Fernando Alcoforado*
It has been abominable the trajectory of Brazil throughout history that we demonstrated in our article A deplorável trajetória do Brasil ao longo da história (The deplorable trajectory of Brazil throughout history), published on 03/25/2019 on various websites. The trajectory of Brazil throughout its history is deplorable because the country still faces problems that were created and persist since the colonial period and the attempts of its overcoming were aborted by the repression against the social movements, by the overthrow of governments committed to the progress of the country and with the adoption of anti-national and anti-social government policies. The Bolsonaro government continues this abhorrent trajectory because its election to the Presidency of the Republic is contributing to: 1) the rise of fascism to power in Brazil; 2) the deterioration of the social situation of the working class in Brazil; 3) the country’s economic backwardness; and, 4) the definitive end of national sovereignty. Each of these threats is described below:
- The rise of fascism to power in Brazil
The advance of fascism in Brazil results from the fact that its economic, social and political organization finds itself in complete disintegration. The inability of the Brazilian government and political institutions in general to offer effective responses to overcoming the recessive economic crisis in which the Brazilian nation has been debating since 2014 and overcoming unbridled corruption in all the powers of the Republic has contributed to the advancement of fascism as a solution to the problems of Brazil. In the escalation of fascism in Brazil, an alliance was made between the conservative elite, broad sectors of the middle class and the fascists that was consummated with the support offered to the candidate Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency of the Republic that presented a proposal of typically fascist government because his speech was based on the explicit cult of order, state violence, authoritarian government practices, social disregard for vulnerable and fragile groups, and anti-communism. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Bolsonaro rose to power in Brazil by popular vote with the support of the conservative elite and broad segments of the population, especially the middle class.
The alliance between the conservative elite, broad sectors of the middle class and the fascists can destroy the last vestiges of a democratic government in Brazil. Despite Bolsonaro’s assertion that he will respect the Constitution and the Laws of the Country, the threat to the current democratic order in Brazil is explicit in his manifestations throughout his life and in his antidemocratic campaign speech. The forces that support Bolsonaro will fight for his government to adopt an economic policy that serves the interests of the ruling social classes, for obtaining a majority in Parliament for, through amendments to the Constitution and draft laws, put into practice the fascist objectives of the government, by winning a majority among the members of the Judiciary to ensure the interests of the government and to promote the dismantling of anti-government social movements.
The objective of the Bolsonaro government would be, therefore, the conquest of the total power encompassing the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary to put into practice its fascist project of government. The escalation of fascism is already a concrete fact in Brazil, widespread, rooted and may become irreversible in Brazil at the present moment if there is no resistance. In order to avoid the end of the current democratic system in Brazil, it is not enough, therefore, to rely on the republican institutions that can undergo changes contrary to the interests of the great majority of the population through projects of Law and Amendments to the Constitution by the Bolsonaro government. The only way to avoid the escalation of fascism and act against the establishment of an extreme right-wing dictatorship in Brazil is the formation of an anti-fascist democratic front in the Parliament and in Civil Society to defend the 1988 Constitution and to fight against acts of government that are contrary to the interests of the vast majority of the population and of Brazil.
- The worsening social situation of the working class in Brazil
Brazil has an economically active population of 90.6 million workers. Unemployment is 13.1 million workers and the economically active underutilized population is 27.9 million workers. This means that the number of discouraged workers who have stopped seeking work is 14.8 million workers. These figures show that the situation of the working class in Brazil is very serious. For the Brazilian economic system to generate the necessary jobs for the economically active population, as a first step, the federal government must overcome the current recessive crisis, the main cause of unemployment and the underutilization of Brazilian workers, immediately executing a large program of public works of infrastructure (energy, transport, housing, basic sanitation, etc.) to raise the population’s employment and income levels and, as a consequence, promote the expansion of household consumption resulting from an increase in wages and incomes of companies with investments in infrastructure.
Taking into account the speech of the economy minister of the government Jair Bolsonaro, Paulo Guedes, who is a fundamentalist of neoliberalism hardly the federal government will play an active role as an inducer of economic growth, drawing up a development plan to promote the reactivation of the economy and the elevation of employment levels in Brazil. The precariousness of labor relations in Brazil and in the world is a result of the neoliberal policies adopted, as well as the technological advance that reduced labor supply and the loss of labor benefits. The economic crisis that broke out in Brazil in 2014 brought to the workers the weight of the greatest recession in history, which companies use to, as a first step, to dispense workers.
The government Michel Temer contributed with the neoliberal labor reforms in force and the future government Jair Bolsonaro with those that will come to the precariousness of labor relations in Brazil. In Brazil, there is no prospect of a solution to the precarious work during the Jair Bolsonaro administration because the federal government will not take an active role as an inducer of economic growth to promote the reactivation of the economy and raise employment levels in Brazil. On the contrary, what is happening is the aggravation of this situation with the approval of the labor reform by the government Michel Temer and its maintenance by the government Jair Bolsonaro.
