[Marxism] Re: runoff may be needed in Brazil

[Louis Proyect]

>I'm with you on this issue Fred. I don't know that much about Brazilian
>politics, but in the current context a loss for Lula in the second round
>would be a real blow, to the working class in Brazil and for all Latin
>America.
>
>Not to see this would be real sectarian blindness. Is the PSOL really
>that out to lunch?
>
>Jon Flanders

You can say exactly the same thing about the Spanish Civil War. A victory 
for Franco paved the way for WWII. But the real question is not whether 
fascism is bad, but how to prevent it. If Lula had simply used his 
presidency to advance the popular struggles, there would have been no 
serious challenge to his left.  Leaving aside Helena's credentials as a 
leftist, I am afraid that I am hearing the same complaints about her 
campaign that I heard about Ralph Nader's.

The Washington Post
October 28, 2002 Monday

Brazil Elects Lula in a Landslide; Nation's First Vote for Leftist Could 
Set Back Plan for Hemispheric Free-Trade Zone

BYLINE: Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: SAO PAULO, Brazil Oct. 27

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who never attended 
college, won a landslide victory today in a Brazilian presidential election 
that reflected the disenchantment sweeping much of Latin America after a 
decade of free-market reforms that have failed to deliver promised prosperity.

Lula, as the gray-bearded socialist is known, defeated his centrist 
opponent, Jose Serra, a former government minister, by a huge margin. With 
95 percent of the vote counted, Lula had 61.5 percent, compared with 38.5 
percent for Serra, after a day when millions of Brazilians cast ballots 
before massing along busy boulevards across the country for evening 
celebrations. Few voting problems were reported. Serra conceded the 
election to Lula in a congratulatory phone call tonight.

Lula's victory marks the first time a leftist has been elected president of 
Latin America's most populous country, and is the clearest demonstration to 
date of the growing backlash against globalization in this part of the 
world. His election could mean trouble for the economic reforms backed by 
the United States -- in particular, a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone -- 
that represent the Bush administration's most important policy initiatives 
in Latin America.

While voting in this city's middle-class suburb of Sao Bernardo, Lula 
appeared to speak to the millions of Brazilians who have endorsed his 
pledge to move the world's eighth-largest economy away from the "Washington 
consensus" followed by his predecessor and toward what he has called a "new 
economic model" for this traditionally conservative country.

"I want to dedicate this election to the suffering poor of our beloved 
Brazil," Lula told hundreds of chanting, cheering supporters who had 
gathered at the polling place.

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If this guy had simply kept his promises to the "suffering poor", he would 
not have the problems he has today.


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