opposed by the parliamentarians are not programmatic planks
contained in the program of the PT; rather they are measures proposed by
the government. .... In the past, all experiences on the left that
confused the party and the government proved disastrous."
Sociologist Emir Sader stated that the PT members of Parliament have
every right "to hold and disclose positions that are different from
those of the leadership -- especially as their views are based on the
historic positions of the PT on the issue of the national retirement
system."
Faced with these unprecedented events, a question must be asked: Where
does the PT leadership want to take the party with procedures and
actions such as these?
For our part, we must repeat yet again that we are opposed to the
so-called reform of the national retirement system (Previdência). True,
this is a complex question -- which makes it all the more necessary for
there to be a free and open discussion within the party. For the
leadership to impede or strangle a discussion with administrative
measures will only harm the party and prevent it from developing the
kind of solution that can address the needs and aspirations of the
Brazilian people.
One final word: For the government to raise the retirement age is a
"criminal act against the public-sector workers," to quote
Deputy Trindade, PT-PI. To tax the inactive workers is
"absurd," stated Senator Paim (PT-RS). Moreover, to turn over
the retirement funds of the public workers to the speculators who handle
the private pension funds -- a proposal included in PL 9, now
incorporated into the retirement reform plan -- is a proposal that is
opposed by 77 percent of the PT's parliamentary fraction, according to a
survey conducted by the Folha de Sao Paulo.
These positions are the historic positions of the PT. Up until recently,
they were positions voiced publicly by PT national secretary Zé Dirceu.
They are positions that express the people's resistance to the dictates
of the IMF contained in all the recent Agreements signed between the
Brazilian government and the IMF. The dictates of the IMF and World Bank
on the question of reform of the pensions systems, in fact, have
provoked mass demonstrations of millions of people in France, Germany
and Austria.
For people to explain that the PT now in office must make "tactical
shifts in relation to certain topics" is nothing but verbal
gymnastics aimed at sowing confusion among those who have always fought
against the attacks on the rights won by the workers through bitter
struggles. Indeed, if we now have a Workers Party in power, it's because
the Brazilian people voted to oust all those politicians who implemented
the kind of measures such as the one now being proposed by the PT
government.
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
It is regrettable to see the president of the PT, comrade Genoino, being
hooted by the Public Employees Union in Pernambuco for defending a
reform that is simply indefensible. It should not be necessary for the
president of the CUT -- the national union federation-- Joao Felicio
(also a member of the PT) to have to remind Brother Genoino that
"no one will give marching orders to the CUT."
In fact, a situation has been reached where it has been necessary for
the National Federation of Education Workers to convene a Mass March to
Brasilia next June 11th in opposition to this proposed reform of the
retirement system.
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
This past May 14th, in the Mobilization of the Excluded organized by the
Contag, a banner read as follows: "Lula: Listen to the People. Do
Not Cave in to the IMF Pressures!"
These words summarized the feelings of an entire people. To the majority
leadership of the PT, we say, "Listen to the People, and Withdraw
the Draft Law to Reform the Previdencia (Retirement system)!" To
the Party leadership we say, "Listen to the People, Do Not
Subordinate Yourselves to the IMF!"
We are confident that the entire party is sensible and will know how to
resolve these problems in a positive manner.
For our part, we address ourselves at this moment to the PT leadership
and rank and file as follows:
- We warn against pursuing this insane assault upon the democratic
rights within the PT, upon freedom of expression within the party. Such
a course will only end up putting the very existence of the PT into
question.
- We call upon all the political currents within the PT, and all members
and affiliates, to remain vigilant and to act so that we can maintain
the PT as a party where its members and members of Parliament can freely
express their points of view. We must act to defend the PT.
This is what's at stake, and that is why we call upon all of you to join
together and discuss how best to act to defend the PT.
Not one disciplinary action against the Members of Parliament of the
PT!
Sao Paulo, Brazil -- May 21, 2003
O Trabalho Current of the Workers Party
[follows a coupon where PT members can add their names in support of
this statement ]
-----
* The Previdencia, or national retirement plan, provides a sizeable
pension to all public sector workers. Not all workers in Brazil --
unlike France and other European countries -- are covered under this
plan. The number of public-sector workersin Brazil, though, is extremely
high.-- translator's note.
