[Marxism] Latin America Responds to Bailout

[Walter Lippmann]

Washington politicians may dismiss and vilify Fidel Castro
and Hugo Chavez. But the voice of Lula and others whom the
US media has portrayed as a "responsible left" alternative
to the Cuban and Venezuelan leaders cannot be dismissed in
the same manner. Today people of the United States watch
the spectacle of its capitalist economy being presented as
being at the edge of collapse of the U.S. Congress doesn't 
give Wall Street corporations more or less whatever they
want. Voices like those of Lula and others cannot today be
ignored, and will find an audience even in the heartland 
of dollar-worship, the United States of America. 

Brazil has normal and friendly relations with countries
Washington reviles. This helps demonstrate how far out of
step the U.S. is with the rest of the planet. It's time
and overtime for the United States to adopt a more cooper-
ative, less combative profile on the international arena.

Chavez, too, whose policies have included low-priced home
heating oil to poor communities in the United States, is
also finding an audience. Some may only be based on oil's
lower price when it comes from Venezuela. But thoughtful
people must be wondering why someone offers cheap oil as
others think they have a right to take whatever the market
will bear, especially when the latter group also support
the bankrupting of the US economy through the invasions
and occupations of foreign countries from Afghanistan to
Iraq and beyond. This is especially true as we face an 
oncoming election as winter weather begins to approach 
the United States of America.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
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FROM PORTSIDE:
Latin America Responds to Bailout

1. Brazil's Lula Calls US Bailout Plan Unfair to Poor 
2. Latin America Leftists Slam U.S. on Financial Crisis

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Brazil's Lula Calls US Bailout Plan Unfair to Poor

Reuters Sep 28, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2833889320080928

BRASILIA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva blamed the United States for the global financial crisis and
said its financial bailout plan was unfair to poor people.

U.S. lawmakers on Sunday were set to sign off on a deal to create a
$700 billion government fund to buy bad debt from ailing banks in a
bid to stem a credit crisis threatening the global economy.

"They want to help the banks and not help the poor," Lula said late
on Saturday in Sao Paulo during a campaign rally ahead of Oct. 5
municipal elections.

"Why give $700 billion to the banks and no money to the poor guys who
lost their houses," Lula asked, according to local media. He referred
to the troubled U.S. housing market.

The former factory worker, who obtained record approval ratings this
month, said the United States had the primary responsibility to fix a
crisis with global repercussions that it had caused.

"I'm not at fault if they turned their economy into a casino," Lula
said in reference to accusations that lax U.S. financial regulations
worsened the crisis.

Brazil was in a better position to withstand the crisis than it was
years ago, the former union leader said.

"I don't want to say we're at ease but ... today we depend less on
the United States for our exports," Lula said.

Brazil's economy is growing by more than 5 percent annually but is
expected to slow to around 4 percent growth next year. A few
Brazilian exporters announced last week large derivatives losses
related to currency fluctuations caused by the global financial
crisis. (Reporting by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Latin America leftists slam U.S. on financial crisis

GuardianUK September 30 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7840720

MANAUS, Brazil, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Latin America's socialist leaders
accused the United States on Tuesday of "irresponsibility" in its
handling of a financial crisis that has dried up credit markets and
threatens economies around the world.

While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the crisis could slow
economic growth across Latin America, he still took a stab at
Washington and predicted that U.S. economic power is in dramatic
decline.

"This crash of capitalism and of neoliberalism will be worse than
that of 1929," Chavez told reporters at a meeting with the leaders of
Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador in Brazil's Amazon city of Manaus.

"The world will never be the same after this crisis. A new world has
to emerge, and it's a multipolar world," he said. "We are decoupling
from the wagon of death."

Many Latin American countries depend heavily on exports of
commodities, such as oil, soy, copper and bananas, and falling prices
combined with tighter credit are raising fears of a sharp slowdown.

"Financing will become more difficult," Chavez said. "Raw material
prices could come down, starting with the price of oil, and including
copper, minerals and food stuffs."

With world money markets in trouble, policymakers are hoping the U.S.
Congress will quickly revive and approve a $700 billion rescue
package that would allow the U.S. Treasury to buy up bad debt from
struggling banks.

But Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is a close ally of
Venezuela's Chavez and has nationalized the natural gas industry as
part of his socialist reforms, criticized the U.S. plan as a bail-out
for the rich.

"In Bolivia, we nationalized for the people to have money, while the
United States wants to nationalize debt and a crisis of the wealthy,"
Morales said before meeting with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Chavez.

Correa, Morales and Chavez all promote socialist reforms and have
been harsh Washington critics. Lula, a former labor leader, has ties
with all three but has been much more market friendly and also has
good relations with Washington. (Reporting by Fernando Exman; writing
by Raymond Colitt; editing by Stuart Grudgings and Kieran Murray)


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     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
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