Fernanda Estima and Rosana Ramos report from the Congress of Brazil's Workers Party (PT)
From 24 to 28 November, at the Venda Nova training institute (SESC) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 927 delegates gathered for the Second National Congress of Brazil's Workers Party.
At a cost of more than half a million dollars, the SES social club was taken over by PT delegations from all across the country, as well a large number of guests and observers not only from Brazil but representing political parties, environmental movements and human rights organisations from a number of countries including France, Portugal, Uruguay, East Timor and Mexico.
For those unable to be present in Minas Gerais, a team of journalists provided real time coverage of the events, discussions and votes on the PT's own website. The page received more than 54 thousand visits in the course of the Congress. 14 International Viewpoint #317-318 January 2000
As well the election of a new national leadership and party president, the agenda promised three main discussions:
• a new Programme for Brazil, capable of pointing towards a new project for the country, based on a socialist perspective;
• the present situation in Brazil, especially the political and economic perspectives, including the party's attitude to the Cardoso government, to political alliances and the municipal elections due in
October 2000; • the conception of the party in the next century. This last debate, involving opposing political and organizational visions, was to end up with the adoption of new statutes for the party.
Twelve sets of theses were presented, each taking up the three areas of debate, as well as two declarations (one from the Trabalho tendency and one from Milton Temer).'
There were three candidates for the position of PT President: the federal deputies Jose Dirceu, supported by the current leadership majority and standing for a third term, Milton Temer, and the outgoing General Secretary of the party, Arlindo Chinaglia.
Despite the items on the agenda, discussion was cut short. Few questions were fully debated and the discussions on the conception of the party and socialism hardly happened at all, causing considerable frustration amongst Congress delegates.
What did polarize the debates was the issue of whether or not to adopt the slogan "Cardoso Out". Main thesis and amendments
The Congress really got going at the end of the second day with the presentation of the different thesis documents. The document chosen was that of the outgoing majority tendency, Articulacão-Unity in Struggle, entitled "Programme of the Democratic Revolution". This guideline thesis was then used to orient the next phase of discussion, where delegates met in subject groups to discuss the document and present amendments.
Three of these subject groups were set up; their main arguments focussed on whether the slogan "Cardoso Out" should be included in the document, on the defence of socialism, and on questions of party building. Amendments which received at least 20% in the groups were then taken back to the
On the question of socialism the plenary of the II Congress rejected the amendment presented by supporters of the Nosso Tempo document, and voted to keep the document in its original form (with amendments presented by the proposers themselves to reaffirm the positions adopted at the PT's 7th National Meeting and first Congress).
The proposal on suspending payment of the foreign debt was rejected. The wording of the guideline thesis was retained, defending renegotiation of the debt, with the following addition: "Intransigence on the part of the creditors could lead to suspension of payments of the foreign public debt. And it is necessary to introduce exchange controls on all capital movements in and out of the country as well as levels of taxation on the remittance of profits in line with international levels, ie. 30% rather than the current level of 15%. Any attempt to renationalize the foreign debt must be blocked." Orientation in the present situation
The text approved defines the PT's "arc of alliances" as the PDT, PSB, PCdoB, PC and sectors of the PMDB opposed to the Cardoso government. As far as the PPS is concerned, it makes any alliance conditional on "programmatic agreements, and opposition to Cardoso and to neo-liberalism". It also opens the door to other possible alliances, as long as these are endorsed by the PT's regional leadership bodies.
The Congress rejected an amendment restricting alliances to only those parties which nationally themselves as being in opposition to Cardoso and to neo-liberalism.
over "Cardoso Out" polarized the entire Congress. Federal Deputy Milton Temer, arguing in favour of including the slogan, pointed out that all the PT's state conventions - with the single exception of that in Parana state - had elected their delegates to the Il Congress on the basis of support for the slogan.
