Democracy and the Organization of Class Struggle in Brazil (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
The rise of the Workers’ Party ( Partido dos Trabalhadores PT) in the Brazilian federal government in 2003 had a major impact on th e Brazilian labor movement, leading to its reconfiguration (Galvão, 2006). The largest and most important Brazilian union federation, CUT, went through a splitting pro cess. New organizations were created, others merged. However, this reconfigurati on is not only expressed in the organizational aspect. It has had a deeper dimensio n, which concerns the relationship between the union movement and the PT governments. As it is known, the Brazilian union movement contri buted, along with other social movements, to the foundation of PT in 1980, and since then, it has close relations with this party. Unions played an important role in Lula's victory in the 2002 elections and gained political prominence in the PT governmen t, which can be observed by the incorporation of union members to different positio ns of the federal administration (D'Araujo, 200...
Becoming-Brazil: The Savage Rise of the Class without Name
South Atlantic Quarterly, 2014
This article discusses the protests that shook Brazil in 2013. The argument grounds itself in the hypothesis that the protests can only be understood by analyzing the current scenario of the country’s class composition, history, and relationship to the civilizational paradigm adopted since the beginning of the country’s republican regime (1889)—a regime that can be summarized succinctly as proceeding from colonialism to positivism.
Notes for a historical interpretation of the trajectory of the Brasilian Workers Party
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.
The ideology of capitalism in Brazilian social movements: the " nós-do-governo " 1
The aim of this work is to understand the ideological processes in the relationship between Brazilian State and social movements during Lula and Dilma Rousseff Governments until June 2013. For this purpose, we will see that there are some subjects that enjoy themselves when join any cynical apparatuses in the capitalist society, and also identified themselves with this lifestyle. On the other side, there are subjects that are indignant with this situation and seek to politically organize themselves, in this case in social movements. The article discusses these politically organized subjects, since the Brazilian State uses the " engodo " to put them in the cynical logic of capitalist social control. In this logic, the " engodo " is a discursive formation that puts at stake a symbolic and imaginary dimension for one to take cynically the other as object of his satisfaction.
Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) in International Peace Studies, 2013
This dissertation sets out to explore the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement and its relations with democracy in Brazil. This topic was chosen primarily because the MST’s confrontational relations with Brazil’s governing institutions have been portrayed as harmful to Brazilian democracy. In this regard, the main aim of this dissertation is to dispute these excessive views by illustrating the major contributions the MST has made to democracy in Brazil. I will argue that, far from being harmful to Brazilian democracy, the MST has actively contributed to democracy, and to creating more democratic relations in a number of different ways, as evidenced in Chapter Three. Here, I will argue that the MST has contributed to democracy in Brazil in four major ways: First, by advocating popular education. Debatably, the poor quality of education is one of the major problems overwhelming Brazil. Second, I will explore the positive effects of the MST’s advocation of land reform. While land is abundant in Brazil, land disputes do exist between the landless majority and the landowning elite minority. This MST initiative has not only enabled thousands of landless families to access land, but it has also directed the attention of important government bodies to the cause. Thirdly, I will illustrate how the MST has enhanced democratic relations through its focus on direct political action. Through direct political action, the MST has combated clientelism and inequality in Brazil. Finally, I will show how the MST’s relationship with political parties has also contributed to democracy. Although it has never demanded to be part of government, the MST has pressured political parties for land reform, protection of small-scale-family and community farms. In other words, it has managed to impose its agenda on political parties, especially the Workers’ Party. Overall, by raising its voice and calling for popular education, land reform and direct political action (among other things), the MST has challenged traditional patterns of elitist domination and marginalization, and in so doing has made significant improvements to Brazil’s problems regarding inequality, political alienation, social exclusion, illiteracy and clientelism. Thus, one might argue, the MST has helped to create a new concept of citizenry in Brazil.
This article develops an approach about participation based on materialism, and establishes its differences — in comparison to the dominant lines of thought — when it comes to explaining the difficulties to obtain effective political participation in Brazil. On one hand, culturalism points to a lack of formal or cultural preparation to participate. On the other hand is the notion that neoliberalism is the limiting factor. The differentiation of the approaches proposes the study of the real conditions of possibility for participation, given by the format of the policies, starting by analyzing the process of objectivation of capitalism in Brazil, considering the particularity of such format discussing the colonial way. The basic understanding is that the participation in the atrophic capitalism is a particular form of participacionism because of the process of incipient transformations and the excluding modernizations which block the popular participation and secure the interests of dominant classes. Participação e miséria brasileira: o participacionismo nas condições de possibilidade do capitalismo no Brasil O presente ensaio propõe um tratamento materialista da participação a partir de sua diferenciação ante as correntes dominantes na explicação das dificuldades de efetivação das formas participativas na esfera política no Brasil. De um lado, coloca-se o culturalismo que acusa a ausência de uma preparação formal ou cultural para a participação. De outro, insurge a corrente que identifica no neoliberalismo o fator impeditivo. A proposta de diferenciação aponta para o estudo das condições reais de possibilidade da forma política a partir da análise do processo de objetivação do capitalismo no Brasil, trazendo à baila a particularidade dessa formação pela chamada via colonial. A constatação básica é a de que a participação no capitalismo atrófico é uma forma particular de participacionismo em razão de processos de transformação incipientes e de modernização excludente que bloqueiam a participação popular, garantindo os interesses ligados às conciliações das classes dominantes. Palavras-chave: participação; participacionismo; capital atrófico; particularidade; Brasil. La participación y la miseria brasileña: el participacionismo en las condiciones de posibilidad del capitalismo en Brasil El presente ensayo propone un tratamiento materialista de la participación a partir de su diferenciación delante de las corrientes dominantes en la explicación de las dificultades de materialización de las formas participativas en la esfera política en Brasil. Por un lado, se coloca el culturalismo que acusa la ausencia de una preparación formal o cultural para la participación. Por otro, repunta la corriente que identifica el neoliberalismo como factor que la impide. La propuesta de diferenciación apunta para el estudio de las condiciones reales de la posibilidad de la forma política a partir del análisis del proceso de objetivación del capitalismo en Brasil, trayendo a la discusión la particularidad de la formación por la llamada vía colonial. La conclusión básica es la de que la participación en el capitalismo atrófico es una forma particular de participacionismo en razón de procesos de transformaciones insipientes y de la modernización excluyente que bloquea la participación popular garantizando los intereses ligados a las conciliaciones de las clases dominantes.
Brazilian Perspectives: Society, Stratification and Income Distribution
Asian Journal of Applied Sciences, 2020
This paper aims to present a general evaluation on the inequality, income distribution and social mobility in Brazil between 2002 and 2014, under the governments of the Workers' Party. In this way, from the methodological point view, it is based on both a review of the literature about that subject and an investigation of the primary sources of the Brazilian social policies. Among the results found out, it can be highlighting the following sample: 1) historically, Brazilian society has been marked by inequality in several ways, and this is probably a consequence of his colonial legacy; 2) In the period between 2002 and 2014, Brazilian social inequality declined; 3) the decline of inequality can be explained by income growth, higher schooling levels and labor formalization, but the targeted social program, Bolsa Familia, also contributed to income convergence; 4) Brazil slashed poverty from 25 percent of the population in 2004 to 8.5 percent in 2014, and extreme poverty declined ...