NYRB article on Lula government

["Marvin Gandall" <marvin.gandall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The latest New York review of Books has a survey of Lula's first nine months
in office, and for those who do not subscribe to the publication, it's
reproduced on our site,  www.supportingfacts.com.

The piece is by Kenneth Maxwell of the Council on Foreign Relations, who
approves of the Lula government’s cautious orientation, and worries that its
still high level of popular support could dissolve over the next few months
as the legislative assault on social programs begins in earnest.

Maxwell, like others, is admiring of the way in which the PT has
consolidated its hold on government by catering to powerful foreign
investors and the domestic political and economic elite without losing the
allegiance of the overwhelming majority of Brazilians who have been
perusaded to set aside promised improvements to living conditions pending a
resolution of the state's fiscal crisis. The government’s controversial
legislation slashing public pensions, taxes, and union rights reflects the
commitment of the PT’s main strategists  – Finance minister Antonio
Palloci, a former Trotskyist, and chief of staff Jose Durceu, a former
student leader who trained as a guerrilla fighter – to classical supply-side
economic policies intended to boost business confidence and investment,
generating economic growth and government budget surpluses by next year.
Maxwell is conscious of the already massive unemployment, poverty, and
indebtedness in Brazil, and that if popular expectations continue to be
frustrated and especially if conditions worsen, the PT left, based on the
unions and the landless peasant movement, stand to gain.

Sorry for any cross posting.