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From a Rooseveltian Dream to the Nightmare of Parliamentary Coup

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The Brazilian Left in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

Abstract

During a period of around 10 years, between 2003 and 2014, lulismo was able to put in march a process of moderate social integration in Brazil. The historical meaning of the experience can be understood when we remember the existence of an important part of Brazilian society which was never integrated at all. The two presidential terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003–2010) and the first of Dilma Rousseff (2011–2014) opened to a certain number of workers the possibility of overcoming what Robert Castel calls “vulnerability zone.” This was done with the commitment of no political confrontation, for which the parallel commodity cycle in world economy helped a lot. However, there was a change in the economic conditions from 2011 on. Rousseff tried to face it making a developmentalist move, which failed for political reasons, and since the start of her second period, in 2015, economic crisis impacted the country. At the same time, a great operation against corruption (Operação Lava Jato) and a radical change of the government’s main ally in Congress, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), led to the impeachment of Dilma in August 2016. Lulismo collapsed and the integration obtained before started to be undone. More than that, the partisan structure that permitted the lulist experience is being menaced by Operação Lava Jato. Nevertheless, Brazilian democracy needs a popular force to work. Today, this force is lulismo, which is confirmed by the leading of Lula in the presidential polls. Whether it will remain like that depends on the future of democracy as such.

Based on a translation from the Portuguese language edition: “Do sonho rooseveltiano ao pesadelo golpista,” by André Singer

Copyright © Editora Schrwacz S.A. 2017

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Dilma toma posse, promete erradicar pobreza e mudar sistema tributário,”: http://g1.globo.com/politica/posse-de-dilma/noticia/2011/01/dilma-e-empossada-presidente-da-republica.html

  2. 2.

    “Taxa de desemprego em 2010 é a menor em oito anos,” https://veja.abril.com.br/economia/taxa-de-desemprego-em-2010-e-a-menor-em-oito-anos/; “Participação na renda nacional cresceu 14% entre 2004 e 2010, diz IPEA,” https://www.cut.org.br/noticias/participacao-do-trabalho-na-renda-nacional-cresceu-14-entre-2004-e-2010-diz-ipea-6186

  3. 3.

    Alexei Barrionuevo, “Brazil’s ‘Teflon’ Leader Nicked by Slump,” https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/world/americas/03lula.html

  4. 4.

    “Acima das expectativas, Lula encerra mandato com melhor avaliação da história,” http://datafolha.folha.uol.com.br/opiniaopublica/2010/12/1211078-acima-das-expectativas-lula-encerra-mandato-com-melhor-avaliacao-da-historia.shtml

  5. 5.

    Bruno Villas Bôas and Gustavo Patu, “PIB do Brasil cai 3,8%, o pior resultado desde 1990,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2016/03/1745810-pib-cai-38-em-2015-o-pior-resultado-desde-1996.shtml; Lucas Vettorazzo, “Desemprego atinge 11,2% em abril e renda real do trabalhador recua 3,3%,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2016/05/1776652-desemprego-nacional-atinge-112-no-trimestre-encerrado-em-abril-diz-ibge.shtml; Hanrrikson de Andrade, “Pnad 2015 aponta aumento do desemprego e queda na renda de ricos e pobres,” https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2016/11/25/pnad-2015-aponta-aumento-do-desemprego-e-queda-na-renda-de-ricos-e-pobres.htm; Cássia Almeida, Lucianne Carneiro, Daiane Costa, Thays Lavor, and Daniel Gullino, “Mais 3,6 milhões de brasileiros entram na pobreza, mostra Pnad,” https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/mais-36-milhoes-de-brasileiros-entram-na-pobreza-mostra-pnad-20545635

  6. 6.

    For the historical set of numbers for PT support, I used numbers from Datafolha. “Preferência por pt. é mais alta desde a campanha de Dilma,” http://datafolha.folha.uol.com.br/opiniaopublica/2017/06/1896380-preferencia-por-pt-e-mais-alta-desde-campanha-de-reeleicao-de-dilma.shtml

  7. 7.

    “Íntegra do discurso de Dilma após impeachment,” http://g1.globo.com/politica/processo-de-impeachment-de-dilma/noticia/2016/08/integra-do-discurso-de-dilma-apos-impeachment.html

  8. 8.

