(Im)possibilidades de implementar uma direção única no SUS em município de grande porte: o caso de São Paulo, Brasil

A construção da direção única na saúde constitui-se um desafio para a gestão local do SUS, particularmente para municípios de grande porte. Este artigo analisou o processo de implementação do SUS no município de São Paulo, visando identificar estratégias para viabilizar uma direção única, no período de 2001 a 2008. Com base em um estudo de caso, foram utilizados dados obtidos de informantes privilegiados da gestão e de documentos de gestão. O conceito de integração sanitária foi utilizado como categoria analítica. Foram analisados movimentos e estratégias dos atores institucionais envolvidos diretamente na gestão do SUS, os gestores municipal e estadual. Observaram-se avanços institucionais como a municipalização das unidades básicas de saúde estaduais e a habilitação do município na gestão plena do sistema municipal. Apesar dessa condição de gestão e da identidade político-partidária entre os governos municipal e estadual desde 2005, constatou-se a coexistência de dois subsistemas públicos de saúde pouco integrados. Um municipal, que concentrava os serviços de atenção básica; outro estadual, que concentrava parte considerável dos serviços de média e alta complexidades. Instrumentos de gestão adotados, como o sistema de regulação, mostraram-se frágeis para superar a falta de integração entre os referidos subsistemas. Como implementar a direção única no SUS implica uma (re)divisão de recursos e poder, discute-se que não bastam normas nem instrumentos de gestão para viabilizá-la. É um desafio estratégico para o SUS implementar processo de negociação, envolvendo os atores institucionais e políticos, visando a pactuação de um projeto político na saúde.

Gerenciamento participativo em saúde do trabalhador: uma experiência na atividade de controle de vetores

Este artigo apresenta a experiência de implantação de um sistema de gestão em Saúde do Trabalhador implantado na Superintendencia de Controle de Endemias (SUCEN), no período de 1998 a 2002, que operava na atividade de controle químico de vetores no Estado de São Paulo. OBJETIVO: Descrever o sistema de gestão participativa, as ações desenvolvidas e os principais resultados alcançados. MÉTODO: Relato da experiência vivenciada pela equipe usando abordagem qualitativa, análise de documentos e apresentação de dados quantitativos. RESULTADOS: Foram eleitas 11 Comissões de Saúde e Trabalho (COMSAT's) que em conjunto com a equipe técnica iniciaram a identificação dos riscos e de propostas para prevenção e controle dos riscos no trabalho. O mapeamento de riscos resultou em 650 recomendações, 45,7% das quais foram executadas. Foram identificadas como doenças relacionadas ao trabalho: reações alérgicas aos pesticidas, lesões por esforços repetitivos, distúrbios auditivos e patologias de coluna vertebral. Participaram dos cursos básicos de saúde do trabalhador 1.003 servidores (76,3% do total de servidores), sendo que 90,8% dos participantes os consideraram ótimos ou bons. CONCLUSÕES: O sistema de gerenciamento participativo coloca em prática os princípios de gestão democrática do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS); incorpora, por meio do mapeamento de riscos, o saber do trabalhador; inclui os trabalhadores como sujeitos do processo de negociação e mudanças; pratica o direito à informação. As COMSAT's revelaram-se espaços adequados para a negociação das melhorias nas condições de trabalho. A aprovação do sistema de gestão culminou na validação legal por meio de um acordo tripartite assinado em março de 2002.

Política externa chilena e espectro ideológico político-partidário: um estudo sobre a Câmara dos Deputados (2002-2006)

The influence of political parties on decisions made by members of Congress is a hotly debated issue in political science. In foreign policy, which is usually considered nonpartisan, the matter is even more inconclusive. The current study analyzes all the roll-call votes taken on foreign policy issues in the 2002-2006 legislature of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. After tracing a spatial map of foreign policy preferences among Chilean Deputies using the Nominate statistical package, we concluded that the ideology of the legislator's political party is a predictive factor for his or her foreign policy behavior. Our findings indicate that the way Chilean legislators structure their preferences on foreign policy issues does not differ significantly from the way they shape their domestic policy preferences.

