The resignation of health minister Nelson Teich, on 15 May, in protest at the preposterous medical suggestions of President Bolsonaro, less than a month after his predecessor was sacked, has shaken Bolsonaro’s position. The previous minister, Luiz Mandetta, refused to back Bolsonaro’s demands that shops and schools reopen. With more than 24,500 reported Covid-19 deaths (27 May), in a country where such reporting is hopelessly inadequate, Bolsonaro has sought to keep everyone working, whatever the personal cost. His contempt for workers’ lives is undeniable; when asked about the deaths he replied, ‘So what?’
The Covid-19 outbreak has dramatically exposed capitalism, and so its ruling classes, to a simple choice: protect workers or force them to work, irrespective of the consequences. Desperate to renew accumulation, plans to return to work are concocted everywhere. What we see is the basic demand of capital: work, whatever the conditions, or starve. In the imperialist states, there exists a thin cushion of state credit to suspend the exploitation of workers for a few months. In Brazil this barely exists. Bolsonaro represents the real pressure of capital on labour; work and be damned. For example, in the slums of Brasilia unemployment, hunger and lack of money will see major riots, with inevitable looting, if the shutdown continues. The favelas have been abandoned by central government – 70 million people live in Brazil’s slums – many areas lacking water, making the fight against the coronavirus impossible. The health system is incapable of dealing with the load, thousands dying without treatment. The poorest, and so weakest, are hit first, whether working or not. Black Brazilians successfully went to court in Rio on 4 May to get details of the ethnicity of Covid-19 victims recorded. These details were excluded from a third of reports, concealing the class impact of disease.
Bolsonaro denied any problem. Only from 17 March did individual states begin declaring a variety of responses, but with Bolsonaro calling the pandemic a ‘little flu’, insisting it was all an exaggeration and that everyone could carry on as normal. However, just in case, he has blamed the Chinese Communist Party. Polls indicate that 64% of the population reject his handling of the crisis and some 49% want him impeached. On 19 May a virtual demonstration was organised by five ‘left-of-centre’ political parties – Sustainability Network, Green Party, Brazilian Socialist Party, Democratic Labour Party and Citizenship calling for the president’s impeachment. Pot -banging protests from shutdown neighbourhoods are regular. Ex-president Lula accused Bolsonaro of ‘leading Brazil to the slaughterhouse’.
Teich’s resignation came after that of ex-justice minister Sergio Moro. Moro is trying to salvage his own reputation following exposures by The Intercept of his collusion as judge with prosecutors in Lula’s trial. Abandoning a sinking ship, Moro seems to be preparing himself to be Bolsonaro’s successor, under a typically rightist ‘anti-corruption’ flag.
Moro resigned claiming that Bolsonaro was interfering in police investigations into allegations that one of his sons, Carlos, who runs an online fake-news network, called for a shutdown of Congress and the Supreme Court. On 19 April, supporting these calls, Bolsonaro had climbed onto a lorry outside army headquarters in Brasilia to attack these very institutions. These acts have prompted a formal probe into the president, which could lead to his impeachment, alongside other criminal investigations into the family’s associates. Brazil’s Supreme Court released an expletive-laden video of Bolsonaro demanding that he could choose the police officers he wanted.
The courts may not back Moro, and fighting back, Bolsonaro has abandoned his earlier pledge not to give legislators benefits, such as government jobs for their allies, in exchange for political support.
The stupid economy
The World Bank reckons Brazil’s economy will shrink 5.3% this year due to the pandemic, the biggest crash in over 50 years. In fact, this crisis came in two stages: the economic recession from 2014 and its failed recovery and now the slump provoked by the pandemic. Brazil’s desperate economic situation demands a major assault on the working class. Bolsonaro’s agenda is saturated with a desperate sentimentality for the 1964 to 1990 period of military government. Seven military men sit in his cabinet of 22. The economy minister, ‘Chicago Boy’ Paulo Guedes, wanted to slash spending, simplify taxes and privatise state enterprises. Horrified, he now has to promise monthly payments of US$116 (R$600) to tens of millions of informal workers and US$232 to mothers responsible for supporting their families. The impact of the aid is expected to be US$8.5bn for three months. By 26 March, the total stimulus package was US$150bn, more than the projected savings from his pensions’ reductions. On 7 May Congress ratified a constitutional amendment, allowing the central bank to begin the ‘emerging market’ world’s biggest quantitative easing programme, to finance the spending. Direct ‘monetary financing’ was previously banned. It can now provide cash for a range of private and public assets, including both government and corporate bonds. State debt will rise to about 90% of GDP this year, up from 76% last year, and the government will have to force down the interest rate to reduce debt costs. None of this will stop the deepening polarisation between the poor and rich, already the worst in the world, and the political crisis accompanying it.
Alvaro Michaels
The Amazon
During the recent rainy season, the Amazon had just 75% of typical rainfall. With less rain, it is easier to deforest because machinery can enter the forest. Land grabbers deforest one year, set fire the next, to transform forest into farmland and pastures. The soil is now drier, temperatures are higher, and groundwater is depleted. This context has made the Covid-19 crisis much worse, with Manaus, capital of the region, severely hit by the virus. Within the forests, movement of loggers and miners has spread the sickness to the indigenous tribes. These people are medically abandoned by the state, (they were being treated by Cuban doctors, now expelled). They suffer constant assaults on their lands and lives from small farmers clearing the way for the larger companies, all encouraged by the tragically dangerous Bolsonaro.
