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NEWS & LETTERS,
August-September 2002
OUR LIFE AND TIMES by Kevin A. Barry
Left surges in Brazil
Polls in July continued to give Workers’ Party (WP)
candidate Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva a commanding lead in presidential
elections scheduled for October in Brazil. The prospect of a victory by Lula, a
former Marxist, has caused tremors in the financial markets, despite moves to
the Right by the WP, which now calls itself “post-socialist.” Brazil is the world’s ninth-largest economy, but also a land of grinding poverty. Wealth and power have long lay in the hands of a tiny landowner-military elite. In the impoverished Northeast, where Lula grew up, the law turns a blind eye toward the slave labor that is still widespread in the lumber and cattle industries. Brazil’s national debt stands at $250 billion, much of it state funds that were siphoned off by corrupt politicians and generals with the complicity of international capital. These cozy arrangements would surely be challenged were Lula to win in October. |
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