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dinsdag 2 januari 2024

WORLD WORLDWIDE BRAZIL News Journal Update - (en) Brazil, OSL: National note 02/23 - Against privatizations and the advance of exploitation, build unity between employees, outsourced workers and the population! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

When it comes to the privatization of public services and attacks on theoppressed classes, all political parties, in the management of theState, are very well aligned. With less than a year of the Lula-Alckmingovernment, the illusions created by the electoral defeat of Bolsonaroand the military are being dispelled. Contrary to campaign promises, theprivatization agenda is moving forward, worsening working conditions andthe quality of services provided to the population. There is no doubtthat this "broad front" government governs for the bosses: it hassilenced requests to revoke the labor and pension reforms; created a newspending ceiling with a different name (the "fiscal framework"),limiting public investments; turned a blind eye to police repression onthe outskirts of large cities, also adopting a new Law and OrderGuarantee (GLO) operation, handing over parts of security to the ArmedForces; maintains close relations with the military and landowners,sectors that support attacks on the working class and stimulated therise of the extreme right in the country. In practice, the Lula-Alckmingovernment confirms that the inauguration ceremony was nothing more thana piece of political marketing, while in reality, the oppressed classescontinue to suffer attacks, while receiving at most cosmetic measures.Privatization advancesOne of the central attacks intended for years by the ruling classes isthe advancement of privatization processes throughout the nationalterritory. We have seen an acceleration in tenders to privatize prisons,transport, water and sanitation, in addition to signs of advancement inthe Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) model for the areas of health andeducation. All of this is enhanced by the new spending ceilings, calledthe fiscal framework, which scraps public services so that governmentscan come up with the magical solution of privatization (concession,partnership, or any other name they want to give to disguise it).Whether in states governed by the far-right opposition, the traditionalright or the broad front, privatization is progressing in the same way.No matter how much the federal government publicly avoids it, it has anenormous responsibility for this. What supports these plans is the PPI,Partnership and Investment Program, created during the government ofMichel Temer (MDB), which is a type of internal consultancy to theState, responsible for advancing privatizations across the country.Under the tutelage of minister Rui Costa, the government headed by thePT maintains the PPI and the general privatization agenda, with rareexceptions.A history of privatizationsTo understand the privatization process, we need to understand thechanges that occurred in the production chain and in public servicesafter the Second World War. The crisis of economic and politicalliberalism in the 1920s, the rise of fascism and the strengthening ofsocialism, produced in the dominant classes the need to reformulatetheir economic and social policies. It began to spread, mainly in Europein the 1940s. and 1950, the idea of a regulatory or social welfarestate, which would be concerned with social and essential services forthe population (education, health, public sanitation, energy, access towater, etc.) and, in addition, would rule out the proposals radicals ofthe socialist left (the "ghost" of communism). These ideas alsoadvocated that the State take on economic activities that were not ofinterest to the private sector, or finance private activities throughinvestment and research by state institutions. This movement must beunderstood as a change in the program of the dominant classes, whichreduced social tensions and even managed to move the labor movement awayfrom socialist proposals. Not surprisingly, a social democracy begins togrow that completely moves away from the prospect of destroyingcapitalism and starts to defend small reforms, the nationalization(nationalization) of some sectors and social programs. Although thisEuropean reality is very different from the Brazilian one, socialpolicies and programs were also implemented in our country in the 1940sand 1950s, specifically in the field of social assistance, socialinsurance and specific social programs. In the 1970s, however, with theincreasing defeat of the bureaucratic project of Soviet socialism andthe reflux of social struggles and the socialist project, a sector ofthe ruling classes began to defend the dismantling of these social services.It was a period of economic crisis (and oil crisis) that destroyed thepost-war economic order, causing an increase in the external debt ofperipheral countries. The financialization of the economic system wasalso advancing (increasing control and merger of companies by banks andinsurance companies). The ruling classes increasingly began to defendcuts in social programs and the dismantling of any sign of a welfarestate. A new model of capitalist accumulation was advancing in anincreasingly aggressive manner and with it, the idea of privatization, amodel formalized in a meeting held in November 1989, which became knownas The Washington Consensus. The formulation by economists fromfinancial institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and the United StatesTreasury Department of a neoliberal prescription.In this way, privatizations advanced under the Sarney (1985-1990) Collor(1990-1992) and Itamar Franco (1992-1995) governments. This policycontinued in the Fernando Henrique