Notes for a historical interpretation of the trajectory of the Brasilian Workers Party (original) (raw)

There was something splendid and touching, but also terrible in PT’s history. In order to refer to the vocabulary coined by the classical Greek, there was the moment of epopee, the tragic one, and even some of a comedy in the trajectory in which petism was transformed into lulism. The PT was the biggest party of the Brazilian working class in the 20th century. In the 1980s, Lula and the leadership of the PT (that has organized the internal tendency Articulação) were capable of enrapturing a party, which, in ten years, evolved from an organization of a few thousands to one with hundreds of thousands of activists. And that moved from 10% of the votes for governor in the State of São Paulo in 1982 (and less than 3% in average in the other States), to a very tight race in the ballotage for the presidential elections of 1989, counting only on voluntary contributions. The PT of 2011 is, evidently, another party, although the leading fraction being, essentially, the same. In three decades, the PT has elected many thousands of city councilors, and several hundreds of state and federal deputies, having arrived to the government of more than a thousand of city-halls, many State governors, and is the head of the presidency for the third time. The PT of 2011 is Brazil’s most professional electoral machine, being, therefore, integrated into to the regime’s institutions and closely associated to some of the most powerful entrepreneurial groups. Paradoxically, Lula’s authority has not diminished.