| Workers' Party Partido dos Trabalhadores | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Gleisi Hoffmann (Since 2018) |
| Founder | Lula |
| Founded | 10 February 1980 |
| Headquarters | São Paulo, São Paulo |
| Membership (2022) | ▲ 6,595,333 |
| Ideology | Social democracy Labor |
| Political position | left the center-left |
| International affiliation | Progressive Alliance Foro de São Paulo |
| Governor | 12 / 28 |
| Mayor | 1,254 / 5,608 |
| Federal Consulate | 192 / 513 |
| Seat Senate | 27 / 81 |
| State Deputies | 201 / 1,024 |
| Alderman | 19,558 / 56,810 |
| Website | |
| https://pt.org.br | |
| Party flag | |
 | |
The Workers' Party (Portuguese: Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) is a political party in Brazil. Some scholars classify its ideology in the 21st century as social democracy, with the party shifting from a broadly socialist ideology in the 1990s.Founded in 1980, it is the largest left-wing party in Latin America, and the second largest political party in Brazil.
The Party has its great leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known only as Lula, who holds 4 consecutive elections. He managed to be vice and interim president. José Alencar was the only president of Brazil who was affiliated with the Party, staying 8 years in power. Has a red star on the Logo, which refers to the workers' star and red represents its ideology, the Social-Democracy. Its affiliates and supporters are called "PT members".
The Party used to focus more on workers, being considered more extreme, until in recent years it started to be more at the center, making it become Social Democracy around the beginning of the 2000s. In 2006, with a growth in popularity, the party elected its first president of the country, José Alencar together with his partner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, where he ended up governing the country for 8 years (2007 - 2015).
History[]
Founded[]
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Founder and the greatest figure of the party.
The PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores) was founded by a heterogeneous group, formed by militants in opposition to the Military Dictatorship, unionists, intellectuals, artists and Catholics linked to Liberation Theology, on February 10, 1980, at Colégio Sion, in São Paulo. The party was the result of the rapprochement between union movements in the ABC region, which organized major strikes between 1978 and 1980, and former militants of the Brazilian left, including former political prisoners and exiles who had their rights returned by the amnesty law. Since its founding, the party has taken on the defense of democratic socialism.
The PT thus emerged, rejecting both the traditional leaders of official unionism, as well as seeking to put into practice a new form of democratic socialism, rejecting models already in decline, such as the Soviet and the Chinese. It meant the confluence of the basic unionism of the time with the intellectuals of the anti-Stalinist Left.
The founding manifesto was launched on February 10, 1980, at Colégio Sion in São Paulo, and published in the Federal Official Gazette on October 21 of that same year. Later on, it was officially recognized as a political party by the Superior Court of Electoral Justice on February 11, 1982. Membership record number one was signed by Apolonio de Carvalho, followed by art critic Mário Pedrosa.
Lula in 1994
Elections from 1989 to 2006 and Years of opposition[]
In the 1989 elections, the PT ended up being a major target of the left against the populism of the MDB. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is over. However, with the force of brizola, the party ended up fighting against the PDT. In the second round of the election, the party ended up supporting Brizola, where it was soon defeated by PMDB candidate Itamar Franco.
In the 1994 elections, the PT once again launched squid as its candidate for the presidency of the republic. The party had a coalition with the PCdoB. The candidate ended up in third place in the first round with almost 14 million votes. It maintained a good performance compared to the last election, which made the party confident in the next election.
Between the municipal elections from 1996 to 2000, the PT had a good growth, obtaining 543 municipalities and 5 capitals. Around 2001, Folha de São Paulo stated in a news article that "the Workers' Party is the biggest leftist representative in Brazil, and that no other party can." The news also stated that the PT is the only one that manages to go head-to-head with FHC. In the 2002 elections, with a drop in FHC's popularity, Lula had a huge advantage that he almost became president-elect, but he ended up losing in the second round with a small and tight advantage of minus 2% difference.
