A Year of Yeltsin

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A Year of Yeltsin rnational WPOINT lssue 235 September 28, 1992 81.50;$2.75; C$3;16FF A year of Yeltsin /rr1 /. ,? ( //t 0 a "r3 I ,1, I c, ,!1.,, t t, l/ ?.'t ",,,, /,.), O t", o'o * France: befole the Maastricht referendum # Poland; revival of workerc struglglles * BtaziFthe last daYs of Mr. Glean? CONTENTS RUssrA L2 PERU 24 Contents JOYLESS anniversary of COVERNMENT preens il sell failed coup highlights debate on capture of guerilla leader, but economic situation over economic strategy - BRAZIL 3 Poul Funder Larsen continures to deteriorate - Roland Wood THE impeachment of a Plus tamished "Mr. Clean" reopens A CU IDE to Russian political pafiies Hans-Jurgen GREECE 26 question of govemmental - power can the Workers Schultz SOCIALISTS oppose - chauvinist hysteria Pafty meet the challenge? - Alfonso Moro - INDIA L7 Document PROGRAMME of Plus FRANCE 4 liberalization and deregulation STRIKE wave threatens hits women hardest Vibhuti rightwing govemment MAASTRICHT referendum: a - Patel - Nicos Simeonides plebisicite on austerity - Maxime Durand ISRAEL 19 THEIR MONEY AND RABIN govemment ouRs 28 ECONOMY 6 M A DN ESS on the markets welcomed by the West but RAVAGES of free market fuel Colin Meade - Palestinians look for - calls for state intervention Plus - something more than empty but where do interests of IV FUND and circulation geslures Michel workers lie? Ernest Mandel drives continue ! - Warshawslq CORRECTION POLAND 9 ELSALVADOR 20 lN previous editions of /Yan STRIKES multiply as incorrect number for postal transfers AFTER a war that ended in govemment attacks last stalemate, what kind of peace (322 42\ has been published: you remnants of self-management will find numbet (2 wil follow? - Paquito the correct 322 - Jan Malewski Gomez and Rudie Hasting 42T) printed on the form below. * Payment: French lrancs pielerred. Cheques to PEC. Postal translers Subscribe to PEC, CCP No. 2 322 42T Paris. Bank lranslers to PEC, BNP Robespierre, Account 230179/90. ? 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Code................ 2 Renewal ol existing subscription New subscrip on (ptease indicate) lnternational Viewpoint# 235 4 September 28, 1992 BRAZIL and among the ftiends of the president has not stopped growinS; Pero Pablo The last days of Leoni, former Secretary oI Stratepic Affairs. is mixed up in the scandal of the state oil firm Petrobras; Jorge Fuiza, Mr. Glean? currenl minister of Social Affairs. recei- ved 100.000 dollars from the Brazilian Federation of Banls as a penonal dona- THE findings of the parliamentary commission of inquiry tion to his electoral campaign; former (PCl) cleariy show that Brazilian president Fernando Collor, Dresidenlial secretary Claudio Vieira is "anti-establishment"' Mr' Clean ticket, accused of having used confidential elecied in t-ggO on an debt bonds. set up by information to buy foreign benefited directly trom the nelwork of corruption Collor's own wife, former president of his lormer campaign treasurer, influential businessman the Brazilian trgion of Aid (LBA), had of Paulo Cesar Farias. With the release ol the PCI'S report to leave her post after the discovery ol Collor's trial, the president's manv ifiesularilies recorded during her and the beginning time in th-is organi/alion The list of resignation seems imminent. examples could go on endlesslY. It ii clear rhat lhis govemmenl is cha- lisl of corrupt acti- ALFONSO MOBO September 4, 1992 racterized by a long - vities of everv kind, and Collor is in the driver's seat. This is why it is not suffi- manoeuvres and corruption HEN president Collor up atl rhe cient tlrat Collor alone resigns, and why to light app€ared on television in which are now coming his entire team should be condemned' Collor govemcd the early June in an Once in Dower, of course. those same interest groups - mirmer' He attempt to convhce the countn in an authorilarian which before sang the praises of Collor austerity program on ooDulation of his innocence he had a implemenled hi. the redeemer want to avoid such a 'giite - focussing panicul?Lrly on ar tris side. ln so doing. he hoped the population. condemnation at all costs. whom he rccused of the people would forgive him for the the union', privileBes With his sins everyone knew he had commitled: enioying enormous order of friends. poputarty Crisis of ruling the acts of comlplion. embezzlement intimate circle of Alagoas"' accusations of cor- and other crime' for which he is now known as the "Repubtic Faced with these place a system which the and social beinP iudsed. Since lhen he has had Collor pul into ruption. Political people'\ savings