Interview with João Pedro Stedile, leader of the MST in Brazil.
– You mentioned that Brazil is going through a period of crisis. What is your analysis on the current political scene? What are the possible outcomes of this combination of crisis?
– João Pedro Stedile: The analysis of Brazilian popular movements, gathered in Brazil’s Popular Front, which brings together nearly seventy national organizations, is that Brazil is experiencing a very complex historical period, because three crises are occurring at the same time: (1) an economic crisis that paralyzed the economy two years ago and will continue without growing, with a strong de-industrialization process, an increase in unemployment and a decrease in the average wage; (2) an unprecedented political crisis, because the electoral process was hijacked by companies that finance candidates and then control them (the ten largest companies in the country finance about 70% of parliamentarians) and (3) a social crisis, of which the tip of the iceberg appeared in the protests of June 2013 and is still latent, because people’s problems, especially in large cities, are only getting worse and remain unresolved.
As this is a deep crisis, surely will take a long time to overcome it and it will require a new block of class alliances that can take the country forward. For now, there is no sign of construction of a new block.
The ruling class, the great economic power that controls our economy (which is financial capital along with transnational corporations and their internal allies), presented a unique program that signifies a return to neoliberalism, based on 3 points: a) a realignment of our economy with the US and, therefore, contrary to regional initiatives, with the hope that submission and a free trade agreement with the United States will bring billions in investments to revive the economy; b) a minimal state, through cutting all investments in social policy and prioritizing only the infrastructure to export; c) cutting the rights of workers, earned during the twentieth century and consecrated in Constituent Assembly of 1988. With this, they expect to reduce labor costs and increase their profit, and distribute it better among their partners or foreign competitors.
But the problem is that this program has not worked anywhere else in the world, not in Europe, much less in Latin America. In the Brazilian case, the people has already defeated that neoliberal program in four elections.
Dilma’s government is now completely lost. They fail in diagnosing the situation because they tend to consider the crisis as a peripheral problem, and she made a mistake in the composition of the ministerial portfolio by gathering a mediocre team that represents neither the parties nor the interests of society. And that’s why we’re stuck in an unprecedented political crisis. The government goes against its own interest and thereby is losing its social support day by day.
-What is the proposal of popular movements in this situation?
-JpS: Us the popular movements have analyzed that, first, we need to create a great unity among the working class, among peasants, precarious workers and union workers, everyone, to have a program to take us out of the crisis.
We have advanced on many levels. We are building unity around the Brazil’s Popular Front, launched at a rally on September 5 in Belo Horizonte, with more than two thousand members and political leaders.
We have a minimum platform that stands for democracy, so we are against any coup that tries to overthrow the government of Dilma and even against some corrupt governors in the states. We are for the defense of all workers’ rights and people’s social rights. We are against giving away oil reserves, as the right-wing politicians want. We defend a program of regional integration and work for a popular program of medium-term structural reforms.
However, the strength of the working class is not only expressed in spaces of unity or documents. Our efforts can only be politically expressed if we take to the streets with demonstrations and massive pressures, and on that issue we are still short of what we need, because in the various demonstrations that we did, even though they were programmed, for now, only the militancy is moving; a great portion of the population, our social base, are seeing it from their couch, and that’s too bad.
So we also hope to put in more energy to produce, in the next period, a re-ascent of the mass movement that can make the working class the main actor in this scenario of class struggle, which, for now, is confused and overwhelmed only by institutional policy.
-What analysis are movements making of the progress of conservative sectors in Brazil?
-JpS: In the current phase of domination of finance and internationalized capital, those classical parameters of the republic and the industrial capital in the democratic dispute are in the past. Capital now does not need more parties or institutions; it exercises power, not only through money but also through the enormous economic influence on society, through the systematic use of media (television, radio, newspapers), where it has complete hegemony. Then, media are now the leading political weapon of the bourgeoisie and its true ideological party. It is through them that their preaching projects false social values and conservatism. Therefore, we also maintain that as part of the democratic construction and to exit the current crisis, it is necessary to take up a deep reform of media, to democratize access to it and give the people and their organizations the right to access to genuine information.
Although they manipulate, they lie every day and convince the most backward and unorganized sectors, they can never change reality, and as long as there are no concrete solutions to the real problems of the people, the crisis will continue.
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