This would free up money to pay the exorbitant interest rates charged by imperialist finance capital. Cardoso has been trying to get these cutbacks through the Brazilian congress for months and has been voted down repeatedly. In the last election the Brazilian Workers Party made a strong showing after openly campaigning against Cardoso's capitulation to the IMF and the bankers. Federal Reserve Board head Alan Greenspan told the Brazilians in no uncertain terms that they have dallied long enough. To get credit, they must make good on their promises to attack the masses' standard of living.
Brazil shows that the world capitalist crisis has deepened and is at a new juncture.
The Brazilian working class is at a turning point in its own struggle. The ruling classes want the workers to pay for the crisis. Jobs, workers' pensions, the rights of millions of landless peasants and of the Indigenous peoples, and the Amazon environment must come first. Rejecting the voracious demands of the bankers and the bosses can turn the situation around. Permission to reprint granted if source is cited.