5th National Conference of
Socialist Democracy
Brazil Em Tempo*
More than 120 comrades attended the fifth national conference of the Democratic Socialist Tendency (DS) of the Workers Party (PT), which took place at the beginning of June.
Eighty comrades attended as delegates elected in their respective States, representing about 800 duespaying socialist militants active in the DS/PT.
There was also a fairly large group actions in common, and who may become more organically involved with the tendency. In short, the Cajamar is the most important
The agenda included an analysis of the conjuncture and a discussion of the political tasks of the party, the building of the PT, and the tasks of the DS. There was also a specific debate on a balance sheet of the activities of the PT in the state and commune governments, with particular focus on Rio Grande Do Sul and the experience of Porto Alegre.
The conference voted to adopt a motion condemning the imprisonment of militants of the Movement of Landless Peasants (MST) and the violence to which they have been subjected. 16 International Viewpoint #317-318 January 2000
PTE
The Context of the Conference
The conference took place in a very specific conjuncture. - a global neoliberal hegemony which has, nevertheless, demonstrated its fragility and provoked increasing resistance.
After the crisis of last January, the federal government further subordinated Brazil to imperialism. This has resulted in greater opposition to president Cardoso and his economic policies. However, for the moment, there is no political opposition adequate to the gravity of what the government is doing
In such a situation, a tendency like the DS (a participant in building the PT) has great responsibilities. It has to work seriously to develop a program to defeat the neo-liberal project and replace it with a popular democratic program. Such a task must be undertaken in the particular context in which the left finds itself at the current stage.
For several years, the formation of a "center-left alliance" has been advanced as a strategy to get elected to the central government. This concept has caught on in broad sectors of the left in Latin America and in the rest of the world, whereas in Brazil it appeared with a certain delay.
To achieve such a goal, the political program has to be decaffeinated -- any type of socialist perspective has to be kept at a distance, the flag is hidden, and much effort is spent on attempting to get the party and the social movements to accept the requirements of the "center."
The result of such an approach has been a process of programmatic disarmament and political confusion. In the case of Brazil, this concept has been proven to be non-viable -- not only due to the resistance of important sectors of the PT, but also because the so-called center is firmly right-wing neo-liberal. Experience shows that the including organizationally, when it succeeds in regrouping a range of alternative social and political forces opposed to the parties of the center right.
This is one of the principal lessons to be drawn from the experience of the left in the PT, including the DS, in successfully building regroupment in Rio Grande do Sul and Porto Alegre. Facing the challenge
The conference debated these themes, but did not adopt a specific resolution. But this is a key strategic question for the party, which must confront a double challenge: to take advantage of the possibilities for the construction of a viable alternative to neo-liberalism, and, at the same time, to resist the strong pressures to adapt the party to the established order.
Some of the main points brought up during the conference debates:
There is a real possibility of significant developments in the construction of popular power and
direct democracy. Such possibilities are evident in the experience of Porto Alegre, and on a larger scale, with the election results in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. At the same time, we need to recognize the enormous challenges posed by the resistance of the elites, by legal and financial restrictions at all levels, and by the dangers of a separation between institutional advances and the social gains of the left.
Sectors of the left, not only in Brazil, have another alternative in dealing with local and regional governments. They consider participation in such governments as a legitimation to participate in the central government without great turmoil. In other words, as a pledge to the bourgeoisie, proving that it is possible to govern with the left.
What capacity do we have, once elected, to overturn the destructive policies already implemented by the neo-liberals at various levels? does this influence our ability to elaborate an alternative program to neo-
There is no "PT model of government." The experiences in Porto Alegre since 1988 are quite different, municipalities in São Paulo, and it is not possible to draw up a simplistic balance
In many situations, it is difficult to carry out projects if local governments are not supported both by the party and by social struggles and debates. In the absence of such popular pressure, the results are reforms limited to the state bureaucracy.
Given the experience of Rio Grande do Sul, it is clear what differentiates the PT in its participation in regional governments: its capacity to assert its own program on democratic issues, and to fight for transitional demands which go beyond the limits of the existing bourgeois order.
In several governments, and in the PT electoral campaigns, the emphasis has been on 'ethics,' combined with
'efficiency.' This is absolutely insufficient. A PI government has to take initiatives to become the focal point of efforts to change the relation of social forces at the municipal or state level in favour of a program which challenges neo-liberalism. This is the point of popular participation in the budget process in Porto Alegre, as well as other examples.
The goal of participatory democracy must stimulate direct action by the citizenry, promote a critique and a delegation of power and when delegation is unavoidable, refuse to surrender popular sovereignty by, for example, maintaining the right of recall when politicians are unprincipled). It follows that the current conception of leadership, accommodated representative democracy, must be changed. Our goal is not just to elect more deputies, senators, governors, etc., but to change the norms of popular political action.
When it is in government, the PI finds itself i bombarded by the bourgeoisie (via its lobbies and the media) to ensure that it does not go beyond limits acceptable to capital. Any government gets nervous when it comes time to discuss subsidies to business, who in turn make promises of investment and jobs. The only way to come out ahead is such tests is to encourage mass participation on the political stage.
We believe that the country is entering a new political period. The election of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) to the presidency in 1994 occurred following retreats of the workers and the left, who had been reduced to defensive struggles. With unanimous support of the ruling classes, the FHC government proceeded to plunder State goods and to call into question previous social conquests and public services. This was even accomplished with some degree of popular support, due to the (temporary) stabilization provided by the REal plan and the absence of a left alternative. The situation today is very different. There is no longer a unanimous consensus among the ruling elites; the economy is undergoing a recession and is at the mercy of international crises; the left is resurgent and there is a resumption of mass mobilizations. The current political situation is marked by a combination of the bankruptcy of the economic model based on the REal monetary stabilization plan, and the loss of legitimacy of the FHC. This is, therefore, a period of latent crisis, whose rhythm will depend on the level of political struggle. The key question in this new political situation is the building of a political solution expressing the interests of workers confronted with the despair sown by neo-liberalism.
