Failure in the fight for reforms can evolve for a revolution in brazil
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The document discusses the dynamics between reform and revolution in Brazil, arguing that while reforms aim to improve the capitalist system, a true revolution requires a significant change in governance and consciousness among the populace. It outlines various political, economic, and social reforms needed to challenge neo-liberal capitalism, including the establishment of a government of national salvation and the creation of a new national development model. The author emphasizes that if reforms fail and conditions worsen, a social revolution could emerge as people confront the existing political and economic systems.
Failure in the fight for reforms can evolve for a revolution in brazil
- 1. 1 FAILURE IN THE FIGHT FOR REFORMS CAN EVOLVE FOR A REVOLUTION IN BRAZIL? Fernando Alcoforado * To reform is to introduce changes in a particular economic, political and social order, without replacing it. Reforming capitalism in a country consists in producing changes in its functioning, in its economic and social policies, in its constitution and laws, in its institutions and in its political system. The struggle for reforms means the struggle for greater democratic spaces, more freedoms, more economic demands, more social gains, better distribution of wealth in the context of capitalist domination. Changes in economic models and in the political and legal superstructure are also part of the struggle for reform within the capitalist system. Proponents of reforms are those who defend the interests, values, rights and freedoms of workers and peoples who have been repelled by the dominant neo-liberal capitalism around the world since 1990 to the point of increasingly confronting them. Proponents of reforms do not go beyond the limits of the system, they are restricted to struggles for democratization and social, economic, and cultural improvements within the capitalist system. They are reduced to reforming capitalism, to improving it, which is practically impossible after the introduction of the neoliberal model in the world after 1990. The ideologues of capitalism, when they set in motion the neoliberal totalitarianism, adopted a process that led to the dismantling in the whole world the post-World War II economic reform as the so-called "welfare state" of the Keynesian era to favor large local and transnational private capital. Unlike reformers who seek to make political, economic and social changes within the framework of capitalism, revolutionaries seek the end of capitalism not limited to fighting for more or less advanced demands and reforms more or less advanced, conquering democratic spaces, fighting for better living conditions for peoples, taking these struggles when circumstances favor them, but without limiting themselves to them, trying to create in these struggles the consciousness and organization of the population that make possible a revolution, produce the necessary ruptures and make way for the revolutionary transitions to popular revolutions of socialist or nationalist orientations. For the revolution to happen there must be a confluence of multiple factors. Reform and revolution go hand in hand. They form part of the dialectics of accumulation of force and confrontation for political, economic and social change. Reform and revolution separate when it is imperative to change the dominant order. It is necessary to decide one way or another, defining itself thus categorically if it acts on the system reforming it or if it tries to abolish it to replace it with another system. The revolutionary struggle will only happen in Brazil, however, when its rulers are not able to govern as before and those who are governed by them acquire the necessary conscience not to accept being governed as before. Meanwhile, it is necessary to accumulate strength by persevering in the struggle for political, economic and social reforms within the framework of capitalism, promoting the awareness of the people, the formation of authentic political leaders, and a broad front against neoliberal capitalism. The main flags that could mobilize the population at the moment to fight for the political, economic and social reforms in Brazil are the following: 1) the constitution of a government of national salvation; 2) the recovery of
- 2. 2 the Brazilian economy in the short term; 3) the convening of an exclusive Constituent National Assembly; 4) the holding of general elections; And, 5) the construction of a new model of society alternative to dominant neoliberal capitalism. The constitution of a government of national salvation would contemplate: 1) the removal of Michel Temer from the Presidency of the Republic for impeachment or for the crime of corruption; 2) the indirect election of personality of proven respectability who make the commitment to break with neoliberalism and convene a new Exclusive Constituent Assembly or, support in the election in 2018 candidate who make the commitment to break with neoliberalism and convene new Exclusive Constituent Assembly; 3) the constitution of a ministry made up of competent people and moral integrity by the ruler who replaces Michel Temer; And, 4) the preparation of the economic plan for the recovery of the Brazilian economy in the short term and the development of Brazil in the medium and long term. Brazil's short-term economic recovery would include: 1) a drastic reduction in public spending; 2) the audit and