Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold: The PT Administrations from Compromise to the Coup

Abstract

The period in which the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores—PT) was in power in Brazil was characterized by limits and contradictions with regard to policies on employment, unions, and the fight against poverty. An analysis of the factors that contributed to the end of the 14-year cycle of consecutive presidential terms highlights the combined impacts of the international economic crisis, a deepening political crisis with charges of corruption, the destabilization of the party’s political alliances, and mass discontent intensified by fiscal adjustment measures that further penalized the already stressed working class. The PT once in power did not motivate resistance, advances in social and union struggles, or social movements, and when it finally attempted to reach out to other social movements it was too late. With the coup represented by the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016, Brazil entered once again into what Florestan Fernandes has called “preventive counterrevolution.” O período durante o qual o PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores) esteve no poder no Brasil caracterizou-se pelos limites e contradições das políticas públicas referentes a emprego, sindicatos e à luta contra a pobreza. Uma análise dos fatores que contribuíram para o fim do ciclo de 14 anos de sucessivas presidências petistas assinala o impacto conjunto da crise econômica internacional, o aprofundamento da crise política com base em acusações de corrupção, a desestabilização das alianças políticas do partido e o descontentamento exa-cerbado pelo ajuste fiscal que penalizou ainda mais a já combalida classe trabalhadora. Uma vez no poder, o PT não encorajou a resistência, ou os avanços nas lutas sindical e social. Quando finalmente tentou ligar-se a outros movimentos sociais já era tarde demais. Com o golpe representado pelo impeachment de Dilma Rousseff em 2016, o Brasil novamente ingressou no que Florestan Fernandes denominou “contra-revolução preventiva.”

Democracy through the spirit: the Universal Church and its interconnections with Brazilian democracy

“…This means that in the election in which former President Lula took office there was a strong signal for an alignment with financial and industrial capital, and an intense accommodation of the interests of the various groups that supported him. It is in this context and as part of one of these groups that the UCKG approaches this government (Antunes;Santana;Praun, 2019;Marques;Mendes, 2006;Vieira, 2012).…”

Taxes and tithes: The organizational foundations of bolsonarismo

“…Rather, these and other observers argue that a high degree of citizen mobilization and well-developed voluntary associations can act as vessels of fascist and illiberal politics of the sort represented by bolsonarismo . Well before Bolsonaro’s election, an extensive (mostly Brazilian) literature argued that the organizational power bases on which the PT relied – and out of which the party was born – had deteriorated (Antunes, 2011; Antunes et al, 2018; Cignachi, 2012; Garcia, 2015; Singer, 2012; Vieira, 2012).…”