    The major parties in 1964 were the PTB (Brazilian Workers’ Party), the PSD (Social Democratic Party), and the UDN (National Democratic Union); in 2016, they were the PT (Workers’ Party), the PMDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party), and the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party). The big-tent PMDB and PSD, more clientelist than ideological, had entered into and broken alliances with the PT and PTB; the UDN and the PSDB represent, mutatis mutandis, a more coherent ideological opposition to popular mobilization. João Goulart was the left-wing (PTB) president deposed in 1964; Vargas in his PTB incarnation had been a mentor. Castelo Branco was the first military president of Brazil after the coup. [Trans.]

  9. 9.

    “Senado cassa mandato de Dilma; Congresso dará posse efetiva a Temer,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2016/08/1808784-senado-cassa-mandato-de-dilma-congresso-dara-posse-efetiva-a-temer.shtml

  10. 10.

    Gabriel Mascarenhas, Mariana Haubert, and Gustavo Uribe, “Temer diz já ter os votos para ser confirmado presidente,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2016/08/1806664-temer-diz-ja-ter-os-votos-para-ser-confirmado-presidente.shtml

  11. 11.

    Verbal remark during a colloquium that took place at the Centro de Estudos de Cultura Contemporânea (Cedec), at the University of São Paulo, August 8, 2015.

  12. 12.

    “Nem Dilma nem Temer,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/opiniao/2016/04/1756924-nem-dilma-nem-temer.shtml

  13. 13.

    On the idea of parliamentary coup, see Santos (2017). On the legal pretexts for Dilma’s impeachment, see Pereira (2017).

  14. 14.

    Bruno Lupion, “O gênio está solto, e não será fácil controlá-lo, diz pesquisador de impeachments na América Latina,” https://www.nexojornal.com.br/entrevista/2016/04/24/O-g%C3%AAnio-est%C3%A1-solto-e-n%C3%A3o-ser%C3%A1-f%C3%A1cil-control%C3%A1-lo-diz-pesquisador-de-impeachments-na-Am%C3%A9rica-Latina

  15. 15.

    On the concept of class, see Singer (2012, p. 22–28). There, in short, I maintain that the main inspiration of these analyses comes from Karl Marx’s work, but not exclusively. Marx’s formulation from his preface to the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire is as follows: “I demonstrate… how the class struggle in France created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part” (Marx 1979, p. 8).

  16. 16.

    The vision of the terms left and right, which I have tried to describe in Singer (2000), is related to the sequence of the reinvention of politics that Chico de Oliveira analyzes.

  17. 17.

    For my previous attempts to elucidate the nature of Lulismo, see André Singer (2012) and Singer and Loureiro (2016).

  18. 18.

    See, for example, p. 403, where Prado affirms that in the sector that sustains itself on the margins of slavery, “disorganization… is the rule” (translation modified).

  19. 19.

    The text referenced is Singer (1981).

  20. 20.

    In “O ornitorrinco” (Oliveira 2003a) and in “Prefácio com perguntas” (Schwarz 2003a), we might find a theoretical point of departure for a structural analysis of the period in which Lulismo directed the country. For English translations of these, see Oliveira (2003b) and Schwarz (2003b).

  21. 21.

    I heard Otavio Frias Filho provide a similar formulation years ago. I do not know if, after that, the author published it. I recently rediscovered it again in Fernando Haddad (2017): “Brazil, in turn, is a rigidly stratified country; inequality has always been the mark of our society. We are a mix of “caste” society with meritocracy. The individual can, by means of her own efforts and talents, change caste without being reincarnated—though the relative position of “castes” must be maintained.”

  22. 22.

    “Brasil tem o maior número de domésticas do mundo, diz OIT,” http://g1.globo.com/concursos-e-emprego/noticia/2013/01/brasil-tem-o-maior-numero-de-domesticas-do-mundo-diz-oit.html

  23. 23.

    The idea of “real parties of the tripartite system in Brazil” appears in Oliveira (1992).

  24. 24.

    I drew on Barbosa (2010), Araujo (2013) and Ribeiro (2001) to construct this provisional synthesis, whose adequate elaboration will have to await another occasion.

  25. 25.

