Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Why did Brazilian Workers Go on Strike?

Yesterday there was a massive general strike in Brazil. Why did the workers refuse to go to work and take the streets in mass protests?

Victor Mariutti

April 29, 2017
Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice’s second issue, “Women on the Front Lines”, is now available for purchase. For every magazine sold, we are donating $1 to a worker controlled factory in Argentina.

April 28 marks the largest labor strikes in Brazil in decades. Transit workers, industrial workers, steelworkers, public and private school teachers, university professors, healthcare workers, telemarketing operators, taxi drivers and others stopped working on Friday, April 28. Demonstrations took place in various cities throughout Brazil. The strike, which was called by the labor unions, takes aim at President Temer’s austerity measures. The most egregious of these is a pension reform law that would add eleven years to the age of retirement.

Temer rose to power last year when the business lobby, judicial branch and Congressional conservatives orchestrated an institutional coup, which laid the groundwork for innumerable market-oriented reforms that will hit working class women and people of color the hardest.

Brazil is in the midst of a vast economic crisis. Unemployment is at 13.7%, which means that 14.2 million people are unemployed. The economy has shrunk by 3.6% and the public debt is at 78%.

The discontent against the austerity measures was first expressed by youth, who organized and occupied schools and universities around the country. They were protesting against a spending cap on healthcare and education and against cuts in funding for schools, which are already falling apart and are under staffed. Over a thousand schools were occupied in 2016. The spending cut was passed, but not without a fight that politicized Brazilian youth around the country.

Later, the discontent against austerity measures was expressed when the working class pushed the national trade unions to organize a work stoppage on March 15. This work stoppage had massive support from workers and the general population, who sought a response to the administration’s attacks. São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, played a central role, with transit workers and teachers on the front lines. The working class burst onto the scene, staging work stoppages in various public service sectors, in universities and schools, as well as in strategic and industrial sectors.

Despite working class resistance, the Temer administration remained steadfast in its attacks and passed a law to deregulate labor markets and expand subcontracting. This affects all of the working class, particularly women and people of color who are historically most vulnerable to subcontracting in Brazil. Subcontracted workers earn less, are more likely to experience death or injury on the job and are more likely to be hyper-exploited, sometimes spending months without receiving their pay checks.

On April 26, the lower house of congress voted to reform Brazilian labor legislation in such a way that the few rights and securities afforded to workers will be subject to “negotiation” by each employer.

Furthermore, a new congressional session is to be held regarding pension reforms. Despite the fact that the administration made some alterations to the reform in view of workers’ resistance, it will still mean that the majority of Brazilians will be forced to work without retiring until their deaths. Originally Temer proposed that both men and women retire at age 65– adding 10 years to the age of retirement. However, due to resistance, the new proposal reduces the age of retirement to 62 for women. It also makes it more difficult for people to access their pensions, increasing the years of work required in order to receive retirement funds.

This all takes place amid the largest corruption scandal in Brazilian history. Executives from the country’s leading construction firm, under plea bargains, have accused countless politicians of corruption involving the state oil giant, Petrobras. Over 100 politicians were accused of corruption and are currently under investigation. This reveals once more that capitalist politicians use their posts to benefit themselves and the businesses that they serve.

President Temer already has less than a 10% approval rating and his reforms are massively unpopular. Persisting with the attacks, Temer aims to fulfill his role as the institutional coup’s chosen leader. That is, to attack workers more swiftly and harshly than the Workers’ Party (PT) had done. However, the PT (Workers Party) is also implicated in corruption and austerity on both the federal and local level.

After the mobilizations of March 15, labor leaderships, which have grown out of touch with the rank-and-file, entered into a truce with the administration– opening the door for the attacks that followed. Subsequent action against austerity measures were pushed to April 28– a month and a half after a mass work stoppage with immense popular support. This can only be interpreted as seeking to pacify and demobilize an increasingly dissatisfied working class.

This historic day demonstrates that the working class has a great will to fight against the austerity measures and all attacks on the working class. Despite the union bureaucracy dragging their feet, the working class has brought the country to a halt. Today could have been even more combative had the unions called for mass protests in the streets instead of asking workers to stay home and take the day off. In order to truly defeat the austerity measures, Temer’s coup government must be ousted and each of his attacks repealed. All who defend the removal of Temer from power should unify behind the call for a general strike until Temer is overthrown, without allowing this demand to be used by the Worker’s Party and its allies in the labor movement to reelect Lula in 2018.

