THE Brazilian government is deploying heavily armed troops to five main urban centres that are the driving force of the present uprising by the working class, the youth and the poor of the country.
The Brazilian revolution is the latest in the chain of revolutions by the working class, the youth and the poor that have erupted as the world crisis of capitalism has slashed their jobs and wages and made their lives unbearable in every part of the world.
In Brazil, as elsewhere, the ruling classes are determined that the masses will pay the full price for the crisis and bear the whole cost of keeping their bankrupt, out-of-date capitalist system going.
Millions of demonstrators are now on the streets of the major Brazilian cities denouncing the huge cost imposed on them by rising prices and the erection of stadia for the World Cup and Olympic Games circuses.
The masses have shown with their demonstrations outside the Confederations Cup games that they will not tolerate the huge multi-billion dollar expenditures involved in these circuses, while they have no jobs, live in shanty towns, have no education for their children and no proper health care.
Police in the major Brazilian city of Sao Paulo struggled yesterday to try and keep tens of thousands of people out of the City Hall when they were intent on confronting the city authorities and demanding massive changes.
Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of protesters had held a largely peaceful rally outside Sao Paulo Cathedral where a puppet of the city’s mayor was put to the torch.
The troops have been deployed in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Ceara and the capital Brasilia, and are on their way to Sao Paolo the city that is holding the warm-up for the World Cup, the Confederations Cup.
100,000 demonstrators gathered outside Sao Paulo’s City Hall building, as another huge rally took place in the working class Rio de Janeiro suburb of Sao Goncalo.
The uprising was set off last week by anger over a steep rise in public transport fares, but workers have moved beyond that issue to indict the ruling class over the huge profits being made in Brazil while for the masses there are heavy tax burdens, and a complete lack of spending on the needs of the the working class and the urban and rural poor.
Groups of workers broke glass windows trying to get into the main congressional building in Brasilia, and some demonstrators clashed with police in Rio de Janeiro.
Millions are angry that billions of dollars in public funds are being spent on the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics while they continue to live in absolute poverty.
They made their feelings clear when on the opening day of the Confederations Cup masses of people protested outside the stadium in the capital of Brasilia, where they were teargassed and hit with rubber bullets, while Brazil was playing Japan.
Now the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, has tried to placate the anger of the masses by stating that she was proud that so many people were fighting for a better country.
In Sao Paulo, where police officers fled an onslaught of the masses and sought refuge in the offices of Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad on Tuesday, the mayor Haddad has now said that he is open to the idea of reversing the price increase in transport costs.
The mayors of Cuiaba, Recife, Joao Pessoa and other cities have already announced a reduction in bus fares. However, it is much too little too late.
Brazil, the sleeping giant – a huge country with a huge working class and massive resources, one of the main BRIC states – has awoken. The masses are marching to a socialist revolution for a better life for all.
Their revolution will spread rapidly into all of the main South and Central American states, and be a major part of the world socialist revolution.
The revolutionary events in Brazil are an urgent reminder of the need to build sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to lead the developing world socialist revolution to its complete victory.
