Brazil: Growing crisis over Lula government’s corruption scandal


Opportunities for new workers’ party, P-SOL

André Ferrari of Socialismo Revolucionario (CWI,
Brazil) and a leading activist on the Executive Committee of P-SOL – the
country’s new left-wing party – recently spoke to Socialist Party
members in London.
Extracts of his speech, below, reflect on the developing political
crisis in Brazil and the prospects for growth of P-SOL.

TWO DAYS ago the congressman José Dirceu, who was until June one of
the main government ministers, was impeached. This individual was the
key figure in a group who organised the monthly payment of political
bribes to MPs to buy their parliamentary votes.

This provoked a massive political crisis. But it is really a comment
on the evolution of the Workers’ Party (PT) to the right.

Dirceu was one of the main left-wing leaders of the student movement
in Brazil. He was an active militant in the underground during the
military dictatorship [1976-85] and was one of the main founding members
of the PT in 1980. He was number two in the PT after "Lula" [president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva].

This process of political degeneration and decay of many of the PT
leaders and activists has to be seen in conjunction with the party’s
incorporation into and acceptance of the capitalist system..

More than 20 years after the fall of the military dictatorship in
Brazil the political regime in Brazil is marked by corruption. This has
resulted in a general disillusionment in the so-called ‘democratic’
political process. But the accusations against the PT at this particular
time have had a much greater impact because of the enormous hostility
and opposition of the working class to the ‘neo-liberal’ policies of the
government.

The PT has got elected to positions in the regions and the states and
used public money from these posts to finance the party. Two mayors in
the districts of Santo Andre and Campinas in the state of Sao Paulo were
assassinated because they were beginning to expose corruption. The
former president of the cabinet has now been accused of having a direct
hand in one of the assassinations.

And with the arrival of the PT into the central government, the
central banks and major companies went so far as to finance some of the
activities of the PT. One of the key elements in this is the pension
funds. They got money from the pension funds and in government the PT
carried through so-called ‘pension reform’ which benefited the private
pension funds… "

Lula’s conversion

"THE PT, founded in 1980, emerged from the working-class struggles
under the military dictatorship and was led by the then militant
workers’ leader, Lula. It stood for a radical socialist policies to
solve poverty and inequality.

The political evolution to the right of the PT was due to the impact
of the collapse of former Stalinist regimes, a worldwide capitalist
ideological offensive, and the defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
Bit by bit the PT accommodated itself to capitalism.

After a series of presidential electoral defeats Lula drew the false
conclusion that it was necessary to change the party and accept the
system. In 2002 his candidate for the vice-president was Jose Alencar a
millionaire industrialist and a member of the Liberal Party.

A few weeks before the election a meeting took place with the
International Monetary Fund, Cardoso and Lula. Lula convinced them that
a PT victory would not threaten the interests of capitalism.

Many PT supporters assumed that after the party’s election victory
radical policies would follow. However, Lula, immediately following the
election, met with George Bush and agreed to send Brazilian troops to
Haiti because the US forces were overstretched in Iraq. [The US had
forcibly removed Haiti’s president Aristide from office]

He also assured Bush that he would ‘Lularise’ other radical leaders
in the continent such as Venezuela’s Chávez. After the attempted coup in
Venezuela in April 2002, Lula tried to prevent Chávez from moving in a
more radical direction.

Lula has given political asylum to Ecuador’s former president Lucio
Gutierrez ["El Loco"] who was driven from office by a insurrectionary
movement of workers and the poor after pursuing punitive neo-liberal
policies.

In Bolivia, key elections are due in December. Evo Morales of the
reformist ‘Movement to Socialism’ (MAS) will probably win the first
round of the presidential election but because the Congress finally
elects the president. Lula has despatched political advisors to persuade
Morales to adopt a ‘moderate’ political programme to be acceptable to
the right.

Brazil has a foreign debt of $70 billion. Under Lula the debt
repayments are made more punctually than the previous bourgeois
government of Cardoso! This has been accompanied by a policy of cutting
public spending, attacks on social services etc.

The first substantial action of the Lula government was the pensions
‘reform’ [ie attacks on pensions]. Previously, under Cardoso, such an
attack was not possible because of the PT and trade union opposition.
This clash was the first significant struggle by the working class
against the PT government.

The Lula government has carried out less agrarian reform than the
previous right-wing government. The landless movement MST has also
accused the government of failure, even though its leaders still have
some illusions in the PT government.

