VICE • BISOL export of minerals (that is, nonrenewable resources) must be prohibited.
In addition local iron production, based on the massive use of charcoal, should suspend its activities. Finally, the territorial and cultural sovereignty of the indigenous peoples in their lands should be recognised.
This chapter on the ecological bases of development in the governmental programme of the PT is impressive because of the richness and diversity of its concerns as well as the concrete and realistic character of its proposals.
The main criticism that can be made is the absence of any reference to capitalism in its analysis of the eco-destructive mode of development that currently exists in Brazil.
It is the very logic of the capitalist system, which knows no other necessities than the maximisation of profit, no other laws than those of the world market, which leads, in a blind and inevitable fashion, to the plundering of the environment and the disruption of ecological balance, not only in Brazil but on the level of the entire planet.
That is why it is impossible to have an effective ecological policy without attacking, to one degree or another, the interests of capital.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 67, August 1994, Page 18