critical support

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By JULIAN RODRIGUES*

Supporting Lula involves defeating the so-called “fiscal framework”

Darlings, darlings and darlings – as Renato Rovai always begins his editorials – I will send you a very straight talk. Either we defeat the so-called “fiscal framework” as proposed by the Minister of Economy, or the Lula government is gone. Type: electoral fraud 2, the return. We voted for Dilma Rousseff and won Joaquim Levy. We voted for Lula and won Fernando Haddad in “would liamer".

Sorry, but you can't pass any cloth. What has been proposed as a fiscal rule is a spending cap with less arrogance.

Let's start from the beginning: tax rule why? For whom? Is the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF) and so many other mechanisms to contain public spending that the neoliberals introduced into the Brazilian legal framework since the 1990s not enough?

Lula was elected to carry out social policy and promote development. To rebuild public services, to replace an industrialization project, with income distribution, democracy and pluralism.

I don't know if Lula is on the chip 2003-2005 – Antonio Palocci and fiscal tightening, and then spending. But it is good to remember that the developmental shift in the first government only happened after the monthly allowance crisis and the almost crash de 2008. The homegrown did a gigantic good for the country – Antonio Palocci fell – Dilma Rousseff and Guido Mantega took over the reins. The rest is history.

We don't have a year to throw away. Bolsonarism is there – firm and strong. Lula has to deliver results immediately. The people are hungry and in a hurry. It is not possible to play at dialoguing with "uzmercadus”, who, by the way, couldn’t care less about “Haddist” nods. They are 100% opposition 24 hours a day.

The hypocrisy of such markets, of liberals et caterva it gets pathetic. Jair Bolsonaro opened the coffers and made money rain in 2022 – it was cute – and it almost worked. No columnists were seen Economic value or Globe News make a peep.

The footprint of the current Minister of Economy takes us back to Palocci 2003, evokes the sad “Letter to Brazilians” – when Lula believed he had to prove to “Casa Grande” that he did not eat little children. And when he still thought there was room to compose with our bourgeoisie – after they put him in jail Lula is someone else, he lost those illusions (which does not mean that he revised his usual strategy: moderate reformism).

What is the task of the PT, the left, the social movements, the critical intelligentsia, the socialists? Our challenge is to support Lula, but in an active and critical way. Defending our government against the rights, but shouting, mobilizing, demanding, tensioning. Uncritical government does not help the government, which suffers all kinds of pressure from neoliberals and staunch opposition from neofascists.

We have to build critical support, presenting demands, battling for the fulfillment of our agenda, pulling to the left, making a counterpoint to the pressure from the right. For Lula to be able to mediate (in our favor) there must be a lot of strength on this side. Flattery and “passing the cloth” do not help either the popular-democratic government or the people.

Fernando Haddad is neither Antonio Palocci nor Joaquim Levy – he is a much more sophisticated intellectual. He is a progressive social-liberal, or a moderate social democrat (to the taste of the reader). But it seems that he is too comfortable in this role of scissorsman, friend of the markets, head of the responsible wing of a supposedly populist government.

Time is scarce. You can't miss the first year of government. You have to open the taps. Invest, throw money for the helicopter. Raise wages, improve public services, increase the purchasing power of the poor, run the machine.

(No, inflation will not get out of control. We have a huge repressed production and consumption capacity. And a little bit of inflation is much better than a recession and a squeeze, by the way).

In other words: more Keynes, Furtado, Conceição, Belluzzo, Pochmann, Mantega, Lara Resende. Except Hayek, Roberto Campos, Fraga, Paulo Guedes. More Unicamp and less PUC-RJ per favore!

So, here's the thing: our main task now is to defeat the Haddadist economic package. And pressure the Lula government to fulfill its campaign promises. Spend, spend and spend! Development, social policies and income distribution. Beating fascists and neoliberals. Raise our red flags. Mobilize, polarize, organize, dispute.

Before it's too late. It is not given that Lula will finish his mandate. If we don't quickly improve people's lives, everything will get complicated. The best “government”, which really helps to advance is the one that fights for the fair line, not the one that just uncritically reverberates our achievements.

* Julian Rodrigues is a journalist, professor, LGBTI and human rights activist, PT militant.

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