The government was hoping for moderate growth this year which would
afford it some political stability. But annual growth will be minimal.
This will only lead to more dissatisfaction with the government and more
struggles. The only thing in Lula’s favour is that many workers and poor
people still hate the parties of the right…

Rise of P-SOL

THERE IS a massive space that exists to the left of the PT which
P-SOL [The Socialism and Liberty Party] can exploit in next year’s
elections.

P-SOL represented a fundamental break with the PT and the coming
together of socialist, left-wing groups and four expelled PT congress
representatives.

In June 2004 there was a national meeting to formally establish
P-SOL. There was then a major struggle undertaken to legalise the party.
At the end of this, P-SOL managed to achieve 800,000 signatures
supporting the party’s formation, far more than was legally required.
This support illustrates P-SOLs potential.

From its formation P-SOL allowed the right of internal groupings to
exist. Given the experience of the PT, PSOL members attach great store
on internal party democracy. Of course, at the same time, there has to
be agreement on a set of fundamental principles for the party.

The provisional political programme agreed is anti-capitalist and
supports the establishment of socialism. It supports the idea of a
workers’ government. It supports the nationalisation of all the major
companies under democratic workers’ control.

But this is not enough! It’s necessary to openly discuss what
happened to the PT.

In meetings of P-SOL where new members are present you can expect
someone to ask; ‘will what happened to PT also happen in P-SOL?’ In
particular, ‘how can the party exert control over its public
representatives?’

There is also a debate over what is the best way to fight capitalism,
and a debate over the relationship between the members and leaders of
the party and its parliamentary representatives.

P-SOL is having a congress in March 2006 but even this conference
will not resolve all the party questions. What is crucial is that the
party rejects the pressures, which are already developing, for the party
to water down its programme.

During 2005 there has been a new wave of splits from the PT. Many PT
members are looking to join P-SOL. There is also a layer who are
disillusioned with PT but are sceptical about P-SOL.

This year, five more deputies have come over to P-SOL. Some of them
have a ‘semi-detached’ relationship with P-SOL because political
differences between them and P-SOL remain. For example, one of these MPs
voted to support Lula’s candidate as the president of the parliament.

These people argue that: ‘the PT is not our principle enemy there are
parties farther to the right who are our main enemy’. However, the
reality is that we have a government that is attacking the working class
and it has to be fought. We’re against the right but we’re also against
Lula’s government.

The key thing to emphasise is that the whole process of
reconstructing of the Brazilian Left is taking place outside of the PT.
Some groups, naively, are still arguing to remain in the PT in order to
recapture it for the left.

We have a optimistic perspective for the 2006 elections, particularly
for P-SOL’s presidential candidate Helo’sa Helena. Already she is
enjoying 5%-6% support nationally in the polls. And amongst the youth
she is receiving 12%-14% support.

Helena has a reputation of being a fighter for working-class people.
P-SOL also has opportunities for growth in the local and parliamentary
elections.

Socialismo Revolucionario is an important part of the process of
building a new workers’ party, to maintain democracy within P-SOL and to
fight for a revolutionary socialist programme.

Brazil, as well as being the world football champions, also has the
dubious record of being the world champions in terms of social
inequalites. If we work correctly Brazil can be changed to become the
world champions of struggle to end the nightmare conditions of
capitalism."


Cash-for-votes

THE IMPEACHMENT of Workers’ Party (PT) deputy Jose Dirceau (president
Lula’s right-hand man), as part of the unravelling cash-for-votes
scandal, has intensified the most severe political crisis in Brazil
since president Collor de Mello was forced to resign in 1992, after mass
protests against corruption..

As a minority party in Congress which rules through a parliamentary
coalition, the PT paid monthly bribes of $12,000 to deputies from other
parties and manipulated the system of appointments to state-run
companies.

Lula has attempted to distance himself from the scandal stating
ignorance of the affair and disingenuously claiming that it is a
right-wing plot to undermine him!

So far 18 congressmen, including the PT’s president José Geonoino,
treasurer Delœbio Soares and general secretary Silvio Pereira, have all
stepped down.

Political corruption is no stranger to Brazil’s political system. The
president before Lula, Fernando Cardoso, was able to be re-elected for a
second mandate by buying votes. Eduardo Azevedo the president of the
PSDB (Social Democratic Party, Brazil) – the party of the former
president – has also been forced to resign because of the corruption
scandals.