Definindo a arena política local: sistemas partidários municipais na federação brasileira

This article analyzes the Brazilian political system from the local perspective. Following Cox (1997), we review the problems with electoral coordination that emerge from a given institutional framework. Due to the characteristics of the Brazilian Federal system and its electoral rules, linkage between the three levels of government is not guaranteed a priori, but demands a coordinating effort by the parties' leadership. According to our hypothesis, the parties are capable of coordinating their election strategies at different levels in the party system. Regression models based on two-stage least squares (2SLS) and TOBIT, analyzing a panel of Brazilian municipalities with data from the 1994 and 2000 elections, show that the proportion of votes received by a party in a given election correlates closely with its previous votes in majoritarian elections. Despite institutional incentives, the Brazilian party system shows evidence that it is organized nationally to the extent that it links the competition for votes at the three levels of government (National, State, and Municipal).

The development of social tourism in Brazil

This article reflects on the origins and development of social tourism in Brazil, with particular reference to the socio-economic conditions in the country. It discusses the theoretical conceptualisation of social tourism and its implementations in the non-European context. The case study presented here is based on a secondary bibliographical research of existing definitions and an in-depth analysis of the political conditions that have framed its development. More particularly, this article will discuss public initiatives since the Labour Party gained power in Brazil in 2003. Apart from public sector involvement in social tourism, this article also examines the role of the third sector in provision. The example of Social Service of Commerce will be presented. This article will conclude by evaluating the phenomenon of social tourism in Brazil, highlighting where progress has been made and which are the key challenges that need to be overcome.

GIS applied to geotechnical and environmental risk management in a Brazilian oil pipeline

The paper presents the development of a decision support system for the management of geotechnical and environmental risks in oil pipelines using a geographical information system. The system covers a 48.5 km long section of the So Paulo to Brasilia (OSBRA) oil pipeline, which crosses three municipalities in the northeast region of the So Paulo state (Brazil) and represents an area of 205.8 km(2). The spatial database was created using geo-processing procedures, surface and intrusive investigations and geotechnical reports. The risk assessment was based mainly on qualitative models (relative numeric weights and multicriteria decision analysis) and considered pluvial erosion, slope movements, soil corrosion and third party activities. The maps were produced at a scale of 1:10,000.

Assessing the evolution of sustainability reporting in the mining sector

Since the 1990s several large companies have been publishing nonfinancial performance reports. Focusing initially on the physical environment, these reports evolved to consider social relations, as well as data on the firm`s economic performance. A few mining companies pioneered this trend, and in the last years some of them incorporated the three dimensions of sustainable development, publishing so-called sustainability reports. This article reviews 31 reports published between 2001 and 2006 by four major mining companies. A set of 62 assessment items organized in six categories (namely context and commitment, management, environmental, social and economic performance, and accessibility and assurance) were selected to guide the review. The items were derived from international literature and recommended best practices, including the Global Reporting Initiative G3 framework. A content analysis was performed using the report as a sampling unit, and using phrases, graphics, or tables containing certain information as data collection units. A basic rating scale (0 or 1) was used for noting the presence or absence of information and a final percentage score was obtained for each report. Results show that there is a clear evolution in report`s comprehensiveness and depth. Categories ""accessibility and assurance"" and ""economic performance"" featured the lowest scores and do not present a clear evolution trend in the period, whereas categories ""context and commitment"" and ""social performance"" presented the best results and regular improvement; the category ""environmental performance,"" despite it not reaching the biggest scores, also featured constant evolution. Description of data measurement techniques, besides more comprehensive third-party verification are the items most in need of improvement.