In order to deal with the spoliation of the workers, it is necessary to strengthen trade union organizations and civil society organizations to fight against the neoliberal labor and social security reforms in force and also through their representatives in Parliament and, in the future, to fight to change the correlation of forces in Parliament and elect a President of the Republic committed to the interests of the workers. In order to deal with mass unemployment, it is necessary to demand from the government the adoption of public policies that encourage entrepreneurs that generate jobs not eliminated by technological advances such as Creative Economy projects, the encouragement of the Social and Solidarity Economy to support the unemployed, as well as income transfer program for workers in general who face the problem of unemployment.
- The country’s economic backwardness
Brazil has always lacked rational decisions in the economy by the government throughout history. Brazil has always been characterized by the economic irrationality of its governments from the colonial period to the Republican until 1929 when they adopted the agro-export economic model dependent on external markets, promoted the industrialization of the Country with a delay of 200 years in relation to the 1st Industrial Revolution in England, abandoned the national development model adopted by Getúlio Vargas by replacing it with the model of capitalist development dependent of foreign capital and technology from the Juscelino Kubitschek government to the Jose Sarney government and adopted the neoliberal model with the subordination of the national economy to globalized capitalism since Fernando Collor in 1990 until the current government of Jair Bolsonaro.
In order to overcome the economic crisis affecting the Brazilian economy, it is necessary, first and foremost, to replace the neoliberal economic model that benefits the market that has devastated the Brazilian economy since 1990, and especially after 2014, by the national developmentalist model of selective openness of the Brazilian economy that would be commanded by the government in benefit of the Brazilian population. With the national economic developmentalist model of selective opening of the economy, the Brazilian government should adopt a policy capable of overcoming, as soon as possible, the current barriers represented by economic and technological dependence in relation to the outside world.
In Brazil, unfortunately, the Bolsonaro administration does not act rationally because, in addition to maintaining the neoliberal model, it does not adopt any strategy that contributes to the achievement of three economic objectives that are fundamental to: 1) promote a resumption of the country’s economic growth; 2) to face the ongoing trade war in the world economy; and, 3) take measures to prevent the country from suffering the consequences of the inevitable explosion of the world debt bomb. The Bolsonaro government is irrational because it prefers to adopt measures that do not contribute to the achievement of these 3 objectives. The focus of the Bolsonaro administration has been to address issues that have no immediate effect on the economy, such as pension reform, privatization of all state-owned enterprises, among other issues.
In order to face the irrational economic policy of the Bolsonaro administration, it is necessary to set up a political front in the Parliament and in Civil Society in defense of the country’s economic progress by mobilizing the Brazilian population in the struggle to replace the neoliberal, antisocial and anti-national, economic model by the economic model national developmentalist for the benefit of the Brazilian population.
- The definitive end of Brazilian sovereignty
Brazil is not a sovereign country because it does not have the economic, military and nuclear power to assure the exercise of its sovereignty. Brazil is not a sovereign country because foreign subsidiaries control the most dynamic sectors of the Brazilian economy. Brazil occupies the 43rd place in the world ranking of UN technology, which directly affects the industrial performance of the country. Foreign capital is present in 17,605 Brazilian companies that account for 63% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and controls 36% of the banking sector where it owns 25% of Bradesco shares and 20% of Banco do Brasil shares. Foreign capital owns more than 30% of land in the country to produce sugar cane, livestock and soybeans. Only in the sugar – alcohol sector, the multinationals own 33% of all the lands and mills [FALCÃO, Lula. Crescimento capitalista aumenta submissão do Brasil ao capital estrangeiro (Capitalist growth increases Brazil’s submission to foreign capital). Available on the website <http://averdade.org.br/2012/02/crescimento-capitalista-aumenta-submissao-do-brasil-ao-capital-estrangeiro/>, 2012]
In addition to not exercising the status of sovereign country, Brazil has had rulers throughout history that have attacked national sovereignty by adopting policies contrary to the country’s interests, except for the governments of Getúlio Vargas, João Goulart and Ernesto Geisel. The Bolsonaro government aims to make Brazil move toward total submission to the United States on the international stage by breaking even further with the tradition of its foreign policy – recognized worldwide for guiding its actions by some principles of which it almost never gave up , such as non-intervention, self-determination of peoples and peaceful settlement of disputes. The Bolsonaro government’s Brazilian foreign policy is moving towards an even greater alignment with US foreign policy interests as it has demonstrated in the case of Venezuela, leaving aside the initiatives of autonomous insertion in a multipolar world in which Brazil would have a margin bargain.
Brazil’s subaltern alignment with US interests and international capital is manifested in the Bolsonaro administration’s position, which admitted the possibility of installing a US military base in Brazil that was later abandoned, according to the press, by pressures of nationalist sectors of the Armed Forces, but decided for the delivery of the Alcântara Base to United States, the transfer of the Brazilian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the denationalization of Embraer through its sale to Boeing and the privatization of Petrobras’ oil refining, distribution and transportation sectors.
