Brazil

AUGUST 19, 2009 : A HISTORIC DAY FOR BRAZIL

by Auditoria Cidadã da Dívida

3 September 2009

August 19, 2009, was a historic day in the struggle for official auditing of public debt in Brazil, a process already drafted in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and demanded for many years by the Brazilian social movements, especially Auditoria Cidadã da Dívida ("Citizens’ Auditing the Debt"), a campaign that begun after the National Plebiscite about the Debt in 2000, in which more than 6 million Brazilians participated. At 3 p.m. on that day the 16th Plenary meeting of the House of (...) More

ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

by BBC- News

10 February 2009

BBC News asked four participants in the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil, (David Evan Harris, Walden Bello, Myriam Vander Stichele and Marcos Arruda) to state their opinions on the global crisis and alternatives to address it More

AS A WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS, ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

by Jana Silverman

5 February 2009

From January 27 - February 1, the eighth edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) took place in Belem do Para, the vivacious gateway city to Brazil’s Amazon region. Under throbbing heat and intense tropical rainstorms, over 130,000 activists from 142 countries came together to establish connections between diverse social movements, debate possible solutions to the current financial crisis, and celebrate the construction of a more just and sustainable world More

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: RESOLUTION AND A PLAN OF ACTION

by Alejandro Kirk (IPS)

2 February 2009

The World Social Forum ended its ninth edition Sunday in Belém with its "Assembly of assemblies" adopting dozens of resolutions and proposals to be the subjects of a programme of mobilisations around the world in 2009. More

BRAZILIAN PUBLIC DEBT: WHO OWS WHO?

by Gabriel Strautman

30 July 2008

Gabriel Strautman is an economist of the Institute of Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone (PACS), member of the Brazilian Network on Multilateral Financial Institutions and of the Jubilee South Network.
The recent announcement of Brazil’s upgrade to the net external creditor position - when a country’s external assets surpass its liabilities - was very welcome by the Brazilian Government’s financial authorities as a triumph of our economic policy. According to the government, for the (...) More

‘OPENING THE BOOKS’: BRAZIL’S EXPERIENCE WITH DEBT AUDITS

by Alessandra Fontana

18 November 2005

Yes, debt audits work! Brazil managed to reduce its foreign debt stock by half after a debt audit initiated by the government of Getúlio Vargas in 1943. As of today, this is one of, if not, ‘the’ most successful experience in terms of achieving actual debt cancellation as a result of an auditing process (see page 06 for an account of the Vargas’ debt audit).
However Brazil has engaged in other audit efforts more recently. It is on these more recent efforts that this report focuses.
Eurodad has (...) More