The Marxist left has played a key role in building the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) from its formation two decades ago. How the left responds with the PT now in government drifting into neo-liberalism, poses major questions of principle. Day to day tactics can only be determined on the spot, but at its latest international meeting the Fourth International launched a debate on the broader strategic issues facing our comrades. The following statement from the International Socialist Group was presented to the meeting as a fraternal start to the discussion.

The development of Socialist Democracy (DS) in Brazil has been of huge importance for the Fourth International (FI). This is not only because its size makes it one of the largest sections of the International. Nor is it only because its implantation in the Workers’ Party (PT), in the trade unions and social movements, in local governments, in congress and in the World Social Forum process, make it one of the most influential sections the International has ever had. It is also because for over two decades DS has been at the fore-front of the FI’s strategic thinking and practice. Its conception of building the PT as a broad workers’ party has been rich in lessons for other sections undertaking comparable projects in different circumstances. Its experiences of direct democracy and the participatory budgets have helped to put the FI and our programme for socialist democracy at the heart of the movement against neo-liberal globalisation.

For all these reasons it is the duty of the entire International to do whatever it can to support, defend and preserve our Brazilian section in the difficult situation which it now faces.

The International cannot and should not try to dictate from a distance the tactical choices that comrades make in a particular situation. Nevertheless we do have a responsibility to try to help clarify the issues, to bring collective experience to bear in this kind of complex situation when the stakes are very high, to express an opinion in a frank and comradely way. Indeed there are times when a more detached view – at one remove from the heat of the struggle - can add an important dimension to the debate. It is in this spirit that we express our concerns and fears to the comrades of the DS.

In spite of the drift to neo-liberalism which the PT has undergone in recent times, which has been compounded by its open alliance with sections of the bourgeoisie, the election of Lula at the end of 2002 raised enormous expectations in the working masses, not only in Brazil, but throughout Latin America and beyond. This victory was, and is, a major challenge, and a major opportunity for the working class, the revolutionary left in Brazil, and for the left inside the PT in particular. It was and is, above all, a major challenge, and opportunity, for the FI and for our Brazilian section, which has been building the PT and preparing for such a situation for many years.

As the International Socialist Group, British section of the FI we want to express our support and solidarity to the comrades of the DS in this situation. We have expressed our solidarity through the campaign and petition against expulsion against comrade Heloisa Helena and other PT deputies, which had some impact on the disciplinary process (although it did not stop it) and which attracted a reply from the PT leadership seeking to defend their position.

However, it seems to us that the direction taken by the Lula government is now clear. It is a coalition government with a neo-liberal agenda, implementing policies in the interests of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, and carrying out the requirements of multi-national capital. There are certainly contradictions, of a secondary character, reflecting both the working-class and popular base of the PT, as well as differences between different sections of the Brazilian ruling class and between these and imperialism. But there is no longer, if there ever was, any fundamental duality in the character of the government. Our fear is that the continuance of DS comrades in this government will do damage to the organisation and its relations with the most combative and important layers of the Brazilian working class and peasantry. Our fear is that at a critical point comrades in the DS will be held responsible, at least in part, for the policies of the government - particularly given the difficulties, including legal difficulties and the direct repressive intervention by the judiciary and by regional state governments, which confront agrarian reform in particular.

We must express our concern with what, from here, looks like a very dangerous contradiction. Inside the PT comrades of DS have rightly opposed the pension reform and other neo-liberal counter-reforms, and you have participated in the strikes and mass demonstration against them, including in front of parliament. However, most DS members of parliament, with the support of the DS leadership itself, took the decision to vote in favour of the pension reforms, even though simultaneously denouncing them. We understand the tradition of collective responsibility in the PT, which the DS has rightly fought for over the years. However, no collective responsibility can be accepted for the neo-liberal programme of the Lula government. With the sincerity and frankness that we think must govern the relations between revolutionaries, we must say that this has caused us great concern. We fail to see how this can be understood in the mass movement.

We believe a positive exit strategy from the government is now needed, one that can be seen by the mass movement, not as a defeat, but as a principled stand that puts DS at the very centre of the dispute over the direction taken by the PT and its government. We also believe that such an exit from the government may go a long way towards preventing or healing the divisions that currently threaten DS.

We do not ignore the immense responsibilities that rest on the DS comrades in this or the complexities with which they have had to grapple. But a defeat or a set-back for the revolutionary forces in Brazil at this time, and the most important factor in this is the DS itself, would not just be a defeat for the left but a set-back for all the workers and peasants in Brazil.

The DS clearly has the opportunity, and ability, not only to strengthen its own ranks but to form the vanguard of the revolutionary left in Brazil. In turn this can strengthen the left internationally and the FI in particular. Obviously this will not be easy. The choices are difficult. No doubt there will be deep differences. We recognise that these differences may require unconventional organisational arrangements. The ability of DS, and the FI, to cope with this situation will also be a test of our collective maturity. We believe the decision by the recent DS leadership meeting, not to take any action against those DS comrades taking part in the movement for a new party, is a positive first step in this direction.

Please accept our revolutionary greetings and rest assured that we will do all that we can to bring help and solidarity in the tasks that lie ahead.

International Socialist Group - British section of the Fourth International.

SO/03 - Spring 2004

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