Rescuing Brazil, reversing recession

Abstract

Complete Disarray At least Brazilians are in agreement over one thing: 'Our country is in a very bad condition, without precedent in the history of the republic'. In Brazil everything depends on the state, and, at present, not only has the ship of state lost its way, but all its controls and guiding instruments have broken down. The crisis is not confined to certain economic matters, nor is it merely the result of adverse international conditions. It is the economic system as a whole which is drifting. No new investments are being made in productive activities and the country's industrial sector is collapsing; only the speculators are prospering. Brazil will reach the end of the 1 980s with a lower level of industrial employment than at the end of the 1 970s. Millions of people are joining the army of the under-employed. Our hope of ever overcoming underdevelopment is receding. Brazil has earned the dubious distinction of having the largest patch of poverty in the Western hemisphere. All this has happened despite the fact that for 30 years Brazil had one of the highest economic growth rates in the world and remains a country with great potential for development. Brazil's advantages are real enough: enormous stretches of unoccupied land; abundant energy resources to exploit; one of the ten largest domestic markets in the world; an impressive installed capacity for the production of capital goods; and, a potential for technological creativity only equalled in the Third World by India. All we lack in Brazil is the will to change the course of history, something which has become increasingly difficult for us through years of authoritarian rule and a situation of external dependence, which has reduced us to a simple complementary market for the developed economies. We are now being subjected to an 'adjustment' process, a kind of cosmetic surgery which will reshape us more to the taste of the bosses of the present international financial order and increase our dependence. The question that we, the overwhelming majority of Brazilians, must ask ourselves is: Does Brazil not have a sufficient reserve of patriotism and public concern that can change a course of events that is condemning millions of people to unemployment and starvation? Can