Brazil

As you would expect, Greenwald is on the case.

Stop the BRICS, return to neoliberalism - more on what's happening in Brazil:

CrossTalk: Brazilian Coup

https://youtu.be/WTjIqGoRc78

Pepe Escobar and others discuss the claim this is a legislative-driven coup to return to the neoliberal economic model under US tutelage.

To See the Real Story in Brazil, Look At Who is Being Installed as President - and Finance Chiefs  -  by Glenn Greenwald

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36487-to-see-the-real-sto...

"So to summarize: Brazilian financial and media elites are pretending that corruption is the reason for removing the twice-elected president of the country as they conspire to install and empower the country's most corrupted political figures. Brazilian oligarchs will have succeeded in removing from power a moderately left-wing government that won four straight elections in the name of representing the country's poor, and are literally handing control over the Brazilian economy (the world's seventh largest) to GOLDMAN-SACHS and bank industry lobbyists.

The fraud being perpetrated here is as blatant as it is devastating. But it's the same pattern that has been repeatedly seen around the world, particularly in Latin America..."

Glenn Greenwald has another piece about the travesty of the Brazilian impeachment. A sad day for Brazil and all democrats.

Sounds like elected representatives voting on the impeachment, so what exactly is the part of this that's some kind of full-frontal assault on democracy?

I'm pretty sure I've seen it suggested that the LACK of an impeachment process or a recall process is, in fact, anti-democratic, as it forces the electorate to endure a corrupt or ineffective representative for their full term.  But other than "too many smiles in Washington", what specifically is the problem here?

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I'm pretty sure I've seen it suggested that the LACK of an impeachment process or a recall process is, in fact, anti-democratic, as it forces the electorate to endure a corrupt or ineffective representative for their full term.  But other than "too many smiles in Washington", what specifically is the problem here?

This is a gang up by corrupt right-wing politicians against (mostly) non-corrupt left-wing politicians who plan to undo all of the social reforms of the last decade or so.   These are reforms that have managed to lift millions of Brazilians out of poverty.

President Dilma Rousseff is one of the non-corrupt politicians.   The Vice-President, Michel Temer, who will become Acting President is from the right-wing PMDB and is totally corrupt.

What Rousseff is accused of, are some somewhat dodgy accounting practices.   While these aren't great, they've been carried out by pretty much every state governor and federal president for decades.    So, it's not an impeachable offense.    If it was, just about every state governor and previous federal president from every Brazilian political party should have been impeached.

Like many countries, Brazil is suffering from an economic crisis stemming from the collapse of oil and other commodity prices.   It's not all that different from what's been happening in Alberta.    I don't think anyone in their right mind would blame Rachel Notley for the collapse in oil prices.    So it doesn't make sense to blame Dilma Rousseff's government either.

I was actually at a presentation this past weekend by a Brazilian labour lawyer.  He showed a rather funny video on the crisis that used football analogies to explain what is going on.    It's in Portuguese with English subtitles.   The subtitles were done with Google Translate and so they're not all that great, but you can get the general idea.   Have been looking for it but haven't found it yet.

There's also what's becoming a rather iconic photo that shows a white upper income couple wearing the yellow soccer shirts that have become the symbol of the anti-PT protesters.   and slightly behind them is the black domestic worker pushing their baby stroller.

It's apparently quite common in Brazil for upper middle income families (usually white) to employ domestic workers (usually black).   Under the PT government, domestic workers are covered under Brazil's labour laws.   This means minimum wages, limitations on hours of worka and things like vacations.

The upper middle class totally resents the PT government granting rights to domestic workers.   They much prefer the good old days of ten years ago when domestics could be treated like slaves.

I guess the lesson to learn is that the public expects governments of the right to be corrupt.   But, the expectation is that governments of the left should be 100% honest.    If a left government fails in any way, and is let's say only 90% honest the right wing will exploit that small amount of dishonesty for political gain.

The right's economic agenda for Brazil will mean a total rollback of labour rights, along with massive privatization and outsourcing of public assets and services.

radiorahim wrote:

President Dilma Rousseff is one of the non-corrupt politicians.   The Vice-President, Michel Temer, who will become Acting President is from the right-wing PMDB and is totally corrupt.

So why were they running mates?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_strength_of_the_people

bekayne wrote:

radiorahim wrote:

President Dilma Rousseff is one of the non-corrupt politicians.   The Vice-President, Michel Temer, who will become Acting President is from the right-wing PMDB and is totally corrupt.

