Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 23 Issue 3

Benefício de Prestação Continuada [Continuing Benefit Installment] (BPC ) 9 and the Programa de Erradicação do Trabalho Infantil [Child Labour Eradication Program] (PETI) 10 , both under the management of the Ministry of Social Assistance (SILVA e SILVA; LIMA, 2016). These initiatives were accompanied by the flagship in the social policy of Fernando Henrique’s government, the Solidarity Community program 11 , conducted by First Lady Ruth Cardoso, whose actions to value volunteering and promote the so-called “third sector” turned to a conservative focus on combating poverty by bringing a basket of pre-existing welfare programs to municipalities selected for their poverty index. The cycle of expansion of the real resulted in high inventories of internal and external debts and its rollover resulted in a process of accelerated deterioration of public policies and services, subject to successive fiscal adjustments, with significant deterioration of national companies. During this period, the Brazilian productive park was deeply altered and retracted by the privatization policy of the state productive sector (mainly in steel, telecommunications and electricity), which changed the relationship between national capital, foreign capital and national productive sector (ANTUNES, 2005), causing changes in the reproduction of the cycle of Brazilian dependent capital and a deepening of dependence. The trade opening and overvalued exchange regime also had adverse effects on the labor market structurally already based on the workforce overexploitation. The trade opening associated with the pressures of the exchange rate valorization led to greater competition in the world market and to sectors with higher productivity, implying the accentuation of value transfers, which led to a defensive productive restructuring, which in addition to the expansion of unemployment, led to the fall of formal jobs and deterioration of working conditions (MATTOSO, 2010). For all this, in 2001 and 2002, under pressure from social movements and the deterioration of social conditions, the federal government tries to create new initiatives beyond the Solidarity Community and starts the Bolsa Escola [School Program] and the Bolsa 9 Provided for in the Organic Law of Social Assistance (LOAS n 8742, of December 7 th , 1993, regulated by Decree n. 1744, of December 8 th , 1995 and by Law n. 9720, of November 20 th , 1998), this is a benefit of 1 minimum wage paid to people aged 65 years or older (according to the Elderly Statute) and persons with disabilities who have income per head up to ¼ minimum wage. 10 The Child Labour Eradication Program (PETI) integrates the National Social Assistance Policy and involves a set of measures to combat the labor exploitation of children and adolescents between 7 and 15 years old, among them the payment of a monetary support to families with income of up to ½ minimum wage per head. 11 Established by Decree number 1.366, of January 12 th , 1995, it operated until December 2002, when it was replaced by the Zero Hunger Program. Alimentação [Meal Allowance] Program, in addition to the expansion of BPC and PETI program s 12 . However, with the successive fiscal adjustments, such policies did not succeed on the situation of the population impoverishment, leading to an even higher level of inequality than in the early 1990’s (MATTOSO, 2010). According to Antunes (2005), although the first impulses of productive restructuring in Brazil have been present since the mid-1980’s, it was from the 1990’s, under the leadership of the neoliberal project, developed intensively through new organizational and technological standards and new forms of socio- technical organization of work, through processes of decentralization and productive relocation, establishment of new forms of subcontract and outsourcing of the workforce. Brazil was integrated into financial globalization, expanding its indebtedness, adapting to external conditions and increasing its degree of dependence on external capital. The reconfiguration between the fractions of capital in the country, in which it transferred to financial capital the leadership of macroeconomic dynamics, accelerated the processes of concentration and centralization, the parasitic nature of which was accentuated with the maintenance of high interest rates and the formation of high primary surpluses, pressing the public budget, particularly social spending. (PAULANI, 2008) It was before such a scenario that, in January 2003, Lula took office as president, maintaining and deepening the permanent fiscal adjustment, which in addition to the legacy of economic policy, maintained the same logic as regards social policy. The first expression of this legacy for social policy was the Fome Zero [Zero Hunger] Program, whose technical focus was to present itself as a food security policy, which involved more than 30 sub-programs, including the existing federal income transfers actions, especially the Bolsa-Escola [School Grant] and the Cartão Alimentação [Food Voucher] Program. Faced with several weaknesses in the execution of Zero Hunger and the presence of several income transfer programs in the three levels of government, the Family Grant Program was created in 2003, unifying the targeted programs of pre-existing income transfer ( Bolsa Escola [School Grant], Bolsa Alimentação [Food Grant], Auxílio Gás [Gas Voucher] and the Zero Hunger 12 On the occasion, a myriad of monetary transfers for various purposes were included, with emphasis on: Youth Agent Program of Social Human Development, which was next to the PESI and BPC under the management of the Ministry of Social Assistance; National Program of Minimum Income linked to Education – Bolsa Escola , under the management of the Ministry of Education (Law no. 10.219, of April 11th, 2001); The Ministry of Health Food Program (provisional measure no. 2.206-1, of September 6th, 2001); Gas Voucher, of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (Decree no. 4.102, of January 24th, 2002). (SILVA and SILVA; LIMA, 2016) © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 30 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( )E Expropriation of Rights, Dependent Capitalism and Transfer of Income: Reflections on the Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic