Brazil

In the discussion of Jair Bolsonaro’s election victory in Brazil, the role of the Workers’ Party (PT) in its own downfall is worthy of deeper analysis. The left has tended to shy away from this, focusing on the brutality of the right, but not looking hard enough at the conduct of both Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff in office. This is a common problem in describing the experience of the Pink Tide governments, not only in Brazil but also in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and other countries.

Brazil has elected a far-right president. But, three months before the election, the main issue was not the election of Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right did not have a public political tradition in Brazil, and almost no politician assumed to be from this wing.

Bolsonaro appeared with 17 percent of the polls at the end of 2017. But then it was hoped that this year’s presidential election would be one pitting the Workers Party (PT) against the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), a liberal right wing party.

The majority of Brazil’s cargo transportation is composed of 2.3 million truck drivers, who carry about 60 percent of the goods. So the impact of the 11-day strike, when thousands of trucks were stopped, and more than 500 road blocks were established, was immense. There was a fuel shortage at the gas stations, damaging the day-to-day functioning of the economy. Entrepreneurs estimate a loss of £15 billion.

Until quite recently, Brazil was experiencing a climate of euphoria. This was partially because of improvements in the conditions of workers and the poor with low unemployment, a moderate increase in salaries and a popular government income supplement program for the very poorest families.

No one could have predicted that these events would provide the flashpoint that would trigger the sudden eruption of mass revolts that with hundreds of thousands on the streets night after night across dozens of cities in both country.

Both the threatened trees in Gezi Park and the rising costs of Brazil's transport system were the focus of pre-existing campaigns. Neither seemed about to unleash mass upheavals. In both cases, a key turning point was the brutal police violence against groups of protesters.

The Brazilian economy is yet to be affected as deeply by the economic recession as much of the surrounding region. The fact that Brazil is set to host two major international events the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 reflects its relative containment of the crisis. However, both events have been used as a justification for privatisation and the launching of ecologically unsustainable projects in the name of "national interest".

In the last few years an argument has been simmering in the Brazilian media and academic circles about the affirmative action policies being introduced into higher education and the state sectors.

Over half of the state's 140 prisons were in revolt, with at least 200 hostages taken, and 80 buses and 17 bank branches burnt out. Some media sources in Brazil dubbed the events "our 9/11". Hysterical that may be, but the panic was certainly enough for the authorities to impose an unofficial curfew on São Paulo, paralysing the transport system, and shutting down schools and businesses.

Thousands of militants in the trade unions and social movements, as well as elected officials who are from the left of the PT, abandoned the Workers' Party. The majority went on to join P-Sol, the Party of Socialism and Freedom. This year will see an election that offers many complex and difficult challenges for the left, and raises wider issues about the possibilities of regroupment.

This follows her expulsion from the party along with three parliamentary deputies. Her crime? Voting against a government law to cut public service pensions virtually identical to one the Workers Party fought against when in opposition.

Here are some extracts from an interview in the Jornal de Brasil, where she explained her decision: