By JOSÉ DIRCEU*
What Trump's defeat means for Brazil and the world; and what to expect from the Democrat in the White House
The victory of the Democrats in the United States needs to be evaluated from the angle of the spectacular defeat of Trump that must be celebrated. It is true that the Democratic agenda and Biden's speech, if confirmed, will resume policies buried without solemnity by Trump such as climate-environment. But affirmative policies regarding racism, immigration and health are still promises, despite the commitment made, and will need to pass through Congress and the Supreme Court.
Changes in economic policy will take place as a result of the pandemic, an area in which Biden will surely make a difference even at the international level. In relations between the United States and other countries, experience indicates that, above all, the hegemonic interests of the United States will prevail, with the maintenance of the commercial and geopolitical dispute with China and the defense of military hegemony. On the domestic economy, Biden's task is not an easy one: he will face republican tax dogma and the legacy of decades of neoliberalism and globalization, which have resulted in growing social inequality that undermines national cohesion and unity.
In the arena of geopolitics, the expectation is that the democrat will resume multilateral relations, such as the Paris agreement, and even proposals from the Obama era, such as the Transatlantic and Transpacific trade agreements. However, it is necessary to recognize that Biden will find a world where there is an evident exhaustion and a crisis that is not only cyclical, evident in Europe and the United States, of capitalism in its globalized form by banking financial capital. A world where regional powers – and more than regional in some cases – such as China, Russia, India, Iran and Turkey dispute the United States and impose limits on North American designs. Not to mention the role of the European Union, disdained and humiliated by Trump, and its crisis expressed in Brexit, now aggravated by the pandemic.
Hdisputed egemony
Still in the background, the historical realization that the United States can no longer exercise total hegemony in a divided world and with an internal economy that loses competitiveness and requires protection and trade retaliation measures to remain in the lead, as indicated by the attempt to stop the advancement of Chinese Huawei's 5G cellular mobile phone technology. An economy dominated by financial speculation and supported by services, in which workers lose income and jobs.
The question that arises is whether Biden and the Democrats will be up to the times and will seek a reform in the system of international relations that the UN expresses and will be able to remake the Bretton Woods agreement to regulate neoliberal financial capitalism that is manifestly exhausted.
For us here in Brazil, Trump's defeat sounds like music due to the relations of submission and unconditional adherence that Bolsonaro, his ideological circle and his family established with him and imposed on the Brazilian nation a humiliation that we will never forget and that only brought us political losses and economical. The defeat, in the United States, of the policies and ideas that Bolsonaro defends here encourages us. But, no euphoria, since we know how the interests of the Empire are imposed whatever the government.
Not long ago we witnessed the coup in Bolivia and we were victims of the judicial parliamentary coup that overthrew President Dilma. We have a history of US interventions in our internal politics, of which Lava Jato was one of the last chapters, as is proven every day.
Ghybrid war
Will there be changes in the hybrid war policy – a nice name for an economic and commercial blockade that means zero food, medicine and fuel, in addition to military sabotage and attacks – against Cuba and Venezuela? Are you going to seek a negotiated and peaceful solution without external interventions for the Venezuelan case? And what about the economic blockade against Cuba? Will the United States return to the agreements with Iran, supported until today by the European Union? Will Biden support the open sedition of the Bolivian legal order that Luis Camacho, a follower of Trump defeated in elections recognized by the international community as clean and legal, has been openly preaching since Santa Cruz?
Our Constitution is clear. Our foreign policy is governed by principles of non-intervention and self-determination of peoples, equality of States, defense of peace, peaceful resolution of conflicts, rejection of terrorism and racism, defense of human rights, cooperation between peoples for the progress of humanity under the aegis of national independence. We have a constitutional north that determines that we will seek “the economic, political, social and cultural development of the peoples of Latin America, for the formation of a Latin American community of nations”.
This has been the country's foreign policy, particularly during the Lula and Dilma governments. The rare exceptions happened in the military dictatorship and, now, in the Bolsonaro government. In the first, as the support and deployment of troops for the invasion, led by the United States and sanctioned by the OAS, of the Dominican Republic, where a popular revolt restored President Juan Bosch to power after a coup d'état after a legitimate election. In the Bolsonaro government, with recognition of the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself president without having been elected, and support for his policy of destabilizing the Maduro government. Not to mention the Brazilian interference in the coup that took place in Bolivia against President Evo Morales.
May Trump's defeat inspire us to resume our thread of history as a sovereign nation with a proud and active foreign policy, non-aligned and unreservedly defending our national interests. Resuming a national development policy that has, as its guide, the social well-being of our people, respect for the environment, the fight against racism and homophobia, recognition of women's rights, support for science and human rights rights, the guarantee of public and universal access to health and education, a fair tax system where the rich pay taxes. Finally, a democratic nation where popular sovereignty prevails and not economic power or military tutelage.
* Jose Dirceu he was Minister of the Civil House in the first Lula government. Author, among other books, of Memoirs (Editorial generation)
Originally published on the website Power360 .
