Netanyahu raises taxes on the rich - Israeli protests are working!

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Tuesday November 01, 2011 · 6:33 AM PDT

2011/11/01 · 06:33

Sorry for the short diary, but I ran across this while at work, and thought it needed to be more widely disseminated:

Instead of continuing to lower marginal income tax - say, a gradual decrease from 45 percent to 39 percent, as the prime minister had planned until two months ago - Netanyahu is increasing marginal income tax to 48 percent and is even imposing a 2 percent "rich tax" on anyone who earns more than NIS 83,000 a month [SLKRR: about US$ 23,000]. In other words, the marginal tax rate will rise to 50 percent for that bracket. Netanyahu is also raising corporate tax to 25 percent instead of continuing to lower it gradually to 18 percent, as he had planned until two months ago.
And if that's not enough, Netanyahu is also raising capital gains tax from dividends and the sale of stock and inflation-linked bonds from 20 percent to 25 percent. Controlling shareholders will pay even more: 30 percent of the dividends they receive.

http://www.haaretz.com/...

The rest of the article includes a lot of right-wing claptrap, but the facts are facts. Maybe these protestors, occupiers, DFHs, and 99%ers are on to something that works? Could it be? It will be interesting to see if these moves help to reduce the protests, but I'm skeptical. Nothing feels better than joining the winning side!

Brazilian minister: Money for the poor is an "investment."

SLKRR for America Latina

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Wednesday June 22, 2011 · 7:13 PM PDT

2011/06/22 · 19:13

Tereza Campello, minister for Social Development and Combat against Hunger, affirmed today in a radio program that government wealth transfer programs are not considered costs, but investments.

Our evaluation is that this isn't a cost, it is investment. We have important studies that show, for example, that for each $1.00 that we invest in Bolsa Família, which is distributed among the low-income population, $1.40 returns, multiplying the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

With regard to opposition criticism that money for Bolsa Família is being stolen before reaching its intended recipients, she added that the rate of fraud is "less than half a percent."

SLKRR for America Latina

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Monday June 06, 2011 · 11:22 AM PDT

2011/06/06 · 11:22

With 87% of the vote counted from yesterdays presidential run-off election, leftist Ollanta Humala leads rightwinger Keiko Fujimori 51.3% to 48.7%. All exit polling points to an Humala victory, and the votes that still need to be counted are mostly from rural areas that strongly support Humala.

Humala narrowly lost the 2006 election. Keiko Fuijimori is the daughter of ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who is currently serving a prison sentence of 25 years for human rights violations and corruption.

Source: http://g1.globo.com/...

UPDATE - Here's a source in English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/...

Sorry for the short diary, but I thought this was important news and, unfortunately, don't have time to post more now. If anyone with more detailed info on Peruvian politics wants to tackle it, I'll gladly take this diary down.

Anti-Capitalist Meetup--Restoring Democracy: The Brazilian Strikes of 1978-80

SLKRR for Anti-Capitalist Meetup

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Sunday April 24, 2011 · 2:59 PM PDT

2011/04/24 · 14:59

12 May 1978: At six o'clock in the morning, three thousand metal-workers at the Scania automotive factory in São Bernardo do Campo arrived for work. They entered the factory as usual, but refused to turn on the machines. The strike was on.

Organized in secret by the workers themselves, the 1978 Scania strike was the first to occur in Brazil in nearly ten years, since the promulgation of the draconian Institutional Act #5 (AI-5) a decade earlier. Its leaders and participants ran the risk of imprisonment, torture, and potentially death at the hands of the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS), Brazil's military security police.

The goals of the strike were simple at face value, a 20% salary increase and safer working conditions for Scania's employees, but the calling of an illegal strike in the midst of political oppression was a powerful revolutionary act. Little did the strikers know that their courage that morning would spark a movement that, over the course of several years, would succeed in ending Brazil's dictatorship and bringing democracy, civil rights, and freedom of expression to tens of millions.

Despite enormous advances, however, Brazil still has one of the world's highest rates of social inequality and concentration of wealth. Workers' movements have been able to push Brazilian society in the direction of a European social-democratic model, but they have not been able to solve the more fundamental questions of economic justice.

This diary will examine the political and cultural history from which the late-1970s Brazilian workers' movement arose, and discuss its major successes as well as areas where it fell short of its goals.

SLKRR for America Latina

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Tuesday March 15, 2011 · 7:22 AM PDT

2011/03/15 · 07:22

President Barack Obama will visit the "Colossus of the South" for the first time this weekend, March 19-20. His agenda is set to include:

In Brasília:
* Reception by President Dilma Rousseff at the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília.
* Private reunion between the Presidents and foreign relations staff and the signing of at least 10 diplomatic agreements, including one that will allow Brazilians working in the States to collect double Social Security (one from US and one from Brazil) during their time working abroad.
* Joint press conference with both Presidents.
* Participation in the Brazilian Business Summit, organized by the National Industrial Confederation.
* Private dinner for the President and family.

In Rio de Janeiro:
* Visit to Christ the Redeemer monument.
* Visit to the "City of God" favela (!) to observe the newly implanted "Pacification Police" station.
* Speech to the Brazilian People open to the public in downtown Rio.

Source.

I'm in Recife, so won't be attending, but I'll try to scour up some pics of the event to post afterwards.

Brazil's public workers see rights expanded

SLKRR for America Latina

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Saturday March 12, 2011 · 6:00 AM PST

2011/03/12 · 06:00

In direct contradiction to the tragic events occurring in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan (among other states), the rights of public workers in Brazil got a huge boost this Friday (11th). President Dilma Rousseff and Planning Minister Miriam Belchior signed into law an ordinance requiring all state-owned or partially state-owned companies with more than 200 employees to include worker representatives on their respective boards of directors. This includes gigantic multinationals, such as Petrobras, Eletrobras, and Banco do Brasil and at least 56 other companies with majority federal ownership.

