America has not understood until now. If it cannot resolve this problem it will lose the ideological battle with the right. • These kinds of problems were also discussed within the Nicaraguan Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN), in drawing up a balance sheet of ten years of the revolution. What was the impact of the FSLN's electoral defeat on the PT?
We have a fault: we are a party moulded by the politics and culture of Brazil, which has important differences with the rest of Latin America. We are internationalists and have expressed our support for the developments in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Polish Solidarnosc or the Cuban revolution, but all this comes essentially from the left currents that have come together in the PT, CUT's wide international contacts.
The PT has never taken the Nicaraguan or Cuban revolutions as an example; given the size of Brazil this is, in any case, impossible.
Nonetheless, the election defeat of the FSLN had a big impact. It coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the regimes in Eastern Europe, notably that in East Germany. The capitalist reunification of Germany shook our ranks. It is hard to gauge the effect of all these
To this must be added the internal situation in Brazil, with the opening to the outand Collor's privatization plans. The presentation of the market and capitalism as factors of social well-being and liberty have exerted their influence. In our case, Nicaragua is an example in
On the one hand, it proves that revolutionaries can lose elections and leave government, and that, unlike the right, they adhere to democratic principles. But at the same time it was a defeat. The Sandinistas lost. This was mainly due to the blockade, the imperialist war and the international situation; but they also made economic mistakes and faced problems in defining their strategy. 16 Socialism, (see /V 194) you address • In your document, The PT and International Viewpoint #203 • April 1, 1991 the question of democracy, dealing with direct democracy as with the direction and meaning of electoral processes in the struggle of revolutionaries.
In Latin America, we also have to get to grips with the question of democracy. as a weapon against the policies of imperialism and the right. We must take possession of universal suffrage and demand that the governments are regularly reelected; we must demand freedom of the press and organization and the right to strike; and denounce the fact that the national wealth is in the hands of a privileged caste.
In my opinion, the trend in recent years in Latin America has been rather favourable for us, whether in Colombia or Chile or here in Brazil. The right is obliged to assault political and social rights and democracy to push through its economic plans. It has to create instruments of repression.
We must thus perfect our conception of socialist democracy; it is not enough simply to say that we are partisans of direct democracy. Revolutionaries must not under-estimate universal suffrage, neither elections nor parliament. Every battle to make the assembly more democratic, even in a capitalist country, helps us to advance the social struggle.
The PT tradition is nourished in the struggle for despite our history the majority of Brazilians believe that the PT's idea of socialism resembles what has collapsed
We have to give a practical answer to this, in the social movements, unions, in the women's movement and in the town halls. We must show people results and have a democratic ethic and attitude. We must connect our practical activities and ideals. This is the problem for the left throughout Latin America.
We must be able to put forward precise proposals for economic transition towards another form of political and social organization and democratization (means of communication, education, political power and so on). The population must understand that it is not the party which rules, but the society, which must democratize the state and achieve self-organization.
The events in Eastern Europe are not only important for us because of the defeat of Stalinism and the new situation that has been created (even if, in my opinion, this is rather favourable to capitalism at the moment). We must analyze the political actions and social movements that have been able to get rid of these regimes - the importance of the means of communication, culture, the pacifist struggle, the vote and so on. There are very rich lessons here for the struggle in Latin America. Today, people better understand the role of the state and of power.
If the revolutionaries are able to capital-
Release defenders of homeless!
ON DECEMBER 11, 1990, Brazilian police forces violently evicted 300 squatter families from a settlement near Sao Paolo, killing two people and injuring many more. 46 arrests were made and two people - Romildo Rapsoso and Manuel Boni remain in jail, accused of inciting violence. Rapsoso is a member of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT), and both men are local councillors.
According to an account by Valerio
Arcary from the leadership of the PT, the men "did not incite violence against the police. They were besides the homeless workers trying to negotiate with the owner's lawyer when the police repression took place."
A campaign for the release of Rapsoso and Boni is underway. IV urges its readers to send telegrams calling for their release to:
Ministro da Justicia Jarbas Passarinho, Esplanada dos Ministerios, Brazilia
- DF - Brasil;
Governador do Estado de Sao Paolo, Palacio dos Bandeirantes, Sao Paolo —
SP - Brasil;
Forum da Comarca de Diadema, DD Juiz Pires Correa, Av. Sete de Setembro, 2740 — Centro Diadema - Sao
Paolo - Brasil.
With copies by fax to Valerio Arcary,
Fax no: (011) 571-0982 (Sao Paolo,
Brasil). * ize on the national sentiment, create a social movement, spread the idea that the society should replace the government and work out proposals for a new mode of economic and social organization, they can go forward, supported by an important material force. We must work in this direction, without abandoning agitation, strikes, self-defence, land occupation and
• Was the meeting of political parties in Sao Paolo in July marked by such collective reflection?
At a time when the propaganda on the superiority of capitalism and the "end of history" was at its height, this meeting showed that there exists in Latin America a political alternative — socialist, anti- bureaucratic and democratic. Without sharing the Soviet model, we explained that capitalism offers no way out — we denounced the debt, poverty and so on.
Without pretending to have an answer to everything, we rejected taking up a "centre" position and reaffirmed the existence of the left.
International activities, and internationalist solidarity are more essential than ever - the Gulf War is confirmation of this.
A country up for sale
We are going to try to pursue this collective discussion at the next meeting, in Mexico, without excluding anyone. Now we must discuss the Gulf War and the situation in Cuba, Latin American economic integration in the light of the Bush Plan, and different experiences of the left in unions and institutions, as well as the question of constructing parties. Such types of meetings should take place on every continent.
In the PT we are presently discussing the idea of organizing an international conference on Cuba — which depends a lot on the political initiatives of the Cuban party and government. The situation of this country is very difficult, with the blockade and imperialist aggression, but also because of the economic and political situation and Cuba's deepening isolation. • You mentioned coordination of opposition to the Gulf War. What has the PT done on this question?
We condemned Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait, but we have always insisted that it is necessary to resolve these problems by diplomatic and political means and not by force. In my opin-
BRAZIL / HUNGARY
ME F0B00, of pro-
Against a background conference on the Middle East and the
THE Hungarian example illustrates
Palestinian problem and an Arab conference on Kuwait. We have denounced the
UN resolutions, the US actions in the the need to take into account national specificities when found popular demoralization, after taken
1968 measures were to extend the role of the market: the so-called "New Economic Mecha-
Middle East, the sending of troops, the analyzing current developments in economic blockade and then the military aggression. We have organized meetings and demonstrations - even if in Brazil
Central and Eastern European countries. Here, the economic nism" (NEM) replaced administration of the by the economy autonomous decisions of the enterthere is not a big public feeling against the reform process started earlier than in the other countries in the region.
The government is not directly taking
At first the reform was undertaken part in the military operations; it has said by the Hungarian bureaucracy, but that it will only send troops in the framework of a "peace force" after the war. Brain 1988, even before the coming to zil has many interests in the Arab world power of a conservative majority in
- oil, arms, food exports, civil and military construction and so on - and this explains Collor's moderation.
The US have taken advantage of the invasion of Kuwait to carry through an international reorganization of their forces: it even involves counter measures to
European unification. The US policy will underline their domination of the Third
World as well as their superiority over the
European capitalist powers and
American imperialism is also trying to resolve economic problems of its own.
But the war is also meant to freeze the period opened by the East European
The political and economic costs of the war will of course be transferred to the
Third World. US interference in our internal affairs will grow - even if, in the immediate sense, Bush's plans for Latin