Don't Believe in Miracles
Shenk, Janet
The U.S. government lost a steadfast ally when the ex-Shah of Iran was forced into exile. The repercussions of that revolution are only beginning to be felt. No authoritarian regime can ignore...
...The new President's choices for Cabinet Ernesto Geisel and Joao Figueiredo, determined to keep the lid on liberalization...
...General Figueiredo is a former cavalry officer who once said, "For me the smell of a horse is better than the smell of the people...
...6 Brazil is now the world's second largest exporter of Rius Siempre (Mexico City) "It's More Practical to Divide the Profits among 2,000 Generals than among 100 Million Brazilians" 5NACLA Report Aggressive export promotion to pay for imports and pay off debts...
...4 7NACLA Report Leonel Brizola (left) embraces Brazil's last civilian president, Joao Goulart...
...members of the banned Brazilian Labor Party (PTB...
...A pretext for military intervention had to be invented...
...23 (August/September 1978), p. 16...
...Hence, a plan devised by General Golbery do Couto e Silva aims at breaking the unity of the MDB by creating two new parties and refurbishing the old ones...
...The most complex element of the formula concerns the party line-up for parliamentary elections...
...small towns and rural areas, where government caciques control the vote, were given disproportionate weight in the Chamber of Deputies...
...This "April package," as it came to be known, stipulated that one-third of the Senate would be appointed by the president, ensuring a safe ARENA majority...
...Workers in the most modernized sectors of Brazilian industry are beginning to flex their collective muscle, with the industrial proletariat of Sao Paulo in the forefront of this resurgence...
...After a decade of defeats, U.S...
...6. New York Times, January 7, 1979...
...The danger of Figueiredo and the centrists retreating from even their timid reforms is ever present, as the essential element of control slips away...
...Figueiredo's reforms are intended to quell domestic unrest and satisfy the shallow requirements of "human rights" as defined by Jimmy Carter...
...Significantly, 15% of the electorate chose to protest the artificial two-party system with blank or spoiled votes.' 3 A call to write in "none of the above" on ballots was particularly successful in urban working class districts...
...As Minister of Agriculture, he now plans to do the same for farming as he did for industry: provide fiscal incentives for the large capitalists, including foreign agribusiness firms, while weeding out the smallscale producers...
...Brizola's vision of a revived PTB would unite diverse forces, including the urban and rural poor, workers, the middle classes and sectors of what he calls the national bourgeoisie...
...The danger of a right-wing coup to pre-empt the liberalization process cannot be discounted...
...Heavy reliance on foreign loans to finance development has incurred a public and private debt of $41 billion, the highest in the developing world...
...Praised as a revitalization of the "free market system," the Brazilian development strategy has ensured the survival of the strongest, while eliminating the weak...
...Taking into account the past year's rate of inflation, estimated inflation for the coming year and productivity, labor courts would conduct annual wage reviews for different sectors of the labor force...
...Promising a "slow and gradual" return to democracy, Geisel announced the first steps toward institutional reform in June, 1978...
...The "moderates," on the other hand, opposed the campaign for a Constituent Assembly until forced by public opinion to change their stance...
...In the 1960s and early 70s, the Brazilian success story was being told far and wide...
...Its capital city is often compared to Pittsburgh or Dusseldorf, but surpasses both in industrial pollution...
...The "authentic" faction, composed of populists and socialists of varied stripes, is demanding free direct elections to a Constituent Assembly as a prelude to establishing civilian, democratic rule...
...Since the military first took power in 1964, the Brazilian working class has grown from eight to 17 million.' 6 It has seen its standard of living progressively eroded...
...The economic policies of the Brazilian military did give rise to economic development...
...The main ingredient of the development scheme was foreign capital...
...In 1961, he was elected a federal deputy with the largest number of votes ever won by any candidate...
...III, No...
...government actively participated in the coup preparations and justified the outcome.' Dean Rusk, Secretary of State at the time, said this was not a traditional military coup serving the interests of a privileged oligarchy...
...The time is ripe, they argue, for rebuilding a multi-party structure, while preserving the MDB as a broad electoral front...
...They call it "limited liberalization," alternatively known as "controlled decompression...
...A new centrist party would be created to attract the "moderate" faction of the MDB and isolated "progressives" from ARENA...
