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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.
[edit] HistoryThe 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 officially 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. [edit] 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 1994 general elections 2002 general elections After the detrition of PSDB's image and as a result of an economic crisis that burst 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  Main article: Brazilian general election, 2006 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. [edit] Internal debate, 2003-2007The 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. [edit] Presidential elections results
[edit] Political crises[edit] The Mensalão scandalMain article: 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] [edit] 2006 electoral scandalA 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] [edit] OrganizationSince its inception the party has been led by:
[edit] FactionsThere 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. [edit] Former factions
[edit] Tendencies categorized as the "Left-wing Workers' Party"
[edit] Other tendencies[edit] International political relations of the Workers' Party[edit] Relations with the British Labour PartyPrior 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. [edit] Famous membersIts members are known as petistas, from the Portuguese acronym "PT".
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading[edit] In English
[edit] In Portuguese
[edit] External links
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