Brazil fights
to be free

a

FACED wi

with an economic crisis
and in

aH wh midst of a turbul-
ai €sidential campaign, Brazil
na 1s in a state of ferment and
§ tension,
he Present government, weak
tee ear, has failed to stop
rae ia Inflation. In the past
beige Ving costs have risen 23
Wand the cost of food
aarerent, Real wages have
Pped Sharply.
a ea J. Cafe Filho, for-
y vice president, has been in
en Since August 1954 as the
Silos a military coupe d’etat
hg the suicide of President
agas,
Cafe Filho's term of office ex-
ae October 3, Under the
cae the president cannot
hice himself, A bewildering
ae of manoeuvres is going
can diaates the choice of possible
» and rumors of a mili-
“aay Persist, although denied
“A pee nerals and admirals.
lies fey bottom of the unrest
the ,,., STOWing opposition of
Seqy ple of Brazil to the con-

i of US. domination.
the 1 ave everything to win by

we @ j
tay, Con of a president whose’

those Sts are not bound up with
fight et the U.S..and who will
Bragi ee the national interests of
fom ’,“@@tYing through Jand re-
an developing industry.

Munist p, tHe aim of the Com-
leaden “tty. of Brazil under the
Hong) ae of the country’s na-
Who, ‘K "To, Luis Carlos Prestes,
Brazil; the new program of thé
the sia Ommunists; calls for
front “mation of a democratic

national liberation.

*

a fege URivea States of Brazil is
Parate Tepublic made up of 20
Vern States, each with its own
“OVerin ent. A vast country
Ware @2 area of three and a

With Million square miles,
Population of 58 million

By LIBBIE C. PARK

and enormously rich natural re-
sources, its possibilities are limit-
less.

It is a country of contrasts
from the sky-scrapers of Rio de
Janeiro and Sao Paulo to the
primitive tribesmen on the Ama-
zon who today are shooting at
U.S. exploratory planes with
bows and arrows; from the small
group of wealthy capitalists and
latifundists (owners of huge
landed estates) to the poverty-
stricken landless peasants.

A quarter of the world’s known
iron ore deposits lie in Brazil.

Geologists estimate that oil
bearing formations. underlie al-
most one quarter of its territory.

Its hydro-electric potential (21
million kilowatts) has only been
started.

It has’ manganese, gold and
other minerals, and great forests
and rivers.

The immense riches of the
Amazon basin have yet to be ex-
plored. There are vast stretches
of jungle in the interior but
three-quarters of the country’s
total area can exentually be used
for crops and pasture.

Potentially, Brazil-is not only
capable of providing abundant
food for her own population but
can become one of the world’s
great exporters of food.

*

But in the midst of all the po-
tential and real wealth of Brazil
her people are dying of starva-
tion. Tuberculosis and other di-
seases that thrive on poverty are
killing and incapacitating mil-
lions. .The infant mortality rate
is 107 per, thousand births as
compared to 29 in the US. and
36 in Canada.

The favelas or shanty-towns on
the outskirts of the two largest
cities — Rio and Sao Paulo —
are among the most dreadful
slums in the world.

With a_ historical. background
and language (Portuguese) differ-
ent from those of other Latin
American countries, Brazil ha's
one striking similarity with them

“—the existence of huge Jati-

fundia (landed estates).

Today in Brazil 82 percent of
the farm land is owned by 14
percent of the agricultural popu-
lation, and 8 million farmers are
landless» day laborers or share-
croppers.

In a country of 58 million peo-
ple there are only 1,400,000 in-
dustrial workers.

Recent high coffee prices in
the U.S. and Canada have brought
no benefit to the poor coffee
workers in Brazil where a family
of four, all working, earn less
than $1.50 a day.

Industrially _ backward, Brazil
depends on coffee for 50 percent
of all her exports. Rich in oil,
Brazil still has to spend half the
dollars obtained from the sale of
coffee to import the oil she
needs, because the foreign oil
companies will not cooperate
with Brazil’s government-owned
oil company. ‘

The drop in the value of Bra-
zil’s coffee exports results’ in a
squeeze on Brazil to force her to
give up control of her great oil
fields to the U.S. oil companies.
But under the slogan “O petroleo
e nosso” (fhe oil is ours) the
people of Brazil are fighting to
defend their constitutional posi-
tion that Brazilian oil must be de-
veloped by Brazilian capital.

