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Brazilian Workers' Party
Workers' Party
The Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores--PT), the
country's first independent labor party, is a unique party in Brazil.
Organized externally (outside Congress) from the grassroots up and
based on the new trade unionism in São
Paulo in 1979, the Workers' Party initially did not want any
professional politicians or students in its ranks. However, to have
a voice in Congress it accepted five deputies and one senator into
its ranks in early 1980. Since then the Workers' Party has grown
steadily, doubling its Chamber of Deputies delegation in 1982, 1986,
and 1990, while tripling the number of its state deputies at each
election, except in 1994. It has also won mayorships in several
cities, including São Paulo (1988) (see Elections, 1988-96,
this ch.).
The Workers' Party is divided into six factions along a left-right
continuum. The right consists of Radical Democracy (Democracia Radical),
which has a social-democratic orientation. The center consists of
Unity and Struggle (Unidade e Luta), Catholic
militants, and members of the right wing of Lula da Silva's former
Articulation (Articulação) faction. The left consists
of Option of the Left (Opção de Esquerda), which is
divided into two subgroups--Hour of Truth (Hora da Verdade), the
dissident left wing of the former Articulation group, former Stalinists,
and Castroites; and Socialist Democracy (Democracia Socialista),
the largest Trotskyite group, which existed before the Workers'
Party. The extreme left consists of Workers' Party in the Struggle
(Na Luta PT), which is divided into two subgroups--Socialist Force
(Força Socialista), whose members are former militants from
extreme left guerrilla groups from the 1960s: the People's Electoral
Movement (Movimento Eleitoral do Povo--MEP) and Popular Action (Ação
Popular--AP); and The Work (O Trabalho), consisting of Trotskyites
from two student movements of the 1970s--Freedom (Liberdade) and
Struggle (Luta).
Until 1993 Lula's moderate Articulation group had a large absolute
majority in the Workers' Party. This group conducted pragmatic coalition-building
in the 1990 and 1992 elections, which resulted in the election of
increasing numbers of deputies and city council members. However,
in 1993 the extreme left and left elected an absolute majority (53
percent) of the national party directorate, took control, and imposed
stricter criteria for coalition-building at the state level. In
1995 and 1997, the Articulation faction was again elected to the
party presidency.
Data as of April 1997
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