...Measured by its Gross National Product, the Brazilian economy now ranks eighth among all Western nations...
...Nowhere is the trend more apparent than in the state of Sao Paulo, the most dynamic area of Brazilian capitalism...
...5 Prolonged strikes have disrupted the public and private sectors...
...All were banned by the military government of Castelo Branco, and two new ones were created...
...Since the MDB is the only legal channel for voicing opposition, a broad spectrum of forces has taken shelter under its umbrella...
...And what does "liberalization" offer as an alternative...
...torious revolution, he was seen as either a conscious agent of communism or its dupe...
...New York Times, March 16, 1979...
...3. New York Times, January 7, 1979...
...Inflation hovered near 100...
...Some sectors of the bourgeoisie have fared better than others under military-technocratic rule...
...Militant trade unionism, by itself, however, does not call into question the capitalist system...
...INSTITUTIONALIZATION The essence of "controlled liberalization" -emphasis on the adjective-is continuity...
...But these very changes are geared to preserving the essential features of Brazilian capitalism and perpetuating the hegemonic role of the military within the state, despite a softer, civilian facade...
...When millions of Iranians took to the streets demanding "Death to the Shah," the U.S...
...A thousand workers in one plant can be infinitely more powerful than the same number scattered in fifty plants...
...They include a more subtle and selective system of repression, firmly controlled by the military and justified by the doctrine of "national security...
...then struggle about how to divide it...
...1 (January/February 1978...
...Business Council...
...But Geisel was hardly a reformer...
...A worker earning the minimum wage in 1965 had to work 87 hours a month to buy a family's basic food requirements...
...He plans to devote the next two years to fighting inflation, opposes any relaxation of wage controls and urged hardline tactics against the striking metalworkers of Sao Paulo...
...While Bentes Monteiro had no support within the Army high command, he did command loyalty from some colonels and lowerThe city of Sao Paulo, showcase of Brazilian capitalism...
...and a civilian president groomed by the military and subordinate to its dictates...
...Now he must await a general amnesty to return to Brazil, and there is no telling when that will come...
...Hardliners supported the candidacy of the Army Minister, General Sylvio Frota, and accused Geisel of being soft on communism and subversion...
...State-owned enterprises, often in association with foreign capital, would provide the infrastructure for industrialization, as well as essential inputs such as steel, petroleum and minerals...
...4. Barron's, September 18, 1978...
...By 1970, the minimum wage in Brazil had lost nearly a quarter of its precoup purchasing power...
...The difference was largely cosmetic...
...Latin America Economic Report (LAER), September 22, 1978...
...The government encouraged investors to produce for export by offering generous subsidies and, in some instances, setting obligatory quotas...
...The Brazilian military, backed by the bourgeoisie and U.S...
...The flow of funds from Washington resumed and foreign capital came knocking once again...
...2 Its performance was hailed as an "economic miracle...
...Massive amounts of U.S...
...In Brazil, this tendency toward concentration of production and its corollaries has been hastened by the arrival en masse of the large transnationals...
...After all, Brazil's own "experiment in democracy," from 1945 to 1964, had led only to economic ruin and communist subversion...
...And in Washington, the godfather of those regimes is being forced to pay increased attention to potential trouble spots around the world...
...Work stoppages become a more potent weapon, with the potential to disrupt entire sectors of production and even the economy as a whole...
...In the past year alone, the metalworkers of Sao Paulo, numbering more than 350,000, have waged three militant and illegal strikes for higher wages and basic trade union rights [see next article...
...2 The military immediately took steps to avoid another defeat in November 1978...
...The playing around will be over...
...The Brazilian situation offers no such scapegoat, not even communist subversion...
...Not surprisingly, then, some of the dictatorship's most ardent original supporters have begun calling for a slow, cautious process of transition...
...government, the Brazilian bourgeoisie and the Brazilian military, have devised a formula for averting such a calamity...
...Brazil is the fifth largest and sixth most populous country in the world...
...But the PTB was a multi-class party, dominated at the top by those sectors of the bourgeoisie imperiled by large agrarian and industrial interests in Brazil and by the influx of foreign capital...
...ARENA and the new center party would form a parliamentary bloc, in exchange for government positions...