Temer also pointed out that the amendments on this question raised broader issues, * the conception of the party and of internal democracy, questions which have been very important for the PT". amendment proposing inclusion of the slogan "Cardoso Out" was defeated — it was the tensest and most hotly disputed moment of the Congress.*
New leadership
Squeezed by lack of time, mainly because a whole series of parallel meetings prevented the Congress sessions from starting on time, the discussion of new statutes for the PT ended up being referred back to the next meeting of the National Directorate (DN), with two important caveats. On the issue of finances, a National Conference should be held. And on all questions involving a change in statutes - including that of finances — at least 60% of the DN will have to vote in favour.
Apart from the proportional representation, based on the votes cast for slates, the DN is made up of the elected president, the two party leaders in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as sectoral representatives (for the unions and the youth), and Lula da Silva, whose name approved directly by the plenary, as had happened at the previous national conference (although there remained significant disagreements amongst the delegates over this procedure.)
Seven slates stood for the National
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Directorate (DN) and Executive (CEN) and the result was as follows:
Vote DN CEN % seats seats Movimento PT 13 10 2 Democratic Revolution 44 35 8 Radical Democracy 8 7 PT of Mass Struggle 3 2 1 Socialism or Barbary 21 17 4 Nosso Tempo 10 8 True to the PT's Origins 2 2
The Nosso Tempo slate is based on the Socialist Democracy tendency. Democratic Revolution is the slate of the leadership majority, ArticulationUnity Struggle, which has subsequently incorporated the old São Paulo-based left opposition grouping headed by Rui Falcão, a former National President of the PT. Radical Democracy is the slate of the tendency of the same name, which presented its programmatic thesis For a Republican Democracy. Socialism or Barbarv brings together the bulk of the PT left, including Left Articulation, Socialist Force, the Movement Tendency, as well as various regional groupings. Movimento PT was a slate presented by Arlindo Chinaglia, Tarso Genro and a number of other well-known PT figures.? True to the PT's Origins was the slate of the Trabalho tendency.
In the elections for party President Jose Dirceu was re-elected with 496 votes. Milton Temer came second with 296 votes. Arlindo Chinaglia was third with 113 votes. *Fernanda Estima and Rosana Ramos are journalists and PT activists. 1. O Trabalho is the tendency in the PT associated with the international Lambertist current. Milton Temer, Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro, was the candidate
ViSSTE for PT President supported by all the different left currents in the party. 2. For the Nosso Tempo amendment, see the box attached to Carlos henrique Arabe's article below, "The Debate on Socialism" 3. The PSB, PCdoB, and PC are smaller left-wing parties which have regularly formed a common electoral platform with the PT. The PDT is the inheritor of the Brazilian left-populist tradition, overthrown by the military coup of 1964. On a number of occasions it has reached electoral agreements with the PT, especially pledging mutual support in any second round run-off. Thus in 1998 the PDT helped secure victory for the PT in the state government elections in Rio Grande do Sul. The PMDB, once the main bourgeois opposition to the military dictatorship, is now a part of the governing coalition. However with the popularity of the Cardoso government in sharp decline, some figures in the PMDB have come out with direct criticisms of government policies. The PPS came out of the "eurocommunist" wing of the old Brazilian communist party. However it has long since ditched the last vestiges of left-wing ideology and has collaborated with the Cardose governmei 4. The "Cardoso Out, IMF Out" slogan has featured prominently in the recent rise of popular protests against the Brazilian government, especially amongst the Landless Movement and other social organizations which have played a leading part in these mobilizations. It has also been promoted by wide layers of PT activists. However after a campaign of abuse from government spokesmen and the bourgeois media accusing those making this call of wanting to by-pass democracy and overthrow the constitution, the majority of the PT leadership have resisted adopting the slogan, claiming it would damage the party's democratic credentials. 5. Socialist Democracy is the tendency of Fourth International supporters in the PT. 6. Led by one of the PT's best known public figures, Jose Genoino, the PT's leader in Congress and a former maoist guerrilla, Radical Democracy represents the right wing of the party. It was the only slate to call explicitly for the PT to dump its traditional commitment to socialism. 7. Tarso Genro described their position as a *Third Way", between the hard left and the soft centre of the leadership majority. 8. O Trabalho is the tendency in the PT associated with the international Lambertist current.
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