[Having fought for labor rights under a dictatorship, the
Brazilian president once again faces a violent far-right movement bent
on blocking his pro-worker, pro-democracy agenda. ]
[[link removed]]

FOR LULA, FIGHTING AGAINST FASCISM AND FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE IS
NOTHING NEW  
[[link removed]]


 

Omar Ocampo
January 9, 2023
Inequality.org
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Having fought for labor rights under a dictatorship, the Brazilian
president once again faces a violent far-right movement bent on
blocking his pro-worker, pro-democracy agenda. _

,

 

Far-right election deniers cut short the celebration of Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s remarkable political comeback
with violent attacks in the country’s capital yesterday. Echoing the
assault on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, supporters of defeated
ex-President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme
Court, and presidential palace.

While security forces have now regained control, Brazil’s
insurrectionists rattled the foundation of the world’s fifth-largest
democracy. Coming just a week after Lula’s inauguration, these
attacks make chillingly clear the enormous hurdles he’ll need to
overcome to achieve the pro-democracy, pro-worker agenda he’s been
pursuing for nearly half a century.

A former metalworker, Lula rose up the ranks of the labor movement and
helped launch the Workers’ Party in 1980 as an opposition force
against the country’s military dictatorship. During his first two
terms as Brazil’s president, which ran from 2003 to 2010, he had
enormous success in reducing the economic gaps that had widened under
military rule
[[link removed]].
In this, his third term, Lula intends once again to prioritize the
poor and the working-class.

Just hours after his inauguration on January 1, he signed
a provisional measure
[[link removed]] expanding
the flagship anti-poverty program he introduced in his previous stint
in office. Between 2003 and 2011, the Bolsa Família – roughly
translated as the Family Grant – distributed monthly benefits that
lifted 25 million people out of poverty
[[link removed]].
This program, combined with a minimum wage increase, expanded public
investment in health care and education and other progressive reforms,
reduced the country’s income inequality for the first time in four
decades.

Bolsonaro replaced the Bolsa Família a little over a year ago with a
much less effective program – called Auxílio Brasil (Brazil Aid)
– that was purely a Trojan horse intended to reduce social spending
by eliminating access to other welfare programs. Thanks to Lula’s
immediate action, the government will deliver 600 Brazilian reais a
month – approximately $112 US dollars – to 21 million families.

In another immediate action, Lula reversed Bolsonaro’s plans to sell
off eight state-run institutions
[[link removed]],
including the Petrobras oil company and the public postal service. In
scrapping his predecessor’s privatization plans, he aims to ensure
these entities serve the public good rather than lining the pockets of
corporate executives.

LEARN MORE
Colombia's wealth tax

Lula has not yet submitted legislative proposals to Congress, but the
Workers’ Party published a 90-point manifesto this past summer
[[link removed]] that
gives us a glimpse of their other core priorities. Near the top is a
commitment to revoking a federal spending cap to allow increased
investments in fighting poverty and strengthening infrastructure. Lula
has also vowed to strengthen trade unions and repeal a 2017 labor
reform
[[link removed]] that
exacerbated the growth in precarious work while failing to boost job
creation.

Lula has also appointed a special secretary for tax reform to develop
a proposal for a more efficient and equitable tax code. Brazil’s
current system is notoriously complex and regressive
[[link removed]] as
it places a heavier tax burden on the middle-class than those who sit
at the top of the income distribution. Hopefully, Brazil will
follow Colombia’s recent move
[[link removed]] and
adopt a wealth tax as a central pillar of a more equitable tax code.
An upcoming report co-authored by the Institute for Policy Studies
estimates that a progressive tax on the assets of the richest 0.03
percent of Brazilians would generate $26.8 billion USD in 2023.

Before the attacks of January 8, the headlines about Lula’s
challenges were focused on financial market jitters
[[link removed]] and
worn-out conservative critiques related to his public expenditure
plans. The _Financial Times_ editorial board
[[link removed]], for
example, urged him to pursue “better, not bigger” government if he
wants a strong and stable economy. Similar “fiscal
responsibility” arguments
[[link removed]] thrown
at Lula in his previous terms proved spectacularly wrong. But such
arguments are usually driven less by sound economic analysis than by
the interests of the rich and powerful.

With the headlines now fixated on the insurrectionist mob, Bolsonaro
is reportedly in Florida. No doubt he was glued to the TV yesterday,
watching the violence he had sparked by relentlessly questioning his
country’s electoral process — just as Trump did two years ago.

What will happen now to Lula’s presidential dreams? At 77 years old,
he is a man who lived through Brazil’s 1964-1985 military
dictatorship and was even jailed in the 1970s for leading labor
strikes. And so Lula knows better than most how to fight for the
interconnected goals of democracy and economic justice.

“Join us in a great collective effort against inequality,” he told
the massive crowd on inauguration day
[[link removed]],
before asking everyone to help ensure that “the hope of today
ferments the bread that is to be shared among all, and that we are
always ready to react in peace and order to any attacks from
extremists who want to sabotage and destroy our democracy.”

Little did Lula know how soon those attacks would come.

_Omar Ocampo is a researcher for the Program on Inequality and the
Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies._

_Inequality.org is your portal into the world of inequality _ —
_and ongoing efforts to leave our planet a more equal place._

* Lula da Silva
[[link removed]]
* Brazil
[[link removed]]
* Fascism
[[link removed]]
* economic inequality
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]