In the 2006 crisis, the PT harshly criticized FHC's management with the crisis, saying that ''the government did nothing for the people!''. He also initially criticized the lack of aid to the population. As a result, the Party ended up growing a lot.
Election 2006[]
Lula and Alencar in campaing in 2006
With a good advantage in the elections, the PT saw it as a possibility of overthrowing the Brazilian elite that had ruled for 16 years. Lula ended up giving up the proposal for his sixth presidential campaign, cited former governor José Alencar as a great proposal for the party, with this, Alencar ended up winning the caucuses with the favoritism of squid, chose lula as his deputy and ran the election against Vice President Marco Maciel.
In the election results, Alencar and Lula won the election with a small percentage compared to Marciel. Alencar became the first party to be elected, a landmark event for the party.
Alencar Government (2007-2015)[]
President Alencar
José Alencar took office on March 15, 2007, being the first president of the party to take office. He stated that ''it would decrease inequality and end the economic crisis across the country''.
In the Alencar government, he managed to reduce the crisis in the country after appreciating the real, where the real became a single currency for the Mercosur countries in 2008 thanks to the minister of economy Haddad. With a high appreciation of the real, prices started to get cheap and the economy of the alencar government stabilized. President Alencar became ''figure of the year'' in Times Magazine in 2009, also being chosen as ''Best President of 2009''.
In the 2010 elections, he had 47% of the valid votes in the first round, as he did not obtain more than 50%, he went to the second round with the toucan Aécio Neves. Thanks to Alencar's high popularity, he ended up with 52% of valid votes, obtaining 56% of votes in Minas Gerais (his home state).
Alencar giving a speech on women's rights at the Palácio do Planalto in 2012
With great tension with the government of Namibia and the attacks in Salvador, the Government, together with the authorization of the UN and the United States, ended up entering the war against Namibia in 2011. It ended up winning in 2012. It ended up being criticized for being anti-pacifist and also by the large expense in the military army which made its popularity drop a little.
The Alencar government was marked by the creation and approval of social laws, such as the Maria da Penha law of 2007 and the gay rights law in 2013. The salary of teachers and doctors was increased in 2014. At the end of his term, his government approval was 68% approval, while 20% failed and 12% remained neutral.
Election 2014[]
In the 2014 elections, Lula, vice president of alencar, ended up announcing his candidacy for candidate for the party, which made him the favorite in the elections with 40% to 50% in the polls, surpassing the 20% to 30% of Aécio Neves, in the midst of his candidacy, ended up getting sick which weakened and ended up abandoning his candidacy in February 2014. He ended up announcing haddad as his successor and candidate, which made Haddad a favorite in the primaries. Fernando Haddad ended up obtaining 68% of the valid votes, surpassing Luciana Genro's 30%.
Unlike Alencar, Fernando Haddad has a low popularity due to his disapproval as governor of São Paulo, which made his popularity drop, while Aécio Neves was a favorite for his campaign.
Workers' Party protests, 2015[]
Protests anti-govern in Octber, 2015
On September 19, 2015, small protests on the streets of São Paulo began to emerge in protests against the Aécio Government. Days later it spreads throughout Brazil. Until the police forces controlled the protests. Grades rivalry between PT and toucans.
On social media, former vice president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that ''Aécio is a thief'' and then said that ''Brazil should be better without Aécio''.
Protests started to increase in October 2015, when Aécio Supposedly entered an investigation into Lava Jato, where it ended until November when the president had no affiliation with the crime. Even with the charges closed, the Workers' Party continued to accuse President Neves of corruption, especially on social media.
d'Ávila and supporters in August 2018
Election, 2018[]
The favorite candidate, Lula, ended up not making his candidacy official due to still recovering from his health and from some possible corruption charges (which were annulled months later). In the party's primaries, 3 candidates were summoned, the winner being Manuela d'Ávilla, who was seen as ''the most leftist in the party''.
