Brazil: From the June protests on the
streets towards the path of electoral illusions?
Report from Corrente Comunista Revolucionária (RCIT Brazil),
11.1.2014, www.elmundosocialista.blogspot.com and www.thecommunists.net
The mass demonstrations
in the streets of the main cities in Brazil in June 2013, in which the people
expressed their disgust with the traditional political elite and the widespread
corruption in Brazilian politics, marked the end of two decades of lethargy and
certain political stability. In other words, an entire period without large
popular mobilizations ended and the system was seriously shaken.
In late 2002 Lula da
Silva – historic leader of the social democratic PT (“Workers Party”) – was
elected as president. In his eight years in office, Brazil faced a certain
economic stability and a strong growth of its GDP. The country has become one
of the main economies of the South and part of the famous BRICS (Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa). This stability allowed Lula to his
successor of the PT, Dilma Rousseff, elected as president. But with the
bursting of the global economic crisis starting in 2008 – with its epicenter in
the U.S. and spreading around the world – the political triumph of PT
governments in power ended.
The June Days
This was symbolized in
the presence of millions of people in June 2013 in the streets of all major
urban centers against the regional governments (regardless of which party was
in power), the federal government and the repressive state apparatus. Millions demanded
in medium and large cities the end of corruption and impunity and a stop of the
theft of public money into the pockets of politicians and businesses. People
also expressed their disgust about the massive spending for the Football World
Cup, the neglect of public health, rising inflation and the price rise of
public transport tickets. The demonstrators demanded radical changes and the
improvement of the public services as well as more investment in health and
education.
The leftist parties were
present with their militants at the beginning of the protests. But they were
soon practically expelled and sidelined. The attempt of the left parties –
mainly PSTU and PCO – to assimilate with the thousands of demonstrators
encountered enormous resistance because most of the protesters were from
sections of the middle class or lower middle class. Trade unions and popular
movements were not present. The ruling PT and the trade union federation CUT
(which is linked to the PT), which could mobilize thousands of protesters when
they were opposition in the old times, became one of the targets of the angry
protesters this time. It was in this context that leftist groups and parties
were harassed and assaulted on 19th June. Everyone who showed
up with their red flags (PSTU, PCO and other smaller groups) was continuously
followed by a group of protesters shouting "No Party". There
was pushing and shoving, exchanging insults, beatings and shatter of the red
flags, which were then burned. Thereafter the parties and social movements
continued their participation but without red flags.
The protests were partly
successful insofar as they led to the reduction or cancellation of the price
increases announced earlier on public transport in some cities. At the same
time, the federal government of Dilma Rousseff (PT) responded to the streets
with the promise of political reforms and proposed some social reforms.
On the political level,
the President calls for constitutional reforms and by this, she tried to shift
the political responsibility for the economic and social problems of the
country to the National Congress, which is mainly composed of industrialists
and especially landowners. Congressional leaders felt the blow and promptly
rejected the proposal. The PT government of Dilma Rousseff had no alternative
but to retreat because it rules in alliance with some traditional parties of
the bourgeoisie, i.e. it constitutes a kind of popular front government.
Instead of a change in the constitution, the National Congress implemented a
failed project of political reform. This policy reform had the official goal to
increase the transparency of the elections by opening a discussion about who
should fund political parties, the national companies or public funds.
The “More Doctors”
Program
On the social level,
Dilma deployed the "More Doctors" program. Launched on July 8,
2013 it was designed to meet the shortage of doctors in the cities of the
interior regions as well as in the poor periphery of the large cities in
Brazil. The program aims to bring 15.000 national and foreign doctors to these
poor areas. This program will not permanently solve the problem of public
health in Brazil, which would require three times as much investment. The purpose
of this project is rather to palliate the problems of the health sector and to
give an emergency response to the street demonstrations.