As an immediate political task, the conference agreed on the need to unite the PT, the CUT (Confederation of Workers), the CUP (Congress of the Popular Movements), and all the other sectors of the popular democratic movement in a campaign to throw out the Cardoso government and replace it with a popular democratic government.
In situations of national crisis, hegemonic projects crumble. It is a favourable occasion for advancing a left alternative. An essential aspect of our activity is therefore to develop a programmatic alternative to the Brazilian crisis.
The history of the PT itself provides elements of this alternative:
• The large-scale redistibutive reforms we proposed in 1989 and 1994;
• Radical democratization and direct mass participation, based on the experience of Rio Grande do Sul;
• Defence of national sovereignty and international solidarity;
• The redefinition of economic policy choices, based on the above perspectives;
• The construction of a hegemony of workers and the popular movements as a foundation for a new, left, national government. International Viewpoint #317-318 January 2000 • 17
Democracia Socialista
20 years of the tendency
* Brazil The Brazilian Crisis
Entrusted as it is with the great majority of opposition votes, as the party with the greatest influence in the social movements, and including in its ranks the most advanced layers of the Brazilian left, the PT has a huge responsibility to provide the base for a left alternative to the politics of crisis. There is possibility for the development of such an alternative outside of the PT. However, to be up to the accomplishment of this strategic task, the PT has to overcome serious problems of leadership and party building:
• The electoralism that conflates the 'calendar' of the crisis with the electoral calendar, which is a result of a political underestimation of the crisis.
• A programmatic regression, which prevents the construction of a clear alternative to neo-liberalism and limits the confidence of the PT's social base in its ability to develop perspectives independently of the bourgeoisie.
The absence of organic functioning in the party, an extreme hierarchicalization, and practices which often degenerate into simple power plays for bureaucratic positions. The idea of a party 'open' to society, as propounded by the current party majority, leads on the one hand to a loss of the militancy which is crucial in the context of overcoming the crisis, and on the other, to a diluted and demobilizing model of the party.
It is important to understand that the crisis is a political process, concentrated in time, of a change in the relation of forces in society. This exerts a pressure on the PT itself, and on its model of construction, which is fairly open to the social movements. Thus, the national crisis is one of the elements that weighs on the current dynamic of the PT. We do not believe that the PT can itself resolve the problems of the construction and leadership of the party. This is a task which depends on a conscious and organized struggle within the base of the party. There is no automatic solution. * Source: Em Tempo#307, July 1999 18 International Viewpoint #317-318 January 2000
The Socialist Democracy Tendency (DS) is the result of a history that started twenty years ago. In 1979, representatives of regional revolutionary left groups decided to form a national organization, which was given the name "Revolutionary Marxist Democratic Socialist Organization." At that time, the Workers Party (PT) only existed as a project, and was not founded until 1980.
The distinct identity of the Tendency permitted the unification and then successive integrations of other groups into the DS.
The DS had some characteristic traits which we continue to affirm, namely:
Engagement with the PT. From the beginning, we conceived the construction of the PT as the way to build the revolutionary party in Brazil, based on the class independence of the workers. We had never considered it as a spontaneous process or that there wouldn't be serious theoretical debates: on the contrary, it required the organized work of revolutionary Marxists within the party, to fight, at the side of others, for a socialist orienta-
That differentiated us from other currents of the revolutionary left which pretended to build the revolutionary party by building themselves. Thanks to our initiative, the right to form tendencies was recognized inside the PT, and it was natural for us to transform the DS into an internal tendency of the party, in 1987.
A critique of reformist strategies, whether in the Stalinist, social democrat, or nationalist version, and of the " Marxism " of the handbooks of the Soviet Union. We advocate an open revolutionary Marxism, taking into account the theories and debates of Fourth International founded by especially, the trajectory of the
Fourth International under the direction of Ernest Mandel), in dialogue with other traditions and experiences, such as the heritage of Rosa Luxemburg, of Gramsci, of Che Guevara and the cuban revolution, of the base ecclesiastical communities and liberation theology, of the struggles of the ecologists and the Black movement, and the new dimensions introduced by the feminist movements and those of gays and lesbians.
The centrality of democracy. Even the name "Socialist Democracy " is an explicit reference to the criticism of the visions of an authoritarian, bureaucratic socialist project spread within the left over the last twenty years; as well as to the criticism of the visions that reduce the project of the left to the march of liberal-bourgeois democracy, a tradition maintained until today and whose influence is even increasing.
Programmatically, we have developed an understanding of the political potential of democratic aspirations, which, starting with the most urgent problems of the population, calls into question the established order and leads to the fight for socialism. These are the pillars which have enabled us to build Socialist Democracy over the last two decades * Source: Em Tempo, monthly magazine of the Socialist Democracy tendency, #307, July 1999
In the face of this growing mass protest, the governments which dominate the WTO were not even able to agreeon the agenda of the Millenium Round. The divergences among the three poles of the imperialist triad - The United states, the European Union and
NEW PROPOSALS
Japan — proved too sharp. Recognising this, the countries of the South dared to state their own interests. Laborious preparatory negotiations, conducted for several weeks at the Geneva headquarters of the WTO , did not allow negotiators to break the deadlock. They even failed to agree on a simple common declaration, to save appearances.
At the moment where the Millenium Round ought to open, tensions sharpen among great powers. Mass protest spreads and the democratic illegitimacy of the WTO is denounced more and more widely. Divergences at the summit, resistances at the base: It is precisely this combination that allowed