Reforms under Lula and Kirchner

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Social democrats claim Lula and Nestor Kirchner are "leftists", or even "socialists". But what "socialist reforms", or at least useful reforms, have been done under these two men? What have we seen? There are still slaves in Brazil. What have been done to eradicate slavery?

What about rent reduction? Taxing the rich? Land reform? Setting up people's stores in the rural areas?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Socialists? :lol:

They both implement all IMF 'recommendations'!

[Karl Marx's Camel]

So I guess they are nothing but capitalist reformers? :blush:

I tried to find some information on the International Monetary Fund Home's recommendations, but I could not find any. I assume you meant the International Monetary Fund Home and not the International Metalworkers' Federation, nor the International Myeloma Foundation :)

What are some of the IMF recommendations?

[Karl Marx's Camel]

This is scary...


Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) are loans from the IMF given to a nation with certain conditions. Nations are demanded to follow these conditions for approval of the loan. These conditions are technically known as "conditionalities".

Some of the conditions commonly are:

Cutting social expenditures,
Focusing economic output on direct export and resource extraction
Devaluing currencies against the dollar,
Lifting import and export restrictions,
Increasing the stability of investment (by supplementing foreign direct investment with the opening of domestic stock markets)
Balancing budgets and not overspending,
Removing price controls and state subsidies
Privatization, or divestiture of all or part of state-owned enterprises,
Enhancing the rights of foreign investors vis-a-vis national laws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment_program

So if I assume that IMF is really a highly bourgeois organization who wish to get rid of the little social safety net in underdeveloped nations has left and liberalize the whole world so that the capitalist class can march in and "do their work"?

[Luís Henrique]

Social democrats claim Lula and Nestor Kirchner are "leftists", or even "socialists".

The issue, however, is not if either of them is a socialist or a leftist, but whether their respective governments implement socialist policies.

Lula's origins are in the renewed unionist movement from the late 70's. Kirchner is a bourgeois politician, member of the bourgeois movement known as "peronismo". But Lula's policies seem more timid than Kirchner's.


But what "socialist reforms", or at least useful reforms, have been done under these two men?

Argentina stopped to pay its external debt - at least for a while. It has managed to convince the IMF that their (IMF's) recommendations could not be implemented in the way and pace that the IMF pushed for.


What have we seen? There are still slaves in Brazil. What have been done to eradicate slavery?

No, there aren't any slaves in Brazil, in the acception you are giving to the word. What is called "slavery" is a different system (barracão), that implies paying very low wages and getting workers in debt with their employers, so that they cannot leave the job at their will.

Programs to fight this have been into effect for a long time (much before Lula's government). The Labour Ministery has a special team for fighting that, which works in cooperation with Polícia Federal (Federal Police). These situations, however, usually happen in very isolated areas, with very difficult access, so it is not like saying "shazam" will solve the problem.

Those programs have been traditionally underfunded and undermanned. To my knowledge, there was some improvement under Lula, but not as necessary to effectively change the pace of government actions against semi-slavery.


What about rent reduction?

None that I know of. Rents are object of contracts, which cannot be altered by Presidential actions. So they remain in the realm of market rules. Rents cannot be raisen during the contract (legislative initiative of the left, still under Fernando Henrique's government).


Taxing the rich?

Lula has tried to push forward a tax reform that would include a "tax on fortunes", but wasn't able to pass it through Congress. Congress remains widely dominated by the Right. The executive branch cannot create taxes by itself, it depends on Congress for that end.


Land reform?

Very slow and inneffective.


Setting up people's stores in the rural areas?

I fear I don't understand your question. I haven't seen that being discussed among the Brazilian left, either before or after Lula's election.

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

Cutting social expenditures,

And making them "focused" instead of universal.


Devaluing currencies against the dollar,

Don't think so. If anything, overvaluing them against the dollar.

In fact, the brutal economic/politic crisis in Argentina, that led to Kirchner's government, was prompted by a peg in the peso/dollar rate.

Luís Henrique

[WUOrevolt]

Have they allowed those who took over their own factories and put them under worker control to keep the factories under worker control? At the end of the documentary film The Take(which is extremely excellent and would recommend it to all people on this board), the workers who took over one factory had it still under their control when the film crew left, but has it remained that way?

[ReD_ReBeL]

LULA:
As a left-wing president, Lula da Silva made social programs his priority during his campaign and since his election. Lula states that one of the main problems in Brazil today is hunger. In order to tackle this issue, the Lula government devised Fome Zero (Zero Hunger). This program distributes money to selected regions and cities whose inhabitants suffer severe difficulties. Fome Zero has a governmental budget and accepts donations from the public and international community.

Another social program is "Bolsa Família" (Family Aid), which unifies many other government efforts. Its objective is to fight poverty and hunger and it consists primarily of financial aid to families with incomes less than R$100.00 (around US$40.00 at the time of this writing). It demands that the families send their children to school and keep their vaccines up to date.

During the Lula administration, Brazilian foreign trade increased dramatically, changing from a budget deficits to several surpluses since 2003. In 2004 it achieved a US$ 29 billion surplus due to substantial changes in its commercial focus. Since then, Brazil has been looking for new exchanges with other large underdeveloped countries and regions, such as China, the Middle East and Africa. A record surplus is expected in 2005, despite the relatively low value of the local currency against the US dollar.

Another of Lula's key proposals is a small Tobin tax on international financial transactions that will go to fund developing nations.

source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiz_In%C3%A1cio_Lula_da_Silva)

[Don't Change Your Name]

There's nothing "socialist" about Kirchner's government!

Unless, of course, "center-left" politicians with "keynesian" economical stances are our new "comrades"...or better yet, "Dear Leaders"! :lol: