| Partido dos Trabalhadores | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| President | Ricardo Berzoini |
| Founded | February 10, 1980 |
| Headquarters | Rua Silveira Martins, 132, Centro, São Paulo, State of São Paulo |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism, Social democracy, Socialism |
| International affiliation | São Paulo Forum, Fourth International (Socialist Democracy party caucus only) |
| Official colours | Red and White |
| TSE Identification Number | 13 |
| Seats in the Chamber of Deputies | 82 / 513 |
| Seats in the Senate | 12 / 81 |
| Website | |
| www.pt.org.br | |
| Politics of Brazil Political parties Elections |
|
The Workers' Party (Portuguese: Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) is a socialist political party in Brazil. It is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing leadership movements of Latin America.
Contents |
History
The Workers' Party was officially founded by a heterogeneous group, formed by trade-unionists, left-wing intellectuals and artists, and Catholics linked to the liberation theology, on February 10, 1980 at the Catholic private girls' school Colégio Sion (Sion High School) in São Paulo. The party is a result of the approach between labour movements, such as Conferência das Classes Trabalhadoras (Conference of the Working Class), which later developed into Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), and the old Brazilian left.
The party was launched under a democratic socialism trend. After the 1964 coup d'état, Brazil's main federation of labor unions, the General Command of Workers (Comando Geral dos Trabalhadores - CGT), which since its organization gathered leaders approved of by the Ministry of Labour - a practice tied to the fact that since the Vargas dictatorship, unions had become quasi-state organs - was dissolved, while unions themselves suffered intervention of the military regime. The resurgence of an organized labour movement, evidenced by strikes in the ABC Region on the late 1970s lead by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, enabled the reorganization of the labour movement without the direct interference of the State. The movement originally sought to do union politics only, but the survival of a conservative unionism under the domination of the State (evidenced in the refoundation of CGT) and the influence exercised over the trade union movement by leaders of traditional left-wing parties, such as the Brazilian Communist Party, forced the unionist movement of ABC, encouraged by anti-Stalinist leaders, to organize its own party, in a strategy similar to that held by the union movement Solidarność in contemporary Poland.
Therefore, the Workers' Party emerged rejecting the traditional leaders of official unionism, and seeking to put into practice a new form of democratic socialism, trying to reject political models it regarded as decayed, such as the Soviet and Chinese ones. It represented the confluence between unionism and anti-Stalinist intelligentsia.
It was oficially recognized as a party by the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court on February 11, 1982. The first membership card belonged to art critic and former Trotskyst activist Mário Pedrosa, followed by literary scholar Antonio Candido, and historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda.
Electoral history
Since 1990, the Workers' Party has grown in popularity on the national stage by winning the elections in many important cities, such as São Paulo and Porto Alegre, as well as in some states; the most important being Rio Grande do Sul. This winning streak culminated with the victory of its presidential candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002, who succeeded Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira - PSDB). PSDB, for its defense of economic liberalism, is the party's main electoral rival, along with Democrats, heir of the National Renewal Alliance Party (Aliança Renovadora Nacional - ARENA), ruling party during the military dictatorship.
1989 presidential elections
In the 1989 general elections, Lula surprisingly went to the second round with Fernando Collor de Mello. Even though all left-wing candidates of the first round united for Lula's candidacy, Collor's campaign was strongly supported by the mass media (notably Rede Globo, as seen on the documentary Beyond Citizen Kane) and Lula lost in the second round by a close margin of 5,7%. [1][2]
1994 general elections
Leading up to the 1994 general elections, Lula was the leading Presidential candidate in the majority of the polls. As a result, the centrist and right-wing parties openly united for Fernando Henrique Cardoso's candidacy. Cardoso, as Minister of Economy, created a plan that ended inflation, and established monetary stability (Plano Real). As a result, Cardoso won the election in the first round with 54% of the votes. However, it has been noted that "the elections were not a complete disaster for PT, which significantly increased its presence in the Congress and elected for the first time two state governors"[3]. Cardoso was re-elected in 1998.
2002 general elections
After the detrition of PSDB's image and as a result of an economic crisis that bursted in the final years of Cardoso's government, Lula won the 2002 presidential election in the second round with over 52 million votes, becoming the most voted president of history, surpassing Ronald Reagan. However, Lula's record was surpassed by George W. Bush (in his re-election campaign) and Barack Obama.
2006 general elections
On October 29, 2006, the Workers' Party won 83 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 11 seats in the Senate. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected with more than 60% of the votes, extending his position as President of Brazil until January 1, 2011.[4]
The Workers' Party is now the second largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, the fourth largest party in the Senate, and has 5 state governorships. However, it does not rule any rich or populous State.
Internal debate, 2003-2007
The changes in the political orientation of PT (from a far-left socialist to a centre-left social-democratic party) after Lula was elected President were well received by many in the population, but, as a historically more radical party, PT has experienced a series of internal struggles with members who have refused to embrace the new political positions of the party. These struggles have fueled public debates, the worst of which had its climax in December 2003, when four dissident legislators were expelled from the party for not following majority sanctioned political decisions.[5] Among these members were congressman João Batista Oliveira de Araujo (known as Babá), and senator Heloísa Helena, who formed the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) in June 2004 and ran for President in 2006, becoming the woman who had more votes in Brazilian history.
In another move, 112 members of the radical-wing of the party announced they were abandoning PT in the World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre, on January 30, 2005. They also published a manifesto entitled Manifesto of the Rupture that states that PT "is no longer an instrument of social transformation, but only an instrument of the status quo", continuing with references to the IMF and other economic and social issues.
Presidential elections results
| Year | Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 (1st round) | Lula | 11,622,673 | 16.7% |
| 1989 (2nd round) | 31,076,364 | 46.9% (lost) | |
| 1994 | 17,122,127 | 27.0% | |
| 1998 | 21,475,218 | 31.7% | |
| 2002 (1st round) | 39,455,233 | 46.4% | |
| 2002 (2nd round) | 52,793,364 | 61.3% (won) | |
| 2006 (1st round) | 46,662,365 | 48,6% | |
| 2006 (2nd round) | 56,162,765 | 60.3% (won) |
Political crises
The Mensalão scandal
In July 2005, members of the party suffered a sequence of corruption accusations, started by a deputy of the Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro - PTB), Roberto Jefferson.[6] Serious evidence for slush funding and bribes-for-votes were presented, dragging PT to the most serious crisis in its history - known colloquially as the Mensalão. José Genoíno resigned as president of the party and was replaced by Tarso Genro, former mayor of Porto Alegre.
A small minority of party members defected as a result of the crisis. Most of them went to PSOL.[citation needed]
2006 electoral scandal
A new scandal was unfolded in September 2006, just two weeks before general elections. As a result, Berzoni left the coordination of Lula's re-election after an alleged use of PT's budget (which is partially state-funded, through party allowances) to purchase, from a confessed fraudster, a dossier that would be used to attack political adversaries. On April 25, 2007, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal unanimously cleared Lula of any responsibility for this scandal.[7]
Organization
Since its inception the party has been led by:
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (10 February 1980 - 1994)
- Rui Falcão (1994)
- José Dirceu (1995 - 2002)
- José Genoíno (2002 - 2005)
- Tarso Genro (2005) (interim)
- Ricardo Berzoini (2005 - 2006)
- Marco Aurélio Garcia (6 October, 2006-2 January, 2007) (interim)
- Ricardo Berzoini (since 2 January, 2007)
Factions
There are about thirty factions (tendências) within the PT, ranging from Articulação, the center-left group that Lula is a part of, to Marxists and Christian socialists.
Former factions
- Workers' Cause - seceded from the party in 1990 as the Workers' Cause Party
- Socialist Convergence - seceded in 1993 as part of United Socialist Workers' Party
- Popular Socialist Action - Trotskyist faction that seceded in 2005 and joined the Socialism and Freedom Party, which was formed by other PT factions in the year before.
