Raul Bassi
In the lead-up to the election of the centre-left Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva in 2002, one of the PT's key election promises was to get rid of corruption. Undoubtedly, in a country where corruption has been a constant feature of politics during the last 50 years and not long ago caused the impeachment and forced resignation of a president, many of Brazil's poor who voted for Lula really hoped to see change on this issue.
However, the scandal over the mensalao — the monthly payments to opposition MPs in order to secure their votes in parliament — and now the Caixe 2 — electoral campaign funds that were not declared by the PT — have left many in Brazil feeling that the PT, or at least its leadership, is not that different from the other traditional parties.
While the popularity of the PT, and especially Lula — the ex-metal worker who helped forge this party in the heat of working-class struggle more than 25 years ago — has remained relatively high with the masses, big questions are being asked about the capacity of Lula's government to attend to the needs of the working class and poor. With Lula up for re-election next year, many people are now questioning if he will be able to win as easily as it seemed he would a few months ago.
How could this be happening to a government that was entrusted by the people to change Brazil? The reality, it seems, is that although the PT supposedly came to power to change the system, the system has ended up controlling the party, converting it into a tool to make the system work.
The Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB) and other opposition parties initially thought the crisis was an opportunity to weaken the PT and remove Lula as a candidate in the 2006 election, pushing for his impeachment. In typical Brazilian-style politics, the PSDB asked for a quick investigation into the alleged corruption, yet denied that similar practices were part of Brazilian political life for many years, including within the PSDB.
But big business had other ideas. The old traditional parties, previously relied upon by the Brazilian ruling class to run the country, such as the PSDB, the Liberal Front Party (PFL) and the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), rapidly shifted from their "high moral ground" position to one of protecting and aiding Lula.
For US imperialism and financial markets, there are bigger fish to fry in Latin America. With Venezuela and Bolivia continuing to present a more acute threat to big business interests, the capitalist class is not interested in a political crisis fuelling problems in the Brazilian economy — the largest of Latin America — and potentially provoking a new process of class struggle. It seemed necessary to quarantine Lula, and US President George Bush's recent visit after the Summit of the Americas seems to have been part of this plan.
It seems everyone is attempting to avoid the total moral bankruptcy of the judiciary and political system. The argument goes that the problems are due to a "wrong turn", easily fixed with a touch of "political reform". Yet the reality is the opposite. The aim is the demoralisation of the working class and the left, and with that, the liquidation of the resistance to neoliberalism and market policies. In all this, the important role assigned to the PT today is to control the masses.
Regardless, those parties have reserved their rights to keep the corruption case at hand until election time. New allegations about the participation of Cuba in Lula's campaign finances are part of this equation.
The paradox in this is the situation that the PT finds itself in. There is no doubt the demolition of the PT's "ethical pillar" has taken its toll. The support for the PT within the middle class is disappearing, yet it continues to remain strong within the poor sectors of the population. There do not appear to be any clear indications of the extent of the damage of the PT's support within the working class in general. The argument to "oppose the right-wing parties' conspiracy" — in order to help Lula get a new mandate in the 2006 elections and usher in real changes — weighs heavily on the minds of the Brazilian people.
The clearest demonstration of the PT's strength is that despite the deep crisis in high levels of the government and increasing disenchantment with traditional parties during the last nine months, the only manifestation of political independence has been the resignation of about 400 PT members. Many have joined the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), formed by a number of expelled PT parliamentarians in 2004.
At the same time, more than 300,000 members voted in the PT's internal election for party president, forcing the candidate from Lula's faction into a second-round run-off. The left challenge narrowly lost in the end. This suggests there is still life in the PT.
Many of Brazil's powerful social movements have also refused to opt for political independence from the PT. This was demonstrated at the Popular Assembly of social movements, held on October 25-28. More than 8000 representatives from at least 40 social movements, including the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), and the National Union of Students (UNE), along with other rural and urban movements (even the Catholic hierarchy) discussed a new project for Brazil, under the slogan: "To organise the poor to achieve real and structural changes."
The assembly openly criticised US imperialism as well as the PT government's economic policies, denouncing the fact that 52 million people live in misery while Brazil continues to service its external debt. The assembly demanded a break from economic dependency on the US, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the Central Bank of Brazil. It also demanded that US President George Bush not set foot in Latin America or Brazil, and called for Brazil to withdraw its troops from Haiti.
In a letter from the Popular Assembly, the social movements in attendance made a personal appeal to Lula, as they felt that they were not getting a response to their concerns from any government department.
However, there was clearly no threat of withdrawal of support, at least that was mentioned publicly.
On the other hand, the Unified Socialist Workers' Party (PSTU) and PSOL, the two largest representatives of the left outside of the PT who were present at the popular assembly, put forward an alternative position to the main organisations.
Most members who have left the PT have joined PSOL, including many hundreds of unionists and social activists and three MPs. A recent poll showed that 5-6 million Brazilians will consider voting for Heloise Helena, an ex-PT senator who helped found PSOL and who could become its first presidential candidate.
PSOL put forward the proposal to push for a plebiscite and general elections. But it couldn't get any support in the assembly for this position, at least not from any important mass organisation.
The PSTU limited its political participation to propagandistic slogans, such as: "Everyone has to go", "General strike" and "For a socialist workers' government". Unsurprisingly, these were not taken up by many significant sectors, because they provided no answer to the main problems of the PT crisis and the masses' disenchantment with it.
Both of these parties have been involved in Conlutas, an internal minority faction within the CUT representing between 30-40% of the leadership.
The position of both parties in the assembly and in the Conlutas meetings has been to call on the government to change its economic policies, essentially along the lines of what the CUT, MST and UNE have been proposing, instead of offering an alternative of class independence.
This political independence is the only way to start fixing the deep problems for the millions of poor people living in the richest country in Latin America — the real paradox of Brazil.
From Green Left Weekly, December 7, 2005.
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