Workers' Party (Brazil)

"Partido dos Trabalhadores" redirects here. For the Bissau-Guinean party, see Workers' Party (Guinea-Bissau).
Not to be confused with Brazilian Labour Party.

Workers' Party
Partido dos Trabalhadores
AbbreviationPT
PresidentGleisi Hoffmann
Vice PresidentWashington Quaquá
Honorary PresidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Founded10 February 1980; 44 years ago (1980-02-10)
Registered11 February 1982; 42 years ago (1982-02-11)
Headquarters
NewspaperFocus Brasil[1]
Think tankFundação Perseu Abramo[2]
Student wingJuventude do PT[3]
Membership (2024)Increase 1,608,140[4]
Ideology
Political position
National affiliationBrazil of Hope
Regional affiliationSão Paulo Forum
COPPPAL
International affiliationProgressive Alliance[21]
Colors  Red   White
TSE Identification Number13
Governorships
1 / 27
Mayors
180 / 5,570[22]
Federal Senate
9 / 81
Chamber of Deputies
69 / 513
Mercosur Parliament
5 / 38
State Assemblies
83 / 1,024
City Councillors
1,675 / 56,810[22]
Party flag
Flag of the Workers' Party
Website
pt.org.br
^ A: A broad left-wing faction, it includes some far-left[23] factions.
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The Workers' Party (Portuguese: Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) is a centre-left[24][25] political party in Brazil that is currently the country's ruling party. Some scholars classify its ideology in the 21st century as social democracy, with the party shifting from a broadly socialist ideology in the 1990s,[5] although the party retains a left-wing[26][27] and marginal far-left faction to this day.[23] Founded in 1980, PT governed at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties from 1 January 2003 to 31 August 2016. After the 2002 parliamentary election, PT became the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the largest in the Federal Senate for the first time.[28] With the highest approval rating in the history of the country at one time, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was PT's most prominent member.[29] Dilma Rousseff, also a member of PT, was elected twice (first on 31 October 2010, and then again on 26 October 2014) but did not finish her second term due to her impeachment in 2016. The party came back to power with Lula's victory in the 2022 presidential election.

Both born among the opposition to the 1964 coup d'état and the subsequent military dictatorship, PT and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) were the biggest adversaries in contemporary Brazilian politics from 1994 to 2014, with their candidates finishing either first or second on the ballot in each presidential election in that period. The Worker's Party won five presidential elections since the country reinstated democracy, and came in second in every other election held in that time.

The party has been involved in a number of corruption scandals since Lula first came to power and saw its popular support plummet between 2015 and 2020, with presidential approval ratings falling from over 80% to 9%[30] and successive reductions in all elected offices since 2014.[31][32] The 2022 general election marked a turning point in that trajectory.

The party symbols are a five-pointed red star inscribed with the initials "PT" in the center; a red flag with a white star also with the initials in the center; and the Workers Party's anthem.[33] Its Superior Electoral Court (TSE) identification number is 13. Members and sympathisers of the party are known as "Petistas".

