The labour standards which the Brazilian workers have won over the years are once again
being threatened by the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The unions organised in
the CUT (Central Workers' Union Confederation) are organising a nationwide general strike
for the beginning of March.
The recent gathering of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre showed clearly how the
anti-globalisation movement is becoming more and more dominated by career politicians, and
groups and organisations that do not really represent the millions of youth who look to
this movement for an alternative to the capitalist system. The capitalist class
internationally is using a dual tactic. On the one hand, where they feel it to be
necessary (as in Genoa) they use the most repressive and brutal methods to try to crush
the movement. On the other hand they try to corrupt the movement and direct it away from
radical anti-capitalist ideas.
In a week's time the second round of the Brazilian elections are to be held. In the first
round Lula, the candidate of the PT came first by a large margin and looks set to win the
second round. In this article Dario Castro analyses the results of the first round and
looks at the situation a PT government will be facing, with the mounting debt and the huge
pressure it would face both from the bourgeois on the one side and the workers on the
other.
