Brazil dictator shake

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The strike by 180,000 metal workers in Sao Paulo at the end of March has triggered off a series of nation-wide strikes which are seriously threatening the economic policy of the government of General Joao Baptista Figueiredo.

State employees and teachers in Brasilia and Rio have threatened action unless they are granted a 75% rise, and the regime has been obliged to decree an increase of 45% in the minimum wage.

This, however, doesn't even cover the rise of the cost of living over the last year. At the end of April only 400 of the 4,000 state schools remained open in Sao Paulo itself Most health centres and several hospitals v vere closed and many sections of the city administration had come to a standstill s when employees struck for a 70% rise as well as a substantial down-payment The government appears to have entirely ignored the resur gence of union organisation over the last year.

But the ministers of labour and industry are said to be pushing for compromise, for fear of the consequences if the military decides on another round of repression.

The principal thorn in their flesh is the metal workers strike. This has been led by Luis Ignacio da Silva, known as Lula, a prominent union leader.

The government originally offered a 45-day 'cooling off' period before it sent in the police to take over the union. The offer was overwhelmingly rejected by all the unions involved.

There then began the first major strike in Brazil led independently of the 40-year old union structure modelled on that of fascist Italy.

The metal workers stayed out for 13 days before Lula. having previously 'disappeared' for talks with the labour minister, reappeared to recommend a mass meeting to return to work.

He promised full pay for the period of the strike, a 'satisfactory' rise, and no victimisations Although this call was accepted, the workers showed considerable disillusionment, and even the employers were surprised at the move.

The 'satisfactory' rise that Lula is negotiating is 68%-far less than was originally demanded and only 8% above the employers' offer.

The rising militancy of the workers will not stop with Lula's manoeuvres, as the widespread mass mobilisation and popularity of the strikes has shown.

The government now recognises that it faces a grave threat. It may well order the federal intervention of the entire state of Sao Paulo.

This might provide them with temporary relief, but important sections of the officer corps and the capitalists are now turning to a 'democrațic' opening as a better response to the crisis.

Such a move would without doubt cause great conflict within the ruling class and further weaken their already precarious political unity.

It is clear that the Sao Paulo strike, despite Lula's sell out has accelerated this crisis and that it will continue to grow

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'Why do people keep talking about "The Irish Question?" There is no "Irish Question" There is only the question of Britain in Ireland!"

These angry words from Brendan Gallagher summed up the main thrust of a highly successful day-long labour movement conference on Ireland last Saturday sponsored by Oxford NUJ and Oxford Trades Council which drew an enthusiastic audience of 120 workers, students and youth.

Election

Gallagher whose long political struggle against British imperialist repression in Ireland recently included standing against Labour's torture chief Roy Mason in the General Election, had earlier set out to expose the brutal reality that lies behind the catch phrases Brendan Gallagher Gallagher correctly stressed the significance of the fact that neither Mason nor any other supporter of the Labour government's reactionary policies had been prepared to accept the organisers' invitation to attend