*

More than 50 percent of the
national income goes to 5 per-
cent of the population. This is
the small group of capitalists and
latifundists whose interests are
closely linked with those of the
U.S. monopolists seeking full
control of Brazil’s resources.

U.S. capital now controls the
main mineral resources, the rail-
ways and air transport, the pro-
duction of coffee and cotton.

Standard Oil is seeking control
of the big oil deposits; Rockefel-
ler interests are building huge
agricultural enterprises all over
the country; Bethlehem Steel

= SESS:

Re nt

These troops were called out to suppress popular demon-
strations in Rio de Janeiro last August after President Getulio
Vargas, forced from office because he had made concessions to
popular demands, committed suicide.

and U.S. Steel control the min-
ing of manganese; great planta-
tions and ranches are ‘in the
hands of the U.S. meat com
panies.

The enormous profits from
these enterprises (in some cases
an unbelievable 500 percent) in
part strengthen the position of
the U.S. monopolies in Brazil and
in part are exported to U.S. in-
vestors. No capital is available
for the development of Brazil for
the Brazilians.

Since the Second World War
there has been a big increase in
U.S. control of industry in Brazil.

North American capital invest-
ment in Brazil now amounts to
$1,630 million. This includes
$437 million in the Canadian-
owned Brazilian Traction which
is the largest single foreign in-
vestment of Canadian big busi-
ness. U.S. and Canadian invest-
ment in Brazil is now more than
double all other foreign invest-
ments combined.

As with Canada, Brazil’s for-
eign trade is becoming more and
more dominated by the U.S. on
terms favorable to the U.S. which
discourages trade with other
countries. :

But in spite of this, dollar
shortages have led Brazil to turn
eastward for trade. She has sign-
ed trade agreements with Hun-
gary, Poland and Czechoslovakia
totalling $88 million and pres-
sure is being put on the govern-

\3 Where a necent high coffee prices in Canada and the United States have brought no benefit to the coffee plantation workers in Brazil

mil

fia

Uy of four, all working, earns less than $1.50 a day.

ment to open trade talks with
the USSR.
*

The draft program of the Com
munist Party of Brazil was pub-
lished in January 1954. It invit-
ed discussion by patriots and de-
mocrats of all opinions and ten-
dencies.

Based on the idea that in the
“political, economic and sociat
conditions of Brazil, socialist
transformations are impossible” a
46-point program was put forward,
calling for formation of a demo-
cratic front of national libera-
tion arising out of the struggle of
all classes for liberation from the
domination of U.S. imperialism.

The program calls for sweep-
ing agrarian reforms, for the in-
dependent development of the
national economy and for demo-
cratic electoral reforms. At the
present time the illiterate are
disfranchised (about 50 percent
of the population) and the sold-
iers and sailors are not allowed
to vote.

The program, widely publiciz
ed, has had a great influence on

razilian opinion through its ex-
posure of the role of U.S. mono-
polies.

It was an important factor in
the events preceding the Cafe
Filho coup d’etat.

As a result of the growing re-
sistance to US. policies, the
former President Vargas who
had been following a pro-US.
policy, was forced to make, con-

. cessions' to popular demands. But

this met with the disapproval of
the wealthy Brazilian pro-U.s,
group and he was forced to ac-
cept a “leave of absence” follow-
ing which he committed suicide.

Today resistance to the US.

‘domination grows among — all
. Classes of Brazil’s people. Pow-

erful demonstrations and Strikes
against the August events (Var-
gas’. suicide and Cafe Filho’s
seizure of power) indicated the
temper of the people.

In this atmosphere of growing
political excitement and econ-
omic stress, the Communist
Party of Brazil held its fourth
congress in November 1954, un-
der conditions of illegality, and
formally adopted the draft pro-
gram.

Unity in the democratic na-
tional liberation front called for
in the program will be strength-
ened in the struggle to prevent
a military coup and to elect as
president in October a democrat
and patriot who will work for
peace, defend the national sov-
ereignty and promote the na-
tional development.

In the words of Luis Carlos
Prestes, “conditions are fast
ripening which will. make pos-
sible and necessary a people’s
democratic revolution and the
carrying into life the program
of the Communist Party of
Brazil.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 10, 1955 — PAGE 9