It's not just at home that the Brazilian government acts shamefully. This  happens in the much ballyhooed foreign policy as well, when the problems stumble into the economy. At the beginning of the year, Brazil won big at the WTO (World Trade Organization), when that organization handed us a resounding victory in legal proceedings against the United States.

The matter was cotton, whose domestic production was subsidized at the clip of  billions of dollars by the Americans, while at the same time imposing heavy barriers to the import of our product. We proved unequivocally, that this was a case of  glaring protectionism, unsuited to the rules of foreign trade.

Lula, the Bedazzled

We won in all instances, but when it was time for the United States to follow the WTO's resolution nothing happened. They didn't budge and they continued subsidizing their own cotton. Ignoring their down south backyard..

What can you do? We could not just declare war against Washington, and neither could we just impose by force that they take the Brazilian cotton.  At least, it behooved us to denounce that  show of prepotency and, at the same time, get ready to retaliate. What about increasing the import aliquots for a few American products that we import?

This time, however, we once again demonstrated our cowardice. The Development Minister, Luiz Furlan, left for the United States last weekend. Saying what? That this was simply a fait-accompli, and that all he could do now was to try to get "compensations".

What compensations? To get, for example, the reduction of American import taxes tied to the steel we export. Give me a break, what steel has to do with cotton? To obtain some advantages for the national steel plants, we will sacrifice the cotton culture, which is at the end of its rope.

This episode shows the uselessness of Justice when dealing with international relations. The only superpower of the planet decided to ignore the WTO's decision, because it went against its interests. And "there is nothing else to say," because what prevails is the deleterious free competition among economies.

Rulings in favor of the United States and the rich countries exist to be applied. As for those that are against them, forget it. All is fruit of this obscene economic model that ravages our country, imposed from the outside, guess by who? By the Americans. And sponsored, who would think, by Brazil's Minister of Development...

We don't know what the Agriculture Minister thinks about it, but it will be of little avail if Roberto Rodrigues gets brave enough to react. The real boss is the Finance Minister, Antônio Palocci, that is, the president of the Central bank, Henrique Meirelles, the top representative of the American interests in Brazil.

And how about the president? Now, really, Lula continues bedazzled by the "success" of the economic policy, that according to him created three million and two hundred thousand formal and registered jobs.  Are they going to subtract the miserable cotton pickers who lost their jobs?

The Stampede and the Future

The PT problem is not that it doesn't have the biggest number of representatives in the Lower House anymore. The ghost that haunts the party is another one: the PT will hardly have the biggest congressional delegation, at least in the next 20 years. The hope that should have overcome fear, has simply vanished turned into frustration, and capable to become indignation, if it hasn't done that already.

It's particularly critical that historical PT members have decided to leave the party, people like Hélio Bicudo, Plínio de Arruda Sampaio, Orlando Fantazzini and Ivan Valente, without mentioning the more than one hundred that kept getting out during the trip. It's still worse when we see the youth disbanding as well: Maria José Maninha, Chico Alencar and others who until recently stood for renewal jumped boat.

What's bad for the PT is the evidence that the old honchos from the Majority Camp continue to deal the cards, praying by the betrayal primer and insisting on dressing the neoliberalism shroud. This is the drama of a party that once believed to be the ethics master.

Serious leaders are convinced that it's impossible to explain to the grassroots how they defend an economic model that only enriches bankers, leaving the rotten leftovers for the masses. Will President Lula use this Brancaleone's Army to face re-election? Will he manage to kindle in the electorate the flame that he lit in 2002,  promising all kinds of changes? No, even if his opponent is a laid-back toucan (PSDB party)...

On the Asphalt

There is no explanation for the occupation of 17 Incra's urban buildings by the Landless Movement, all over the country. After all, do they want to make land reform on the asphalt? Do they use blackmail to obtain basic food baskets from the government, or financial help to organize demonstrations?

No movement thrilled as much public opinion at the MST, when it was created. There were those already dreaming about an internationalization of the scream for the land, since  similar movements sprang in Bolivia, Paraguay and other South America countries. Overseas, there were those who assured that the MST was the most modern and important political action that our planet had ever witnessed.

The debacle started in the early months of President Lula's administration. It became clear that the promise of an effective and immediate land reform would not be kept. MST leader João Pedro Stédile and companions gulped, imagining they were only initial hardships, which were bitter but still acceptable. But the Lula administration is getting to an end and there is no change in sight: land reform, only on paper.

It was natural to expect that invasions of unproductive properties, albeit illegal, would proliferate. After all, it is enough to visit the bivouacs to find out throngs of miserable people protesting for a guaranteed right, the land's social function.

The great detour is that the invasions of public and urban buildings went past the movement goals. It is easier to occupy salons, public offices and air-conditioned halls. Easier and much more comfortable. But this is not the way to promote land reform. Or social justice.

Carlos Chagas writes for the Rio’s daily Tribuna da Imprensa and is a representative of the Brazilian Press Association, in Brasília. He welcomes your comments at carloschagas@hotmail.com.

Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.

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