and currenl the Brazilian sfale and funhei oplonuniries lo explain himself confiscaled crisrs of in the banks At order. which began with on tetevision; after each appearance he accounts o[deposit rulins time he to Put the e"nd of the military dictator- becomes even more unPopular than the same Proposed inflation in one fell ship in 1984, deePens each before. lndeed. a majority of Brazilians an end to according to him dav. We are witnessing a Pro- are now demanding his resignation' swooo. whrch required that everyone \iBhten their cess of recomPosition of the whose Moral foundations b€1t". different social forces. A little less than two Years later, end is far from sight. The presidential elections Collor won the Bmzil devastated bY a sPiral of government has lost all a time as govemor of the - rs and even of 1989, after mounting hyPer inflation - social legitimacy small and impoverished northeastern going through a deeP though the call for Col- to re-esta- state of Alagos. with pledges economic recesslon lor's resignation is a cor- ot socletyl blish the moral foundalions The wealth of the ! recl democratic demand put end to lhe ntordo' he vowed to an countrY remains in from an ethical Point of by the mdra- miar (privilegest received the hands of a tiny view, it is the verY model public ofllcials lcs (the nami given lo privilcged minoritY: of society in the country financial and oho en.loy signiiicanl 18% of the national that is at the hean of the same time he materiaibeneilts). At the wealth is concentrated cuIrert conflict. panies in general' took aim at political in the hands of 17. of The official media. the denouncing ihem as being responsible the population one rithtw ing Parties' the army This approach - tor the country's crlsis of the highest concentra- and the bosses have trend ilrs in wett with the neo-liberal tions of wealth in the demanded a to fur- sweeoing. rhe world which seeks world. At the same "negotiated transi- political ltfe ther di.ince people from rime. more than l8 tion". in which Col- dirtY and - a life chaiacierized as billion dollars have lor would be replaced by his vice-pres'- meant onlv for the experienced' been sent abroad to service the coun- dent Itamar Frinco, former member of the presidential In rhe second round of try's debt, rhe Partv of the Brazilian Democratic only lwo candidates remained (PMDB). This would allow elcclions, the hunter of maraias Morement in th. race Collor and Lui\ Ignacio Meanwhile, implementation of the immediately jusl how flr hts the continued da Silva. popularly- Lnown as Lula ' ;howed economic and social pro- hvDocritical moralizing could 8o' nco-liberal oresident ofihe Workers Party tPT) pram which has already inflicted severe trideed. rhe comrption. influence pedd' lnd supponed by the Brazilian People's on the population since lgq0' lins. and so on of which he is loda) ir..n. rr.,nt iFBPt. Aimost all the media and end to lhe current conflicl' are not only of his doing Since Such"an a big iegment of the bourgeoisie sup- """ir.ed cenain not to resolve the cflsls the beginning of his mandate the thoush oorid iollor. unleashing an openly leiitimacy of the stale and lhe regi- 3 amount of corruptlon in lhe minlstrles ot anti-communisl campaign and covering Viewpoint Seplember 28, 1992 a # 235 lnternational BRAZIL / FRANCE me. would produce a Collor govem- They undertook political alliances ment. without Collor. with other panies, borh in Parliameot The mirage ard in the sreets. Once the PCI was Explosion of scandal designated, the PT organized rhe fight to ensure that the inquiry was not shut It is no accident thal in response lo the of down, as was desired by those seeking explosion of the scandal people like the to save the image of the principal cunent minisler of lhe economy. Marci- defen- dant, president Collor, lio Marques Moreira, have gone to great At the begiming Maastricht lengths inside and outside the coun- of July, rhe narional leadership try to- insist that the economic pro- of the PT pledged its com- - mitment the Bram of the government will not chan- to struggle for Collor,s resignation. THE possibility ge, even without Collor. In so ot a "no" doing, he pT hopes to calm lhe nerves of intematio- Meanwhile, inside the a debare vote in the French took place nal creditors, the lntemational Monetary wirh one side wanring to referendum on the Fund (lMF) limit the political acrion of lhe pafly and rhe Brarilian ruling lo Maastricht Treaty on class, the narrow confines of parliament - European Unity Everyone is now desperarel) lrying lo that is, defending the perspective of on save their skin.
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