Fwd: Brazil: Manifesto to Reclaim the Workers Party (PT)

[David Walters <dwalters@xxxxxxx>]

I'm forwarding this to keep the flow of information from the PT and 
Brazil going. It provides some important information on the 
relationship of the gov't to the PT specifically and the glass struggle 
in general.
David Walters

Manifesto to Reclaim the Workers Party (PT)

Introduction

To all PT comrades,

The first 150 endorsers of this Manifesto call upon you at a time when 
our party is undergoing the most severe crisis.

As activists, we have followed various paths, and we endorse this 
appeal in a personal capacity. The questions we raise are not just the 
concern of this or that tendency or group in the PT. Today, the party 
itself, as we created it 22 years ago and built it, is in jeopardy.

We have all seen that Parliament passed the first version of the PEC 40 
[draft constitutional amendment submitted by the Lula government - 
Editor]. This "reform" of the Previdencia (pensions system) was 
regularly demanded by the agreements signed with the IMF. MPs from the 
PSDB and PFL [parties which supported Cardoso, the ex-President - 
Editor] support the reform being implemented today by the government in 
contempt of the PT's traditions. It goes against the interests of all 
civil servants, their trade unions and the CUT, which brought together 
70,000 demonstrators in a march on Brasilia on 6 August.

We cannot accept this situation, just as you do not accept the 
projected expulsions of the PT Members of Parliament, which are 
preparing the way for further expulsions and a split in the PT. We 
cannot accept the destruction of the PT, which was built up through the 
greatest struggles of the Brazilian people.

We say no! All party members must have the right to continue expressing 
themselves in a genuine discussion. Free fraternal discussion must 
continue between us. This is what the PT means. This is the PT's 
strength. Doing away with this means doing away with the PT. And we 
cannot accept this, any more than you can. Let us gather more and more 
endorsements of this Manifesto, and let us meet to discuss these issues.

We do not agree with those who say "the PT belongs to the past". No! 
The thousands and thousands of people who built it are still here. The 
millions who voted for it and gave it a clear mandate for change are 
here, and demonstrate the social power of the PT.

This same power is being expressed in the marches, the land occupations 
and in the mobilisations by the youth and workers in the cities. We 
must reclaim the PT as our own.

Endorse this appeal, circulate it widely.

For all contact: resgatept@xxxxxxxxxx

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Manifesto to Reclaim the Workers Party (PT)

To PT activists and PT members

Comrades,

Those of us who have endorsed this Manifesto are activists of various 
PT currents and thus express various points of view. We think it is 
time to sound the alarm and call for a coalition to reclaim the PT as a 
party, as it is now in danger.

Seven months have elapsed since the new government was set up. And our 
country, our party are facing the deepest crisis.

53 million workers, landless rural workers, homeless people, men and 
women, voted for the PT candidate on 23 October.

They did not vote so that land reform would not be undertaken, or to 
hear the Agricultural Development Minister tell them six months later 
that there was no money to settle 60,000 families as promised, when the 
MST is asking for the settlement of 120,000 families.

They did not vote for a pensions reform that carries on Cardoso's work, 
reducing our rights and opening the way for the privatisation of the 
pensions system.

They did not vote for 74.3 billion reais (60 percent more than in the 
same period in 2002) to be diverted from public housing, education, 
health and land reform, in order to service the foreign debt.

They certainly did not vote for Meirelles of the Central Bank to 
continue the suicidal policy of interest rate increases and a policy of 
change which is leading to an unprecedented wave of job-cuts, part-time 
jobs, of reduced work hours, contributing to a 14 percent drop in 
wages. Meanwhile, the government grants "facilities" to the 
multinationals in the car industry by reducing the IPI tax, which means 
even fewer funds available for public services.

They certainly did not vote to jointly sign a communiqué with Bush 
agreeing to implement the FTAA in January 3005.

Certainly not.

53 million voted for land reform, for the right of millions of homeless 
to housing, for jobs, for the defence of social rights and labour 
rights, against the FTAA and for national sovereignty. This is the 
reason why they voted for the PT candidate. Should the PT turn its back 
on these 53 million people?

Should it forsake the basis on which it was built?

Should it search for support among the venal corrupted politicians of 
the right? We know what these people have done:  they privatised, they 
plundered the nation to pay the debt, they diverted billions towards 
foreign countries. They privatised the land. Their hands are dripping 
with the blood of thousand of rural workers, workers, youth, activists.

Should our party forsake its social base: the workers, landless rural 
workers, youth and homeless? Should our party set out on the terrible 
path towards expulsions and splits?

Indeed not.

We, activists of the PT, have followed various paths. We founded this 
party together with all the activists and members of this organisation. 
We built it and sent it to victory. We want the PT to remain the PT as 
it was set up and as it developed.

We don't want expulsions, nor splits. We don't want to live under 
guard, until free expression and debate inside the PT disappear.

We refuse the false alternative of either giving up the party or 
accepting that situation.

Everyone has the right to think for himself and herself. This is the 
real PT, a PT where democracy is implemented, a party which plays its 
role.

It is high time to reclaim our party. As first endorsers of this 
Manifesto we call on all PT members, whatever their opinions or 
tendency may be: let us regroup in a broad movement to restore the PT 
as our own party.