...and the struggle for right-wing leadership of the PTB would be led by Ivete Vargas, a party leader and close associate of General Golbery...
...The Brazilian economy was in fact in trouble...
...Today, 43% of the Brazilian labor force earns the minimum wage of $92 a month...
...But the contentious campaign put General Figueiredo on notice that he would face pressures from both ends of the military spectrum--to halt plans for liberalization and to hasten them...
...II, No...
...According to most Brazilians, the only difference between the two was that one said "Yes" and the other said "Yes, Sirl" Much to the military's dismay, the differences between ARENA and the MDB have become more substantial over the years...
...If the politicians play well, fine, but if they play badly, I will put the ball under my arm and leave the field...
...The ranks of the MDB include liberal professionals and intellectuals...
...But they were seen as temporary and incidental to a larger process that would set the stage for a return to democratic rule, once the economy was "back in shape" and the Left annihilated...
...Founded in 1945, the PTB was the party of President Joao Goulart...
...The working class, he says, would be the backbone of the party.'" It is unclear, however, whether a younger, more industrial working class, steeled by years of repression, will be as receptive to PTB politics as the workers of the early 60s...
...Liberalization means that political forces must be molded and taught the rigid rules of so-called democracy under military tutelage...
...Freed from political pressures, impartial generals and nononsense technocrats would rationalize the economy and promote rapid development in the interests of all...
...Simonsen has also urged his new boss to postpone the municipal elections scheduled for 1980, arguing that austerity policies will necessarily prejudice the outcome against the ruling party...
...BRAZILIAN-STYLE DEVELOPMENT The dictatorship decided on a simple recipe for economic development in 1964: Increase the size of the pie first...
...the left-wing party, according to Golbery's plan, would "disappear" by the 1982 parliamentary elections, because it would fail to win the required minimum of votes...
...2 4 Delfim Neto, Finance Minister from 1967 to 1973, is another familiar face in the Cabinet...
...Its role in the hemisphere, in economic, political and military terms, is analogous to that once reserved for Iran in the Persian Gulf...
...In polling for the Chamber of Deputies, the MDB majority was narrower...
...Telefunken, Philco, Volkswagen, Fiat, Krupp, General Motors, Ford and others, from all over the globe, have settled in Sao Paulo to reap superprofits from the Brazilian working class...
...Frota was dismissed from his post in October 1977, and without consulting the military high command, Geisel selected General Joao Baptista Figueiredo, a retired four star general, as his successor...
...What went wrong with the Brazilian miracle...
...He rescinded Institutional Act No...
...XII, No...
...Since 1974, Brazil has felt the effects of the worldwide recession and of its own economic policies...
...Each employs several thousand workers under one roof...
...Figueiredo, representing a centrist tendency within the military, has six years to institute changes that will pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections in 1985, and a return to civilian rule...
...THE INTELLIGENCE CZAR Figueiredo took office on March 15, 1979, declaring that he expects to be the last of the series...
...In 1974, the MDB captured 65% of the popular vote...
...The new party line-up would look something like this: * The much discredited ARENA, under a new name, would attract right-wing members of the MDB to its ranks...
...Clausen, Presi13NACLA Report dent of Bank of America in San Francisco...
...Washington Post, March 31, 1979...
...He is remembered also for his advocacy of agrarian and educational reforms, and the expansion of public services...
...He pledged a return to civilian rule within three years, promised economic reforms and hinted at curbs on the transnationals...
...By keeping wages down and imposing a cooperative leadership on the labor movement, the military dictatorship has ensured high profits for the bourgeoisie and its foreign partners...
...7 If the success of the Brazilian model was dependent on foreign capital, it was also subsidized by the working class...
...LAER, May 12, 1978...
...government had stopped all economic aid and capital had fled to safer havens...
...Today, approximately half the country's industries are controlled by foreign capital and most of the rest is in the hands of the state...
...In Senate races, the MDB polled 15 million votes to ARENA's 10 million-despite numerous reports of vote-rigging in the countryside...
...Low wages and high levels of productivity were essential elements of the "miracle...
...Workers that formerly were dispersed among many smallscale factories are brought under one roof, harnessed to more modern machines and subjected to more sophisticated techniques of industrial "management...
...New York Times, March 18, 1979...
