Editor's Note: Possibly the most important election of 2002 took place on
October 6th in Brazil. A former lathe operator and candidate of the Workers
Party is now virtually assured of assuming the presidency in a few weeks,
initiating an administration exercising a "preferential option for the poor."
Seventy-six percent of the people rejected privatization, deregulation and
other pieces of the corporate strategy of plunder. Now the question becomes
whether workers, farmers and shopkeepers will be allowed to administer the
affairs of a modern state, supplanting corporate executives, estate owners
and their attorneys. Thirty years ago, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, George
Bush and various intelligence agencies worked to destabilize the Popular
Unity government of Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile, leading to the
military coup of September 11, 1973 and the subsequent carnage. As political
democracy breaks out around the world, perhaps the balance will be tipped
toward economic democracy as well. - Sandy Eaton, RN, Quincy, Massachusetts,
USA
Brazil:
Brazil Leftist Candidate Holds Lead
Associated Press, September 18, 2002
Sao Paulo - The candidate for the left-wing Workers Party is maintaining a
strong lead in Brazil's presidential race, while the government-backed
candidate trails by 22 percentage points, a new poll shows. The survey
conducted by the Ibope polling institute and broadcast Tuesday on the Globo
television network showed that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has the support of
41 percent of voters, compared with 19 percent for Jose Serra of the Social
Democracy Party. Former Rio de Janeiro Gov. Anthony Garotinho of the
Socialist Party and former Finance Minister Ciro Gomes, of the center-left
Labor Front, were statistically tied with 13 percent and 12 percent,
respectively. ...
Front-runner's edge in Brazil worries foreign investors
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