February 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Brazil’s New Deal Foreign Policy:
Challenging the Global System

Andreas Hernandez is a graduate student in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University, aah26@cornell.edu. His film, Hope Will Win Over Fear: The World Social Forums, is available for free to nonprofit groups, www.hopewillwinoverfear.org.

Since the inauguration in January of 2003 of Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (popularly known as Lula), Brazil has emerged as a catalyst for countries seeking to transform the weapons of neoliberalism into tools of social change.

Around 70% of Brazilians live in poverty, with 40% living on less than a dollar a day, even though Brazil is the 11th wealthiest country on the planet. Much of the wealth is concentrated in few hands or leaves the country through multinational corporations. The new Brazilian government, led by the Worker’s Party (PT), has vowed to tackle these problems directly. Well-known for its innovative policies for increasing citizen participation, a broad PT-led coalition won a landslide victory in federal elections.

The PT was formed roughly thirty years ago, towards the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship, as a new type of leftist party, uniting unions, social movements, and intellectuals. The PT has been a central force in bringing global civil society groups together in recent years through the World Social Forums, sponsored by the PT state government in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Their election campaign was supported by an amazing coalition, from the Landless Movement to national industrialists, who support a new Social Pact — sometimes described as a Brazilian New Deal. Even the International Monetary Fund has held the new Brazilian approach up as a model for the developing world, one that combines fiscal responsibility with strong social programs.

In early June of 2003, Lula da Silva and the new President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, announced their shared goal of establishing a common parliament and shared currency for the Mercosur regional integration bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Associate Members Chile and Ecuador). Brazil is projecting Mercosur as the principal medium for promoting sustainable development in the region and fortifying the presence of South America on the world scene. Peru has since become a member of Mercosur, and other nations of the Andean pact (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) are considering joining as well. In September of 2003 Lula da Silva formally backed Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo’s rejuvenation of Jose Mart'’s idea of forming a "South American Nation," building on the momentum of the merger talks between the Mercosur and the Andean Pact countries. These nations share the view that they need a community of South American countries to counter the economic power of the US.

In May 2003, Brazil, India, and South Africa announced the creation of the Group of Three (G3) dedicated to gaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for one of its members. The Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, has supported Brazil’s accession and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has formally announced his backing for Brazil to gain a seat. Lula delivered the opening speech for this year’s UN session. The creators of the G3 also hope the alliance will increase ties between Mercosur and the Southern Africa Customs Union (South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, and Lesotho), particularly in WTO negotiations. China and Russia, who themselves had recently formed an alliance with the specific aim of countering US power, have indicated support for the aims of the G3.

At the Cancun World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, Brazil’s leadership motivated many other countries to resist the US and EU’s corporate globalization agenda, becoming the G22. The G22, in coalition with an African bloc, refuses to move forward on negotiations important to wealthy countries until the question of agricultural subsidies and protections of wealthy countries are brought to the table in a substantial manner. Approximately seventy other developing nations in addition to the G22 refused to sign the final US and EU-written "accord" in Cancun. The ongoing round of WTO negotiations has come to a halt, and the G22 has made it clear that it will postpone the scheduled date of January 2005 for the end of this WTO negotiation round if the needs of developing countries do not enter the negotiations.

This global coalition-building is using the neoliberal "Free Trade" slogan as a weapon against the system of neoliberalism itself. By negotiating as blocs, Brazilian-led coalitions and their expanding alliances are attempting to turn Free Trade into Fair Trade by demanding standards for workers and an end to the protectionism practiced by wealthy countries. Before the Brazilian elections, Mr. Zoellick, the US Trade Representative, said that Brazil could go trade with Antarctica if they did not like the US´s terms for "Free Trade." It may yet be the US government that is left in the cold.

Brazil’s far-reaching foreign policy initiatives may be some of the first visible signs of the possibility of a social democratic turn in the global system. The danger remains that instead of fundamentally challenging the corporate world system, these efforts will instead only create additional openings for a few members of the financial elite from the Global South. Yet, a more democratic global architecture could brake corporate power and provide openings for left-of-center parties around the world to build a more just planet.

Are these signs of a fundamental challenge to 500 years of exploitation of the Global South — first through colonization and then through neoliberalism? Brazil’s new government came to power only through intense struggle, especially by those who have been the most exploited. Creating a global architecture of social solidarity will only become possible to the extent that we mobilize on all levels, democratizing the institutions which structure our lives.

Previous Article    Next Article