Eduardo Moreira explains why he supports Boulos: “it is more difficult to make a social movement than a startup in Faria Lima”

By Eduardo Maretti, in Rede Brasil Atual – An economist, former investment banker and a graduate in Production Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), Eduardo Moreira became a voice known for “acidity” against the principles of neoliberalism and the minimal state. What made him change his position in relation to his vision of the economy was the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST). “What opened my mind was the MST. The experiences I lived in the MST camps and settlements showed me a world that I did not know, ”he explains.

Moreira defends the candidacy of Guilherme Boulos (Psol) for the city of São Paulo due to “enthusiasm prior” to the 2020 municipal elections. ” It has characteristics that are rare to see together. He has a deep knowledge of the organization of social movements ”, says Eduardo Moreira, in an interview with RBA. “It is much more difficult in Brazil to be able to make a social movement, with everything against social movements, than to set up a startup in Faria Lima.”

Signatory of a document in which businessmen and executives from the productive and financial sector declare their support for Boulos, Moreira values ​​that “the media coverage (in relation to the Psol candidate) was absolutely asymmetrical and, in my opinion, shameful”.

Regarding the government of Jair Bolsonaro, elected in 2018 with direct or indirect support from the main newspapers and television networks, he values ​​that “the media try to separate something that is inseparable: it tries to create a world in which it is in favor of what it defends Guedes, but it is against what Bolsonaro defends. There is no such thing, it is all a project of power alone ”.

Why do you support Guilherme Boulos?

My enthusiasm predates even that election. I think Boulos has characteristics that are rare to see together. He has a deep understanding of organizing social movements, which is a great learning experience, bringing together a practical part of getting things off the ground. Who in Brazil works in coordination of social movements is an entrepreneur, much more than many people who think of themselves as entrepreneurs. It is much more difficult in Brazil to be able to make a social movement, with everything against social movements, than to set up a startup in Faria Lima. Boulos is a successful businessman like few others in Brazil.

After all, we are in the era of entrepreneurship …

And, in addition, he has a solid academic training, in psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, and is close to the areas of São Paulo that need more attention. Live in the suburbs. It is very difficult for you to find all this. And now it has demonstrated another quality that has never been tested: it is a binder. He managed to do, perhaps, to the surprise of many people, what everyone expected of Lula, Ciro. But this gathering ability came from Boulos, which people thought was the most radical of all. So, he showed a laudable and rare political ability, here in Brazil, mainly in the progressive camp.

There is an open attempt in the media to elect Bruno Covas. In Folha, he multiplied his voting intentions four times without ever raising. When he tied for second, he didn’t make headlines.

Eduardo Moreira

How have you seen the role of the media in the electoral approach in the capital?

There is an open attempt in the media to elect Bruno Covas. This goes from the Estadão editorial – and there is at least an intellectual honesty to take a position -, for example, in Folha de S.Paulo, where Boulos left 4% of voting intentions in the first round, it was up to 16% , and it never appeared in the headline as if it had risen. It was like this: “Covas went up, Boulos scored”; “Covas went up, Boulos hits”. He multiplied his voting intentions four times without ever raising. It never made the headlines. When he tied for second, he wasn’t a starter either.

Not in recent days, but until now it was Covas’ turn to show proposals, show what he was doing and for Boulos to explain himself about the attacks. The media coverage was absolutely asymmetrical and, in my opinion, shameful.

The media supported Bolsonaro in 2018, and continue to support him today, through the Paulo Guedes agenda. They show outrage at Bolsonaro’s absurd positions, but the government’s economic agenda is what the media wants. Is that?

Hundred percent. And the media tries to separate something that is inseparable. He tries to create a world in favor of what Guedes defends, but he is against what Bolsonaro defends. There is no such thing, it is just an energy project. Bolsonaro makes more visible what this energy project implies.

If you do not have Bolsonaro, but, for example, Centrão con Guedes, as is Moro’s project, from Doria, all the projects that involve Centrão, even if the person has a contrary discourse, you will have an increasingly unequal society, with less and less state.

And, inevitably, with less state there will be more racism, more aggression, more police violence. You cannot imagine that you are going to have an extremely unequal country without racism, where the police treat people well. It does not exist anywhere in the world.

Have some of today’s capitalist economists understood that instead of a minimal state, capitalism really needs a strong state, like Germany, France, England?

And before the pandemic, these countries, Germany, France, England and even the United States were experiencing huge waves of reassertion of what was privatized and did not work. We are talking about almost a thousand cases of reestablishment in the last 15 years in the developed world. “Ah, but Boulos is going to testify again” … It’s not Boulos, Germany is doing this, France, England. What nobody is doing now is privatizing. This is an agenda only for Brazil, which seeks to be the third, fourth, fifth world. We were already the sixth largest economy in the world, and it is already the twelfth. What is our goal? Be the twentieth? The fifty?

But Bolsonaro, like Trump, according to analysis, does not have a long life, politically, because he has no project, in fact.

Yes, but the characters. The question is: what comes after Trump and Bolsonaro? Is it Centrão? Or is it a more just and progressive world? This is the doubt, because we often have an effect like in the municipal elections in Brazil. “We took risks, we made mistakes, now we are going to play halfway, and then we fall into PP, PSD, MDB, PL.” That he is as dangerous as a Bolsonaro.

Knowledge frees. know more