PT runs candidate for president THE DECISION to run a working-class alternative in the presidential elections was explained in the following resolution adopted by the PT's national leadership: "We reaffirm our determination to fight for direct elections and to offer democratic and popular forces a program for a governmental alternative to the New Republic. Once we win direct elections, we will have to have a candidate of our own, and our natural candidate is comrade Lula. "We obviously need the broadest possible discussion among party members on this question, where other names could be presented. The national meeting [scheduled for December] is the most appropriate time to approve the launching of a campaign for the presidency of the republic." Em Tempo published the following comment on this decision in its September issue. B Y A LARGE majority, the PT's national leadership adopted this resolution at its August 12 meeting. It was a fundamental step forward, a decision of the first importance in the history of the party. The resolution also stresses that this decision has to be discussed broadly by
Iniacio Da Silva, "Lula" (DR) the ranks and approved in December by the party's highest authority. The plan for launching this candidacy needs to be clarified in several respects.
Three essential features make this campaign worthwhile. It is a means of putting forward the idea that the fight for direct bined, starting now, governmental alternative to the Republic. It puts us on the offensive to occupy the ground of left opposition to the Sarney government, consolidating the idea of class independence against the proposals of Leonel Brizola and the "left" wing of the PMDB. It increases the impact of the PT in the present situation and therefore its potential for serving as a pole of attraction and for growth.
A powertul weapon for the party
The decision to run Lula for president is a powerful weapon for the party. How to use it best for the interests of the workers is the subject for a rich debate that must be conducted in the coming months.
At least three big questions loom. The first is defining the exact character of this campaign. Should it be strictly a PT campaign, or should it be an occasion for establishing certain political alliances around some axes of a given program?
Lula's candidacy can be a means of political expression for organized sections of the trade-union and mass
BRAZIL movement that are not affiliated to any party. It can accelerate the break of reformist currents in the workers' movement (such as the PCB and the PC do B) from the New Republic and stimulate the development of dissent in the PMDB and the PDT.
The second point has to do with the program of this campaign. Here we are coming back on a higher level to the discussions that we had in the party at the time of the launching of our slates for the city governments and the state governorships.
The problem is to formulate a program with a socialist dynamic that will give expression to the demands of the broad masses and, at the same time, lay a foundation for breaking with the bourgeois state and the power of the big monopolies.
Finally, we need a discussion on the relationship between launching this campaign and a plan for building working-class and popular organization in the country.
The PT's need for a national mass paper is becoming urgent. Throughout the country, this would be a focus for organizing support committees for the campaign. This would put the PT more on the offensive in organizing its activists in the various structures of the trade-union and mass movement.
Launching Lula's candidacy for president will not only be a blow to political elitism in the country, but will certainly inspire in the workers a confidence in their own strength and their determination to struggle, as did the 25 formation of the PT itself. *
October 12, 1987 • International Viewpoint