Cardoso governments (1995-2003) andin a more attenuated way in the Lula (2003-2011) and Dilma (2011-2016)governments. To counter social democratic optimism, even the so-called"pink wave", which refers to the elections of progressive candidates inLatin America from the 2000s onwards, was marked by governments thatapplied to some extent the policies of the Washington Consensus. InBrazil, PT governments maintained the rule of price stability and fiscaldiscipline as the basis of their economic policy. With thelegal-parliamentary coup that removed elected president Dilma Rousseffin 2016, neoliberalism is applied by the dominant classes in a policy ofshock, in the Temer (2016-2019) and Bolsonaro (2019-2023) governments.A brief debate about our conceptionWe at the Libertarian Socialist Organization (OSL), as anarchists, donot believe that State bodies are in fact public, that is, common goodsshared by society as a whole. We do not believe in the neutrality of theState, which is an instrument of the dominant classes built,historically, with the aim of perpetuating their own system of privateinterests and domination. Even though in certain circumstances they mayhave instruments considered more democratic, these mechanisms only serveto fool around, build electoral corrals and to legitimize the attackpolicies of the dominant classes. We strengthen the struggles of workersin the public sector, also, for two reasons. Firstly, because itconsiders the fight to defend jobs (against the closure of jobs orprecarious work relationships), wages and the quality of servicesprovided to the population to be fundamental, immediately. Secondly, thestruggle is important for the accumulation of social strength towardsthe advancement of the organization of broad sectors of the workingclass. We seek to build a new society by stimulating reflection: whatwould self-management of public services be like so that workers couldthey self-organize, with popular control through direct democracy,involving the basic bodies of society? In our conception, the State isalso subject to the private interests of a minority, such as thetechnocratic sectors that make up the state apparatus (shift rulers,state careerists or theocrats) and the dominant classes in general (landowners, big businessmen, bankers etc.). However, tactically, we set ourforces in motion against privatizations because we understand that theydeepen exploitation and transform services that should not (in theory)seek profit into merchandise. We do not believe that the definitivesolution lies in nationalization. Our defense against privatization isan opposition to an important point in the enemy's strategy, in additionto contributing to the experience of struggle and organization of ourclass, as well as to the immediate improvement of living conditions. Wedefend, as a program, the radical transformation of society aiming at ahorizon of a self-managed organizational model, socialization andplanning through direct democracy. In this model, workers have an activeparticipation in the construction and management of decisions madecollectively, not being mere "cogs" of work - which differs from thecurrent model of a capitalist-statist society.Examples of problems caused by privatizationThe privatization of strategic sectors - such as energy, basicsanitation and transport - and its negative effects are nothing new inBrazil. More recently, in 2021, there was the privatization of the Riode Janeiro State Water and Sewage Company (Cedae), which two years laterresulted in an increase in the charging tariff and did not universalizeaccess to basic sanitation in the state.The same warning is made in relation to the São Paulo State BasicSanitation Company (Sabesp) and the Minas Gerais Sanitation Company(Copasa and Copanor, in the north of the state), which the governmentsof Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos-SP ) and Romeu Zema (Novo-MG)intend to privatize. In Várzea Grande, a municipality neighboring Cuiabá(MT), the Department of Water and Sewage (DAE) is once again a topic ofinterest for local councilors as municipal elections approach. Theregion's public service suffers from a lack of investment, whilepoliticians claim that privatization will improve the situation.The risks of precarious public service and increased tariffs to provideprofits to the business community are real. In Mato Grosso,privatization processes began in the mid-1990s and the logic did notdeviate from the neoliberal strategies promoted by the state: increasingscrapping, reducing investments and, thus, generating losses for societyand, also, for the workers themselves. . In 1996, Centrais ElétricasMatogrossenses (Cemat) began to have shared management with EletrobrásS.A, beginning its privatization process; At the end of 1997, itsprivatization took place, with Grupo Rede (currently Grupo Energisa) andInepar winning the auction and taking control of the electricity sectorin the state of Mato Grosso. In 1998, Telecomunicações de Mato GrossoS/A (Telemat) was privatized, being controlled by Brasil Telecom(currently Oi).The process of privatizing the basic sanitation service went through afew stages, first with the extinction of the Mato Grosso SanitationCompany (Sanemat), with the functions being transferred to themunicipalities. The Capital Sanitation Company (Sanecap) was thencreated in 2000, which was privatized in 2011, with control passing toCAB Ambiental, today Águas Cuiabá (Iguá). The struggles and resistanceagainst privatizations failed to stop the process. The increase in feesand tariffs contributed to the increase in the cost of living, at thesame time that the service continues to break records for complaints atProcon.Furthermore, both Iguá and Energisa have the practice of outsourcing,with precarious working