Workers Party’s failure sets stage for coup in Brazil
2016 2016-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
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The following article is reprinted from Left Voice, a journal initiated by the Trotskyist Faction-Fourth In ternational, which is associated with the PTS (Socialist Lula used to say, ‘All sides are winning,” yet this concealed the underlying contradictions. merely scraping by while the Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters (Left) Impeached President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.
versity education has limited spaces and students are selected based on a highly competitive standardized test. Therefore, most spots are taken by stu dents from wealthy families who can afford test prep classes and quality pri vate schools, making free public educa tion inaccessible to the vast majority of Brazil’s working class.
During the Lula years, everything seemed in order: he used to say, “All sides are winning,” yet this concealed the underlying contradictions. The working class was scraping by, while the wealthy were profiting. The mea sures that alleviated the conditions of the working class were minimal com pared to the massive profits raked in by the banks, commodity industries and industries in general.
Of the 10 million jobs created during Lula’s two terms, over 90 percent paid less than 1,500 reais per month (about $450 USD). Furthermore, the PT imple mented pension reforms that obligated public employees work more years be fore retirement. Even prior to taking executive office, the PT held local and statewide positions and operated like any other neoliberal party, privatizing industries and betraying strikes.
The PT´s tenuous class-conciliation pact was also challenged by the left. Resisting austerity measures (i.e., fare hikes) and fueled by a generalized dis