Brazil had 388,015
physicians before the arrival of foreign professionals. This is about 1.8 per
1000 citiziens. In comparison this ratio is 3.2 in Argentina. However, the
distribution of these professionals in Brazil is very uneven. In big cities
there are more doctors, while the regions which are most distant of the
industrial and commercial centers lack medical coverage. While the Federal
District (Brasilia) and the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have rates
well above the national average – 4.09, 3.62 and 2.64 doctors per thousand
respectively – the states of Maranhão, Pará and Amapá only have rates of 0.71,
0.84 and 0.95 doctors respectively. In the Amazon region the situation has also
worsened considerably. And even small municipalities of São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro State lack professionals. There is the same situation of lack of
medical surveillance in the peripheries of the big cities, i.e. the poorest
neighborhoods, where many doctors do not want to work.
In late July, a series
of demonstrations and strikes were called by associations of doctors in protest
against the governments program. On 23 August 2013, theBrazilian Medical
Association (AMB) and the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM)
filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court to suspend the program. However, the
Supreme judged the "More Doctors" program a constitutional
project.
The "import"
of doctors from other countries, mainly from Cuba, was also the target of harsh
criticism from medical students associations. In addition, the parties in
opposition to the federal government – especially the PSDB – reacted againt the
project with a hostile campaign full of reactionary and xenophobic ideology.
This became obvious in the speech of the representative of the Regional Council
of Medicine of Ceará State who said that the Cuban doctors came to Brazil as
"slaves" in the service of Castro and that they are even "incompetent,
because the medicine in Cuba is the most precarious". A journalist
from Rio Grande do Norte exposed his racism and class arrogance whe he said
that the Cuban physicans "have the appearance of maids" (some
female Cuban medical are black).
This reflects the higly
privileged status of physicans and academis in general. According to a report
of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD)
about the percentage of graduates in the population 25-64 years, this country
of 200 million people is ranked at the last place in a group of 36 countries.
The report tells us that in 2008 only 11% of the Brazilians in this age group
have college degrees. Most of the medical gratuades are from the white elite
and the deeply reactionary bourgeoisie. Even with programs of positive
discrimination of black and mulatto people, like the United States did, there
are few blacks who enter the universities – particularly in the disputed areas
as medicine, engineering and similar studies.
Shameful Capitulation of
the PSTU
It was therefor
outrageous that the PSTU (leading section of the LIT, which stands in the
centrist tradition of Nahuel Moreno) opportunistically supported this
reactionary protests led by the CFM against the arrival of foreign doctors. The
PSTU’s support for this reactionary movement of the medical elite proved
completely disastrous when at the end of August in Fortaleza Cuban doctors were
greeted by a crowd of angry doctors yelling and cursing, denouncing them as “slaves”
(1). Soon after this, the PSTU was forced to recant its support for the CFM
movement on its website. It had to explain that it is not a reactionary and
xenophobic party. But it was too late. Its support for the right-wing and
elitist movement of the doctors put the PSTU in the same camp as the most
reactionary political parties in Brazil (2). Later the PSTU itself had to
recognize that 74% of the population supports the "More Doctors"
program.
We reiterate that the
program does not in any way solve the health situation for the Brazilian
people. No doubt, this is an electoral project of the PT government. Medicine
in Brazil is first and foremost an extremely lucrative business. The rich have
at its disposal easy access to hospitals both for treatment of cardiovascular
problems or cancer diseases for example. But such treatments are expensive and
are not available to the largely poor population. Medicine in Brazil is
essentially curative, generating more profit for the pharmaceutical
corporations and the hospitals. Unlike in developed countries and even in Cuba
there is not as a project of preventive medicine. To this one must add that
public sanitation is poor in certain remote regions of the country and in the
urban slums.
Since the reflux of the
mass demonstrations, both the parties which support the federal government as
well as the opposition have made opportunist speeches in which they poase
themselves as heirs of the June events. They claim to advocate the same demands
of millions of people who took to the streets.
Brazil’s Economy in
Crisis
Brazil’s economy was for
years one of the shining stars of globalization. Not accidently bourgeois
economists speak about the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa –
to name the most important countries of the South. Brazil experienced
relatively high growth rates for a number of years – about +3.7% per year
between 2000 and the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008. This economic
growth helped the ruling class to keep a certain level of social peace.
