Rousseff looks to Brazil social movements ahead of protests

By Sam Cowie

SÃO PAULO

President Dilma Rousseff plans to meet with left-wing social movements later this week, ahead of nationwide anti-government marches, local media reported Monday.  

Rousseff’s leftist Workers' Party government is keen to show that the president is not politically isolated and still has popular support, according to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper.

She plans to meet with rural women workers' movements Tuesday and it is speculated that she will meet with the Landless Workers' Movement and the National Students Union on Thursday. She will also have individual meetings with members of Congress to evaluate support.

Rousseff is criticized for not engaging in enough dialogue with popular social movements that make up the base of her Workers' Party -- formed in 1980 by trade union leaders and left-wing intellectuals opposed to the then ruling military dictatorship.

Last week, the Landless Workers Movement, one of the country’s largest social movements that fight for agrarian reform and greater distribution of land, occupied the ministry of finance in the capital of Brasilia, as well as several other states, to protest budget cuts to the country’s agrarian reform bill.

The group’s national coordinator Alexandre Conceição, blamed the policies of Rousseff and Finance Minister Joaquim Levy for the cutbacks.

"We are mobilized in protest against the harsh cuts that have been imposed on our agrarian reform bill," he told Anadolu Agency.

Conceição claims that the cuts will halt the resettlement process of 120,000 landless families camped across Brazil.

A recent opinion poll marked Rousseff’s approval ratings at just 8 percent, while disapproval was at 71 percent -- a record high and more than that of ex-president Fernando Collor, impeached for corruption in 1992 following his involvement with an influence peddling scheme.

While social movements and trade union groups openly oppose much of Rousseff’s current policies, including budget cuts and increased outsourcing, many of the same groups also back her Worker’s Party during elections.   

A series of major nationwide anti-government protests are planned for Sunday.