conditions. In São Paulo, the privatization ofEletricidade São Paulo S.A (Eletropaulo), in 1999, currently managed bythe Italian Enel, also brought losses to the population , such asincreased tariffs and precariousness of services. With a smallerworkforce (it has cut staff by 36% since taking over the company fiveyears ago) and little investment in network maintenance - whichincreases the owners' profits - the company is unable to quickly resolveemergency situations, such as the one that occurred after heavy rains inthe metropolitan region of São Paulo on November 3rd. Severalneighborhoods and districts remained without electricity for more than72 hours, causing various losses to the population. Yet another examplethat privatization is not synonymous with "efficiency", as its defendersoften claim. In relation to transport, the privatization of trains inRio de Janeiro is one of the biggest examples of precarious services andlosses to society in order to meet the profits of the business community.SuperVia, then owned by the Japanese company Gumi and created in 1998 tomanage the trains, in more than 20 years scrapped the state's railwaysystem, registering operational problems, lack of investment andfrequent accidents. The fare is one of the most expensive in the country(R$7.40), excluding part of the population who cannot afford this dailyprice. The situation is so precarious that, in April 2023, the Japanesecompany chose to return the "concession" (privatization modality) to thestate government. In São Paulo, Metro Lines 4-Yellow (ViaQuatro) and5-Lilac (ViaMobilidade) were already privatized. In both cases, publiccoffers are harmed: according to the agreement, the government of thestate of São Paulo must contribute high amounts if the demand for theuse of services is below the stipulated level, avoiding losses to thecompanies that manage the lines. Meanwhile, the Metro lines that remainpublic (Lines 1-Blue, 2-Green and 3-Red) suffer from scrapped servicesand precarious work. It is the privatization of profits, benefitingcompanies, and the socialization of losses for the population." Despitethis, the São Paulo government intends to extend the privatization ofthe Metro lines. In relation to metropolitan trains - the majority ofwhich are managed by the Company Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM)-, ViaMobilidade took control of lines 8-Diamante and 9-Esmeralda for 30years in 2022. Since then, transport problems have been practicallydaily, with stoppages and delays in services, causing several harm tothe population.In Minas Gerais, the Belo Horizonte Metro was privatized this year.Despite being recent, metro workers are already pointing out thecompany's authoritarian stance, which has reduced the number ofemployees and does not respect CLT determinations.Tasks for the immediate fightThe privatization process has generated mobilizations in the country,although restricted, mainly, to sectors of the public service withmostly corporatist impulses. There is also the hegemony of unionbureaucracies controlled by parties of order, concerned with carryingout the struggle in a controlled manner aiming at electoral objectives.In São Paulo, for example, on October 3rd there was a joint strike bysubway workers, workers from Sabesp and CPTM (metropolitan trains). Withthe solidarity participation of categories such as students and workersat the University of São Paulo (USP), the fight broke the media blockadeand highlighted privatization on the agenda of the day, in addition toputting the governor of São Paulo on the defensive to the point of beingobliged to declare an optional point.We believe that to stop the privatization process it is necessary toexpand the debate beyond the union leadership and the corporatistinterests exclusively of permanent workers. It is of great importance tobring outsourced workers and other types of precarious public serviceworkers into the political arena and into the struggle, in addition tothe public service user sectors. Privatization deepens theprecariousness of work and services, and creates a gap between workersof the same category, with very different rights and salaries. It isnecessary to raise the issue of equal rights and salaries for employeesand outsourced workers, aiming at equalization between both andgenerating fighting conditions for all workers in the sector. Withoutthe struggle and organization of these workers together, the delivery ofpublic services will deepen to entrepreneurs, which makes servicesprovided to the population precarious: few employees, little structureand poor quality - considering that the main objective of companies isprofit and not service and the common good of society. We will befighting against privatizations at local or federal level regardless ofwhich party is in government, regardless of class; we will act againstthe fragmentation of workers by employment contract, fighting for equalrights and wages for all workers; Finally, we will seek to expand thesestruggles to the group of oppressed classes that use public services,with the purpose of dismantling the manipulation of the media thatdefends the bosses.Against the precariousness and privatization of public services!For a unification of the struggles of the oppressed classes against theadvance of neoliberalism!Workers and users together against the precariousness of life for theprofit of the bosses!Equal rights and wages for all workers!No to outsourcing and precarious work!OSL, November 28, 2023.https://socialismolibertario.net/2023/11/28/contra-as-privatizacoes-e-o-avanco-da-exploracao-construir-a-unidade-entre-servidores-terceirizados-e-populacao/_________________________________________A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca

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