However, Brazil could
not escape the effects of the global crisis of capitalism. It has entered a
recession in the past half year. Its GDP shrank by 0.5% in the third quarter
2013 compared with the previous three months (and minus 1.9% on an annualized
basis). According to the investment bank Nomura, GDP might decline further in
the fourth quarter. (3)
Inflation stands at 5.8%
and is predicted to rise further to 5.92% in 2014, and to 10.5% at the end of
that year. (4)
The rise of China as an
imperialist power is also reflected in Brazil’s trade. China has already
overtaken the USA as Brazil’s main trade partner and has become the number one
country both for Brazil’s exports as well as imports.
While Brazil is a
relatively industrialized country, is remains a semi-colony, i.e. a country
which is dependent on the imperialist Great Powers and super-exploited by the
North American, Western European, Chinese and Japanese monopoly capital.
Currently foreign capital provides 15.1% of Brazil’s annual capital formation.
(5) In addition Brazil has to pay nearly 1/5 of its export income to pay for
its debts to foreign banks. (6)
Brazil’s bourgeoisie
will do everything in its power to put the consequences of dependency as well
as of its current recession on the shoulders of the working class and the poor
peasants.
The Football World Cup
2014 as cover for anti-working class policy
The year 2014 will be
atypical for Brazil. Several events will take place which the ruling class will
try to utilize to deviate the masses’s focus from protests and mass
demonstrations. Next year Brazil will host the Football World Cup; there will
be elections for governors and the president as well as for the state and
federal parliaments. It is tradition in Brazil since the late 1950s when it did
win world championship for the first time that the federal govern seizes the
chance to get political dividends. This became abundantly clear when the
military dictatorship used the victories of Brazil in Mexico in 1970 to
strengthen its popularity as thousands of political opponents were tortured and
killed. Since then the people's passion for football has been used by
politicians as a powerful instrument of political alienation.
The World Cup is
organized by FIFA but it is paid with billions of dollars of public money to
build fabulous stadiums. In this way the state is subsidizing the bourgeoisie
of the construction sector with the working class tax payer’s money. The hotels
industry will benefit from this event too.
Thousands of people are
being driven from their homes to create the space for these stadiums, which
after the end of the World Cup will be a real white elephant. There is also a
public debate about the usefulness of spening billions on stadiums when this
money is much more needed to build hospitals, kindergartens, schools,
sanitation, better public transportation, etc. The controversy deepened with
the declaration of the world famous soccer player Ronaldo Nazario, known as
Ronaldo "the phenomenon", who is also a member of the Board of
Directors of the FIFA`s Local Organising Committee (COL). The former football
player was asked about public spending for the World Cup and if he agrees with
the huge amount of money used for stadiums for the World Cup. He replied:
"Money is spent on safety and health, but without stadium we will not
have the World Cup. We can not make the World Cup with hospitals."
This statement had a strong negative impact on public opinion. Another famous
world champion, Romario, now a congressman from the PSB (Socialist Party of
Brazi), declared that "I am not against the Cup; I am against excessive
spending being made for this. FIFA will make profits of billion Brazilian Real
(tax free), and almost one billion Brazilian Real will enter the coffers of the
COL. I am no part of either of these corrupt and unscrupulous entities. The Cup
is already 5 billion Brazilian Real more expensive since the first Union budget
and you know what is worse? A lot of the plans to improve the transportation system
and hence urban mobility, which would be a great progress for the people, were
removed from the agenda, i.e. they will never be achieved.” The
federal governments own website points out that the costs of the World Cup so
far are more than 25 billion Brazilian Real or 12.5 billion dollars. (7)
The government fears
demonstrations during the World Cup and therefore wants to pacify the protest
movements. Gilberto Carvalho, minister of the Presidency’s General Secretariat,
said that "the government will work together with social movements in
the host cities of the 2014 World Cup, to resolve problems that may arise as a
result of the event. The government's intention is that people have less reason
to protest. We hope that social movements can contribute for negotiations, for
example, in removing families. We know that in some cities, when people were
forced to remove from their homes, to carry out the projects, some treatments
of people were not appropriate. We want to fix it. We will continue working to ensure
that the population has less reason to protest“.
The Presidential
Election Campaign of 2014 has already begun
Elections are an
opportunity for the bourgeoisie to appease the discontent and the protests of
the working class. Both government and opposition unite to deflect the
legitimate protests and the desires for change by focusing the attention of
millions of people to the ballot box. Elections in Brazil take place every two
years. After the presidential election in 2014, in 2016, along with the Olympic
Games, there will be elections for councilors and mayors in more than 5000
cities around the country.