...THE WORKING CLASS The irony of capitalism is that it plants the seeds of its own demise...
...As State Governor of Rio Grande do 8May/June 1979 Sul, he is remembered for expropriating ITT's subsidiary and paying the symbolic sum of one cruzeiro...
...XIV, No...
...Between 1974 and 1978, he passed the "April package...
...23, p. 8. 13...
...2 1 THE BRAZILIAN SPRING "We are at a dead end, trapped, and know it," says a former Cabinet minister...
...Yet increasingly, masses of Brazilians are organizing to end the dictatorship and rejecting the economic principles that brought it to power and kept it there...
...Meanwhile, Brizola is busily meeting with international figures, particularly with social-democratic leaders of the Second International...
...Sectors of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) support this second option...
...He wants to pressure the dictatorship into calling elections, and to prepare the PTB for winning them...
...While they lay their cautious plans, however, united in the need to preserve the essential elements of the Brazilian economic model, the momentum of forces demanding an immediate end to dictatorship is building rapidly...
...2) state capital...
...Fifteen years later, however, the dictatorship is still in place, the Brazilian economy is no longer the envy of the hemisphere, and opposition is steadily growing in numbers and militancy...
...A necessary corollary is concentration of the work force...
...It leads the rest of Latin America in the production of automobiles, chemicals, steel and computers...
...a regulated form of parliamentary democracy to direct discontent into safe electoral channels...
...Those that stand to lose the most from a political upheaval, the U.S...
...Prior to the coup, the PTB had the largest political following in Brazil, and many believe that if free elections were held today, the PTB would be an easy winner...
...His public statements and actions, after only several months in office, offer even less...
...Mario Simonsen, Minister of Economics under Geisel and an industrial millionaire in his own right, now heads the Ministry of Planning...
...After all, an assembler at Ford do Brasil starts at US$180 a month, only a fraction of the wages paid in hometown Detroit.o 2 9NACLA Report Although the connection is neither immediate nor mechanical, concentration does tend to breed greater consciousness, as workers become more aware of their strength in numbers and their pivotal role in production...
...The Brazilians, February/March 1979...
...23, p. 20...
...Geisel's so-called reforms, however tame, were denounced by hardline factions of the military...
...The risks, however, are still substantial...
...The Brazilian military cast itself in the role of defending democracy by taking "preventive measures...
...The predictability of Brazil's politial and economic climate," it warns, "can no longer be taken for granted...
...In broad strokes, the MDB is divided into two main currents...
...They do not support the call for a general amnesty, nor direct elections to precede the Assembly...
...trade union leaders...
...By 1964, Brazilian populism had taken a more radical turn...
...church activists, professionals and even some within the military have joined the movement to end the dictatorship...
...The penetration of capitalism into the countryside has also created a rural proletariat of landless peasants dispossessed by the expansion of large-scale, export agriculture...
...Wage increases were unilaterally decreed by the state, on the basis of a complex indexing system...
...Smaller, domestic producers were eliminated from the competitive field, particularly in the production of consumer durables and capital goods...
...Dominated by the party's right-wing tendency, it would contest Brizola's leadership.25 This new configuration would provide a semblance of pluralist democracy, while preventing any one sector of the opposition from gaining hegemony...
...5, which for ten years had given presidents the right to close Congress, override the judiciary and the Constitution, deprive elected officials of their mandates and suspend the political rights of any citizen...
...II, No...
...But in case the game-plan fails, the repressive apparatus stands ready to act...
...8 Changes within the Brazilian working class have been qualitative as well as quantitative since 1964...
...Few Brazilian manufacturers are in a position to compete with these two huge blocs...
...Instead, trade union militants argue that the ground must be prepared for the creation of a genuine workers' party, based in the working class and led by its most conscious elements...
...LAPR, February 23, 1979...
...Both regimes came to power as the result of coups engineered in the United States...
...Latin America Political Report (LAPR), November 24, 1978...
...STATIZATION Brazil's development strategy also specified an expanded economic role for the state...
...In reality, however, it has been used to lower the real wages of the Brazilian working class throughout the post-1964 period, despite rising levels of productivity...
...The pattern of development imposed by the dictatorship has sharpened contradictions between the working class and all fractions of the bourgeoisie, calling for solutions that are far more radical than those proposed by the populists of the early 60s...
