Brazil can yet show the
way forward
As
protests erupt across the country, Brazil is discovering the price of
pursuing market-oriented policies that favour international financial
institutions and investors at the expense of workers and the people.
If President Rousseff responds to the protesters' demands and forges
a new economic path, Brazil
may yet succeed in showing the way forward out of a discredited economic
system which has been the object of worldwide protests.
Jeffrey
W Rubin and Ann Helwege
PROTESTS
in the streets of Brazil
are showing the world that democracy and today's form of economic
globalisation are not compatible. The collapse of economic growth
over the past year has left Brazilian workers struggling to pay their
bills - not just for bus fare but for housing, schools, health care
and basic security - as investors calmly shift assets to more profitable
markets abroad.
Brazilians
now lead the global 99% in rejecting a system that puts the burden
of adjustment to market volatility on ordinary workers. Current economic
rules-of-the-game harm people across their daily lives, from the quality
of education to the cost of food, from diminishing safety nets to
the precariousness of living in shantytowns. Protesters have shown
the same to be true in Greece,
Spain, Turkey,
and the Occupy encampments in the US. As has happened elsewhere, police
in Rio responded to protest by shutting
down transit, closing streets and turning off street lights to trap
and terrify protesters. Pro-government media has sought to label protesters
as vandals to no avail, as protesters use Facebook and other social
media to present their case.
Disconnect
Brazil has played by the rules - those
of international financial institutions, investors, and governments
- and prospered, securing the World Cup and the Olympics and garnering
international standing in economic and foreign policy debates. It
is ironic, however, that two leftists, Luiz In cio 'Lula' da
Silva and Dilma Rousseff, have proudly presided over this conventional
success story. Both aimed to end extreme poverty and hunger with cash
transfers such as the Bolsa Familia and a 'universal' health care
system called SUS. They succeeded commendably in targeting the very
poor, but were too complacent about threats to the commodity boom
that kept workers and those new to the middle class afloat. Slower
growth in China,
higher investment yields in the US,
and an easing of oil prices have undermined Brazil's exports, weakened its currency,
the real, and sharply increased consumer prices.
The
disconnect between financial markets and ordinary lives has left Brazil's
leaders surprised by what's happening in the street. Yet the rules
they implemented to promote growth mainly protected investors, thereby
limiting signs of panic in the financial media. While Brazilian banks
are secure, policies of the past decade have allowed easier repossession
and foreclosure rules to encourage subprime borrowing, temporary work
contracts to increase labour market flexibility, mandatory individual
unemployment savings accounts to divest employers of responsibility
for layoffs, and de facto limits on the quality of service in public
schools and hospitals to reduce fiscal deficits. Under these market-oriented
policies, when the chips are down, all but the well-to-do are on their
own.
Brazil's leaders could have done more.
Lula could have marshalled his big victories in 2002 and 2006 - the
fact that he won office by the largest margins in the cleanest elections
in the hemisphere - to challenge prevailing economic norms. Dilma
could have tapped the respect for her competence and character to
convince elites that deeper reform is appropriate and essential. Both
could have made it a priority to create less corrupt institutions,
orient agricultural policies as much toward food security as agroexports,
and improve industrial technology so that car production, now the
sixth largest in the world, might actually compete in global markets.
Brazilians
have seen economic crises before, but this time is different. They
have a meaningful vote. And fortunately, Brazil is not deeply indebted to powerful
foreign banks and bondholders. Brazilians can hold pepper-spraying
policemen accountable for fuelling violence. They can demand participation
and transparency in budgeting for schools, transportation and health
care. They can insist on tax reform that moves Brazil
away from being one of the most unequal societies in the world.
Even
when economies grow at record levels, the results of laissez-faire
economics fall far short of what citizens need and consider just.
The exigencies of growth today enrich the few, build monuments to
sports and tourism, and, yes, expand middle classes. But the governments
that promote this growth do not make the kinds of fundamental economic
reform that would support the long-term well-being of the middle class,
construct credible education and health care systems, and avoid the
credit and housing bubbles that Brazil is courting
right now. Nor do today's governments offer economic supports and
safety nets for struggling workers - in the form of credible unemployment
insurance - or insure the basic provision of housing, sewage, and
potable water in shantytowns. That is what protesters across the globe
have been saying, and now Brazilians are showing that they have the
will and ability to lead the fight.
Brazilians
have much to be proud of. They have ended decades of brutal repression
that made calling the police a graver danger than facing criminal
thugs. They have been at the vanguard of creating policies to reduce
hunger and keep young children in school. Recent governments have
slowed the pace of deforestation in the Amazon and opened meaningful
debates about race and class.
In
her speech to the nation in the week of 17 June, President Rousseff
took the unprecedented next step, for a national leader, of recognising
the legitimacy of protest marches in the streets that challenge her
own government. She affirmed publicly that democracy is about more
than just elections; it includes and in fact depends on the voice
of citizens in protest demonstrations and social movements. Rousseff
also sided with protesters in opposing a proposed constitutional amendment,
PEC 37, that would have made criminal investigations the exclusive
territory of the federal and civil police, silencing the independent
Ministry of Public Affairs. Now that the proposal has been defeated,
she needs to provide leadership in fighting organised crime, corruption,
human rights violations, abuses by public agents, and diversion of
public monies.
If
Rousseff and her government were to continue to take protesters' demands
seriously and forge a new economic path that diminishes inequality
and promotes well-being for all, Brazil
could become the country that turns the global economy around and
makes democracy meaningful and sustainable.
Jeffrey
W Rubin is Professor of Latin American History at Boston University
in the US and Research Associate at BU's Institute on Culture, Religion,
and World Affairs. Ann Helwege is Visiting Associate Professor of
International Relations at Boston
University and author of
Latin America's Economy. This article is reproduced from
The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com).
*Third
World Resurgence No. 274, June 2013, pp 23-24
