Workers’ Party militants launch manifesto against a Lula-Alckmin alliance
On 11 January, media [1] and social networks reported on an online petition launched by Workers’ Party (PT) militants in opposition to a possible alliance between PT leader Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin, a petition supported by important PT figures such as former party presidents Rui Falcão and José Genoino. Geraldo Alckmin is the former Governor of São Paulo and long-running ‘tucano’ (‘toucan’, member of the center-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)) who has more recently drawn closer to the right-wing social democratic party Solidarity (Solidariedade) and also entered into talks with both the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
LEIA EM PORTUGUÊS: Militantes petistas criam manifesto contra a aliança de Lula e Alckmin
https://esquerdaonline.com.br/
In the light of Lula and Alckmin’s public signals and conversations, discussion about a possible alliance between the two has led to important discussions among left-wing militants. In the manifesto that accompanies the petition [2], its proponents state that a potential left-wing government would face the “opposition of Bolsonarismo, Lavajatismo, and neoliberalism,” the political forces that “applauded and benefited from the conviction, imprisonment, and disbarment of Lula in 2018.” Such an alliance would also redeem the former “tucano’ governor and the role he played in the coup that was initiated in 2016 and culminated in the election of Bolsonaro.
“Geraldo Alckmin participated in and publicly supported the entire ‘golpista’ (coup) and neoliberal operation,” the proponents state. They also recall Alckmin’s biography and four terms as Governor of São Paulo that were marked by a “long career of fighting national, democratic, popular, and developmentalist positions” and an administration marked by attacks “against workers in general, against public servants, against health and education, against public security, against black men and women, against young people and students, against residents of the periphery, and against the environment.”
The petition appears to be directed at the ‘petista’ (PT) membership, and as such, ends up limiting the debate on the politics of alliances to a perspective focused exclusively on the party, and not a debate for the whole of the left and social movements around the construction of a political alternative for the nation. Similarly, the text, in the form of a resolution, does not delve into fundamental issues such as questions of program, that is, what proposals a Lula candidacy should present to meet the needs of the Brazilian people, to combat inequality, and as the text itself points out, to implement “profound transformations in Brazil.”
Nevertheless, the manifesto opens up an important discussion that should be embraced by all activists in the country’s left and social movements, such as the feminist, anti-racist, LGBTQIA+, youth, and workers’ movements, so that we can build a project of class independence without bourgeois and ‘golpista’ representatives, and a ‘frente de esquerda’ (left front) that captivates the masses and strengthens the contest for power from a perspective of serving the majority and advancing anti-capitalist measures.
Notes
[1] Lucas Rocha, “Petistas lançam manifesto contra chapa Lula-Alckmin: “Golpista neoliberal”” (Petistas launch manifesto against Lula-Alckmin slate: “Neoliberal golpista”), Forum magazine, 10 January 2022, https://revistaforum.com.br/
[2] Manifesto contra Alckmin na vice (Manifesto against Alckmin as vice-president), Avaaz.com, 30 December 2021, https://secure.avaaz.org/
Translation: Bobby Sparks
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