Communist Party of Brazil
by Altamiro Borges

Contradictory Scenery. The current situation of Brazil, a
country of continental dimensions that occupies the eleven
position in the world-wide economy, is much contradictory.
In one aspect, this crisis among the ruling classes has
being aggravated. The neoliberalism offensive, that began
in the early 90's shows clear signs of exhaustion. In the
economic field, the country is completely vulnerable. The
internal debt tripled from 1994 to 2001, being next to US$
200 billion, while the external debt increased from US$ 205
to US$399 million. Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC),
President of Brazil, that presents himself as
�social-democratic� in world-wide, destroyed the national
economy through criminal privatisation, by he dismounting
of the National State, cutting investments on the social
field and by cutting workers rights. The recent crisis of
the energy sector, as a result of the privatisation od the
state companies and of the reduction of investments in that
area, will result in decrease of 1,5% in the growth of the
Internal Rough Internal Product (PIB), in the reduction of
6,3% in the Industrial production and the resignation of
856 thousand workers. Those are the most accurate proofs of
the bankruptcy of the neoliberal model. Besides the
aggravation of the economic crisis, also increase the signs
of political ruptures within the ruling classes, with
divisions in the governmental group and the isolation of
FHC. The political crisis of the neoliberal elite comes up
as denunciations of corruption and through the promiscuous
relations between public resources and the capitalists'
private interests. Even the bourgeois media, we find those
states that the FHC will not finish his government, in
2002, with the risk o breaking off an institutional crisis
of serious ratios.

2. Advances and Reflux. If the crisis takes off the sleep
of the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, the labour unions
and the workers' movements also face difficulties.
Differently of the 80's, when Brazil was the number one in
the world in strikes and has notable growth of the
unionism, in the 90's te scenery is of defensive of the
workers' struggle. Despite the violent wage freeze and the
brutal backtracking in the labour laws, with the imposition
of innumerable authoritarian measures of flexibility and
precariousness of the work, the labour unions and the
workers' movements and have not obtained to give to more
effective responses in the defence of the immediate and
future interests of its class. The labour unions today live
a serious crisis of representation and legitimacy, moving
away from its bases and treading paths of bureaucratisation
and institutionalisation. The number of memberships is
decreasing; there in a reduction of the presence of the
workers in the unions' meetings, daily life and
fragmentation of its struggles. The possibilities of
changes in the current correlation of forces are deposited
in the institutional path, through the electoral defeat of
the candidates and parties identified with the
neoliberalism. This hypothesis is sufficiently reasonable
in the presidential succession of 2002.

3. Objective Causes. The present crisis of the Brazilian
labour unions and the workers' movements comes from many
factors, reaching a;; the activity branches and most off
the chronic unemployment, puts the workers in defensive,
fearful of the resignations and without perspective of
immediate conquest. The neoliberal offensive, with the
withdrawal of rights and the wage freeze, questions the
proper negotiating role of the labour unions. Moreover, the
deep mutations in the work structure, with the introduction
of new technologies and the alterations in the management
techniques brings difficulties to the actions of the labour
unions. In result of the productive reorganisation, changes
in the profile of the worker class occur. Important sectors
for the reanimation of Brazilian unions as some sectors of
the metal industry, especially in the automobile factories,
has been eliminated. In the banking sector, the combination
of the economy recession with the reorganisation of the
banks, generated 500 a thousand resignation in ten years.
Through subtler methods, as the �Circles of Quality
Control�, the companies look for to conquer younger
workers, with technical mentality and without syndicate
tradition.

4. Subjective Factors. This sufficiently adverse objective
scenery also aggravated the problems of management of the
labour and the workers' movements. The crisis of the first
experience of socialism, confirmed through USSR and East
Europe, created confusion and apathy in innumerable
leaderships - some have even migrated to the field of the
neoliberal ones, abandoning any socialist perspective,
denying the importance of the work and the revolutionary
paper of the proletariat. In the labour unions' base there
is a strong tendency to prioritise the immediate struggles,
especially in the economy and corporation fields,
strengthening the limits of the labour union actions. The
labour unions goes after the damages attacking the effects
and not the causes of the exploration; they reduce its
capacity of political intervention and formation of a more
advanced socialist conscience of the workers. In the
Central of labor unions predominates the reformist vision,
today hegemonic in the country. To make avenge the
neoliberal model, the bourgeoisie invested heavy in the
creation and strengthen of a Central right wing oriented,
the �Forca Sindical�, affiliated to the CIOSL. With lots of
money from the Government and from the patronage, enormous
display in the media, an assistance practice and offering
services, nowadays it seduces a part of workers the unions.
In what exists of more militant and dynamic int he
Brazilian unionism, the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores
(CUT) occurs a clear process of social-democracy actions,
with the Central privileging the negotiations with the
government and patronage and looking for the reduction of
the representation of the left oriented and class currents
n its inward. The CUT, that also is affiliated to the CIOSL
and composes a block with other Centrals related to the
social democracy, has not been capable to unify and to
politicise the fights of the workers.

5. Challenges of the Communists. In this contradictory
scenery, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) has pledged
to accumulate forces and to dispute the hegemony of the
labour union and workers movement. It is alert to the real
possibilities of the sprouting of new politician scenery,
more favourable to the fight of the workers. The exhaustion
of the neoliberal model tends to sharpen the class
contradictions on the country. The effort s to construct a
wide front, having in the center left oriented forces,
capable to defeat the neoliberal elite and to present an
alternative platform that will approach Brazil to the
socialist objective. With this mention, the PCdoB is
looking to give a class representation mark to the labour
union and workers' movement, politicising its actions. As
the second force inward the CUT, it looks for defeat the
hegemony of social-democrat currents, making sure that the
Central fulfils its paper unifying of the workers'
struggles. Besides the political struggle to defeat the
FHC's neoliberal government, the Communists have been
presenting innumerable flags in defence of the main
interests of the proletariat, with prominence for the claim
of the reduction of working hours and against the
flexibility of the workers' rights.