So why were they running mates?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_strength_of_the_people

PT and PMDB (the ultimate brokerage party) were in a coalition, yes. Arguably the best opetion when Dilma sought the presidency was Marina Silva (Green party candidate in 2010 with 20% of the vote, Socialist Party candidate in 2014). The PT was a party of power and not of change by the time Dilma replaced Lula. 

But the ouster of Dilma pretty clearly looks like an under-handed move by the conservative forces to topple a left-leaning government at a time when it was vulnerable. The wrongdoing is relatively minor. Who benefits? Those seeking to turn back the gains made by many poor Brazilians under PT government. 

[url=http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Lula-Calls-for-Broad-Front-to-Comb... Calls for 'Broad Front' to Combat Coup in Brazil[/url]

Quote:

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent Friday speaking with leaders from Brazil's social movement and trade union organizations in an effort to create a new “broad front” to resist the parliamentary coup that saw democratically-elected President Dilma Rouseff ousted from power. 

[...]

According to Gilberto Carvalho, a leading figure in the Workers' Party who once served as Rousseff's chief of staff, Lula will travel throughout the country over the coming weeks to speak out against the coup that saw the country's Senate install Michel Temer as president. 

Carvalho said the Workers' Party “understood that it cannot act alone nor be the driver of the struggle” against the coup.

[url=http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/El-Salvador-Will-Not-Recognize-Bra... Salvador Will Not Recognize Brazil's Coup Government[/url]

Quote:

The new government is growing increasingly isolated, with only Argentina's Mauricio Macri publicly stating support. [...]

El Salvador is only the latest government to speak out against the parliamentary coup in Brazil. Other countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela have criticized Rousseff's ouster, with the latter officially withdrawing its ambassador in protest as well.

As was another of their coup proteges, the President of the Nazi oligarchy of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. Or do we still believe in Maidan, the 'Revolution of Dignity', 'Arab Spring' and 'Moderate Rebels'...?

Ukraine President Once Agent For US State Department

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2014/06/09/ukraine-presid...

"Our Ukraine insider..."

What the neo-liberal coup has wrought:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/brazil-rightwing-government...

Or perhaps this was the first interview, but they were both on May 19, it seems.

Greenwald's latest article discusses an audio recording which has been published by Brazil's largest newspaper. It provides strong evidence that the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff was largely intended to stop the "car wash" corruption investigations which were closing in on many of her political rivals. Both military leaders and Supreme Court justices are implicated in the coup plot. Things could get very bloody in Brazil.

The MST, Brazil's Biggest Social Movement, Promises to 'Intensify' Land Occupations in Fight Against Coup

Latin America's largest social movement has promised a new wave of farm occupations in Brazil following President Dilma Rousseff's suspension to stand trial in the Senate, an official with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) said.

The movement, a long-time ally of Rousseff's Workers Party which says it has two million members across Brazil, will target "idle" farm land owned by members of the interim government and its backers, MST spokeswoman Marina do Santos said Tuesday.

"We will intensify our occupations of unused land," Santos told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

"There are many (government) ministers who own unused lands that should be distributed to the people. We have five million families in Brazil who don't have access to land."

Here is a piece from rabble earlier this month about the coup in Brazil.

Quote:

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, the Brazilian Senate formally voted, 60 to 21, to impeach Dilma. Remarkably, most of those who voted to oust her are themselves currently under investigation for corruption. As one secretly recorded conversation confirms, the likely reason that the Senate sought to impeach Dilma was to quash all the ongoing corruption investigations against sitting senators and members of Congress.

Dilma marched out and, surrounded by supporters, denounced the proceedings:

"This is the second coup I have faced in life. The first, the military coup, supported by weapons of repression and torture, struck me as a young militant. The second parliamentary coup that unfolded today through a legal farce knocks me from the position for which I was elected by the people."

Brazil is a remarkable country, with more than 200 million people, a vibrant culture, a huge economy and, with the majority of the threatened Amazon rainforest within its borders, a vital role to play in the fight to limit human-induced climate change. With all the challenges before them, the people of Brazil deserve a swift repudiation of this coup, by all governments, but most importantly by President Barack Obama and those presidential candidates who aspire to replace him.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2016/09/olympics-finished-brazils-political-...

60,000 Brazil Bank Workers Strike Against Temer's Labor Reforms

Bank employees are the latest workers to take actions against the Temer government's attack on workers' rights.

