Big capital and the saga of Brazil's industrial development.

 Fortune Global magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 most profitable companies in the world, information that always impresses us. According to data published by the magazine in 2022, which lists the world's largest companies by revenue, during the 2021 fiscal year, mainland China (including Hong Kong) has the largest number of companies on the list, with 136. When Taiwan (Greater China) is included, the number reaches 145. The USA comes in second with 124; Japan is third, with 47 companies among the top 500.  

 According to an editorial in Fortune Global, the aggregate profits of listed companies reached record levels in fiscal year 2021, generating revenues of $37,8 trillion, equivalent to more than a third of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Profits grew 19% compared to the previous year, marking the highest annual growth rate in the magazine's 33-year history.  

 The companies that make up the 2022 list have 69,6 million employees worldwide and are headquartered in 229 cities and 33 countries (out of a total of 193 countries). Brazil has only 7 companies in the ranking of the five hundred largest: Petrobras (28th position), Banco do Brasil (125th), Itaú Unibanco (138th), Banco Bradesco (203rd), Vale (218th), JBS (251st), and Ultrapar Holding (430th), with Petrobras being the largest and the largest Brazilian company for many years. Considering Brazil's unique conditions (significant GDP, abundant natural resources, large population, and vast territory), the very low number of companies among the five hundred largest reveals the international dominance of imperialism and the economic hegemony of countries with development projects.  

 The data are also an important indicator of why US imperialism, which dominated the aforementioned list a few decades ago, is waging a life-or-death struggle against the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa). Starting with Russia, which is being harassed by the Americans with a proxy war, in which Ukrainians are being used as veritable cannon fodder.    

 It also shows the fundamental weight that oil has in the international economy and why Petrobras was one of the main targets of the 2016 coup. We have already pointed out here, in other articles, that oil revenue in Brazil does not serve the population, but rather the interests of speculators and other shrewd individuals who hold capital. The country is the 10th largest producer in the world, the largest in Latin America, above Venezuela and Mexico. As is known, oil is "black gold," as it has no short-term substitute as a raw material and energy source. But the lion's share of oil revenue goes to private multinationals and banks that finance the business and want the highest possible interest rate. Foreign state-owned companies also appropriate oil revenue, aiming to preserve the energy security of their countries. They even prefer to transport crude oil to refine it in their own countries, adding value and generating skilled jobs in the extremely rich oil chain. And oil revenues are also appropriated by stock market speculators, both here and in New York.

 An analysis of Fortune's list is always very instructive and dispels illusions about how the world of large transnational corporations that dominate the economy works, whether through market mechanisms, controlled by large monopolies, or through political mechanisms, such as participation in and financing of candidates in the countries where they operate, participation in coups d'état, etc. Of course, and through the mechanism of wars, a specialty of the USA, whose military budget is greater than the next 10 countries in the ranking of the largest military budgets on the planet. The fact is that the unparalleled power of these corporations that centralize the economy is one of the main expressions of global imperialist domination, which was forged, literally, by fire and sword.  

 Despite the deindustrialization process that Brazil has been experiencing since the mid-1980s, the country is still the most industrialized in Latin America. Besides numerous similar cases in Brazil and other underdeveloped countries, the case of the Brazilian company ENGESA (Engenheiros Especializados S/A), created in 1958 by José Luiz Whitaker Ribeiro, is intentionally unknown to most Brazilians. I have already recounted this case in another article. In 1958, ENGESA (Engenheiros Especializados S/A) was created, initially producing components for oil exploration for Petrobras. In the early 1970s, the Cascavel and Urutu armored vehicles were under development at the Regional Motorization and Mechanization Park of the 2nd Military Region. Invited by the military to participate in the project, in 1974, the company began selling the Cascavel armored vehicle, equipped with a 90-millimeter cannon, to Libya. The company sold this equipment to 18 countries in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and the Mediterranean.  

 In the 1980s, the company developed a tank project, the Osório, armed with a 120-millimeter cannon. The project was Brazilian, but it incorporated the best components available on the world market, since this type of product requires high technology in order to compete with the most modern competitors, which are located in only a few countries around the world. At that time, when industry still had a greater weight in the Brazilian GDP, import duties were common for Brazilian armaments, due to the high technology required. ENGESA had to undertake a veritable pilgrimage to locate the holders of the best technologies, including because of the retaliations suffered. For example, the company GLS, a subsidiary of Krauss-Maffei, convinced other supplier companies not to collaborate on the Osório project.  

 In 1985, Saudi Arabia, interested in purchasing the tanks, invited Germany, Brazil, the USA, France, Great Britain, and Russia to bring their tanks for demonstration. on-site visitENGESA participated with the Osório tank. In 1987, Saudi Arabia called for a second evaluation of the tanks that had performed best in the first: the American Abrams, the French AMX 40, the British Challenger, and the Brazilian Osório. All indications are that ENGESA won the competition, so much so that it signed a preliminary contract with the Saudi Arabian government worth US$2,2 billion for the manufacture of 316 tanks.  

 At this point in the events, the heavy hand of the world's greatest power intervened, preventing the continuation of the deal. The U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense mobilized their forces, forcing the Saudi Arabian government to buy the Abrams, despite that government's preference for the Osório. It is unknown what "arguments" the Americans used with the Saudis, but the deal with ENGESA was canceled.  

 The Brazilian company, which had taken out loans to focus its efforts on building the tank, filed for bankruptcy in 1990. After many failed attempts to restructure the company, during a period when Brazil had already embraced neoliberalism, the company was declared bankrupt in 1995. All of ENGESA's technological assets were transferred to the Piquete factory (in São Paulo), except for the Osório tank designs, which, curiously, were not found anywhere. In 2005, the São José dos Campos factory was sold to EMBRAER. Due to a lack of a national development project, Brazil lost a company that was fundamental to the country's autonomy in many areas of military use, essential even for the country's territorial sovereignty. To this day, the fate of the technological assets that were in the factory remains unknown, including the designs for the Osório tank.  

 Brazilian industry remains the most diversified in Latin America, despite all the efforts to destroy it, especially in recent decades. Petrobras is a prime example of this. If Brazil had political independence from imperialist countries, it would be one of the most industrialized nations in the world. The country's industrialization between 1930 and 1980 is a grand story in the process of building the Brazilian nation. The problem is fundamentally political. If the country had a sovereign economic policy with a national development project, it would have many leading companies capable of competing in global markets. The central problem for the country's development is breaking free from neocolonial shackles.