A real chain of events to attack the rottenness of the system and point to the new.

Today, Senator Roberto Requião and I are launching a "cybernetic" crusade to destroy the myths created by the mainstream media to undermine national unity, hand the government over to a known group of corrupt individuals, and rob the people of hope for a better life and the reconquest of development. Requião will operate through Facebook and other internet video resources, as you will be able to follow; I will act through a progressive network of blogs, which connects to the senator's network in a broad Network of Truth.

We will begin with a subject we have both addressed before: the absolute nullity of the debt of the federated states to the Union. This invented debt, originally valued at R$ 111,18 billion, was the main reason for the financial collapse of the states and larger municipalities like Rio de Janeiro. Since its creation in 1997, during Fernando Henrique's neoliberal government, no less than R$ 277 billion has been paid. Nevertheless, according to the Federal Government's calculations, another R$ 476 billion remains to be paid.

Why do we say that the states' debt is zero? Because Fernando Henrique's neoliberal policies, in order to impose the privatization of state banks on the states at the end of the 90s, paid the private banks, without discount, the debt securities that had been rolled over (but not paid). Who paid? Naturally, it wasn't the Federal Government. It didn't have the money for that, unless it issued currency on a massive scale. To have money, it either had to tax or resort to increasing the public debt. And that's precisely what it did.

So, let's see: if the Federal Government increased the public debt to pay the debt of the States, it was effectively the citizens of the States who were paying, as they bore the burden of the debt. It makes no economic sense, and I believe no legal sense either, to force the citizens of the States to pay the same debt again under a usurious schedule like the one imposed on them. There is no doubt here: the States' debt is zero, and the States are entitled to reimbursement for the R$ 277 billion unduly paid to the Union, ceasing the payment of R$ 476 billion that was also unduly paid.

What is the underlying reason for this process of fictitious indebtedness, not "perceived" by the state governments of the time and even by the senators who represent them? The reason is called the radicalization of neoliberalism. By imposing an unbearable debt burden on the states, the neoliberal leaders expand the spaces for privatization within them, destroying public services. This march has been inexorable. And it has just been crowned, at the federal level, by PEC-55/241, which they call the Spending Cap Amendment, but which is the amendment that will kill the public sector.

This constitutes an impeachable offense by the President of the Republic. The Federal Government is crippling the States, and the greatest proof of this is its attempt to financially strangle them through a sham debt renegotiation to extract privatization commitments. Article 85, item II, of the Federal Constitution states: “The following are impeachable offenses by the President of the Republic that violate the Federal Constitution and, especially, the free exercise of the constitutional powers of the federative units.” Therefore, this is a much more solid constitutional basis for impeachment than the one used against Dilma.

Brazilian society cannot tolerate this ignominy. This government, born without legitimacy, has even lost its veneer of legality by attempting to subject the nation to neoliberal dictates through the surrender of our riches to foreigners, notably the pre-salt oil reserves, inventing a non-existent fiscal crisis. We will fight it with all our might. Since the time for armed revolution—something they themselves take advantage of—is over, we must resort to other means of change that are still available to us.

For this to work, it is necessary that you participate in this Chain of Truth, led by the Brazil Now Movement, which we are initiating. Don't hold back your indignation. Out with these bandits who sell the Fatherland for peanuts. It is unbearable, from a moral point of view, to have to see conspicuous frequenters of Odebrecht's shopping list in the highest echelons of the Republic. Let's shake this bunch of sellouts off the Nation's back, who are not selling themselves, but the Republic.

I know that many of you, readers, are secretly reflecting on this: Okay, they're crooks, but what are you going to put in their place? After all, the entire republican superstructure has melted down. Well, I'm going to ask for a little patience. In the 11 entries that Requião and I will make in the coming days in cyberspace, we will reserve enough space to clarify what we propose as a way out, both from an economic point of view – something fundamental – and from a political point of view, this one to give stability to the system.