How to justify the delivery of the Alcantara Base to the United States, other than the Bolsonaro government’s submission to the US government? How to justify alignment with Israel and the relocation of the Tel Aviv Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, putting at risk our export of Halal meat – considered to be the world’s largest producer and exporter of beef, the world’s the world’s second-largest of chicken and leader in the sales of Halal meat – for the Arab countries, other than the submission of the Bolsonaro government to the United States? How to justify the denationalization of one of the largest national companies with a high degree of technology such as Embraer, other than the submission of the Bolsonaro government to the United States and international capital? How to justify the privatization of refining, distribution and transportation by pipeline of Petrobras, the largest national company with a high degree of technology, to the benefit of international capital?
The Bolsonaro government attacks national sovereignty by making a gigantic oil auction in the pre-salt area by making the largest delivery of national wealth in history. Since the Temer government foreign participation in the sack of national wealth has increased exponentially, with privatizations of oil fields belonging to Petrobras and with new auctions that, in two years, the foreign production went from 7% to 23%. With the new auctions to be held by the Bolsonaro government, most of the national production will soon be foreign, demonstrating the antinational character of its government that is at the service of the god Market, of Wall Street, of the Consensus of Washington and against the Brazilian people. The Bolsonaro government is conniving with the continued actions of the American empire and multinational corporations to dominate Brazil. The Bolsonaro government is willing to hand over Brazil, its lands and mineral wealth, national public assets such as Petrobras, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, BNDES, Hydroelectric Plants, Research Institutions, Universities, Technical Schools, etc. , to international investors whose sole objective is unlimited profit.
Paulo Guedes, the neoliberal economist and economy minister of the Bolsonaro administration, promised that he intends to privatize all the public assets and, consequently, delivery they to foreign capital. Privatization implies, in fact, what is commonly called “denationalization”, where controlling acquirers are almost always (if not always!) foreign companies or consortia, often state-owned companies from other countries whose profits are remitted to their outside. The use of the term “privatization” is a way of hiding its true purpose, which is to hand over the nation’s assets to foreign capital. It might be imagined that privatizations would benefit nationally-owned companies, but this is not the case because the weak national companies do not have the financial capacity to acquire state-owned enterprises located in strategic sectors such as oil, electricity and infrastructure. If everything moves in this direction there will be little left in Brazil economic sectors belonging to Brazilians.
In order to face the Bolsonaro government’s anti-national policy, it is necessary to build a nationalist front in the Parliament and in Civil Society in defense of national sovereignty to fight against the acts of the government that are contrary to the interests of Brazil.
- Conclusions
In 100 days of government, it is possible to identify the incompetence and inertia of the Bolsonaro administration to solve Brazil’s economic problems, its insensitivity to face the social problems generated by unemployment in the country and its unpatriotic and subaltern position towards the United States and to international capital. This nefarious character of the present government is identifiable, not only in Jair Bolsonaro’s lack of preparation to exercise the presidency of the Republic, but also in the action of his government as a whole that does not try to present a solution to the main problem of the country that is the stagnation of the economy with its consequences related to the closure of industries and commercial and service activities and, above all, to the massive unemployment of the order of 28 million underutilized workers inherited from the incompetent Dilma Rousseff government.
Prospects for the future of Brazil are extremely negative with the Jair Bolsonaro government, which should further radicalize the adoption of the neoliberal model whose consequences will be disastrous for Brazil in the face of the threat he poses to democracy, social rights and Brazil’s independence in relation to major powers and international capital. In the neoliberal era in which we live, there is no room for advancing democracy, social rights and national independence. On the contrary, there is the elimination of democracy and social rights and the deconstruction and denial of the achievements already made by the subaltern classes. The so-called “reforms” of social security, labor laws, privatization of public enterprises, etc. – “reforms” that are currently present in the political agenda of both central and peripheral capitalist countries (now elegantly renamed “emerging” as Brazil) are aimed at the pure and simple restoration of the conditions of a “savage” capitalism which the laws of the market must be vigorously enforced. This is, therefore, the deplorable trajectory of Brazil with the Bolsonaro government.
Therefore, in order to face the abominable Bolsonaro government, the following must occur:
- Facing the escalation of fascism and acting against the establishment of an extreme right-wing dictatorship in Brazil, forming a democratic anti-fascist front in the Parliament and in Civil Society to defend the 1988 Constitution and fight against acts of government that are against the interests of the vast majority of the population and of Brazil.
- Facing the spoliation of workers by strengthening trade union organizations and civil society organizations to fight against existing neoliberal labor and social security reforms and also through their representatives in Parliament and, in the future, to struggle to change the correlation of forces in Parliament and elect a President of the Republic committed to the interests of the workers.
- Facing mass unemployment by requiring the government to adopt public policies that encourage jobs that are not eliminated by technological advances such as Creative Economy projects, policies to encourage the Social and Solidarity Economy to support the unemployed, as well as a program of income transfer for workers in general who face the problem of unemployment.
- Facing the irrational economic policy of the Bolsonaro government by constituting a political front in the Parliament and in Civil Society in defense of the country’s economic progress by mobilizing the Brazilian population in the struggle for the replacement of the neoliberal, antisocial and anti-national economic model by the national economic developmentalist model in benefit of the Brazilian population.
- Facing the Bolsonaro government’s anti-national policy by forming a nationalist front in the Parliament and in Civil Society in defense of national sovereignty to fight against the acts of the government that are contrary to the interests of Brazil.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.
Site Title 