Praise for the book
This book offers a fresh and highly informative introduction to the history, achievements and limitations of the federal administrations led by the Workers Party (PT) in Brazil. Brazilian society and its economy have been transformed under Lus Incio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. However, today the PT model is in crisis. Sue Branford and Jan Rocha explain better than anyone else why this is the case, and why it is important to reconstitute and relaunch the left in Brazil.
Professor Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS, University of London
Sue Branford and Jan Rocha, brilliant chroniclers of Brazils recent history, explain in this alarming and riveting book the popular disenchantment that now faces the Workers Party, leaving the country vulnerable to the return of the right, and to the possible collapse not just of its left-wing government but of the pink tide in Latin America as a whole.
Richard Gott, author of Hugo Chvez and the Bolivarian Revolution
Brazil under the Workers Party is hugely enlightening, a balanced but critical analysis of a tumultuous period. It manages to give a strong sense of the tendencies, movements, debates and dilemmas, while steering through their detail, to arrive at a sober and sobering appraisal of the PTs record in government.
David H. Treece, Camoens Professor of Portuguese, Kings College London
Sue Branford and Jan Rochas gutsy new book provides a succinct yet thoughtful contribution to a growing debate over Brazils Workers Party and its experience at the helm of four national governments since 2003. Two seasoned journalists, who know Brazil inside out, tell an effective story. Their tale, above all, captures the climate of angst, uncertainty and frustration among the Brazilian left, as President Dilma Rousseff enters her second term in office.
Miguel Carter, Founding Director, DEMOS Centro para la Democracia, la Creatividad y la Inclusin Social, Asuncin
Branford and Rocha are amongst the most careful, committed and insightful analysts of Brazil and have followed the history of the PT from its origins. What they write here is of immense importance. They show that there is much to learn from the ambivalent and disappointing fate of a world-changing historical project. I recommend this book enthusiastically and strongly.
Hilary Wainwright, founding editor Red Pepper, Fellow of the Transnational Institute and writer on radical political parties and experiments in political transformation
Branford and Rochas thoughtful study of the rise and fall of the Workers Party in Brazil should be required reading for all those seeking to understand the crisis facing social democratic parties the world over. The partys rejection of agrarian reform, tax justice or structural political change lost it the support of Brazils powerful social movements, while its recent adoption of classic austerity policies has forfeited its very legitimacy. The authors conclusion is a compelling one: for left parties, transformative social and political change is the only hope of success.
John Hilary, Executive Director, War on Want, author of The Poverty of Capitalism
This book is lively, imaginative and provocative. Not everyone will agree with its critique of recent PT governments, but it will spark debate about the recent political history and possible futures of Brazil.
Professor Anthony Pereira, Director, Kings Brazil Institute, Kings College London
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Sue Branford and Jan Rocha
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ISBN 9781909014008 Hardback
ISBN 9781909014015 Paperback
ISBN 9781909013902 Library Ebook
ISBN 9781909013896 Ebook
Citation: Branford, S., and Rocha, J., (2015) Brazil Under the Workers Party: from euphoria to despair, Rugby, UK: Practical Action Publishing,
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Contents
When Dilma Rousseff strode up the ramp to the presidential palace on 1 January 2015, it marked the fourth consecutive time that a candidate from the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores, Workers Party) had taken office. The country had narrowly, yet decisively, backed continuation of the PTs programme of change. Or so it seemed. Less than three months later, the country was in turmoil, with hundreds of thousands on the streets in anti-PT demonstrations and calls for Dilma to be impeached. The right was in the ascendancy. What had gone wrong?
On Sunday March 15 2015 more than half a million Brazilians took to the streets to protest against corruption and to demand the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, who only six months earlier had won a tightly-contested roller coaster of an election. Although few of the protesters came from the poorest classes or the trade unions, there was no denying the scale and breadth of the marches. What a contrast with October 2002, when hundreds of thousands celebrated the victory of the PTs charismatic candidate, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, an industrial worker. Back then people were waving red flags and some, men and women, were weeping with joy and disbelief that the left had finally taken power. But in March 2015 the protesters were carrying placards demanding Fora Dilma! (Dilma Out!). One poster read: Nation + Liberty = PT Out! After 12 years of government by the PT (
