Brazil has elected Dilma Rousseff, a former left-wing urban guerrilla who was jailed and tortured for fighting poverty and repression during Brazil‘s military dictatorship (1964-1985), as the country’s first female president. More than 130 million Brazilians went to the polls to choose between the 62-year-old economist, who is the successor to the Brazil’s Workers’ Party’s (PT) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Jose Serra of the centre-right Social Democracy Party (PSDV). Serra’s campaign was vicious and characterised by the dark arts of the far right which backed him. At one point, Rousseff ‘s opponents even launched a series of personal attacks against her, including Serra’s wife calling her a “baby killer” for supporting an open debate on abortion.
Addressing a sea of supporters at a victory rally in the capital, Brasilia, Rousseff said “We cannot rest while Brazilians are going hungry, while families are living in the streets, while poor children are abandoned to their own fates and while crack and crack dens rule.”
She added: “The eradication of extreme poverty is a target that I assume and I humbly ask for the support of you all to help the country overcome this abyss that still separates us from being a developed nation. This ambitious goal will not be achieved by the government alone. It is a call for the nation.”
In the lead-up to the election, José Eduardo Dutra, the PT’s president, claimed voters had been offered the choice between “a model that attempted to include all Brazilians” and one that promoted “income concentration and the growth of one group of Brazilians”. It also helped Rousseff to have the backing of outgoing President Lula da Silva, who currently boasts an incredible approval rating of about 75 per cent. Lula’s successor, who takes office on January 1 2011, has promised to continue and accelerate his social and integrationist policies.
After victories last month in both the congress and senate, the PT coalition now has a legislative majority. This is the first time since the end of the dictatorship that a coalition has held a working majority in both the executive and legislative branches. Given her double victory at the ballot box and over the mainstream media’s insidious campaign against her, Dilma Rousseff has reasons to be cheerful – at least for the present.
As the journalist AJ Liebling once quipped: “Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.” This resonates in Brazil, where public relations and the mainstream media have become powerful tools used by the local oligarchy and American business to subordinate democracy to corporate rule.
Shortly before the election, Brazil’s social movements, unions and independent media organised a huge protest in Sao Paulo against this relentless onslaught. According to Lula, the Brazilian media are in the hands of nine or 10 families.
Brazil has a long history of media manipulation and misrepresentation. The dictatorship worked in conjunction with Brazil’s corporate media and analysts speculate that Lula lost his first attempt to win the presidency seat in 1989 because of manipulative coverage by the Globo Television Network.
“In Brazil, we don’t have a monopoly, we have an oligopoly”, says Jefferson Pinheiro, a social media activist. “More than 90 per cent of all the information – news and journalism – that is produced in Brazil is in the hands of six large groups, which are groups of businessmen. As we know across the planet, communication in the hands of businessmen serves their economic and political interests in the defence of their class, which has the economic power.”
There is a growing media democracy movement in Brazil and the new administration needs to facilitate this process. The newly-elected federal deputy for the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) in Sao Paulo, Luiza Erundina, argues that Rousseff’s government must ensure greater democratisation of the Brazilian state. This must encompass two avenues: political reform and democratisation of the media.
In 2009, 1,500 representatives of Brazil’s independent and community media met for the country’s first national communications congress. The goal was to take the first steps towards something similar to the new media law in Argentina. This sets aside two-thirds of the radio and television spectrum for non-commercial stations. But Brazil still has a long way to go. Lula did not present any of the proposals from the communications congress to Brazil’s legislative branches for approval. To make sure she adopts them, Rousseff will need to be pressured from below.
Despite Lula’s questionable alliances with big business and high finance, his eight years in power did change Brazil’s political landscape. Under Lula, Brazil has experienced remarkable growth. The inflation rate has dropped from 12.53 per cent in 2002 to the current rate of 4.59 per cent. The minimum wage has risen dramatically. There has been a 20 per cent drop in income inequality, due to Lula’s social programmes such as Fome Zero, which distributes food to the poorest Brazilians, and Bolsa Familia, which targets low-income families with grants for food, education and cooking gas, and which has helped more than 10 million families.
However, in order to tackle the root causes of poverty, Rousseff needs to make structural changes and deliver land reform, placing control of the national wealth in the hands of workers and peasants rather than multinationals such as Cargill, which makes billions by exploiting workers. In terms of income distribution, Brazil is the third worst in Latin America after Haiti and Colombia. In 2009, four million children between the ages or five and 17 were listed as child labourers, while 50 per cent of the labour force was described as employed in the “informal” sector.
Professor David Fleischer of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Brasilia takes the view that Brazil’s new leader will be much more “hands on” and this may help to bridge the growing gap between Brazilian social movements and the PT, which is vital for improving social conditions and countering the repressive tactics of the right.
The contours of the global economy are changing and the election of Dilma Rousseff has enormous implications for global politics, as she will help to shape the new multi-polar world. Her victory obstructs the re-assertion of United States influence and leverage on Brazil and other left-leaning countries in the region. She intends to deepen relations with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), continue joint investment programs with Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador and continue working towards a peaceful solution to the nuclear programme in Iran.
This is counter-balanced by the ascendency of the military-industrial complex in the United States. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama’s generals are escalating their campaign of terror. As expected, the US State Department has recognised the repressive government in Honduras, despite the ongoing slaughter of political activists and journalists. The number of US military bases in Colombia and Panama has increased, the blockade of Cuba has tightened and the torture centres in Guantanamo Bay are still operational. The process of funding extreme-right networks in Brazil and its regional allies, over which George W Bush presided, continues under his successor.
There are still those who would destroy the dreams shared by those such as Simon Bolivar, Salvador Allende and other popular Latin American leaders who fought for what Jose Marti called “Nuestra America” – “Our America”. Fortunately, in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, social movements and trade unions know how to achieve social progress in dire circumstances.
