interviews given by leading PT candidates published below will have an indication of the sort of campaign the party is running. But it should be stressed that this campaign is a crucial point in the development of the PT. First of all, the whole party has had to declare that it stands on the same militant socialist program, thereby unifying the campaign of the PT candidates.
Secondly, the PT has been impelled to take its distance publiely from the bourgeois parties, which were not content just tions, such as attempts to bribe candi-
For example, it has come to light that in Minas Gerais PT candidates for mayor were offered a million cruzeiros (more than US dollars 3,000) to withdraw. In the state of Goias, the MDB resorted to a similar practice, but offering only 300,000 cruzeiros.
But the most important thing for the chance to reach millions of workers, to publicize the PT's proposals, to build a base for the party and reinforce it.
At the same time, the elections are opening a new chapter in the history of the PT. It will have a large number of elected office holders at all levels, in the federal and state legislatures and in the city councils. It may even elect a few mayors. In all, it will have thousands of elected officials.
The PT will have greater possibilities for political action and a better organization and apparatus, as well as a better press. But it will also be exposed to the danger of parliamentarist corruption. This danger is increased by the fact that the right-wing of the party has the best chance of electing its candidates (thanks to its financial resources and patronage practices), and it will therefore emerge stronger from the elections, even if it is the more militant candidates today that are making the biggest impact in the campaign, including on TV.
Moreover, the PT will face more complex political problems after November
15. It will have to come up with answers to the big political and strategic questions in order to respond properly to the dietatorship's maneuvers, the PMDB's proposals to include the PT in some state governments, and to the fact that the PT has reached a point where it cannot continue to grow spontaneously.
Finally, after the general elections, elections are to take place inside the PT for its legal structures, that is, its city, state, and federation directorates. These elections will undoubtedly be the occasion for an intense battle among the various currents in the party, some of which are going to have important financial and parliamentary bases of support.
Already the PT right-wing is opening up a war against those currents that have a coherent class-struggle line. The various revolutionary socialist currents that exist in the PT will be tested in this struggle, and what they do will have an effect on its outcome.*
By going through the experience of these elections, the PT is going to face a new stage in its development in a more difficult political stituation and with greater internal conflicts. * Both the Moreno and Lambert currents. which have Trotskyist origins. have a significant following of activists in the PT and both have lines that will not help the development of the party and could damage it. In conformity with their sectarian turn everywhere, the Morenoites are opposed to working with other currents, and are pushing for a split as soon as possible.
The Lambert group, in an equal and opposite way, has a line of "deep entry" that means that they avoid fighting on political questions where a struggle is necessary to advance the consciousness of the PT ranks.
Interviews with leading PT candidates
"Lula" leader of the Sao decision-making power and not just be
Paulo steelworkers, candidate for governor of
Rio de Janeiro state
From the July 14 issue of Em Tempo, the PT magazine. Em Tempo: Both the PT's national program and its Sao Paulo state program call for "people's councils." What does this mean to you?
Lula: We have still to define precisely what we mean by this. I think that the role of these councils will be to discuss in the municipal and consultative bodies serving to justify decisions made beforehand in small committees. They should include representatives of neighbourhoods and trades and profesas Well as factory representatives. state level, the people's councils in the towns and cities. So, at the state level we
La people's assembly - it might be called by some other name, if this one has developed bad associations -and this body would determine in a real way the authority of the state govern-
As we see things as a party, it makes must be subject to collective discussion by the population.
Em Tempo: Some sections of the opposition are starting to talk about the formation of broad democratic coalition governments after the November elections, which would include all opposition parties. In your opinion, what should the PT do, if it wins or if it loses.
Lula: The PT has not yet diseussed this question. But whatever opposition party wins the elections, it will not have the strength to govern by itself (in the state of Sao Paulo), and so it will need the political support of all the opposition groups.
everything done state governments and also to monitor these decisions.
In distinction to those who talk a lot or mis i palien detona, about "power sharing," without making any concrete proposals, the PT thinks that these councils should have a certain
12 no sense to try to govern at any level unless you do this together with the people. We do not consider the executive powers to be the private property of those who govern, as is the tradition in this country.
including the appointment of the various authorities,
As regards the PT, I think that the way for us to assist the governments of other opposition parties is by offering criticism and monitoring their decisions.
It would not be enough to participate and to accept positions to say that the party would really share in running the
government. I don't think that the PT is interested in that sort of thing, at least
What we should do is work outside any such governments, criticizing and exdo wrong. We should organize mass movements to get the most out of the various governments. that, there is no reason to accept any posts in these governments.
