Labor Voices: Brazil a model of recovery for America

February 7, 2013 at 1:00 am
Labor Voices: Brazil a model of recovery for America
By Bob King

Anyone looking for a current and dramatic example of how to recharge the U.S. economy and pay down our debt by increasing prosperity and revenues need look no further than Brazil under former President Luiz Ignacio Lula De Silva, affectionately known to Brazilians as "Lula."

Lula, twice elected and leaving office with an 80.5 percent approval rating, was an autoworker and union leader, rising from humble beginnings as a shoe shiner and street vendor to the country's highest position. His policies pulled more than 20 million out of poverty and changed the course of history.

Lula was an autoworker — a lathe operator in a copper factory. He rose through the ranks of union leadership while Brazil was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that targeted trade unionists. After he led a series of massive strikes, he was arrested and imprisoned.

After a three-and-a-half year sentence — shortened by pressure from Brazilian workers and the UAW — Lula returned to the union and went on to help found the Workers' Party. In 2002, he was elected president.

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