President Lula has the opportunity to return to original project said organizations

Edelberto Behs, BRASILIA, Brasil, July 4, 2005

 The President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva government, hard hit in recent weeks by serious Taxi Heathrow Airport accusations of corruption involving some Partido de los Trabajadores (PT) party leaders, has the opportunity to return to its original project to transform the State and society,  said Brazilian Christian, union and social organizations.  

In a letter addressed to the Brazilian people, the National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC), the Ecumenical Service Coordinator (CESE), the Progresssta Evangelical Movement (MEP), the National Human Rights Movement (MMDH) and Frei Betto, among others, demanded a complete investigation into the alleged corruption and the sanction of those responsible and called for changes in the path adopted by the Lula government.

At the same time, representatives from grassroots organizations, non government organizations, the union movement, social movements and individuals are opposed to “any attempt to destabilize the legitimately elected government, sponsored by conservative and anti-democratic sectors.”

The Letter to the Brazilian People calls on all democratic and grassroots forces to mobilize and carry out demonstrations in favor of promoting “true changes that the country and the people need.”

The organizations signing the Letter understand that the Brazilian government, elected with the hope of carrying out changes in the neoliberal policy that has been implemented since 1990, has changed few things and is carrying out “a mandate full of contradictions.”

The organizations warn that the elite, focused on 2006 elections “has initiated a media campaign to demoralize the government and President Lula, seeking to weaken it in order to overthrow it or to force it to deepen the current economic policy and neoliberal reforms, addressing the interests of international capital.”

In an seven-point agenda those signing the Letter to the Brazilian People call for changes in the economic policy, prioritizing the needs of the people and the construction of a new development model, broad-based democratic political reform as well as the strengthening spaces for social participation in the public administration.

They also called on the government to prioritize local initiatives in favor of citizenship and grassroots participation and education, as well as to confront the monopoly of communication media, guaranteeing its democratization.

Those signing the Letter include, among others, the Brazilian Press Association, the Brazilian Association of NGOs, the Women’s Network, Caritas Brazil, the Justice and Peace Commission, the Center of Religious Statistics and Social Investigation, the Central Workers Union, the Land Pastoral Commission, the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis, the Landless Workers Movement and the National Students’ Union.