Lula elected as president of Brazil

by anarcho Mon Oct 28, 2002 19:59 anarcho at geocities dot com

His running mate was a capitalist, leader of a
small right-wing, pro-business, party...

Business is "warming" to him...

Looks like business as usual...

As for building confidence, maybe illusions would
be a better word here. I suppose the question is
what will happen when the disillusionment sets in.
Hopefully the working class will see the pointlessness
of voting for people to act for them and instead organise
in their communities and workplaces and use direct
action and solidarity to change the world...

by Realist Mon Oct 28, 2002 20:01

Yes, he has made so many concessions to the establishment that they were united against him.

He's such a reformist that the US are already getting worried about how Brazil's attitude towards trade will change.

Quit being a CWI clone. Just because he wasn't from your cult doesn't mean that he's a tool of the establishment.

by iosaf = o as if Mon Oct 28, 2002 22:13 iosaf at email dot com barcelona

The european summer of 2001, the talk in the migrant brazilian community was of candles.
The electricity supply had collapsed for the two largest cities in Brazil. The rich bought geneerators, the middle classes candles.
The americans spoke of investing in infracstructure. The poor starved in the dark.
Those who could escape, did and brought Capoiera teachers to European squats.
Rather like a short time later Argentina collapsed and improved Tango came to Europe.

South Americans learnt a long time ago that democratically elected representatives are always subject to approval by certain business interests whose main lobbying body is called the CIA.

I suspect that South Americans learnt that lesson rather well on September 11th, the Pinochet 11th.

by PT - PT Mon Oct 28, 2002 23:00

lula will not change things in brasil of his own accord, but what his election represents is very significant. the fact that the majority of brasilians rejected the parties of big business and us neo-colonialism is a significant step forward for the latin american workers movement. inside the workers party are many many people who oppose capitalism outright, and i feel it may be safe to say that many of those who voted PT also feel the same. what may possibly happen in brasil in the coming period is that events will determin actions, that lula will be forced by the people he represents to push things forward and also reject capitalism, as happened in cuba with castro - not that i would call cuba socialist, but you get my meaning. hopefully he will learn the lesson of chile 1973. then again he may be shot next week. that would open up a whole new scenario for brasilain workers.

by pancho villa Tue Oct 29, 2002 00:25

Lula is not the perfect revolutionary as is the case with Chavez, but they are certainly more revolutionary and sincere that rabits labour party or the swp or sp.

by Finghin - SY/SP/CWI Tue Oct 29, 2002 11:17

I did not say Lula was not openly capitalist I said the PT were not openly capitalist. They still have strong links with workers and the oppressed in Brazil

by Finghin - Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) Tue Oct 29, 2002 11:29

Lula has sold out and has drifted to the right over the past number of years. His deputy president is an open capitalist, he has made promises and concessions to the IMF and Brazilian establishment, he will in all likelihood pick a fairly right wing cabinet and is using the excuse that the PT are not in a majority in parliament to waterdown his policies. He is certainly not a revolutionary.
However his party the PT still maintains its links with the workers. His election will give a major confidence boost to workers in Brazil and throughout Latiin America. What the establishment fear in Brazil is not Lula but rather the fact that Lula may be forced into confrontations witht the IMF becuase of revolutionary movements from below.

We in the CWI are members of the PT and activly campaigned for Lula but pointed out these justifiable critisisms of Lula. It is important that workers in Brazil don't hold false illusions in Lula and understand that he must be pushed into taking action. Not to point this out would be a serious mistake.

by place not your trust in kings or queens Tue Oct 29, 2002 23:16

Finglin is dead right to say: "don't hold false illusions in Lula" but he should add the swp, sp and a few other parties to that short list

by the white socialist's burden Tue Oct 29, 2002 23:35

finglin states that: "Lula has sold out and has drifted to the right over the past number of years"

Well he is still to this day a lot more left wing than the Irish or english labour party that some foolish 'revolutionaries' spend years infiltrating. He is far to the left of Mr. Rabbitt. But perhaps he had to become just a bit less 'looney' in order to get elected. Just because he does not march up and down the equivalent of O Connell street in Rio screaming simplistic slogans through a loudhailer is not enough reason to make rash and ill informed denouncements of the choice of the Brazilian people. The fake left in england and its offshoots in the Irish colony are far too quick to criticise genuine revolutionaries working in the most poor and life threathening countries in the world, they spend years doing it with Cuba and over the last year or so they have been running their mouths off about Chavez. I suppose it was inevietable they would round on Lula (after all he is just a colonial really, not a european)

by Malatesta Tue Oct 29, 2002 23:35

Anarcho is right (as anarchists allways are..;)). I dont hold my breath about Lula,but as someone else pointed out;the good news is that the ppl of brazil seems to have gone to the left. But real change happens outside the parlaments through grasrootmovements.

by iosaf Wed Oct 30, 2002 17:57

Real Life is where Real People are.
and it will be easier for grassroot movements and anarcho-groupings to operate and build upon the lessons of recent Brazilian history. The energy crises of 2001 was a phenomona of WW4. It can only really be understood using that critical device, applying European or North American "left/right" political criteria just doesn´t work.
In a nutshell Brazil is one of the many examples of where we anarchists know the left have got it wrong.