Home > IV Online magazine > 2010 > IV429 - October 2010 > Resolution of the national directorate of the PSOL on the 2nd round

Brazil

Resolution of the national directorate of the PSOL on the 2nd round

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Save this article in PDF Version imprimable de cet article Version imprimable

The first round of the Brazilian presidential election was held n the 3rd of October 2010. Despite her long lead in the polls, Dilma Roussef, the PT candidate, described by Lula as "by voting for her you are voting for me" did not achieve a first round victory. The second round will be held on the 31st of October. Commentators are questioning whether the PT candidate will in fact win. In this resolution adopted on the 15th of October the PSol outlines its position for this second round.

The Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) won the confidence of more than one million Brazilians who voted in the elections of 2010. Our bold militancy was decisive in defending our proposals for the country, and it delivered a victorious result.

We are honoured because we had Plinio Arruda Sampaio and Hamilton Assis as candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the Republic, who in a dignified manner were spokespersons for our project of social transformation for Brazil. We welcome the election of three federal MEPs (Ivan Valente/SP, Chico Alencar/RJ and Jean Wyllys/RJ), four state deputies (Marcelo Freixo/RJ, Janira Rocha/RJ, Carlos Giannazi/SP and Edmilson Rodrigues/PA) and two senators (Randolfe Rodrigues/AP and Marinor Brito/PA). We regret Heloísa Helena’s non-election to the Senate in Alagoas and the non-reelection of our federal deputy Luciana Genro in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as comrade Raul Marcelo, current state deputy of the PSOL.

In 2010, the people face again a second round between PSDB and PT. Our position of independence supporting neither of the two candidacies is founded on the fact that neither of them has any engagement with the programmatic points defended by the PSOL. This being so, independent of whoever the next government is, we will be a left and programmatic opposition, defending the following agenda: an audit of the public debt, a change of economic policy, priority for health and education, reduction of the working day to 40 hours a week, defence of the environment, defence of human rights according to the proposals of the Human Rights Commission, land and urban ecological reform and a broad political reform - the end of private financing in favour of exclusive public funding, as a way of combating corruption in politics.

However, the PSOL is concerned about the growing conservative direction introduced by the PSDB DEM alliance, wishing to reduce the debate to religious and false moralist themes, thus blocking the big topics of interest of the country. On the other hand, this direction leads the candidacy of Dilma to assume a more conservative position, renouncing the progressive points of her programme of government and reacting inside the field of conservative ideas and not against them. For the PSOL the only way to combat the retrogression is to stand firm in the defence of banners which raise the consciousness of our people and the level of political debate in Brazilian society.

The elections of 2002 which led to the Lula victory brought a message from the people in favour of profound changes. Today we know that Lula did not honour it, failed in his campaign promises and governed for the bankers, in alliance with reactionary oligarchs like Sarney, Collor and Renan Calheiros. But the popular sentiment for change in 2002 was also a rejection of neo-liberal policies with their consequential privatisations and criminalisation of social movements, which continued in the Lula Government- and revocation of labour and social rights.

For this reason, the PSOL reaffirms its commitment to the demands of the social movements and the needs of the Brazilian people. We are an independent party and we will form a programmatic opposition to whatever is to come. In this second round, we maintain a strong opposition to the candidacy of Serra, declaring unitarily "NO VOTE FOR SERRA", because we consider that he represents the return to a right wing, conservative neoliberal offensive in the country. At the same time, we do not support the campaign of Dilma who rejected systematically in the first round the positions defended by the candidacy of the PSOL and maintained commitments to the bankers and neo-liberal policies. Before the second round and in the current conjuncture, two positions are recognized by the national directorate of our party as legitimate options existing in our militancy: a spoiled ballot or a critical vote for Dilma.

The most important thing, therefore is that we prepare for the struggles that are coming in the next period to defend the rights of the workers and oppressed people of our country.

National Directorate of the PSOL – October 15, 2010.