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Ken Livingstone: Labor, Progressives Must Oppose Brazil Coup
Ken Livingstone: Labor, Progressives Must Oppose Brazil Coup10 June 2016
Our battle against neo-liberalism and for a better world is more international than ever.
The most extraordinary thing about recent political developments in Brazil is that just 55 senators overturned the will of 54 million Brazilians at the ballot box who re-elected President Dilma Rousseff. They did this by suspending her as the President for 180 days and installing Michael Temer as interim President.
For those of us who expressed solidarity with activists against the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Brazil from 1964-1985,and stood with the Chilean people against General Pinochet following the 1973 coup there, alarm bells are ringing at this right-wing attempt at regime change in one of the world’s largest democracies.
As the British TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady put it, “The seizure of power by Vice President Michel Temer in Brazil, while President Dilma Rousseff fights the impeachment Temer has backed, is deeply troubling.”
The acclaimed U.S. economist and analyst on Latin America Mark Weisbrot is worth quoting at length on the issue. He argues that the impeachment process is “an attempt by Brazil’s traditional elite — which includes, as one of the most important players, most of the major media — to reverse the outcome of Brazil’s 2014 presidential elections … it has nothing to do with corruption, or any serious offense. The charge is that the government used borrowed money in 2014 to maintain the appearance that the primary budget surplus was within its target. But this is something that other presidents had done, and is hardly an serious offense.”
Tellingly he adds a comparison that “When the Republicans in the U.S. Congress threatened to shut down the government over the debt ceiling in 2013, the Obama administration used a number of accounting tricks to extend the deadline, and there was little controversy over this.” ...............
For those of us who expressed solidarity with activists against the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Brazil from 1964-1985,and stood with the Chilean people against General Pinochet following the 1973 coup there, alarm bells are ringing at this right-wing attempt at regime change in one of the world’s largest democracies.
As the British TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady put it, “The seizure of power by Vice President Michel Temer in Brazil, while President Dilma Rousseff fights the impeachment Temer has backed, is deeply troubling.”
The acclaimed U.S. economist and analyst on Latin America Mark Weisbrot is worth quoting at length on the issue. He argues that the impeachment process is “an attempt by Brazil’s traditional elite — which includes, as one of the most important players, most of the major media — to reverse the outcome of Brazil’s 2014 presidential elections … it has nothing to do with corruption, or any serious offense. The charge is that the government used borrowed money in 2014 to maintain the appearance that the primary budget surplus was within its target. But this is something that other presidents had done, and is hardly an serious offense.”
Tellingly he adds a comparison that “When the Republicans in the U.S. Congress threatened to shut down the government over the debt ceiling in 2013, the Obama administration used a number of accounting tricks to extend the deadline, and there was little controversy over this.” ...............
IN DEPTH: The Coup That Ousted Brazilian Democracy
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