The selection of worker representatives will be done by democratic election in which all employees of the company participate. The President commented, "The presence of workers on the boards... is strategic for the company and it is strategic for the country." She also used the occasion to criticize the various privatizations and attempted privatizations which occurred in the past and praised the workers and labor leaders as "responsible for the preservation" of the property of the Brazilian people. Dilma commented as well on the unfortunate absence of ex-President Lula from the meeting, as this law was something he had championed for many years.

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Brazil's Opposition in Disarray

SLKRR for America Latina

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Wednesday March 09, 2011 · 10:23 AM PST

2011/03/09 · 10:23

Dilma Rousseff's historic victory in the Brazilian Presidential race last October not only extended the gains of the "Lula era" for at least another four years, but also slammed the door on Brazil's political opposition. The two principal opposition parties, the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) and the DEM (Democrats) lost big in the presidential and congressional races, but more critically, have also completely lost their sense of purpose and direction as political parties. It is unlikely that either of them will survive until 2014 in their present form.

This doesn't mean that the ruling PT (Workers' Party)-led coalition has only smooth sailing ahead of it. Its "massive tent" now embraces parties from the Communist far left to the traditional center-right, such as the PR (Party of the Republic), and there is no guarantee that any of these groups will indefinitely continue to check its own ambitions in support of PT. The centrist PMDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) has already made noises of dissatisfaction during the naming of Dilma's cabinet, while the left PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) has hinted at a possible independent run for the presidency in 2014. But more than anything, the fact that so many potentially antagonistic ideologies have sought a home under the petista umbrella demonstrates the complete impotence and incompetence of the Brazilian right at the present time.

This diary will examine the forces that are rupturing Brazil's traditional opposition parties and what this new political realignment could mean for elections in 2014 and beyond.

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Dilma Rousseff's inauguration speech

SLKRR

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Monday January 03, 2011 · 5:56 AM PST

2011/01/03 · 05:56

On Saturday, 1 January 2011, Brazil's first female president Dilma Rousseff was sworn into office. She previously served as Chief of Staff to outgoing President Lula da Silva and was his handpicked successor. In October, she defeated opposition candidate José Serra by a 56%-44% margin in the run-off election.

Brazil's Ministry of External Relations has released an "official English translation" of her inauguration speech on Saturday, and this is reproduced in full below the fold, along with some photos from the inauguration, which was attended by heads of state and other dignitaries from more than 50 countries.

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SLKRR

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Tuesday December 14, 2010 · 5:32 AM PST

2010/12/14 · 05:32

In several previous diaries written during the 2010 Brazilian election season, I commented on the high level of mudslinging coming from PSDB candidate José Serra's campaign, and how it mirrored in many respects a standard modern USA-Republican campaign.

This was not by accident: José Serra's campaign was supported by American oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and he had secretly promised to sell the rights to Brazil's newest petroleum discoveries (in the "pre-salt" layer) to those companies, reversing a new revenue-sharing model.

In a series of documents released by Wikileaks, the American preoccupation with control of the Brazilian oil-fields is detailed, as well as the promises of Brazil's political opposition to deliver those fields into private hands.

More over the fold.

SLKRR

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Tuesday December 07, 2010 · 5:06 AM PST

2010/12/07 · 05:06

On Monday, Argentina chose to officially recognize the Palestinian state "according to its 1967 borders," echoing Brazil's message from last Friday.

Hector Timerman, Argentina's foreign minister, said on Monday that the Latin American nation officially recognised Palestine according to its 1967 borders and hopes for peaceful solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"Argentina has traditionally recognised the right of the Palestinian people to create an independent state just like the Israeli state, to live together in peace with their neighbours with secure and internationally recognised borders," Timerman said.

More below the fold.

SLKRR

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Monday December 06, 2010 · 11:32 AM PST

2010/12/06 · 11:32

It's nice to see some international attention finally being given to Brazil's incoming president, Dilma Rousseff, who will take office on January 1st. Lally Weymouth, of the Washington Post, was in Brasília last week to interview the president-elect, and the text of the interview was posted last Friday.

Some interesting excerpts are posted over the fold. The full link to the interview is here.

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SLKRR

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Tuesday November 23, 2010 · 10:54 AM PST

2010/11/23 · 10:54

In 2005, the Amazon region of Brazil confronted its worst drought in over a century. Now in 2010, an even worse drought has struck. The Rio Negro, the largest tributary of the Amazon above the city of Manaus, reached its lowest level since the beginning of record keeping in the 1800s.

Deforestation may not be the rain-forest's biggest enemy after all. As weather patterns change due to global warming, more frequent and more severe droughts are punishing the Amazon basin. Interspersed with these intense droughts are massive floods caused by record snow melt in the Andes - the Rio Negro reached its highest flood stage ever in 2009! The annual rise and fall of the rivers that have been a part of Amazon life for centuries are being driven to greater and greater extremes. How far before the balance is finally disrupted?

I apologize for the brevity of this diary, but as a picture is worth 1,000 words, I will leave you with this:

title=

Follow this link for another "44,000 words."

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Netanyahu raises taxes on the rich - Israeli protests are working!

Brazilian minister: Money for the poor is an "investment."

Humala wins Peruvian Presidential Election run-off

Anti-Capitalist Meetup--Restoring Democracy: The Brazilian Strikes of 1978-80

Obama visits Brazil

Brazil's public workers see rights expanded

Brazil's Opposition in Disarray

Dilma Rousseff's inauguration speech

Brazil's oil reserves for sale by Serra

Brazil and Argentina officially recognize Palestine

WaPo interviews President-Elect Dilma Rousseff

Record drought in the Amazon