Vol. 72/No. 28      July 14, 2008

The protesters targeted plantations, dams, railways, and corporate offices of agribusiness companies considered responsible for rising prices. Hundreds of rural workers occupied a eucalyptus plantation owned by Votorantim, one of Brazil’s largest paper and pulp manufacturers, protesting the impact of one-crop farms on the environment and on small farmers.

Another 1,500 occupied railway tracks for 10 hours to prevent the iron ore mining company Vale from transporting its ore. They were demanding the company negotiate with 500 families who will be displaced by construction of a hydroelectric dam that Vale is involved in building.

In southern Brazil police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who attempted to disrupt a supermarket owned by Wal-Mart. The actions were organized by La Vía Campesina (The Peasant’s Way), an international network of peasant organizations.

According to government statistics, while the average price of food in Brazil rose 2 percent in May, the price of rice rose 20 percent. Bread rose by 4.7 percent and meat by 3.5 percent.

Brazil, with a population of 192 million, is the most populated country in Latin America, as well as the leading agricultural producer. It is the largest exporter of beef, coffee, sugar, and orange juice in the world. Yet more than 40 million people in Brazil live on less than $1 a day. At the same time Brazil has one of the fastest growing rates of millionaires in the world, along with China, India, and Russia. In 2007 the number of millionaires in Brazil grew to 190,000 from 130,000 in 2006.

In June, Brazil was awarded “investment grade” status by the financial rating agency Standard & Poor’s. Its international reserves nearly tripled from $64 billion in 2003 to $188.2 billion in February 2008, some 4 billion more than its combined foreign debt. It also registered a trade surplus of $40 billion last year.

In February, President Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva announced that Brazil had paid off its foreign debt to the International Monetary Fund. Da Silva said the government had “taken an extremely important step toward transforming itself into a country taken seriously in the financial world.”

To make sure it is “taken seriously” by imperialism, Brazil has committed more than 1,200 troops as part of a UN occupation force in Haiti following the U.S.-engineered ousting of democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Brazil has the largest contingent of the 9,000 troops stationed in Haiti since 2004. In May, da Silva announced that another 100 troops would be sent to the island.

One of the biggest effects of the rush to invest in Brazil has been the increased destruction of the Amazon rain forest. This will be the subject of an upcoming article.  
 
 
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