The campaign of d'Ávila was considered a frank campaign compared to the campaign of Aécio Neves that came with a high popularity due to economic booms and a very low percentage of unemployment. In one of his campaigns, he claimed that Aécio was ''against the poor'' and that the ''income distribution in the country did not feed a pigeon''.
In the end, d'Ávila got only 41.99% of the votes while Neves got 53%, losing in the first round. This is considered to be the worst result by a Workers Party candidate since Lula's defeat in 1998. Despite the presidential defeat, the party managed to win 2 more senators and 18 federal deputies than in the previous election.
Lula's return and the elections, 2022[]
Lula's convictions by a well-known politician and lawyer were made in November 2017, the STF ended up suspending each one after several investigations until it officially ended on June 19, 2018 when Minister and STF President Alexandre de Moraes. Lula ended up celebrating on social media, being congratulated by several supporters.
Ideology[]
CUT Protests in 2015
The PT emerged from the spontaneous union organization of São Paulo workers in the late 1970s, within the political vacuum created by the military regime's repression of traditional communist parties and the then-existing armed groups of the Left. Since its foundation, it presents itself as a Left party that defends socialism as a form of social organization. However, he says he objects to real socialism implemented in some countries, not recognizing such systems as true socialism. The spontaneous ideology of the party's union bases - and the personal action of union leaders such as Lula's, has always been characterized by a certain rejection of ideologies in favor of union action as an end in itself, and the episode in which Lula , questioned by his opponent Fernando Collor about the PT's ideological affiliation, in a live televised debate in 1989, replied verbatim that the PT "never declared itself to be a Marxist party".
Presidents of Workers' Party[]
| Portrait | President | Mandato | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Took Office | Left Office | ||
|
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | 1980 | 1989 |
 |
Rui Falcão | 1988 | 1991 |
 |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | August 11, 1991 | August 19,1994 |
 |
Luiz Gushiken | August 19, 1994 | May 11, 1997 |
 |
Aloizio Mercadante | May 11, 1997 | Octuber 10, 2005 |
 |
Dilma Rousseff | 0ctuber 10, 2005 | July 10, 2007 |
|
Rui Falcão | July 10, 2007 | Octuber 10, 2015 |
 |
Fernando Pimentel | Octuber 10, 2015 | November 11, 2018 |
 |
Eduardo Suplicy | November 11, 2018 | May 8, 2020 |
 |
Jaques Wagner | May 8, 2020 | Incubent |
participation and Electoral performance[]
| Year | Imagem | Candidate for President | Vice-Candidate for President | Coalition | Votes | % | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | José Paulo Bisol
(PT) |
No Coalition | 9,284,112 | 13,96% | 4.º |
| 1994 | |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | Luiza Erundina
(PT) |
13,994,100 | 18,98% | 3.º | |
| 1998 | |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | Leonel Brizola
(PDT) |
Força do Povo
(PT,PSB,PCB,PDT) |
20,199,483 | 2.º | |
| 2002 |  |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | João Doria
(PSDB) |
União do Povo Muda Brasil
(PT, PDT, PSB, PCdoB, PCB) |
49,105,832 | 49,96% | 2.º |
| 2006 | |
José Alencar | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) | Um Brasil para todos!
(PT,PCdoB,PHS,PDT,PSB,PMN) |
48,548,388 | 51,93% | 1.º |
| 2010 | |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) | Um Brasil para todos!
(PT,PCdoB,PSB,PMN) |
60,563,684 | 56,62% | 1.º | |
| 2014 |  |
Fernando Haddad | Luciana Santos
(PCdoB) |
Para o Brasil seguir mudando
(PT,PCdoB,PSB,PMB,PMN) |
55,185,569 | 47,25% | 2.º |
| 2018 | |
Manuela d'Ávilla | Miguel Rossetto
(PT) |
Um Brasil para o Povo
(PT,PCdoB,PMB) |
49,582,429 | 41,99% | 2.º |
| 2022 |  |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | Gleisi Hoffman
(PT) |
Com a Força do Povo!
(PT,PCdoB,PAM,PMB) |
- | - | - |