Brazil's Workers Party stirs intense debate in S. Africa

Scan page 15

... FOSATU airs view on role of labor party .. S. Africa CP scoffs at 'workerist' views The Brazilian Workers Party (PT) has been the subject of an intense debate on strategy that is taking place among trade union and political activists in South Af -rica. We are reprinting below extracts from two articles from the debate.

The first is taken from a two-part article by David Fig of the International Labour Research Group that was published in the July and August issues of FOSATU Worker News. It is one of several articles that the Federation of South African Trades Unions (FOSATU), a non-racial federation of over 100,000 members, has published on the Brazilian PT.

The editors of FOSATU Worker News introduce the article by stating: "It is important for workers in South Africa to see how other workers are fighting their struggles so that we can learn from other countries."

We also reprint below a portion of an article by Ruth Nhere, "The Dangers of Legal Marxism in South Africa," which was published in the Second Quarter 1985 issue of The African Communist, a journal reflecting the views of the South African Communist Party (SACP).

This article is one of several that the SACP has directed toward FOSATU on the question of independent working-class pol -The man with the beard stood in front the crowd and began to speak.

"Friends and fellow workers," he said, "it's not enough for us to struggle so hard against the employers. Our fight is also against the military who are ruling our country. We cannot change the situation of workers in Brazil without challenging the government, and bringing in a government of workers who will understand our needs.

"For many years, the military prevented us from organizing, but now they are speaking of 'reform.' We must take advan -tage of this to organize. None of the legal political parties talk about the needs of the workers and the poor. What we need, friends, is a political party to put forward our political demands. We need to form a Workers' Party to take our struggles for -ward!"

The crowd of workers cheered loudly and began to chant the name of the speaker over and over: "Lu-la, Lu-la, Lu-la!"

Lula [current president of the Workers' Party] and his fellow leaders showed wor -kers that for the first time in many years the unions could become instruments of the workers' struggles.

But they also realized that with the backing of their membership and the sup -port received from the community, they could not reach their goals by sticking only to the economic struggles on the factory floor.

They also needed to struggle for political rights and political power. That led them to the idea of organizing a political party. They decided to call it the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores).

Role of the working class Lula and his friends thought that it was a good time to create a party for workers. The workers would lead the party, but they also encouraged others to support them.

They remembered that during the strikes, workers received support from people who were not in factory jobs-like teachers, itical action. In an article in the Second Quarter 1983 issue of The African Com -munist, numerous quotations from Lenin were utilized to refute FOSATU General Secretary Joe Foster, who had maintained that "workers must strive to build their own powerful and effective [political] organization."

The SACP charged that such an organ -ization would be seen as a rival to the Communist Party itself and to its close ally, the African National Congress: "Dare [FOSATUJ ignore either the confusion and by conferences.

By arguing for socialism, the Workers' Party showed that it was interested to see a fairer system in Brazil, where workers shared more in the wealth of the country, where inflation did not rob them of their food and wages, and where they had a direct say in the running of the country.

So the election campaigns were a good chance to explain that there was an alternative to the capitalist system.

Brazil has two communist parties, both of which are illegal. They could not run their own candidates in elections. So, instead they gave their support to the Advocates of the "workerist line" hotly deny that their arguments negate the role of a class political party. However, they argue that "as yet there are no specifically po -litical organizations (at least in developed form) of the working class in South Africa" [quoted from the Social Review, December 1983 issue].

These sentiments have been echoed by some of the FOSATU leadership.

Some of them have become fascinated with the example of Brazil. A recent article on this country in the South African division it will sow in the ranks of the working class if it sets up a new 'workers' movement' in competition with or along -side the still-living Communist Party?"

But the roots of the SACP's anxiety lies deeper. The mass-based Brazilian Workers Party, which some FOSATU leaders look to as a model for South Africa, raises explicitly pro-socialist demands. The SACP, on the other hand, expresses scepticism that the South African working class can be mobilized in the near future toward the overthrow of the capitalist system.

As SACP leader Jack Simons writes in the June 1985 issue of SECHABA mag -azine, the organ of the African National Congress, "there is a Congress realization that most peasant-workers, who form the bulk of the working class under apartheid, are not yet class-conscious enough or ready for the adoption of a socialist solution."

The Communist Party prescribes that the struggle be limited during the current stage to the aim of replacing the white apartheid regime by a "democratic state." The big industrial monopolies and banks would be nationalized, but the capitalist system would remain.

To that end, the SACP calls for building a "popular front" around a political plat -form that could unite "all classes and strata PMDB [Brazilian Democratic Movement Partyl. They felt that the Workers' Party represented only the "narrow interests of workers," while the PMBD represented a large variety of interests which together would make up a stronger force against the military government.

The Workers' Party argued that the PMDB was not a party which spoke up for workers. It was a party which represented the views of the bosses. So it was difficult to see that workers would benefit by giving it support. The whole history of Brazilian politics showed that the workers had never benefited much from supporting parties which had no worker leadership.

Inside the unions, the Workers' party supporters also argued that it was wrong for the supporters of the two communist parties to give their backing to the stooges and yes-men of the government who were put in charge of some of the unions. Labour Bulletin [May 1984 issue] attempts to draw parallels with develop -ments in South Africa.

In Brazil, they record, mass militant trade unionism has led to the birth of a political party which "rapidly developed amongst workers, the unemployed, grassroots sections of the church, progressive youth, and left intellectuals..."

The author mentions almost as an aside that this party "has drawn much hostility from the supporters of the illegal Brazilian Communist Party...which claims (my Last month FOSATU joined other independent unions to form the new Congress of South African Trade Unions.

whose interests are served by the immediate aims of the national democratic revo -lution."

The popular front was first advanced by the Communist Parties under Stalin in the 1930s. Its effect has always been to sub -ordinate the demands of the workers to the goal of reassuring pro-capitalist forces par -ticipating in the front that their property and privileges would remain intact.

Leaders of FOSATU, on the other hand, insist that the trade-union movement maintain its independence while collab -orating with other forces on specific actions against apartheid policies.

For example, the union refused to become a member of the United Democratic Front (UDF), a mass coalition that includes members of the SACP and the ANC in its leadership, on the grounds that the UDF is "an alliance that includes the enemies of the Black working class under the leadership of the bourgeoisie"-The Editors.

AMIEIS ADA

ALEGAE * PORTO VITORIA Lul the president of the Brazilian Workers Par (PT), leads procession of candidates for 15 municipal elections in 13 cities. The PT obtained 15% of the vote nationally-or about 3 million votes. Its candidates obtained 20% in Sao Paulo, 38% in Vitoria; 40% in Goiania. In Fortaleza, the Northeast's largest city, PT candidate Maria Luiza was elected mayor.

emphasis—R.N.) that, historically, they form the party of the workers.

Brazil also features in the study program drawn up by the academics involved in FOSATU's educational work and is discussed in the FOSATU journal. Here the issues are more simplified and—in case the worker readership should get the wrong idea-the Brazilian Communist Party is not mentioned by name:

"It was the workers in metal and textiles in Sao Paulo who started to organize the unofficial unions. Every year since 1977 workers have struck in support of recog -nition and better wages...

"Out of this the Workers' Party was started in order to represent workers in the planned elections. This was met with great opposition from the state, other political parties, and the official trade union lead -ers."[FOSATU Worker News, September 1983] Perhaps the authors of this type of material are aware that resort to open anti-communism will not win them support amongst the organized working class. However, their attempt to ignore the programs and even existence of the ANC [African National Congress] and the SACP amount to the same thing.

----- pull-quotes -----

CAMPANHA ITRIMETTRAL SALARIAL GO HORAS