Recently both parties
supporting the government as well as those who are in opposition to it appeared
on TV where they presented themselves as natural heirs of the demands of
protests of June. In the most opportunistic way, they presented images in
advertisements which were assembled as if those parties were among the masses
on the streets with their colorful flags making the same demands. This is obviously
a scam, because all parties were driven from demonstrations. Of course many
members of these parties were present but did not identy themselves as such and
were not present in an organized manner.
The race for the
presidential election in Brazil which will take place in October 2014 has
already begun more than a year before. The former environment minister of Lula
da Silva, Marina Silva, who did already run for president in 2010 and got
almost 20 % of the vote, left the Green Party and tried to found a new party
calledRede Sustentabilidade (Sustaintability Network).
However she was unsuccessful in this due to the refusal of the Supreme Court.
The PSB (Socialist Party of Brazil) has broken with the federal government of
Dilma Rousseff and its party president Eduardo Campos (who is also the governor
of Pernambuco) announced himself as a probable candidate for president. He also
indicated that Marina Silva might be his candidate for vice-president.
The main opposition
party is the PSDB (Social Democratic Party of Brazil) which was defeated in the
last three presidential elections. Again it is faced with the problem that its
rival, President Rousseff, has recovered from the crisis in June and has
currently approval rates of 43%. The PSDB lacks support in the social movements
and the trade unions. The main campaigning banner of the PSDB candidate, Aécio
Neves, against PT was the fight against corruption. But the corruption scandal
that has exploded at the end of the first term of Lula da Silva has not prevented
him from being reelected. And to make matters worse for the PSDB, the trial of
the corruption scandal of the "Toucan corruption" (toucan is
the nickname which PSDB is known) by the Supreme Federal Court will begin in
2014 (8). This corruption scandal hits the PSDB at the same moment as former
leaders of PT, who are accused of corruption, have gone to jail. The truth is
that both the PT government of Dilma Rousseff as well as the biggest opposition
party PSDB are deeply involved in corruption.
Furthermore, unlike the
presidential election in 2010 the PT lost one of the greatest advantages for
the next presidential campaign against the PSDB in 2014– its image as a party
opposed to the privatization of the state industry. During her last election
campaign Dilma categorically stated in her TV advertisments that it would be a
crime against Brazil to privatize the pre-salt oil fields. But in fact Dilma
extended the privatization of federal highways initiated under Lula da Silva
government, privatized major airports and finally in October 2013, the Dilma
government mobilized the police, Army and the National Security Force to ensure
the auction of Libra pre-salt oil fields. A consortium with Shell (Dutch, 20%
share), Total (France, 20%) and the Chinese CNPC and CNOOC companies (10 %
each) and Petrobras (which by law will also have a 10% share) won the auction.
According to estimations of the National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Agency
(ANP), Libra is able to generate approximately 300 billion US Dollar in
revenues in the next 30 years of production. Under the agreement, the
consortium agreed to pay a signing bonus of $ 15 billion Brazil Real to the
federal government. President Dilma Rousseff said in an interview that the
auction of the pre-salt oil field in Libra was a success and that this can not
be characterized as privatization. The president said there was a „fair
balance" between the interests of the State and the companies that will
explore and produce oil. It's what she calls a Public Private
Partnership as opposed to privatization. What an understatement! These
are demagogic words to hide the truth.
CUT, the trade union
federation linked to PT, made some half-hearted protests against the
privatization of the Libra oil fields, including its support for the strike of
the oil workers in October 2013 which lasted a week. This strike coincided with
the auction of Libra. However, on the very day of that auction they criminally
failed to mobilize their rank-and-files militants, including oil workers in
strike, to participate in the protests in Rio de Janeiro to prevent the
privatization auction.
The experience with the
item of corruption shows that both PT as well as the strongest opposition party
PSDB are very similar. This became clear when the famous “Mensalão” scandal
came into the public during the first term of the Lula government. (This
scandal involved huge illegal monthy payments for deputies in parliament which
the PT bribed.). Meanwhile another “Mensalão” scandal emerged in 2007 in which
the Government of the State of Minas Gerais with Governor Eduardo Azeredo from
the PSDB was involved. In both cases the charges were related to the financing
scheme with irregular illegal public funds and private donations.