...yet a basic food basket in Brazil costs three times that amount...
...Although the Brazilian Congress wields no real power, congressional elections are a barometer of public opinion...
...Even the ranks of the most favored sectors of the bourgeoisie, tied to large, foreign capital, are split over investment priorities and over tactics to avert a radicalization of the opposition forces...
...8 Even Barron's, which caters to the Wall Street crowd, has remarked that "by rigging the official statistics, the authorities have consistently understated both the decline in the purchasing power of the cruzeiro and the adjustments needed to make the hapless holders whole...
...banking and business groups, especially those connected with the Brazil-U.S...
...But the signs of unrest that went unnoticed or ignored in Iran are now being closely watched in Brazil, as it enters its fifteenth year of dictatorial rule...
...Six months before the elections, the Geisel Administration suspended Congress and decreed a series of electoral "reforms" designed to stack the deck against the MDB...
...BRIZOLA AND THE PTB The future of the MDB is now being debated by its different political components...
...27 (February 1979...
...8. Kenneth Erickson, The Brazilian Corporative State and Working-Class Politics (University of California Press, 1977), p. 164...
...militants of proscribed leftist groups, and bourgeois elements who never questioned the legitimacy of the military coup, but who seek to modify certain policies...
...Brizola is still a powerful figure in Brazilian politics- and even in exile, he functions as one of the party's leading spokespersons...
...Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Team to Brazil, November 14-December 2, 1977...
...No authoritarian regime can ignore its lessons, whatever the size of its military arsenal...
...Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the party mobilized broad support among workers and peasants behind a program of economic and social reforms...
...Business Week reported recently that after a decade of stability in Brazil, the national mood is now one of defiance...
...Interview with Ruy Mauro Marini in Em Tempo...
...4MaylJune 1979 To make up for the trade gap and to service its debt, the government has been forced to emphasize exports over production for local needs...
...Chaves was recently an honored guest of the Center of Brazilian Studies, part of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington...
...today, that worker must labor 167 hours...
...The Center is supported by Brazilian and U.S...
...Leonel Brizola, leader of the party's radical wing in the 60s, was exiled by the dictatorship in 1964...
...Parenthetically, they also turned military managers into millionaires, as the state sector became notorious for corruption and graft...
...More repression will only spark greater opposition...
...As a result, the number of working family members has doubled from one to two, but the average family income is still lower now than in 1958...
...Debt-servicing alone will absorb more than 60% of export earnings in 1979.4 The economy's growth rate has slowed significantly, and inflation now averages 40% a year, evoking plans for austerity measures that are sure to heighten social tensions...
...The results of the November elections made a mockery of these maneuvers...
...Military relations with the opposition had always been icy at best, but General Euler Bentes Monteiro- leader of a nationalist wing of the armed forces-broke with that tradition...
...dollars, Japanese yen and German marks poured in as the transnationals jockeyed for a place in the Brazilian sun...
...12MaylJune 1979 ministers indicate a strong continuity with the past...
...A minority maintains that the MDB's unity is artificial, aimed only at scoring electoral victories and lacking a coherent political program...
...Introduced as "one of the most experienced civilian politicians in Brazil," Chaves was also warmly received by David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan in New York...
...7. "Agribusiness Targets Latin America," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol...
...Prior to his presidential nomination, Figueiredo was national head of the SNI- the agency most implicated in the dictatorship's heinous crimes against its opponents...
...As a result of the MDB's tremendous growth as a vehicle for electoral dissent, the exercises programmed by the government to legitimize its rule have become a source of embarrassment instead...
...New York Times, February 4, 1979...
...President Joao Goulart was talking about plans to redistribute land, nationalize certain industries and legalize the Communist Party...
...The Brazilian model was "proof' that authoritarianism was just the medicine that Latin America needed to cure the ills of economic stagnation and political instability...
...A drive through the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo is a lesson in the urgent need for internationalism among workers, to counter the perfected internationalization of capital...
...DON'T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES 1. Gayle Hudgens Watson, "It All Began with 'Brother Sam,"' The Nation, January 15, 1977...
...In April, Vargas announced the formation of a PTB variant-the Christian Brazilian Labor Party (PTBC)-which could fit nicely into this design...
