September 18, 2018

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In Sweden, the flagship of European social democracy, the xenophobic extreme right won 17.5% of the vote in elections this week. By associating rabies with immigrants, as in many parts of Europe, the United States, and even Brazil, the reason for the growth of the radical right may not be so closely associated with irrational hatred of vulnerable populations, but with the feeling of abandonment in the face of policy enforcement neoliberals, as they have in recent years in Sweden.

This is the opinion of the renowned linguist, political scientist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, supported by a study of five Swedish economists that showed the link between spending cuts in social policies and the growth of hatred. “Xenophobic right-wing voters have little contact with immigrants but have suffered from the neoliberal policies of the Swedish government in recent years. They are people left out as inequality has grown and they have felt neglected by political institutions, “said Chomsky, present at the International Seminar on Threats to Democracy and the Multipolar Order, and responsible for opening the second round-table of the event,” Progressivism and Neoliberalism in a developing world. ”

He also explained that neoliberalism emerged during a crisis of democracy in the 1970s when the thinking minds of central capitalism felt threatened by the growth of organized minority groups, women, blacks and LGBTs, who sought to claim their rights.

Against this movement, the elites needed to design a new social model that would combat strikes and workers’ struggles. “They say, ‘they are marginal who must be put in their places’ – that is, as spectators, not participants in the political process, while the minority of responsible men rule on behalf of the whole world.” Since then, financial market profits have grown more than 1000%, while real wages have declined.

This paradigm shift, which has also called for changes in education to form more “docile and obedient” citizens advocated by the IMF and World Bank reforms, generate “frustration, anger, and sadness” among the working class, which will turn against vulnerable targets. And since the 1970s when the “neo-liberal assault of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan,” which advocated the non-existence of society – “there are only individuals” the model had to be renewed.

Production of precariousness
With the real estate crisis of 2008 and the ensuing revolts around the world, the financial system had to seek new ways to secure its profits. “The economy is designed to create precariousness,” says Chomsky, recalling an important study by economist Alan Krueger, which shows “that 95% of US employment growth between 2005 and 2015 took place in alternative, temporary, part-time, transforming society into a bag of potatoes and creating a toxic mixture that can erupt in dangerous ways, as we see it today.

In addition, he advanced what he calls “corporate capitalism.” “Corporate power translates into declining democracy,” Chomsky says. “The vast majority of the population is abandoned and representatives only defend the interests of campaigners. Amazon, the second US $ 1 trillion company that consumes 2 percent of the country’s electricity, has many subsidies while cutting social benefits. Only those who win are agribusiness, finance, big industries. ”

With democracy under attack, a process that, despite the American example, can be seen also in Brazil and in several parts of the globe, what are the exits? While acknowledging that the country’s situation is serious, Chomsky presents a generous example:

“A century ago, Brazil was recognized as a potential colossus, and that goal seemed to be in sight a few years ago, when it became perhaps the most respected country in the world, under the leadership of Lula and his minister Celso Amorim, with their impressive achievements. And that is an indication of what can be achieved by the country. Never underestimate the obstacles ahead, nor the ability of the human spirit to overcome and prevail. ”

Resistances
Before beginning his exposition, Mr Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, president of the Centro Lázaro Cárdenas, of Mexico, and former governor of the Federal District of that country, emphasized the satisfaction of meeting former President Lula in the Federal Police Superintendence in Curitiba, in the late last Thursday (13). “We met a person who raised our spirits, made us see that he remains combative and willing to continue in the fight.”

Cárdenas made an explanation of the current situation in Mexico, recalled the application of neoliberal policies in the last decades and the recent election of the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a landmark for the recent history of Mexicans, in order to overcome problems generated or deepened by the period neoliberal “We believe that the only way to solve our problems is to change the model, the system of political, economic and social development that we have.”

“We are proposing a change in the way we live. And finally we can overcome what was known as neoliberal policies, ” he said.

Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, economist, political scientist, former minister in the governments of José Sarney (PMDB, 1985-1990) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB, 1994-2002) made a speech focusing on the development of the capitalist economy until the adoption of neoliberal policies, most strongly applied since the 1980s in Latin America. And he criticized left-wing political projects for lack of an alternative. “Neoliberalism, which has been in force in the world since the 1980s, has failed. But the centre-left could not formulate its economic project. ”

Carlos Ominami, a former Chilean senator and director of Fundación Chile 21, paid homage to former President Lula. “I would say that Lula is the main leader, the most prominent figure in global progressivism. At one time there were two: Nelson Mandela and Lula. Mandela is gone and Lula has stayed. Therefore, because of his leadership in Brazil and in the world, we can say that they tried to end him, but they did not succeed. Today Lula is bigger than before. ”

And he compared the coup in Brazil in 2016 to the blow lived by Salvador Allende in Chile in the 1970s. “The threats to democracy exist and are very serious. And Brazil is an example of this. The coup d’état in 2016 against Dilma is perhaps the most serious fact of Latin American politics since the coup against Salvador Allende.”

Brazil as a Hope
The former Spanish Prime Minister José Luís Rodrigues Zapatero recalled, in times of migratory crisis, how Brazil was able to receive throughout its stories, waves of European immigrants, welcoming, giving refuge and offering a new life and construction of the country. And that this has followed up to the present, with the last progressive governments of the country.

“Brazil is a decisive reference for Latin America. Lula’s Brazil, democracy, hope. He had never been so involved in the fight against poverty and misery in the world. We must recognize their commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and starvation. My generation may be the first to know the end of starvation mortality in the world, “he said.

Zapatero, in the end, asked that the progressive field does not lose hope and the ability to think outlets for neoliberalism. “All the petistas, lulistas, all progressive Brazil, we have to demonstrate that they do not allow democracy to be the superiority of the most powerful. We can not lose confidence in ourselves, in what we represent in the values of the left, in the ideals, and to know that democracy is always a struggle for democracy. ”

Edition: Diego Sartorato