[Marxism] Re: Lula gets booed.

["Carlos Eduardo Rebello" <crebello@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Marxmail comrades:

The NYT piece is, of course, another telltale sign of the decay of Lula and
the PT as serious factor of change in Brazilian politics. What Mr. Benson
has failed to report is that, in order to supply Lula with support and get
boos swamped during his speech, the PT trade union bureaucracy had to resort
to "spontaneously"mobilized trade unionists (therefore the fact that all
were wearing the same "100% for Lula" T-shirts) who began taking avaliable
seats in the Porto Alegre auditorium as early as 6:00 AM.

Once it was a hallmark of the PT to have at its disposal lots of truly
spontaneously activists and sympathizers at his disposal in any kind of
manifestation; the fact that it has had to resort for this kind of "pro"
faked activism (as it has had to resort to paying flag-weaving and
pamphlet-distributing people in last year's electoral campaigning) is a sure
sign of the party's bureaucratic deacay and therefore of the fact that it
has become the demesne of a labor aristocracy whose head is no other but
Lula.

Lula's patronizing stance in reducing his being booed to a simple
fathers-and-sons, generation gap quarreling, is also disgusting in the
extreme , as many of the "sons" - e.g. the sociologist Francisco de
Oliveira - are no other then members of the original PT caucus who were
stranged from the party by its incresingly arriviste course.

Carlos Rebello


> NY Times, January 28, 2005
> Brazilian Leader Hears Boos From Unusual Direction, the Left
> By TODD BENSON
>
> PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jan. 27 - Between cheers and jeers, President Luiz
> Inácio Lula da Silva defended his record on Thursday before thousands of
> skeptical antiglobalization activists, saying his government was
> painstakingly laying the foundation to eradicate Brazil's gaping social
> disparities.
>
> But he had to contend with a constant cacophony of boos from a small but
> vocal group of protesters, some of them former members of the more radical
> wing of his Workers' Party. About half way through his speech, he paused
to
> respond to the hecklers, who also distributed pamphlets that showed him
> shaking hands with President Bush and derided the Brazilian leader as a
> "key ally of Yankee imperialism."
>
> "Those of you that aren't from here, don't be afraid," he said.
>
> "These people that don't want to listen are sons and daughters of the P.T.
> that rebelled," he went on, using the initials in Portuguese for the
> Workers' Party. "That's typical of youth, and one day they are going to
> mature, and we'll be here with open arms to welcome them back."
>
> Mr. da Silva's response to the protesters was met with cheers from
> thousands of Workers' Party stalwarts wearing red T-shirts with "100%
Lula"
> on the back, many of them invited by the party leaders to offset any
> protests. The president's supporters drowned out the protesters' boos with
> chants of "Lula!"
>
> "When a minority of the population speaks out, that's democracy," Luiz
> Dulci, one of the president's closest advisers, said before the event when
> asked about the possibility of protests. "But let's not forget to listen
to
> the vast majority that applauds."
>
> Nevertheless, the protest was a stark contrast from previous social forums
> in Porto Alegre, where Mr. da Silva was hailed almost unanimously as a
hero
> of the left. Since taking office two years ago, he has rankled many of his
> longtime followers by embracing free-market policies and respecting the
> terms of a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund, which many of
> the Social Forum delegates accused of burying developing nations in debt.
>
> At the same time, though, Mr. da Silva, a former lathe operator and union
> leader, has successfully sold himself as an ambassador for the poor who
can
> bridge the gap between them and the world's political and financial elite,
> who are gathering this week in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic
> Forum.
>
> "He represents the voice of developing nations," said Salil Shetty, the
> director of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals Campaign,
> which is helping to organize the global campaign against poverty.
>
> Mr. da Silva said he would deliver the same message to the policy makers
in
> Davos that he gave here.
>
> Later, he left for the economic forum in the Swiss Alps, traveling on a
new
> $56.7 million presidential jet.
>
> --
>
> www.marxmail.org
>
>
>
>



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