Forest certification in Amazonia: standards matter

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification promises international consumers that `green-label` timber has been logged sustainably. However, recent research indicates that this is not true for ipe (Tabebuia spp.), currently flooding the US residential decking market, much of it logged in Brazil. Uneven or non-application of minimum technical standards for certification could undermine added value and eventually the certification process itself. We examine public summary reports by third-party certifiers describing the evaluation process for certified companies in the Brazilian Amazon to determine the extent to which standards are uniformly applied and the degree to which third-party certifier requirements for compliance are consistent among properties. Current best-practice harvest systems, combined with Brazilian legal norms for harvest levels, guarantee that no certified company or community complies with FSC criteria and indicators specifying species-level management. No guidelines indicate which criteria and indicators must be enforced, or to what degree, for certification to be conferred by third-party assessors; nor do objective guidelines exist for evaluating compliance for criteria and indicators for which adequate scientific information is not yet available to identify acceptable levels. Meanwhile, certified companies are expected to monitor the long-term impacts of logging on biodiversity in addition to conducting best-practice forest management. This burden should reside elsewhere. We recommend a clarification of `sustained timber yield` that reflects current state of knowledge and practice in Amazonia. Quantifiable verifiers for best-practice forest management must be developed and consistently employed. These will need to be flexible to reflect the diversity in forest structure and dynamics that prevails across this vast region. We offer suggestions for how to achieve these goals.

Communism and Public Opinion in Queensland, 1939-1951 : An Explanation of Queensland's Vote in the 1951 Anti-Communist Referendum

The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Communist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Communist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state government member. Of the five electorates the Australian Communist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per-cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoying considerable popular support but this was occurring in a State which, but for the Depression years (May 1929 - June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powers To Deal With Communists and Communism', Queensland regist¬ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority - 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. As this research was undertaken it became evident that while various trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post-Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total Party membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, with Winston Churchill's "Official Opening" of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurred, as the Party mobil¬ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a capitalist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Communist trade union leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U.-influenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it, ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government. Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member-ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch of the Party, The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and membership right across Australia throughout this period as a result of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular importance throughout the period for a short but more specifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Moscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War.

Australian political discourse: Pronominal choice in campaign speeches

The intention behind language used by candidates during an election campaign is to persuade voters to vote for a particular political party. Fundamental to the political arena is construction of identity, group membership and ways of talking about self, others, and the polarizing categories of 'us' and 'them'. This paper will investigate the pragmatics of pronominal choice and the way in which politicians construct and convey their own identities and those of their political opponents within political speeches. Taking six speeches by John Howard and Mark Latham across the course of the 2004 federal election campaign, I look at the ways in which pronominal choice indicates a shifting scope of reference to creat pragmatic effects and serve political functions.

Is YouTube telling or selling you something? Tobacco content on the YouTube video sharing website

The effectiveness of overt tobacco advertising and sponsorship bans is well established. The industry has responded to these bans by implementing “buzz” or “viral” marketing techniques, such as nightclub and dance party promotions. This paper analyses possible tobacco industry content on the burgeoning consumer generated media website, YouTube. Tobacco control efforts need to embrace this new medium in order to counter pro-smoking messages and maximize media advocacy opportunities.

Kids in tram during No War Toys Christmas outing

Woman and children inside a tram during No War Toys Christmas party in Brisbane, Australia.

Vic Slater during the Youth Campaign against Conscription, Brisbane, Australia

Vic Slater and police during the Youth Campaign against Conscription, Brisbane, Australia in 1965. Victor Charles Slater (now retired) was born in Queensland in March 1944 the only child of Jim and Joyce Slater, card carrying members of the Communist Party of Australia. Vic's mother, Joyce, joined up in Great Britain. Vic too joined the party in 1962 after a stint as president of the Eureka Youth League. He stayed with the more broad left CPA when it split from the hardline Stalinists after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Vic joined the Waterside Workers' Federation before his 21st birthday in January 1965, one of 300 casual workers recruited to the Port of Brisbane that year. On the wharves he soon earned the nickname 'the Professor' arriving on the job each day bespectacled and carrying a briefcase heavy with reading matter on world politics and economics - a walking encyclopaedia of information. [information kindly provided by Peter Gray]

Parson speaking at LBJ visit to Brisbane 1966

Parson speaking at LBJ visit to Brisbane, Australia in 1966. Alf Saunders, Communist Party of Australia member and PMG linesman is facing the parson. Demonstrations were held during the visit to Australia by President Lyndon Johnson.

The People's Stage in Imperial Germany: Social Democracy and Culture 1890-1914

The clash between German Social Democracy--the party, intellectuals and workers--and the German Imperial State was played out in the Freie Volksbahne (Free People's Theatre) founded by intellectuals to energise working class political awareness of drama with a political and social cutting edge. It fell foul of state censorship, lost its bite, yet prospered.