Brazil holds fraudulent elections; Workers Party calls for boycott

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12 SOCIALIST ACTIOI MARCH 1985 PT It came as no surprise when Tancredo Neves, the opposition candidate of the Democratic Alliance, was chosen to be Brazil's next president by an electoral college last Jan. 15.

By an expected high margin, 480 to 180, Neves defeated Paulo Salim Maluf of the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS), Brazil's ruling party. Neves' victory was guaranteed as of last September, when a wing of PDS senators and deputies joined the main capitalist opposition party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), to form the Democratic Alliance.

But the 60 million registered voters, a large percentage of whom had taken to the streets last spring to demand direct presidential elections, were excluded from participating in this vote. The same electoral college that selected Neves had chosen Brazil's last five military presidents. One-third of the senators in the college, in fact, were directly appointed by the dictatorship.

Not a step toward democracy The selection of Neves, the first civilian to become president in 21 years, has been hailed by the media as a great victory for democracy in Brazil. This, however, is not the case.

The military rulers, confronted by mass protests against the regime, felt it necessary to return to the barracks in order to prevent a major social explosion in the country. They carefully prepared a stable transition to a civilian president of their choosing—a president who would respect the fundamental institutions set up by the dictatorship over the last two decades. Both Neves and Maluf were totally acceptable candidates to them.

The true character of this transition was best described in a resolution on the elections adopted at the Dec. 12, 1984, Sao Paulo convention of the Workers Party (Partido dos TrabalhadoresPT). The resolution states:

"By means of intimidation, jailings, and negotiations with the Democratic Alliance of Tancredo Neves, the military dictatorship was able to reach a compromise [in the process of succession] which would allow it to return to the barracks while still maintaining military domination over the country.

"The pledges by Tancredo to maintain the SNI [National Intelligence Service], the LSN [Law of National Security under which any person can be detained without a trial], the National Security Council, and the core of the repressive apparatus and legislation clearly signify the continuity of the military regime."

Dante de Oliveira amendment The indirect presidential vote was a violation of the most fundamental concept of democracy: majority rule. Last March and April, 15 to 20 million Brazilians demonstrated in the streets of the nation's major cities in support of a constitutional amendment proposed by Dante de Oliveira, a deputy of the PMDB. This amendment would have mandated immediate direct presidential The mass character of these demonstrations-the largest ever in Latin America-created a situation where 62 percent of the deputies in the national assembly voted on April 25, 1984, for the Oliveira amendment. This included most of the bourgeois politicians in the PMDB.

But because of the dictatorship's constitution, which requires a two-thirds vote for any amendment to pass, the Oliveira amendment failed. The will of the majority of the Brazilian people was therefore ignored.

Once the amendment failed, all the bourgeois opposition forces caved in to the pressures of the military, voting in the fall of 1984 to recognize the electoral college and the indirect elections set up by the Figuereido government. Only the PT and the United Confederation of Workers (CUT) continued to raise the banner of immediate direct elections against the transition organized by the government.

The PT became the only political force in Brazil to denounce the illegitimate Jan. 15 elections. It called for large protest demonstrations on the day of the vote. Other left parties, such as the pro-Moscow PCB and the pro-Albanian PC do B, supported Neves' candidacy, hoping thereby to be granted legal status by the civilian government.

But the pressure to accept the transition plan of the dictatorship was also felt within the ranks of the PT itself. Of its eight members in the electoral college, two supported the Neves candidacy. This included Airton Soares, the Luis Inacio da Silva (Lula), president of the a leader of the Brazilian student movement to the city council of Sao Paulo ..Nicaragua (continued from measures would be taken against "speculating shopkeepers" who "robbed the people of billions of cordobas."

U.S. propaganda campaign

As the Nicaraguan people prepared for additional sacrifices, the Reagan administration released a new white paper reiterating its claim that the Soviet Union was fomenting revolution in Central America.

This new U.S. propaganda campaign comes at a time when Congress is about to reconsider its decision not to supply overt funding for the war in Nicaragua. It also coincides with the beginning of the Big Pines III maneuvers in Honduras. Scheduled to run through the middle of April, these maneuvers will be the broadest the U.S. government has conducted in Central America in the recent past. leader of the PT's parliamentary fraction.

At the December Sao Paulo convention of the PT, the 1268 delegates voted overwhelmingly to exclude from the PT the deputies who were unwilling to abide by the decisions of the party.

Sovereign constituent assembly

It is clear that none of the problems confronting Brazil's working class can be resolved by the new civilian president. In addition to respecting the primacy of the army in the state institutions, Neves has declared that he will promptly pay the interest on the debt to the imperialist banks. This represents annual interest payments of $12 billion.

Neves has also indicated that he will pursue the harsh austerity policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund. He hopes, however, to reach a "social pact" with the unions, whereby the unions will agree not to strike and to PT, and Cleusa Turra, and a candidate in 1982 The new white paper provides the ideological backdrop to the increased U.S. military and economic pressure on Nicaragua. It claims that, in Nicaragua, "the mask of Sandinismo has slipped away... What is revealed is the mask of Communism."

One government offical, who, according to The New York Times, is familiar with the intelligence used to prepare this white paper, noted that "Sometimes they make more out of intelligence information than is warranted, in my view."

In fact, the new white paper, like previous ones, fails to document its numerous assertions or even reveal the source of its information.

Rather, it is designed to provide flimsy cover to the U.S. military buildup in the region and to the corresponding withdrawal from bilateral talks with the Nicaraguans in Manzanillo, Mexico. Instead, the U.S. government has sponsored talks among the contras accept slight wage increases in exchange for an eventual recognition of trade union autonomy.

The official inflation rate, though, is 224 percent. It is also estimated that nearly 40 percent of the 55 million working-age Brazilians are either unemployed or underemployed. The minimum wage per month is $80. Neves' proposals are not likely to gain a friendly hearing from the exploited and oppressed of Brazil.

The PT convention in Sao Paulo put forward a class-struggle program which offers the Brazilian workers a clear political perspective for the coming period.

Having outlined its platform of immediate and democratic demands, the PT resolution goes on to call for a free, democratic, and sovereign constituent assembly. "We must prioritize the organization and unification of the struggles and movements,, the resolution states, "in order to bring together a constituent assembly with the greatest freedom, representativity, and democracy... where the workers themselves can directly participate in the drafting of the laws."

The resolution continues, "We must also state clearly that the PT will continue to struggle to transform the existing political, social, and economic order given that our objective is the construction of a socialist society."

It can be expected that the Brazilian workers and peasants will grant the new civilian president a short respite. But as it becomes evident that Neves has nothing to offer but more austerity and repression, the massive struggles against the regime will inevitably resume.

The PT's consistent commitment to the struggle for democracy and its role in mobilizing the workers at the point of production have already provided-and will continue to provide-millions of working people in Brazil with the necessary lever to win their most heart-felt demands.

to produce an agreement aimed at unifying a factionally divided counterrevolutionary army.

An agreement between Arturo Cruz, Alfonso Robelo, Eden Pastora, and Adolfo Calero is expected to be worked out soon, in which the composition of a government that would take power if the Sandinistas are defeated would be established.

The four leaders represent the full spectrum of the opposition to the Sandinistas, ranging from Cruz, who was the leader of the legal bourgeois opposition to the Sandinistas within Nicaragua, to Calero, whose Nicaraguan Democratic Front is dominated by the remnants of former dictator Anastasio Somoza's National Guard.

In the present situation, the Nicaraguans are resigned to a difficult and long battle against U.S.-organized sabotage and violence. As President Ortega said when asked how he would fight the contras: "There is no other road left for us except to continue fighting."