  1. ^ "Revista Focus Brasil" (in Brazilian Portuguese).
  2. ^ "Página inicial - com gutenberg". Fundação Perseu Abramo. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  3. ^ "Juventude do PT". pt.org.br (in Brazilian Portuguese).
  4. ^ "Estatísticas de filiação" [Membership Statistics]. sig.tse.jus.br (in Portuguese).
  5. ^ a b Samuels, David (2004). "From Socialism to Social Democracy: Party Organization and the Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil". Comparative Political Studies. 37 (9): 999–1024. doi:10.1177/0010414004268856. ISSN 0010-4140. S2CID 10001704.
  6. ^ "Is Social Democracy Possible in Latin America?". Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  7. ^ "Guidelines for soy don't protect tropical forests in Brazil". Futurity. November 2, 2022. Retrieved January 11, 2023. Voters chose between the conservative Jair Bolsonaro and the liberal Lula da Silva.
  8. ^ Liisa L. North, Timothy D. Clark, ed. (2017). Dominant Elites in Latin America: From Neo-Liberalism to the 'Pink Tide'. Springer. p. 212. ISBN 9783319532554. In Brazil, as Simone Bohn makes straightforward (Chap. 3), the progressive Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) governments did not threaten the power of the national elite or landlord class; ...
  9. ^ "Proposta do PT é "populista' e "estúpida", diz Dornbusch" [PT's proposal is "populist" and "stupid", says Dornbusch]. Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese).
  10. ^ Cattan, Nacha; Biller, David (October 31, 2017). "These Elections Could Reshape Latin America". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  11. ^ Singer, André (2009). "Raízes sociais e ideológicas do lulismo" [Social and ideological roots of Lulism]. Novos Estudos - CEBRAP (in Brazilian Portuguese) (85): 83–102. doi:10.1590/S0101-33002009000300004.
  12. ^ Busky, Donald F. (2000). Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 9780275968861.
  13. ^ Uribe, Gustavo; Herédia, Thais (September 21, 2016). "Apesar de resistência do PT, Lula quer participação de Meirelles em eventual governo, dizem aliados" [Despite PT's resistance, Lula wants Meirelles to participate in an eventual government, say allies]. CNN Brazil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  14. ^
    • Amaral, Oswaldo E. do. A estrela não é mais vermelha: as mudanças do programa petista nos anos 1990 (in Brazilian Portuguese). São Paulo, Garçoni, 2003.
    • Gadotti, M.; Pereira, O. Pra que PT: Origem, Projeto e Consolidação do Partido dos Trabalhadores (in Brazilian Portuguese). São Paulo, Cortez, 1989.
    • Keck, Margareth E. PT: a lógica da diferença: o Partido dos Trabalhadores na construção da democracia brasileira (in Brazilian Portuguese). São Paulo, Ática, 1991.
    • Singer, André. Raizes sociais e ideológicas do lulismo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Revista Novos Estudos CEBRAP, n. 85, nov. 2009.
  15. ^ van Dyck, Brandon Philip (2014). The Paradox of Adversity: New Left Party Survival and Collapse in Latin America. Harvard University. pp. 112–113.
  16. ^ Machado, Adriano Henriques (2010). Os católicos oPTaram?: os "setores católicos" e o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) na grande São Paulo (1978-1982) (in Portuguese). p. 60.
  17. ^ Smith, Amy Erica (2019). Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. doi:10.1017/9781108699655. ISBN 978-1-108-48211-0.
  18. ^ Knoll, Travis (2019). "Seeking Liberation in Brazil". NACLA Report on the Americas. 51 (3): 229–230. doi:10.1080/10714839.2019.1650483. ISSN 2471-2620.
  19. ^ Flynn, Peter (2005). "Brazil and Lula, 2005: crisis, corruption and change in political perspective". Third World Quarterly. 26 (8). Routledge: 1221–1267. doi:10.1080/01436590500400025. ISSN 1360-2241.
  20. ^ Heidi Moksnes; Mia Melin (2013). Faith in Civil Society: Religious Actors as Drivers of Change. Uppsala: Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development. p. 125. ISBN 978-91-980391-4-6. ISSN 1403-1264.
  21. ^ "Participants of the Denpasar Seminar, 19 – 20 September 2016 - Progressive Alliance". September 22, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  22. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference dilm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ a b Julien Figeac; Nathalie Paton; Angelina Peralva; Arthur Coelho Bezerra; Guillaume Cabanac; Héloïse Prévost; Pierre Ratinaud; Tristan Salord (2021). "Brazilian left-wing activists on Facebook: the role of cultural events in political participation". Brasiliana: Journal for Brazilian Studies. 10 (1): 263. doi:10.25160/bjbs.v10i1.125719. ISSN 2245-4373.
  24. ^ Gallas, Daniel (29 March 2016). "Dilma Rousseff and Brazil face up to decisive month". BBC News. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  25. ^ ""Dilma é muito mais de esquerda do que eu", afirma Lula" ["Dilma is much more leftist than me", says Lula]. Jornal O Sul (in Brazilian Portuguese). January 20, 2016. Archived from the original on December 1, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  26. ^ The demise of Brazil's great centrist party. The Economist. Published 1 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  27. ^ Khan, Shehab (14 November 2018). Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil's far-right president-elect accused of campaign funding irregularities. The Independent. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  28. ^ "PT elege maior bancada na Câmara e a segunda do Senado" Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. [PT elects the largest group in the Chamber and the second in the Senate]. JusBrasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 5 October 2010.
  29. ^ Rabello, Maria Luiza. "Lula's Chosen Heir Surges in Brazil Presidential Poll"[dead link‍]. Business Week. 1 February 2010.
  30. ^ "As cinco piores taxas de popularidade dos presidentes do Brasil". [The five worst popularity ratings of Brazilian presidents]. Veja (in Brazilian Portuguese). 27 July 2017.
  31. ^ "Saiba como eram e como ficaram as bancadas na Câmara dos Deputados, partido a partido" [Find out how the benches in the Chamber of Deputies were and how they were, party by party]. G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). October 8, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  32. ^ "PT "desaparece" das capitais, MDB lidera prefeituras e DEM é o que mais cresce; veja destaques" [PT "disappears" from the capitals, MDB leads city halls and DEM is the fastest growing; see highlights]. InfoMoney (in Brazilian Portuguese). November 30, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  33. ^ LuizPuodzius (September 18, 2011). "Hino do PT - Workers' Party of Brazil". Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2016 – via YouTube.