Nonetheless, at the proper time, the PT will call state and national conventions to decide this question. But as for me, I will never agree to a government controlled by any of the other opposition parties. I think we have quite a different role to play than that.
Where we win, not all the posts in the government are going to be given to PT members. But we will not try to share governmental responsibility with the other opposition parties in a coalition framework. Governments we control will appoint qualified people to various posts in accordance with the general line of our policy. Dividing up governmental posts serves to promote corruption and weaken party organization. That is why, even where we win, I am not favorable to forming coalition governments.
Sandra Starling, PT candidate for governor of Minas Gerais
From the August 25 Em Tempo
Em Tempo: How is the PT using the election campaign to give impetus to workers struggles?
Sandra Starling: In Santa Vitoria, in the mining triangle, for example we managed to hold a meeting of 200 to 250 agricultural laborers in the city hall. These are people who get up at 4.00 a.m., but they stayed from 7.30 to 11.00 at night to discuss with us and present their
Our election campaign is a struggle campaign. That means that we don't just go to those places where we expect to get votes. For example, I went, along with Vicente Nica, a PT candidate for the national legislature, to Cochoeirinha in the northeast of Minas, where we formed
I was the only gubernatorial candidate at the mass meeting in solidarity with the poor peasants who were driven off their
They were subjected to brutal repression by the political police in Minas. Along with a 200-man-strong detachment of military police, the political police sent 150 agents armed with machine guns, revolvers, and bayonets to intimidate the
Several trucks bringing workers to the meeting were stopped outside Cachoeirinha on the pretext that they did not meet safety standards for transporting people. The government has shown no such concern for the vehicles that are day to transport agricultural workers to and from their jobs.
Em Tempo: How is the campaign proceeding in the big working-class centers
Starling: Before organizing big rallies, we started our campaign in the working class with what we called factory gate stops." We waited for the start or the end of shifts (it was best when the workers were going in) and we distributed campaign bulletins, explaining what the party is and why it is important for the working class to have a party of its own.
We went with PT banners, and the party activists and candidates held minirallies outside the factory gates. In the followup meetings at the factory gates, leaflets presenting our candidates for governor and senator and one answering the claim of the PMDB that the only way to make your vote count is to vote for them. Then in a third round of such meetings, we campaigned for the legislative candidates. Now, we are going to organize big rallies and street demonstrations.
The PT campaigns have become the means of spreading the experience of workers struggles, workers demands, and the trade-union mobilizations from one area to another and for denouncing repression. That is the role the PT is playing in the election campaign.
Perly Cipriano, PT candidate tor governor of Espirito Santo Given to our correspondent in September International Viewpoint: What form does the argument that the only way to make your vote count is to vote for the PMDB take here in Espirito Santo state?
Perly Cipriano: Our country is in an economic slump, although the ment is trying to cushion the recession while the election campaign is going on. The PT has its own program for uniting the working people in the cities and the countryside. In order to accomplish that, we have to confront not only the military the opposition parties that in practise want to push the PT out of the picture, arguing that a vote for us is a wasted vote.
In Espirito Santo we have a typical example of the hypocrisy of this argugovernment's Carlitos, was one of the founders of the MDP (the precessor of the PMDB), then he went over to ARENA, and today he is the candidate of the PDS.
As for the PMDB's candidate for governor, Camata, he was a representative of the military dictatorship's party for 16 years, from the 1964 military coup to 1980. During General Geise's candidacy, he was even vice chairman of the PDS parliamentary fraction.
Finally, the PMDB's candidate for lieutenant governor is one of the biggest landlords in the state of Espirito Santo. He has just bought a property for 900 million cruzeiros, and is tied up with the most conservative circles in the state.
The government wants a "democratic adjustment" from the top. That is why it needs elections, to work out a new alignment of political forces. It seems to be losing to the MDB. But that is only on surface. Political professionals shifting from the PDS to the PP and the PMDB, but that is only to make the official opposition party more trustworthy
The government is going to lose in some states. But with governors such as
Tancredo Neves in Minas, and Moro Teixeira in Rio de Janeiro, and many others of this ilk, the result will not be a defeat for the governor realignment of its forces preparing the way for the creation of new parties in 1983. The government still have a margin for maneuver for making deals with these so-called opposition parties.
So, the PT is the only party that is going to go on fighting in 1983. So, it is easy to see how important its role is.
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