A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL: Unify the National Strike, and unify the categories locally (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The siren song of the Frente Amplio begins to fade away, and the 
Lula/Alckmin government is giving more and more examples of how the 
Fiscal Framework is applied in practice. The Fiscal Framework is a 
neoliberal mechanism that continues to impede investments in social 
policies such as health and education while guaranteeing the transfer of 
public resources to the financial system. ---- Reinforcing its 
peripheral position within the capitalist system and subordination to 
the economic mechanisms of imperialism (and its partners in Brazil), the 
Lula government continues to promote an economic and fiscal policy that 
privileges financial speculation and profits from the banking system. 
Far from the image propagated by the corporate media of "bloating" of 
the public sector, the Brazilian State invests less than 12% of its 
resources in public service, while European countries invest up to 30%. 
Brazil has one of the worst educational indicators in South America and 
invested only 5.5% of GDP in education, and the government has already 
indicated a reduction in investments in health and education next year.

This neoliberal policy, systematically defended by the hegemonic media, 
is celebrated by the government as a sign of "fiscal balance" and, in 
practice, cuts investment in social services that are essential to the 
oppressed classes. However, like any neoliberal policy, the cuts in 
public service are selective and while they reject the salary recovery 
of workers at universities and federal institutes, they approved a 60% 
increase for the federal criminal police and substantial increases for 
the federal highway police and the police federal.

Despite the government's speech in defense of education, the reality is 
that federal employees have not had any salary adjustment and salary 
losses accumulated due to inflation in recent years, associated with a 
lack of personnel and the scrapping of working conditions in 
universities and federal institutes, promoted a strike that began with 
the mobilization of technical administrative staff in education (TAEs) 
and has now affected more than 50 universities.

Servers demand a salary increase of between 22.71% and 34.32%, given the 
inflation that has eroded purchasing power in recent years. Furthermore, 
the restructuring of technical-administrative and teaching careers, the 
repeal of regulations that harmed federal education during the Temer and 
Bolsonaro governments, the restructuring of the budget and the immediate 
readjustment of student aid and scholarships are among the agendas.

With the outbreak of the movement, the government brought forward an 
eighth National Permanent Negotiation Table (MNNP) in which it 
reiterated the position that there will be no type of gain for workers 
despite the positive results of federal revenue in February, the best in 
the Revenue's historical series, started in 1995, in total disrespect 
for the public service. The government's repeated denial at the round 
tables demonstrates that the rules of the fiscal framework are the 
government's main priorities, deepening wage cuts and cuts in public 
investments to keep the ruling classes fat and profiting on our shores.

The government maintains its anti-union attitude worthy of the "best" 
moments of repression of the Alckmin governments in the State of SP. At 
the national table meeting on April 10th, the progress and installation 
of specific tables were conditional on the categories not carrying out 
strikes.

In addition to this old tactic used to demobilize, the government uses 
its weapons to divide the mobilization of federal employees, including 
signaling advantages to active employees at the expense of retirees, who 
have not retreated.

And as if that weren't enough, the movement has to deal with the 
frequent boycott attempts by government sectors, especially those led by 
the CUT and CTB, stopping the radicalism of the grassroots with the 
argument that a movement by civil servants could weaken the government 
and strengthen the extreme right. Or insisting on the absurd and 
defeatist thesis that it is necessary to "negotiate before striking", as 
if it were possible to negotiate with the government without an 
effective instrument of pressure against a government that 
systematically ignores the demands of education workers.

Obviously, one cannot ignore the extreme right, which has demonstrated 
that it remains alive and mobilized, prepared to try to garner popular 
support by denouncing the policies of the PT government, even if it does 
not present any effective alternative against these policies. However, 
by defending a neoliberal economic policy with a social "spice", the 
Lula government contributes decisively to strengthening the right and 
extreme right. The coup plotters and the uniformed party that promoted 
an attempted coup on January 8, 2023, were rewarded by the Lula 
government with a budget investment of 126 billion for the defense 
portfolio, while by way of comparison, the Ministry of Environment and 
Change of Climate, received only 3.72 billion.

Technicians and Teachers, it is necessary to intensify the student struggle

When we talk about the struggle in defense of education, the victorious 
struggles are those led by the unification of university workers, 
teachers and students. However, if the teaching and civil servant 
categories suffer from the demobilization of government sectors, which 
are more concerned with promoting government policy and municipal 
elections, in the case of students, this is deepened by the weight of 
the UNE and DCEs led by them. government sectors, acting as the "brake 
vanguard" of the students.

It is necessary to show students that the ongoing struggle is one. With 
the cuts and the worsening of the living and working conditions of civil 
servants and teachers, the quality of teaching and research is lost, and 
any student retention action is practically destroyed.

Unify strikes and encourage direct action

We, at OSL, echo the sectors that call for the unification of the 
movement nationally. Deeper changes and the defeat of the privatist 
project are only possible with a strong unified national mobilization. 
To achieve this, it is necessary to defeat the government policy within 
the union movement, education and student movement and advance in the 
defense of public education and the rights of students and workers.

Libertarian Socialist Organization

https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/04/18/unificar-a-greve-nacional-e-unificar-as-categorias-localmente/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en