Political parties in Brazil look very much like the Portuguese political parties. In Portugal you have the Socialist Party ( PS ) and the Social-Democratic Party ( PSD ), now you would think that the PS and the PSD are leftist, but this is not the case. The Social-Democratic Party in Portugal is in fact a liberal conservative party and the PS is a pro-capitalist social democratic one. Politics in Brazil mirror this in a way. Brazil has the Workers Party ( PT ) and the Brazilian Social Democratic Party ( PSDB ), yet both parties are not genuine leftists. The PT was founded as the party of the working class in 1980, but moved to the right-wing after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became president!
In his younger years Lula was a trade union activist and a fighter for workers. But after he became president the PT and Lula betrayed the workers as he never destroyed capitalism. Still Lula was a very popular president, despite the fact that he never introduced socialism. Like Hugo Chavez, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was a classic social democrat, who started massive social programs to help the poor. This made him very popular and gave him the support to win the 2006 elections. The Brazilian Social Democratic Party is a capitalist party. President Cardoso ( 1995-2003 ) was a PSDB politician and privatized many large public companies, such as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) and the national telecommunication system!
Because Lula and Rousseff betrayed their socialist ideology, many workers feel betrayed. The Workers Party also made sure that their own politicians would be expelled if they reject the capitalist road of the Lula. This is how Heloísa Helena, Luciana Genro, Babá and João Fontes were expelled after they voted against the pension reform proposed by Lula. These expelled politicians created the Socialism and Freedom Party ( PSOL). Although this party is more socialist then the PT, revolutionary socialists fear that its current leadership is deeply reformist. A fragile majority of the PSOL leadership approved a policy of reaching out to parties involved in the coalition of the govermment like the Workers Party and the Communist Party of Brazil. By working with some of these parties. the PSOL is working with the same groups who run the coalition government around president Dilma Vana Rousseff!
There is a battle inside the PSOL between a right-wing group ( reformists ) who wants to work with the parties supporting Dilma Vana Rousseff and the left-wing, ( made up of revolutionary socialists ) who reject working with the parties that support the capitalist government. A broad alliance of sections of PSOL which are against this policy of alliances with pro-capitalist parties could be victorious in the coming party congress. Revolutionary socialists of Liberty, Socialism, Revolution ( LSR ) struggle inside the PSOL against the reformist right-wing, their goal is to create a mass workers party that wins the support of workers and poor people, much like the PT used to be before its betrayal!
Now the FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil. On 15 May 2014, many Brazilians took to the street. They demonstrated against the money spend on the FIFA World Cup. While many workers struggle, the previous government of Lula already spend 3 billion euro ( 4 billion dollars ) on building new FIFA football stadiums. While 13% of all people live in massive poverty, Lula choose to spend money on the capitalist project called FIFA. This organisation leads the world football competition. Its leader is Joseph Blatter, a Swiss guy who has been called corrupt. Still because of his high position and his friends ( big capitalists ) Blatter has always been able to save himself from harm. Still the FIFA is a pure capitalistic group who works very close with big money!
This is why so many workers and poor are angry. They see how the government chooses to spend money on this FIFA show, but not on those who need help. Now at the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a majority of Brazilians saying the FIFA event will bring more harm than good to them. Revolutionary socialists agree, the FIFA organisation is corrupt and pure-capitalistic. In the end, footbal is not about a fair game, it is all about money and nationalist bullshit. Some poor Brazilians hope their own team loses the first match. So much anger has been created because of the deep inequality and the betrayal of Lula and his successor; Rousseff!
In her youth, Dilma Vana Rousseff was a Marxist revolutionary. She was born in a upper middle class home in 1947. Rousseff joined the leftist guerrilla's after Brazil became a pro-USA military dictatorship in 1964. The young Dilma was captured by the Brazilian military and tortured in jail. After the collapse of the military government, she helped founding the Democratic Labour Party in Rio Grande do Sul and remained a member for 21 years, until she joined Lula's PT in 2000. She abandoned Marxism for ''pragmatic'' capitalism, but remains proud of her past as revolutionary. How ironic that a class traitor like Dilma Vana Rousseff can still be proud of herself fighting first for Marxist socialism and then abandoning it!
The struggle against capitalism and the traitorous government of Dilma Rousseff, is what all genuine socialists must support. Reformists have tried to downplay the betrayal by saying that massive poverty was reduced under Lula and that the people love the PT. This is true, but only because many are still believing in a illusion, the illusion that the Workers Party is their party. We also see this in Europe, were many workers still vote on right-wing social democrats, only because they used to be leftist in the past. Revolutionary socialists call for a mass workers party to replaced the PT and all pseudo-leftist parties who support the government. Many political parties in Brazil try to portray themselves are leftist. They use the words; ''socialist'' and ''social'' in many party names. In reality most are pro-capitalist, supporting the markets over the people!
Revolutionary socialists of Liberty, Socialism, Revolution work inside the PSOL as a revolutionary faction, fighting for a mass workers party on a socialist program. If the PSOL can become a workers party, it will be able to win over the minds of millions, as the PT did 20 years ago. Brazilians need socialism, because millions live in poverty while the bourgeoisie enjoys the wealth and luxury. With the support of Dilma Vana Rousseff, they get richer and richer. Capitalism is undemocratic and unfair, it must be replaced by socialism. But this can only happen if the working class of Brazil understand that the PT is no longer their party!
Class traitor Dilma Vana Rousseff with the corrupt FIFA boss Joseph Blatter