- Tendency for the Workers' Revolutionary Party - Trotskyist faction that seceded in 1990 as the Workers' Revolutionary Party
Tendencies categorized as the "Left-wing Workers' Party"
- The Worker
- Marxist Tendency
- Left Articulation
- Socialist Democracy
- Radical Democracy
- Socialist Brazil
- Socialist Forum
Other tendencies
- PT Movement
- Action and Socialist Identity Movement
- Unity and Struggle Articulation
International political relations of the Workers' Party
Relations with the British Labour Party
Prior to the 1998 general elections, Peter Mandelson, a close aide to British prime minister and former Labour Party leader Tony Blair, stated that the Workers' Party's proposals for the 1998 presidential elections represented "an old-fashioned and out-of-date socialism." Representatives of the Workers' Party publicly protested this statement.[8] Labour-Workers' Party relations have since improved.
Famous members
Its members are known as petistas, from the Portuguese acronym "PT".
- Aloízio Mercadante
- Ana Julia Carepa
- Antônio Palocci Filho
- Arlindo Chinaglia
- Benedita da Silva
- Binho Marques
- Chico Buarque
- Chico Mendes
- Dilma Rousseff
- Eduardo Suplicy
- Fernando Pimentel
- Guido Mantega
- Jaques Wagner
- João Paulo Cunha
- Luis Favre
- Luiz Gushiken
- Luizianne Lins
- Marcelo Déda
- Marco Aurélio Garcia
- Marilena Chauí
- Marta Suplicy
- Olívio Dutra
- Paulo Freire
- Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda
- Tarso Genro
- Wellington Dias
Notes
- ^ http://countrystudies.us/brazil/101.htm
- ^ http://scholar.google.com.br/scholar?hl=pt-BR&safe=off&q=author:%22Boas%22+intitle:%22Television+and+Neopopulism+in+Latin+America%22+&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholarr
- ^ Branford, Sue; Bernardo Kucinski (1995). Brazil: Carnival of the Oppressed. London: Latin America Bureau. pp. 120.
- ^ "Brazil re-elects President Lula", BBC, October 30, 2006
- ^ "Lula's purge: The Workers' Party sheds its dissenters". The Economist. October 1 2003. http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_NPDPPGN.
- ^ Valerio denies negotiating funds for PT and PTB with Portugal Telecom
- ^ BBC News: Lula cleared of electoral scandal
- ^ BBC News: Mandelson under fire in Brazil
Further reading
In English
- Baiocchi, Gianpaolo - Radicals in Power: The Workers' Party and Experiments in Urban Democracy in Brazil
- Branford, Sue and Bernardo Kucinski - Lula and the Workers' Party in Brazil
- Keck, Margaret E. - The Workers' Party and Democratization in Brazil
In Portuguese
- Couto, A. J. Paula - O PT em pílulas
- Dacanal, José Hildebrando - A nova classe no poder
- Demier, Felipe - As Transformações do PT e os Rumos da Esquerda no Brasil
- Godoy, Dagoberto Lima - Neocomunismo no Brasil
- Harnecker, Martha - O sonho era possível; São Paulo, Casa das Américas, 1994.
- Hohlfeldt, Antônio - O fascínio da estrela
- Moura, Paulo - PT - Comunismo ou Social-Democracia?
- Paula Couto, Adolpho João de - A face oculta da estrela
- Pedrosa, Mário - Sobre o PT; São Paulo, CHED Editorial, 1980.
- Pluggina, Percival - Crônicas contra o totalitarismo
- Rosenfield, Denis L. - O PT na Encruzilhada, 2000.
- Tavares, José Antônio Giusti with Fernando Schüller, Ronaldo Moreira Brum and Valério Rohden - Totalitarismo tardio - o caso do PT
- Singer, André - O PT - Folha Explica
External links
- (Portuguese)Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Brazilian Electoral Superior Court)
- (Portuguese) Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party) official webpage
- Perseu Abramo Foundation (FPA)
- Foro de São Paulo. Organization guided by PT.
- Al-Jazeera: Investigation shake Brazilian party
- Lula's lament: article on PT corruption scandal
| Preceded by 12 - DLP (PDT) |
Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 13 - WP (PT) |
Succeeded by 14 - BLP (PTB) |
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