While these mobilizations may serve to strengthen the Workers Party (PT), which has held the Presidency for 14 years prior to the institutional coup, it’s imperative to point out the PT’s attacks on the working class. Although today the PT seeks to put themselves at the forefront of the movement against austerity and subcontracting, they implemented these very policies while in government. For example, while the PT was in power, subcontracting increased from 4 million to 12.7 million jobs. They have also been implicated in corruption scandals, along with all of the overt capitalist parties. Although the PT was vastly unpopular both before and after the coup, losing many local government posts in the midterm elections, former President Lula is the most popular politician in Brazil today and may win the 2018 elections. We cannot be tricked into believing that electing the PT will solve the problem. It’s not enough to change the players, we must also change the rules of the game. This is why there must be a constitutional assembly to rewrite the constitution and to rethink and reformulate Brazilian “democracy”, stripping politicians of their privileges.

Behind the austerity measures of the Brazilian government are US imperialist interests that seek to buy up Brazilian industry and exploit its natural resources. The working class and the Left in the US must firmly support the Brazilian working class and firmly reject imperialist oppression in Brazil and all of the Americas.

Facebook Twitter Share

Latin America

Pro-abortion activists hold up banners reading "Legal abortion" and "Forcing gestation is torture" during a protest against abortion named "For the Life", a week after the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) decriminalized abortion, in Monterrey, Mexico September 12, 2021.

Mexico Moves Closer to Decriminalizing Abortion, but the Fight Isn’t Over

The new ruling is an important step in advancing the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico. But we must fight for fully legal, free, and safe abortion across the country.

Joss Espinosa

September 14, 2023

The 1973 Coup in Chile, 50 Years Later: Lessons of a Revolutionary Process

50 years ago today, a U.S.-backed military coup overthrew the government of Salvador Allende in Chile, installing the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Here, we share a series of articles to think about the lessons from the defeat of one of the most profound revolutionary processes in Latin America.  

Left Voice

September 11, 2023
Argentine presidential candidate of the La Libertad Avanza alliance, Javier Milei, reacts with Ramiro Marra, candidate for head of government of Buenos Aires, and Victoria Villarruel, candidate for vice-president, on stage at his campaign headquarters on the day of Argentina's primary elections, in Buenos Aires, Argentina August 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

What Explains the Rise of the Far Right in Argentina?

The Peronists’ “lesser evil” strategy has failed to stop the rise of Javier Milei, the most reactionary major candidate Argentina has seen in decades.

Robert Belano

August 22, 2023

Building “A Real Alternative to the Bosses’ Parties”: Interview with Argentinian Socialist Congresswoman Myriam Bregman

Socialist feminist leader, congress member and presidential candidate Myriam Bregman spoke with Jacobin Latin America about the record of the Peronists in government, the new far right, and the necessity of a true alternative for working people.

Myriam Bregman

August 13, 2023

MOST RECENT

President Biden visits striking UAW workers in Michigan.

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side

President Biden’s visit to the UAW picket line shows the strength of the strike — and why it should remain independent from him and the Democrats.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

September 27, 2023

Scabs Will Not Pass: Defend the UAW Strike With Organized Grassroots Power

The Big Three are escalating their use of scabs. The rank and file are fighting back.

Jason Koslowski

September 27, 2023

China’s Rise, ‘Diminished Dependency,’ and Imperialism in Times of World Disorder

In this broad-ranging interview, originally published in LINKS, Trotskyist Fraction member Esteban Mercatante discusses how recent global shifts in processes of capital accumulation have contributed to China’s rise, the new (and old) mechanisms big powers use to plunder the Global South, and its implications for anti-imperialist and working-class struggles today.

Esteban Mercatante

September 22, 2023
President Biden giving a speech on Friday, September 15, about the UAW strike. A UAW sign in the background.

Joe Biden Is Afraid of the UAW Strike. That’s a Good Thing.

A few days ago, Biden called on the bosses of the Big Three automakers to give concessions to the striking UAW workers. It’s because he’s scared of the UAW’s power.

Enid Brain

September 20, 2023