After nearly eight years
of judicial proceedings in the Supreme Court, the principal leaders of the
Workers Party (José Dirceu, José Genoíno) and other politicians of bourgeois
parties are stuck in a rhetorical remorsefulness. The trial was controversial,
as in the case of Dirceu his conviction was achieved based on the assumption
that as Minister for the Civil House of the Lula government at that time he “was
aware of and had responsibility for criminal acts committed by his collegous”.
The members of the Brazilian Supreme Court used the theory of the famous German
Jurist Claus Roxin in the sense that even without concrete evidence against an
accused, the “domain of the fact” would allow a condemnation. The leaders of PT
reacted to this theory stating that it was a political trial, and thus the
convicted José Dirceu and José Genoino are political prisoners. What the
leaders of the PT can not hide is that the diversion of public money of
"Mensalão" was precisely to ensure passage of the Pension Reform of
public sector workers in order to increase the life-long working time for the
right to retirement while decreasing the value of pensions. These events showed
the working class that it is difficult to distinguish which of these parties is
worse. What is clear is that both serve the bourgeoisie.
PSTU campaign
One of the major
centrist parties to the left of the PT, the PSTU, announced on December 16 that
Zé Maria will stand as its candidate against the candidacies of Dilma Rousseff
(PT) and Eduardo Campos / Marina Silva (PSB). On its website the PSTU analyzes
its opponents as follows: "These two political camps, however,
represent the same economic model and the same project for the country, which
favors banks, corporations and agribusiness at the expense of the needs and
demands of the workers, the poor and the youth." At the same time
the PSTU calls the PSoL and PCB for "the constitution of a Left Front
joining the PSTU, PSOL and PCB around a working class and socialist program and
to head it we present the candidacy of Zé Maria for the presidency."
(9)
PSOL is a party formed
by politicians which have split from the PT. Its goal is to revive the original
project of the Workers Party, which has now become the preferred government
party for the Brazilian banks and companies. However, in its policy PSoL has
nothing to do with socialism. To give one example: In 2012 it won the mayoral
election in Macapa, capital of northeastern state of Amapá. For this purpose it
entered an alliance with both the DEM (the successor of ARENA, the official
party of the military dictatorship which ruled Brazil for 20 years) and the
PSDB, the right-wing main opposition party of the country. Since then PSoL has continued
this alliance which repressed strikes of teachers and other public employees.
Characteristically Zé Maria and the PSTU omitted this fact in their call for a
Left Front.
The PCO (Workers Cause
Party) traditionally launches its candidate for president without alliances.
Its participation in the elections as a legal party serves more as party
propaganda and it receives less than 1% of the vote in the polls.
For which perspectives
should the workers vanguard fight amongst the masses?
The ruling class – with
both the PT government and the official opposition parties – will try
everything possible to deflect the attention of the working class and the poor
towards the football world cup and the electoral process. How should the
workers movement fight against this? How can the working class vanguard utilize
the electoral events during this year to advance the interests of the workers
and oppressed?
The Corrente
Comunista Revolucionária (CCR) considers it as a central task of the
workers vanguard – the progressive activists in the trade unions, social and
popular movements, the landless peasants’ organizations etc. – to oppose the
governments attempt to pacifiy the protests before and during the football
world cup. (10) Quiet the opposite; the coming months are an excellent
opportunity to put pressure on the government by drawing the attention of the
world public opinion to the burning problems of the popular masses. For the
revival of mass demonstrations and strikes to demand higher wages, to fight
inflation, to improve the conditions in the health sector, to abolish
corruption, etc.!
For this it is necessary
to build action committees in the enterprises, neighbourhoods and schools to
unite all activists for the struggle. Equally it is necessary to drive forward
the formation of a rank and file movement in the trade unions against the
privileged trade union bureaucracy. During the June days there have been
attempts to build “assembléias populares” (popular assemblies). Such
progressive attempts of organizing the workers, poor, youth and the lower
middle class should be broadened to build such assemblies in all enterprises,
neighbourhoods and schools.