...2. Severo Salles, "Desnacionalizacion Galopante," Cuadernos del Tercer Mundo, Vol...
...Movimento, April 23-29, 1979...
...The state then used its apparatus for 6MaylJune 1979 economic policy-making and policy instruments to maintain this set of priorities while attempting to smooth over, as far as possible, conflicts among the various sectors...
...II, No...
...Fifteen years of dictatorship and development have shown that the Brazilian economic model, predicated upon super-exploitation of the working class, is incompatible with real democracy...
...In the Americas, an immediate and obvious source of concern is the political future of Brazil...
...The same story was revised and edited for Chile, 1973...
...Brazilian-made tractors have been exported to Turkey, machine tools to England, home appliances to Nigeria and jet planes to Togo...
...Brizola's critics on the Left say that the neopopulism of the PTB would subordinate, once again, the interests of the working class to one fraction or another of the bourgeoisie...
...It concludes that Brazilian workers have been "systematically victimized" by the government's economic policies...
...The current two-party system- the military's own creation- has not worked in its favor...
...The excesses of the dictatorship, such as the systematic use of torture, were lamented by the liberal press...
...Both became havens for foreign investment and trusted borrowers from foreign banks...
...Its populist program sought to enlist the support of the exploited in the name of nationalism and social progress...
...press invoked the specter of retrograde Islam to explain this mass aversion to "modernization...
...THE LEGAL OPPOSITION Prior to 1964, thirteen political parties took part in the Brazilian electoral process...
...and the MDB was barred from radio and television during the so-called campaign...
...2 6 The name most dropped as a potential civilian candidate for president is Aurelio Chaves, ex-Governor of Minas Gerais and now Vice-President under Figueiredo...
...Antonio Almeida, "Sindicatos: El Rosal se va a Balancear," Cuadernos del Tercer Mundo, Vol...
...that he foresees handing power to a civilian president when his term expires in 1985...
...In other words, give every possible advantage to capital in order to stimulate investment and expand the economy...
...the Brazilian military would act instead as a modernizing force...
...General Golbery do Couto e Silva, author of the "national security doctrine" and president of Dow Chemical do Brasil, heads the president's civilian household...
...policy, describes its plan as "a calculated risk"--a risk it is attempting to minimize by every possible means...
...ARENA (Alliance for National Renewal) was designated the official government party, while the MDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement) became the obedient party of opposition...
...Oil imports (90% of domestic consumption), foreign components and equipment for manufacturing, and food imports have created a serious trade gap, totaling $4.7 billion in 1978...
...Teotonio dos Santos and Herbert de Souza, "Las Relaciones Estados Unidos-Brasil bajo la Administracion Carter," Cuadernos del Tercer Mundo, Vol...
...2 Following the 1964 coup, Figueiredo was named director of the Rio office of the National Intelligence Service (SNI), moved on to head the military police in the state of Sao Paulo and to become the Chief of Staff under President Emilio Medici...
...But Goulart's broad based support among workers and peasants was undeniable...
...9. Barron's, September 18, 1978...
...So the story went that Goulart would not be satisfied with stepping down in 1966, and was plotting a coup to perpetuate himself in power...
...food, while 40% of its population still suffers from malnutrition...
...and Walter Mondale in Washington...
...Characteristically, then, he included a safeguard provision in his June reforms, giving the president "emergency" powers similar to those that expired with Institutional Act No...
...As the end of his term drew near, the choice of a successor engendered sharp struggle between the "gradualists" and those determined to keep the military in power...
...Repression of the labor movement in 1964 and thereafter enforced a tenuous peace between labor and capital...
...The Brazilian military is increasingly conscious of the regime's isolation and vulnerability...
...Indexing was hailed as an unbiased method of minimizing the impact of high inflation rates and avoiding labor disputes...
...Development" was clearly not aimed at satisfying the needs of the masses...
...In the wake of Cuba's vic2MayIJune 1979 Don't Believe in Miracles 6; 3NACLA Report President Humberto Castelo Branco, the first of five military rulers since 1964...
...1 (1979), p. 87...
...According to Ruy Mauro Marini, a Marxist sociologist and activist, it is essential for the working class movement in Brazil to formulate its own political project and wage an independent political struggle, together with the rural proletariat and other exploited sectors...
