[Marxism] More on Imperial Brazil and Petrobras

[Carlos Petroni <cepetroni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Now, formatted...

When we started to denounce the imperial thrust of the Brazilian
bourgeoisie ? which had been pretty well served by the Lula and Collor
governments ? we used as one of the examples Petrobrás (just one of
them).  Then some fictional argument developed saying that ?really
Petrobras was not Brazilian? but it was an enterprise ?with minoritarian
participation of the Brazilian government.?  Same argument arose when
talking about pure financial capital and some argued that Brazilian
financial capital was ?no significant? in the world of financial domination
and export.

The latter argument was put to rest when it was disclosed that Brazilian
capital dominates the internal financial markets ? the most powerful of
Latin   America and one of the 10 highest profit markets in the world ?
through state and ?national? banks. Moreover, Brazilian financial capital
is the largest exporter of capital in the MERCOSUR, rapidly expanding
in other areas of the world.

Returning to the question of Petrobras for a moment, we should stress
that the political ?squeezing? of Bolivia, where Petrobras is the largest
operator in the gas-oil industry (as it is in several other countries) is not
a unique situation as Petrobras is now partnering with Venezuela in the
exploitation of reserves in the Orinoco, operating in Argentina,
Paraguay, Uruguay and a dozen other countries as well as pressuring
Mexico and some African countries to reach deals for exploration and
extraction as well as refining and commercialization.Furthermore, the
myth that Petrobras was ?under the finger? of foreign capital is just that,
a myth. Evidence:

The Brazilian government, through its Federal Government and BNDES
(Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social 100% owned by the Brazilia
government) controls 57.6% of the common shares of Petrobras, 30%
of the preferred shares (15% through BNDES) 44% of the capital stock
(40.8% thorough the Federal Government and BNDES) an possibly
more, and the Brazilian government presides over every vote through
absolute and undisputed majority as most other investors, foreigners
and some of the partly owned by foreigners investment firms) are
non-voting shares.

Some of this info could be found at:
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/portal/ingles/frame_ri.asp?pagina=/ri/ing/InformacoesAcionistas/ComposicaoCapitalSocial.asp
    
For those interested in the banking side of the story, just go to Google
and make a search for the 500 top banking operations in Brazil.

  

Lea todos los días análisis y articulos de izquierda y un servicio de noticias 
que se actualiza cada hora. Lea Izquierda Punto Info
  

                
---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger?s low  PC-to-Phone call rates.
________________________________________________
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