More Brazilian bank workers have joined the strike against the labor reforms by the imposed government of Michel Temer, after 17 days of national strike that has halted financial services across the country.

A statement from the Union of Bank Workers of Sao Paulo, Osasco and Região says 796 branches closed this week, and about 60,000 workers are on strike according to Brasil de Fato.

The National Confederation of Financial Workers reported that in total 13,159 branches - up to 55 percent of the country’s offices - are not operating. The workers are demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

"We closed the administrative centers of the top three private banks in Sao Paulo and the main building of Caixa in Brasilia,” said the leader of the confederation, Robert von der Osten. “It was a historic and necessary move."

The biggest unions in Brazil promoted a national day of strike under the slogan 'No Right to Less'. They were joined by student organizations and workers’ movements who occupied several cities in a preparatory action before a planned general strike in the country....

MST Occupies Land and Government Buildings all over Brazil for the Reopening of Land Reform

quote:

Throughout the country there are over 120k families in camps waiting for settlement. “The Land Reform policy had already been suffering adjustments in the previous period and is being definitely suffocated after the coup. It’s a threat to bury all the hope that hundreds of thousands of Brazilian families have for growing healthy food”, assesses Marina Santos, from the National Directorate of MST.

Families of Landless Rural Workers have mobilized in Santa Catarina, Pará, Pernambuco, Piauí, São Paulo, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Ceará, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná e Distrito Federal. On this date in 1996,  twenty one workers were marching on their way to the Pará’s State Capital, Belém, when they were brutally massacred by the Military Police.

Today demonstrations are taking place all over the country to stop the temporary decree 759, drafted by Temer that extensively modifies the land system and the agrarian reform in the country. Families are mobilizing to pressure for the reopening of the Land Reform, particularly the acquisition of land by the government to settle poor peasant families.

..short video

Brazilian Workers Hold Biggest Strike for Decades

Faced with recession and rising unemployment, and perhaps surprisingly, many Brazilians are turning to their unions. After months of protests and stoppages, these unions in Brazil are holding the first general strike in 2 decades.

Brazil on Strike

As darkness fell in Rio de Janeiro’s historic center on Friday evening, the smell of tear gas hung heavy. It had been a day of mass mobilization across the country: more than a million Brazilians in at least 254 cities participated in a day-long general strike on Friday, according to organizers; more are taking to the streets today for May Day, a national holiday here. The strike, said to be the biggest in decades, was meant to rally opposition to an aggressive pension reform plan that would weaken labor laws and raise the retirement age by a decade—the centerpiece of an array of austerity measures put forth by President Michel Temer, whose approval rating sits at a dismal 4 percent.

The strike, organized by Brazil’s biggest unions, had perhaps the greatest impact in industrial capital São Paulo, where protesters were able to march through the city for hours; buses and services were shut down in Brazil’s other major metropolises. The hashtag #BrazilEmGreve (Brazil On Strike) had a wider reach on social media than the massive protests that led to Rousseff’s impeachment....

..from democracy now headlines

Ex-Brazilian President Lula da Silva Sentenced on Corruption Charges

In Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was convicted on corruption charges Wednesday and sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison. He will remain free on appeal. Lula was the front-runner in the 2018 elections and is widely considered one of Brazil’s most popular political figures. The sentencing of Lula comes a year after his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, also of the Workers’ Party, was impeached by the Brazilian Senate in a move she has denounced as a coup. Lula has been accused of masterminding a corruption scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras. Prosecutors allege Latin America’s biggest construction firm spent about $1.1 million refurbishing a beachside apartment for Lula and his wife in exchange for public contracts. A top ally of Lula, Paulo Okamotto, denounced the charges on Wednesday.

Paulo Okamotto: "Lula is innocent. He is not the owner of that residence. He never asked for that residence. He never lived in that residence. He never frequented that residence. It really is a case of great injustice."

..more on the story here:

A Further Blow to Democracy in Brazil? Glenn Greenwald on Conviction of Lula Ahead of 2018 Election

Brazil's Congress voted on Wednesday night to shelve corruption charges against President Michel Temer, ensuring the deeply unpopular leader stays in power, for now, and providing a vivid illustration of the enduring ability of this country's political elite to quash threats to their power.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/brazils-temer-wins-enough-votes-to-block-corruption-charge/article35861866/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com&click=sf_globe