...It also calls for a general, unrestricted amnesty for political prisoners, those deprived of their political rights and exiles...
...Movimento, December 25-31, 1978...
...that the Brazilian bourgeoisie, beholden to this model, will not approve reforms that would fundamentally alter the balance of power in Brazil...
...Candidates of the "authentic" faction gained leverage within the heterogeneous grouping...
...Report from the U.S...
...Given the Brazilian system of indirect elections to the presidency, the result was a foregone conclusion...
...5. The main difference was that Congress, controlled by the ARENA party, would have to grant these powers...
...In association with sectors of the local bourgeoisie, foreign capital came to dominate key areas of the economy...
...So the catchword of the day is "liberalization"--a controlled transition to democratic forms...
...government fears another Iran...
...Marini, op...
...The lessons of Iran are being carefully digested...
...A recent analysis suggests the following order of state priorities: (1) internationalized private capital, primarily controlled by transnational corporations and their local associates...
...Competition between capitalist firms engenders a process of concentration and centralization -larger and larger units of production, controlled by an ever smaller number of firms...
...In the Chamber of Deputies, the under-representation of the more populous industrial states preserved a slim ARENA majority, while the "bionic Senators," appointed by the President, had the same effect in the Senate...
...Crumbs would be thrown to the working class at a later date...
...5. Business Week, July 31, 1978...
...The Brazilian military remember Brizola as the embodiment of their fears of a "communist" takeover...
...Figueiredo set forth the alternatives in a pre-inaugural speech to the Brazilian War College: "The game is beginning and as soon as I'm in office the ball will belong to me...
...President Carter has announced that steps have been taken to improve intelligence reports from Brazil, and to expand contacts with the opposition forces...
...3) wholly Brazilian capital producing for export...
...Much will depend on the development of the mass movement in Brazil, on its ability to pry open the door to liberal reforms, while relying on its own strength to carry out a genuine democratic revolution...
...Under the Nixon Doctrine, both were assigned the role of regional gendarme and supplied with massive military aid...
...Success would be measured by the number of cars coming off the assembly line and the profits of Ford do Brasil, and not by the living standard of its work force...
...Figueiredo's antecedents, however, offer little encouragement to those who hope for genuine liberalization...
...10MaylJune 1979 The terminology dates back to the Geisel Administration (1974-79...
...2 2 Military rule is opposed, for different reasons, by vast sectors of society...
...imperialism does not want to lose yet another important outpost...
...The dominant view is that the MDB should remain intact, at least until the dictatorship is brought to an end...
...11NACLA Report ranking officers, many of whom had signed a manifesto in 1977 calling for the abolition of "emergency" powers and an end to corruption in high places...
...The MDB won more votes, and ARENA less, than in 1974...
...and (4) wholly Brazilian capital producing wage goods for the internal market...
...mass demonstrations and rallies recall the turbulence of the 60s...
...The result has been a progressive denationalization of the economy and expansion of the state sector...
...At the same time, and unavoidably, it has fostered a militant and consistent source of opposition to its rule...
...A new left-wing party would be tolerated to attract "authentics" from the MDB and socialists...
...Between 1968 and 1973, the Brazilian economy grew at 10% a year, outpacing every other country in Latin America...
...LAPR, October 24, 1978...
...Teotonio dos Santos, "Brasil: Despues de la Dictadura," Cuadernos del Tercer Mundo, Vol...
...A reconstituted Labor Party would attract PTB elements from within the MDB...
...Revealing a different side of military discord, another retired four star general accepted the MDB nomination for the presidency...
...David R. Dye and Carlos Eduardo de Souza e Silva, "Perspective on the Brazilian State," Latin American Research Review, Vol...
...Jornal do Brasil greeted the June announcement with a banner headline: "THE DICTATORSHIP IS OVER...
...The "April package," however, did produce its primary goal: MDB victories were not translated into congressional seats...
...he tolerated torture centers, crushed demonstrations and persecuted the Left...
...With the country's internal market shrinking as living standards declined, foreign firms were only too glad to use Brazil as an export base to penetrate European, African and Latin American markets...
...In Brazil, massive injections of foreign capital have produced the rise of a modern, industrial proletariat within a relatively short period of time...
Vol. 13 • May 1979 • No. 3