renegotiation of the payment of the internal public debt; 3) sharp reduction of interest rates to encourage investments in productive activities; 4) the adoption of a tax policy capable of guaranteeing the resources that the State would need to invest in education, health, social security and infrastructure sectors, among others, and to burden the population and productive sectors as little as possible; 5) the market reserve in areas considered strategic for national development; 6) the selective importation of raw materials and essential products from abroad to reduce the country's foreign exchange expenditures; 7) the reestablishment of privatized state enterprises considered strategic for national development; 8) the adoption of the fixed exchange rate policy in place of the floating exchange rate in force to protect domestic industry and control inflation; And, 9) controlling the inflow and outflow of capital to avoid currency evasion and restrict the access of speculative capital in Brazil. The new National Constituent Assembly to be convened would contemplate: 1) the reform of the country's political system with the institutionalization of the district vote and the reduction of the number of parliamentarians and their stewardship in the federal, state and municipal parliaments and social control of the elected, among other measures; 2) the promotion of State and Public Administration reform on a rational basis; 3) the institution of parliamentarism and the decision about the end of the Federal Senate with the implementation of the unicameral system; 4) the banning of corrupt political parties and parliamentarians; 5) the formation of new political parties; And, 9) the convening of new general elections. The construction of a new model of society alternative to the dominant neoliberal capitalism requires the fulfillment of two stages: 1) Adoption in the medium term of the national development model according to the model of development adopted by the countries of Asia (Japan, South Korea and China) where the greatest economic growth occurred since the second half of the 20th century; And, 2) Adoption in the long-term of the Social Democrat model in the same way as in the Scandinavian countries where the highest levels of social progress occur with the necessary improvements and adaptation in Brazil. The national economic development model along the lines of the Asian countries would include: 1) increasing public and private savings in order to raise the investment rates of the Brazilian economy; 2) foreign investments, preferably in the export-oriented areas,
- 3. 3 and in those in which domestic companies are not in a position to supply the domestic market; 3) the maximization of Brazilian exports to expand the country's foreign exchange earnings and boost the growth of the national economy; 4) the granting of tax incentives to attract private investment in less developed regions of Brazil; 5) the encouragement and reinforcement of research and development activities and of the country's educational system; And 6) the reduction of social inequalities contemplating the adoption of measures that contribute to meeting the needs of the population. The Scandinavian model of social democracy to be implemented in Brazil would result from the refinement of the current Scandinavian model that would operate with a tripod based on a neutral State, active Organized Civil Society and efficient and effective Productive Sector (state and private). The neutral State would seek to reconcile the interests of the Productive Sector (state and private) with those of Civil Society mediating its conflicts in several instances of the executive and legislative branches that, when the consensus is not obtained, the final decision would be in charge of the population that would decide democratically through a plebiscite and / or a referendum. The state must take care of the people from the cradle to the grave. Private companies would only operate in economic sectors where there was competition. State or mixed- economy enterprises would occupy the economic sectors where competition was not possible. If the struggle for political, economic and social reforms is unsuccessful and the country's economic situation deteriorates to the point where government at all levels is bankrupt and the social situation of the people worsens vertiginously with rising unemployment and crime, the social revolution will be at the order of the day when people no longer believe in existing political and economic systems will have nothing to lose fighting to change the reality in which they live. The revolutionary struggle will only happen in Brazil, however, when its rulers are not able to govern as before and those who are governed by them acquire the necessary conscience not to accept being governed as before. This moment has not yet arisen in Brazil, but will soon happen if the antisocial policies of the Michel Temer government continue. * Fernando Alcoforado, 77, member of the Bahian Academy of Education and the Brazilian Academy of Letters - Bahia Section, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os Condicionantes de Desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (PhD Thesis, University of Barcelona, http: //www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento da Bahia do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016) e A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017). Possui blog na Internet (http://fernando.alcoforado.zip.net). E- mail: [email protected].