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Project Brazil was launched recently in public demonstrations in the Brazilian capital cities of São Paulo, Goiânia, Fortaleza, Florianópolis, and Curitiba.
The program is a set of economic, social, environmental, and political priorities and guidelines proposed by organizations that participate in the Brazilian Social Forum as an alternative platform for governing the country, The project, which was drafted on April 23 of this year by the social movements in their plenary session at the 2nd Brazilian Social Forum in Recife, covers 30 topics, which together espouse an economic policy aimed at stimulating production and employment, changes in foreign policy, democratization of the media, expansion of public social rights, and universal publicly sponsored social security, among other themes. The representative of the Social Movements Coordinating committee (CMS) in Paraná, Jefferson Tramontini, mentions, among innumerous other measures, an urgent reduction of interest rates, revision of educational policies, reinforcement of governmental financial institutions, and valorization of labor and the minimum wage. He said that all these proposals, which represent a break from the current economic model, which is the same model adopted by the previous Administration, are all capable of being implemented. The chief topic marking the speeches of all the union leaders that participated in the public acts was the demand for the annulment of the auction that privatized the Vale do Rio Doce mining company. They all urged the population to sign petitions calling for the annulment of the auction. The president of the Workers' Central Union (CUT), Ronwei Anderson, contended that private interests and multinational corporations are enjoying and transferring abroad huge profits derived from the extraction of wealth from Brazilian soil. "The situation must be reverted, and the Vale do Rio Doce must become a public enterprise," he affirmed. The company was sold for US$ 1.482 billion (3.3 billion reais) in 1997. According to the protestors, the estimated worth of the company is US$ 40 billion. ABr
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