Bolsonaro’s deceitful and hate filled campaign of 2018 to seize the presidency in Brazil, importantly backed by Brazilian mining and agricultural capitalists, has provided the reactionary right wing of the Congress – the ‘ruralistas’ – with a year to carry out devastating attacks on the Amazon and the reduction of state pension rights, with the aim of increasing profits at the expense of the Brazilian masses.
US and European imperialism have serious interests in promoting reactionary governments across the world. While investors flock to private equity in Asia, returns are declining. The European economy is slowing, and its governments face the challenge of managing Brexit with its negative trade and investment implications. At the same time Eurostates maintain or extend massive state and European Central Bank debts hoping to sustain capital accumulation. However, investing in low return areas, or saving private debts through state purchases, are respectively either completely inadequate for, or incompatible with, steps needed to stimulate growth and avoid deeper domestic social and political crises. Both US and European imperialism must seize and more intensely exploit world markets.
On 27 November 2019, James Stavridis, ex-commander of the US Southern Command, and former NATO supreme allied commander, declared that ‘Latin America’s chaos is an opportunity for the US.’ With a defensive verbal feint, ‘the world to the south is not “America’s Backyard,” an expression (sic) rightfully despised throughout the region’, he nevertheless points to Latin America and the Caribbean as the urgent target of US imperialism. These ‘represent a natural set of partners and allies for the US …it is a region with huge potential in every dimension’. Along with reactionary attacks on progressive movements across Latin America, he expresses confidence that ‘today, with 95 percent of those [US military] forces withdrawn [from Iraq and Afghanistan], we should reapportion a fraction of that spending to this hemisphere, which is in every sense our shared home … A good strategic approach starts with reinforcing strong relations with the keystone regional partners: Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru.’
Brazil is vital in US imperialism’s manipulation of domestic politics south of its own border. Brazil’s 2018 GDP was around $1.9 trillion, with a population of 208 million. In 2011, the US and Brazil – the America’s two biggest economies – signed an Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation to expand trade and investment. The 2018 US trade surplus with Brazil was $30.6bn. Brazil is the US’s ninth largest goods market. US service exports to Brazil were around $28.3bn in 2018.
The EU is Mercosur’s largest trading and investment partner; Mercosur is a South American trading bloc. Brazil is the third main destination of EU global foreign direct investment flows and the EU is the leading foreign investor in Brazil. The EU stands in direct competition with US imperialism in the region. The EU exports machinery, transport equipment, and chemical and pharmaceutical products to Brazil, in competition with the US’s top exports of mineral fuels, aircraft, machinery and organic chemicals. With the June 2019 EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement, the EU will no longer pay 91% of tariffs on its exports to Mercosur, for example on cars and car parts, plus access to public procurement deals. No wonder Stavridis is agitated and Trump wants ‘America First’.
Burning Brazil
The horrific forest fires across the Amazon basin from August to November 2019 gave France’s President Macron a chance to delay the completion of the European Union – Mercosur free trade agreement. The aim seemed to be to force Bolsonaro to act against the fires, provoked with Bolsonaro’s approval, to destroy forests and clear out indigenous peoples. The reality was that Macron needed time for the deal in the face of European opposition to the Treaty. In any case it will not be passed until 2021. The EU would prefer to get rid of the key ally of the Trump-wing of US imperialism and place itself closer to the next president. The deal eliminates 93% of EU tariffs on its imports from Brazil and grants ‘preferential treatment’ for the rest. The EU imports Brazil’s agricultural products and expects a surge in beef purchases from Brazil, precisely the commodity that has caused 80% of the destruction of Brazil’s forest. Already, 2018 saw a 13% increase in deforestation, so that the Amazon’s carbon absorption from the atmosphere each year fell by about a third over 2009 to 2019. It is not the fires that ‘caused’ 4,500 square kilometres (1,740 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon to be deforested between 2017 and 2019 (with 65% of that deforestation in 2019). The burning came after the cutting. Macron’s indignation is a cover for the EU’s long and continuing encouragement of forest destruction. To minimise fires, deforestation must be minimised, to minimise deforestation requires the removal of Bolsonaro, Macron and ‘free trade’.
Class justice and political manipulation
Any doubt that ‘law’ is anything other than a reflection of class interests has been demolished by ‘lawfare’ between Brazilian political parties. Ex-president Lula had a range of fake or dubious charges used to prevent him standing for president in 2018, then essential for Bolsonaro’s victory. While Lula was released on bail in November 2019 as a result of a constitutional ruling, and has beaten off one case against him, his campaign for the Workers Party will be tested in the Spring municipal elections. His current position of conditional liberty keeps him on the defensive.
In November 2019, Bolsonaro’s right-wing Social Liberal Party, with 52 Congressional seats, split in a fight over control of its campaign funds. He launched a new party, the Alliance for Brazil. Ironically, but characteristically for neo-fascist parties, he claims to fight corruption and advance Christian values. The new party’s statutes include commitment ‘to defend life from the moment of conception’ and legislation extending the right to carry firearms to protect private property. His eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, will be vice-president. It would need to collect about 500,000 paper signatures to register for the 2020 municipal elections, and has said it will not stand. This will not change the alliances in Congress which maintain the dominance of agriculture and the extraction industries, but creates a potential career escape route for Bolsonaro, as a new conservative figurehead can be found to work with imperialism.
Alvaro Michaels
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 274 February/March 2020