While revolutionaries
fight against the bourgeoise’s attempt to channel the popular anger into the
electoral process, they certainly do not ignore this terrain of struggle. Quiet
the opposite; they will try to utilize eclections to put forward a
revolutionary perspective.
The CCR proposes to the
workers vanguard militants to utilize the mass mistrust against the official
parties of the bourgeoisie in order to advance the discussion amongst the
working class about a political program as well as an alternative party. An
important part of this discussion must be the formation of a new and authentic
Working Class Party created out of their midst of the workers and poor and
controlled by them.
For popular assesmblies
of the workers, poor and youth to discuss a program for the elections as well
as to elect candidates from its midst! Similarly they should call to have a
similar process inside the trade unions. The unions should break with their
slavish subordination under the PT bureaucracy as well as other bourgeois
parties! Revolutionaries should fight for a revolutionary Action Program as the
basis for such a new Working Class Party without making it a precondition for
its participation.
Revolutionaries should
oppose the government’s plans to either hold a referendum about political
reforms or to elect a “selective” Constituent Assembly. If there are issues concerning
the constitution to decide, the CCR proposes that the workers movement fights
for a free and sovereign Constituent Assembly!
The task of
revolutionaries is to elaborate and spread a revolutionary Action Program which
deals with the most important issues of the class struggle – wages, inflation,
poverty, oppression of women as well as black people, corruption, etc. – and
links them with the perspective of expropriation of the bourgeoisie,
nationalization of the industry and banks under workers control and the
formation of a workers and poor government based on workers and popular
councils and militias.
Most importantly, the
workers vanguard must build a revolutionary party as part of the Fith Workers
International. Without a revolutionary combat party, the working class can
never succeed in overthrowing the bourgeoisie via a socialist revolution. But
without such a revolution, the people can never end the misery of capitalist
exploitation and oppression!
As a first step,
authentic revolutionaries should unite today in a Bolshevik organization on the
basis of a revolutionary program. This is what the CCR and its international
comrades of the RCIT are fighting for. Join us!
Footnotes
(1) Médicos cubanos são vaiados por manifestantes em Fortaleza,
27.8.2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n_HF4ukmJo
(2) PSTU: Capitalismo, crise social e barbárie, 4.9.2013, http://www.pstu.org.br/node/19980
(3) See Economist
Brazil’s economy: The deterioration. Slow growth, stubborn inflation and
mounting deficits, Dec 7th 2013,http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21591196-slow-growth-stubborn-inflation-and-mounting-deficits-deterioration
(4) See David Biller:
Brazil Economy Shrinks More Than Forecast on Investment Fall, Dec 3, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-03/brazil-economy-shrinks-more-than-forecast-on-falling-investment.html
(5) World Investment
Report 2013: Annex Tables 05, http://unctad.org/en/pages/DIAE/World%20Investment%20Report/Annex-Tables.aspx
(6) World Bank:
International Debt Statistics 2013, p. 82
(8) Dilma diz que é um crime privatizar a Petrobrás e o Pré-Sal,
17.9.2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIuKNgyBWx0
(9) PSTU: Zé Maria's
presidential candidacy statement, 2.1.2014 http://www.litci.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2400:ze-marias-presidential-candidacy-statement&catid=8:brazil&Itemid=61
(10) For our assessment
of the class struggle in Brazil in 2013 we refer readers to our past articles:
The Fight for the Right
to Public Transportation - Free and With Quality - Under Control of Workers in
Brazil, 14.6.2013, El Mundo Socialista,http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-fight-for-public-transportation/;
Brazil: Solidarity with the Popular Uprising! Statement of theRevolutionary Communist International
Tendency (RCIT) and Blog El Mundo Socialista (Brazil), 19.6.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-solidarity-with-popular-uprising/; Brazil:
Before the General Strike on 11th July, 2.7.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-general-strike-on-11-7/;
Brazil: Trade Union Bureaucracy limits Workers’ Resistance to symbolic Actions.
A report on the National Day of Struggle on 30 August, 2.9.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brasil-national-day-of-struggle-on-30-8/; Brazil:
Indefinite Nationwide Strike of Bank Workers!, 20.9.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-bank-workers-strike/