    “Em 2013, Dilma anunciou luz mais barata; hoje diz que é preciso pagar mais,” https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2015/08/11/em-2013-dilma-anunciou-luz-mais-barata-hoje-diz-que-e-preciso-pagar-mais.htm

  26. 26.

    Paulo Skaf, Artur Henrique, and Paulo Pereira da Silva, “Um acordo pela indústria brasileira,” Folha de S.Paulo, May 16, 2011, A3.

  27. 27.

    The term “physiological bloc” does not translate. The sense is an unofficial coalition of elected officials who do not have relevant ideological agendas but only personal agendas based on trading favors. [Trans.]

  28. 28.

    Flávia Albuquerque, “Desconto na conta de luz vai gerar economia anual de R$ 31,5 bilhões de reais, diz Fiesp,” https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2013/01/24/desconto-na-conta-de-luz-vai-gerar-economia-anual-de-r-315-bilhoes-diz-fiesp.htm

  29. 29.

    Celso Rocha de Barros, “O estilo Dilma na hora H,” piauí 72, (Sept. 2012).

  30. 30.

    Julianna Granjeia, “Em comício de Haddad, Dilma responde Serra e diz que ‘está metendo o bico na eleição’ de São Paulo,” https://eleicoes.uol.com.br/2012/noticias/mobile/2012/10/01/em-comicio-de-haddad-dilma-responde-serra-e-diz-que-esta-metendo-o-bico-na-eleicao-de-sao-paulo.htm

  31. 31.

    Literally, “I won’t pay the duck.” [Trans.]

  32. 32.

    Marcos Lisboa, “Outra história,” piauí 131 (Aug. 2017), 30.

  33. 33.

    On the other hand, an issue worth researching is the fact that Operation Car Wash has focused on an area that had been the subject of Dilma Rousseff’s sanitizing action.

  34. 34.

    José Eustáquio Diniz, “Pnad 2015: Aumento da pobreza e crescimento da geração nem-nem- nem,” http://blogacritica.blogspot.com/2016/12/pnad-2015-aumento-da-pobreza-e.html

  35. 35.

    María Martín, “Marcelo Neri: ‘Após a crise política e econômica, já antevemos a crise social,’” https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2016/04/05/economia/1459884081_486535.html; Carlos Madeiro, “Mesmo com alta do desemprego, Bolsa Família reduz 485 mil beneficiários em 3 anos,” https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2017/03/02/mesmo-com-crise-bolsa-familia-reduz-485-mil-beneficiarios-em-3-anos.htm

  36. 36.

    Daniel Silveira, “Número de desempregados cresce 38% em 2015, maior alta da história,” http://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2016/11/numero-de-desempregados-cresce-38-em-2015-maior-alta-da-historia.html

  37. 37.

    “Número de trabalhadores com carteira assinada cresce 59,6% no Brasil em 12 anos, diz IBGE,” http://www.brasil.gov.br/economia-e-emprego/2015/01/numero-de-trabalhadores-com-carteira-assinada-cresce-59-6-no-brasil-em-12-anos-diz-ibge

  38. 38.

    João Pedro Caleiro, “Crise empurra 3,7 milhões de volta para fora da classe C,” https://exame.abril.com.br/economia/crise-empurra-milhoes-de-volta-para-fora-da-classe-c/

  39. 39.

    Valdo Cruz, Sofia Fernandes, and Flávia Foreque, “Em encontro do Conselhão, Barbosa defende teto de gastos públicos,” http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2016/01/1734606-em-encontro-do-conselhao-barbosa-defende-teto-de-gastos-publicos.shtml; Wellton Máximo, “Barbosa: proposta de reforma da Previdência será enviada no primeiro semestre,” http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/economia/noticia/2015-12/proposta-de-reforma-da-previdencia-sera-enviada-no-primeiro-semestre-diz

  40. 40.

    Translation modified to be closer both to the Portuguese and to Benjamin (1980, p. 694).

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  1. Political Science Department, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    André Singer

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  1. Sociology Department, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Vladimir Puzone

  2. Political Science Institute, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Luis Felipe Miguel

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Singer, A. (2019). From a Rooseveltian Dream to the Nightmare of Parliamentary Coup. In: Puzone, V., Miguel, L. (eds) The Brazilian Left in the 21st Century. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03288-3_3

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