********************
8) Brazil: Workers and Unions Say No to a Devastating Reform of Their
Pension System
(Background Article Reprinted from ILC International Newsletter No. 27
-- May 19, 2003)
The new President of Brazil, Lula, of the Workers Party, just
presented a reform project for the pension system. Over the past days
and weeks, it has been possible to register the point to which this
project has been badly received by the workers and unions that worked so
hard for Lula's victory as President of the Republic. Together with
their unions, the workers have shown clearly, on multiple occasions and
in various ways, their opposition to this reform which, among other
things, would bring the following: an increase in the minimum age for
the retirement of public workers, which would go from 53 to 60 for men
and 48 to 55 for women; the diminishment in the pensions covered, which
would no longer be equivalent to the worker's last full wages and would
instead become 70% of their last salary; the requirement to pay a fee on
the retirement fund itself. Š
The IMF and the "markets" have been calling for this reform
for years. The previous government tried but, in the face of opposition
from the Central Trade Union Federation (CUT) and at that time, from
Lula and the Workers Party (PT), the last president was not able to go
as far as his bosses in Washington and in the trading rooms of the
international stock exchange would have liked. Since his rise to power,
the IMF has pressured Lula to make these counter-reforms happen.
On May 1st, Joao Felicio, president of the CUT, reminded again that the
main union federation in Brazil, as well as the coordinator of the
Public Employees unions, are opposed to the text of the
"reform" as it currently stands.
At the initiative of the O Trabalho current of the Workers Party,
an open letter to Lula has gathered thousands of signatures and has
given rise to motions in the local and regional congresses of the CUT,
which will hold its national congress this coming June. "We
address this letter to you, President Lula (says the letter) to
ask you to withdraw this project for reform of the retirement system.
The necessary condition for a broad, democratic debate on the issue is
the withdrawal of the Cardoso's (former President of the Republic,
NDLR) "reform", the 9717 law and the 20th
constitutional amendment, the abandonment of the legislative project
number 9, in accordance with the unanimous decision of the Executive
Commission of the CUT this past February. Your government must support
itself on the workers in order to confront those who have always
plundered Brazil. You, President Lula, will receive all of our support
to reject this dictate from the IMF that threatens our rights and our
organizations. The millions of working women and men who elected you are
expecting that you will tell the IMF that we do not accept it and that
we will fight with all of our means against this reform of the
retirement system that attacks our rights and sets us back
decades."
Deputies and Senators from the Workers Party, for their part, have
made it known that under no circumstances will they vote for this reform
that is "contrary to that which we have always defended." Today
they are being threatened with sanctions. The National Executive
Commission of the party met in an extraordinary session on May 12th.
After a difficult day of debate, the possible sanction of the deputies
Joao Batista Araulo and Luciana Genro, and a senator, Heloisa Helena,
was submitted to the Ethics Commission of the Workers Party. Some,
within the leadership of the party, are talking of expelling them.
It is a threat that has provoked indignation in the ranks of the party
far beyond just those designated the "radicals" of the party.
This was evident in the recent declaration from Senator Paim, a historic
figure in Lula's current of the party (see statement below). "The
party is not a religion and it does not include anathema or
ex-communion" declared Francisco de Oliveira, professor of
sociology at the University of Sao Paulo, who participated in the
drafting of the program for Lula's government.
"The PT has always defined itself as in favor of democratic
socialism and pluralism," declared Emir Sader, a professor at
the University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the most respected
intellectuals in Brazil, closely tied to Lula. "The PT has
criticized the consistently Stalinist practice of prohibiting
debate-that is what Stalinism was, not discussing the argument, but
saying that it was at the service of the enemy and as such had to be
sanctioned in a disciplined way."
The PT current O Trabalho has also declared itself in total
solidarity with the threatened parliamentarians and completely opposed
to any type of sanction: "We consider that, whatever their
positions may be with respect to the reform of retirement, the
parliamentarians who are being threatened are within the framework of
the PT, without a doubt within their legal democratic rights. For our
part, we also oppose this reform. We have alerted the leadership and all
of the activists of our party of the fact that there is pressure from
all sides to take measures contrary to the democratic tradition of the
party."
---
"I Act According To My Conscience"
Declaration from Senator Paim (1)
This declaration demonstrates that the resistance to this reform,
which is harmful to workers and counter to all of the positions
maintained by the PT up to today, is much broader than just the
"radicals":
"I am being coherent with what I have always said. I do not fear
expulsion from the party, I say this with knowledge of the threats
against three colleagues. I act in accordance with my conscience. I want
to work and to dialogue. I helped elect the president and I believe in
this government, but it is important to respect the right to expression.
I only want a serious debate," he stated, accusing the government
of "going counter to everything that was praised for over 17 years
in the House of Representatives, at least with respect to the reform of
the retirement funds."
(1) Senator Paim is a member of the Articulation, the majority
current in the leadership of the PT
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