[Marxism] Brazil s Lula still ahead in Polls

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It seems so tiresome to me, as it must be to others, to see the same
old arguments being brought forth over and over and over again with
no resolution in sight. I find it so, both reading and writing over
and over with the same points. It's too bad there seems to be much
less interest in Mexico, where the problems and prospects for major
social change are far more compelling right now than in Brazil where,
at least on the surface, things appear far more stable than they are
in Mexico. 

It's awfully easy to sit here in the comfort of Yale University, or
Harvard, or Columbia, or wherever, and issue denunciations of those
who are betraying in the third world. Indeed, it's rather comforting
for some individuals, and for some groups, of course. Lula came into
office with a less than a majority. He did not make any kind of a
revolution. He has nearly zero room to maneuver, and his biggest goal
internationally seems to be raising Brazil's international profile.

I'm not aware of any strikes which the Brazilian government has 
broken. Racism remains in force, as it always has. Little seems to
have changed except on a cultural level. It's remarkable, then, in
the light of so little which has changed, why all the polls seem to
confirm Lula's popularity. It's not dissimilar from South Africa in
that respect. 

CUBA'S RICARDO ALARCON TOLD TOM HAYDEN:
[Alarcon] pauses, points an index finger for emphasis, and tells me 
?the most important task for the Latin American left? is to reelect 
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil. Having met with leftists 
highly critical of fiscal moderation in power, Alarcon says that
?notwithstanding his faults, if Lula is defeated, all of Latin
America will be worse off.? This advice may not sit well with some
radical advocates of Latin American revolution, but Alarcon takes 
a longer view. The recent nationalist electoral wave in Latin
America?Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, and a
near-success in Mexico?inevitably brings dilemmas of governance to
the forefront. But for Alarcon and Cuba, the overall changes in Latin
America further a benign result, the full integration of Cuba into
Latin America after decades of Cold War antagonisms. The permanent
embargo by the United States makes the Cubans especially wary of any
reversals in the continental process, as the defeat of Lula in the
Oct. 1 election would represent.

Alarcon is pragmatic. He believes in the Cuban philosophy that ?the
duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution,? that it must 
be a ?heroic creation.? But he is aware, perhaps painfully, that
revolutions cannot be ?imprinted or copied? and that the ?mandates?
of mass movements like those that have elected Lula must be
respected. ?There is no alternative in Brazil. The guys who were mad
at me for saying this went to meet with the landless movement
representatives in Brazil, and they told them the same thing.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20060829_tom_hayden_alarcon/

Brazil's Lula still ahead in Polls

Sao Paulo, Sep 6 (Prensa Latina) Twenty-six days before the
presidential polling, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
continues Wednesday to be the front-runner in the electoral campaign
with a 51-percent of vote intentions.

Datafolha pollster confirmed for the third consecutive week that the
candidate for reelection will win the first round scheduled for
October 1.

This result comes amid intensified opposition attacks, backed by
mainstream media that magnify everything said against Lula, supported
by the People Force coalition made up of the Workers, Brazilian
Republican and Communist parties.

According to Dalfolha, if elections were held today, the president
would rout the remaining runners with 57 percent of the valid votes,
excluding blank and annulled ballots.

Lula got a 24-point lead over his closest rival Geraldo Alckmin,
fielded by the Brazilian Social Democrat and Liberal Front parties,
at a stable 27 percent.

Heloisa Helena, candidate of the coalition composed of Socialism and
Freedom, Socialist of United Workers and Brazilian Communist parties,
is third while some of the remaining contenders hardly got one point.

The sample, taken in the last 48 hours among 1,724 people in 349
Brazilian cities, had a 2 percent error margin.

sus/ymr/rr/mf
================================================================== 
THOMAS I. PALLEY wrote:
YaleGlobal, 5 September 2006
Lula's presidency provides another example of the timidity 
of the left in the era of globalization. Having fought so 
long and hard for power, his government has drawn back when 
the opportunity to govern finally arrived.


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism