A-Infos (en) Brazil, CAB: DOWN WITH THE ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM - An attack by the Lula Government, the National Congress, and the Financial Market on Public Sector Workers (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In October, a report containing a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution 
(PEC), a Complementary Law Project (PLP), and a Law Project (PL), 
bringing together approximately 70 items that make up the so-called 
administrative reform, was delivered to the Chamber of Deputies. For a 
long time, the financial system (banks, speculators, investment funds, 
among others) has been pressuring the Government and Congress for 
administrative reform. In the struggle for more resources, a discourse 
of "moralization" and "modernization" of the public service is 
constructed. This narrative maintains that the government "spends too 
much" on the social area and needs to "optimize" its spending and 
"modernize" management. Words that hide the true objective: it is not 
about reducing costs, but about directing them to those who always 
profit from capitalism, the dominant class, especially the financial sector.

The exorbitant interest rates that make life expensive and harm the 
country's real economy are not being reduced. Large economic groups 
remain tax-exempt, while pressure is being put on the sale of public 
companies. These government expenditures are paid for with what is 
collected, that is, with what is produced, directly or indirectly, by 
the working class.

They demand cuts to Bolsa Família (a social welfare program), social 
programs, the SUS (a public healthcare system), and education. In this 
case, also to public servants themselves. The supposed savings obtained 
with these cuts are not true savings, but a redirection of resources to 
pay off the internal debt, benefiting, above all, the financial market.

It is important to highlight that the main force behind this reform in 
Congress is the "Faria Lima" (a financial district in São Paulo) and its 
allies. Furthermore, another major objective is added to this project: 
political control over public servants, not by society, but by the 
governments in power. Mayors, deputies, and governors have a huge 
interest in ending job security for civil servants, so they can appoint 
and dismiss whomever they want in the public service.

Main points of the Administrative Reform:

Performance Management Program
This is a process that implies salary reduction, the end of career 
progression, and the elimination of rights such as seniority bonuses and 
other benefits. Initial salaries would be reduced, and resources 
allocated to those who make education, health, and other public services 
function would be cut. These funds would not return to social areas but 
would be channeled to the financial sector.

Furthermore, the proposal applies a typical neoliberal principle to the 
public service: replacing the workday with goals, reinforcing 
meritocracy and competition. This paves the way for longer workdays 
without overtime pay or compensation.

Progression would depend on subjective evaluations made by managers, 
opening loopholes for persecution and manipulation. Public service exams 
are also weakened, institutionalizing precarious hiring practices.

Stability in the public service is not an individual privilege, but a 
guarantee that the public servant is accountable to society-and not to 
the government in power. This change benefits the governments in power, 
which will be able to persecute unions and dismiss civil servants who do 
not align with their policies.

Application of Temporary Contracts
One of the main measures is the regulation and expansion of temporary 
contracts, via the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws). The rapporteur 
proposes a unified national competitive examination for the three levels 
of government, facilitating the hiring of temporary workers. 
Furthermore, the term of these contracts can reach 10 years, without job 
security or career advancement plans.

Deepening Privatization and Outsourcing
Under the argument of "efficiency" in public service, heads and managers 
will be able to expand outsourcing and Public-Private Partnerships 
(PPPs), mechanisms that, in practice, transfer public money to the 
private sector.

The administrative reform is bad for civil servants and terrible for the 
population. Its true objective is to reduce spending on public services 
to guarantee resources for the fraudulent public debt system and 
maintain tax benefits for large businesses, which fail to pay more than 
R$ 800 billion per year to the public coffers.

Even though the formal initiative for this reform comes from Congress, 
the fact that the federal government defended the fiscal framework and 
maintained exemptions for various economic groups shows how political 
disputes tend to always favor the dominant class. Rights are won and 
maintained through struggle, not through political favors.

Another chapter in the class war in Brazil: on one side, the Lula 
government, the financial system, and the National Congress; on the 
other, public servants and the majority of society that depends on 
public services.

As specificist anarchists, organized in the CAB, we participate in this 
class struggle to overcome capitalism and defend a public service geared 
towards the needs of the population, and not of capital. Thus, we seek 
to tactically expand the public sphere, a space where the organized 
people can create and control public policies that improve their living 
conditions and advance popular power.

https://cabanarquista.com.br/reforma-administrativa-um-ataque-do-governo-lula-do-congresso-nacional-e-do-mercado-financeiro-as-trabalhadoras-e-aos-trabalhadores-do-setor-publico/
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