The Workers’ Party has just held its 8th National Congress, in which it approved the document “Building the future: manifesto to continue transforming the country”. This is a programmatic piece with the ambition of presenting a map of the changes that the largest left-wing group proposes for Brazil. In principle, it should also guide this year’s electoral campaigns.
The text has three parts. The first is a diatribe against neoliberal capitalism. The four long opening paragraphs describe the harm the system has produced. But the proposed alternative to destructive capitalism is not clear. Would it be some form of domesticated capitalism, similar to that practiced by social democracies? Or a still unknown type of socialism compatible with democracy and individual freedoms?
The second part contains a detailed defense of what the government actually did to recover the country from the disaster caused during the extreme right’s administration — in terms of the economy; redistribution; the environment; of culture and social policies.
Finally, come the proposals, more national-developmental than social-reformative. The document speaks of “guidelines for a new national development project”, based on three axes: the reconstruction of the State as a driver of development; the acceleration of economic growth with redistribution of income, wealth and assets; the productive, technological and environmental transition guided by the principle of national sovereignty. Next, seven reforms appear lined up, without distinction of importance: political and electoral; tax; technological; of the Judiciary; administrative; agrarian; and communication. The lack of reference to the topic of social protection draws attention, as if there were no changes to be made in social assistance, social security or labor legislation.
It is not clear where the inspiration that animated the authors came from. It should not have been from the street consultation, in which opinion polls have repeatedly shown that public safety —ignored in the text— and health care, followed by the cost of living, constitute the population’s main concerns. Nor does it seem to come from contact with the real lives of the poor in cities, with their aspirations for stability and social ascension, their concern for their children’s education and for protecting them from the daily neighborhood of crime.
Last but not least, it seems not to have come from the enormous experience accumulated by the party’s good cadres, trained in almost 18 years in the Presidency, state governments, city halls and legislative houses. This experience could increase sensitivity to issues of public machine efficiency, fiscal restrictions, quality improvement and the implementation of government policies.
In “Building the Future” there is little to guide a democratic left-wing party, in tune with present challenges and capable of offering a progressive vision of the future.
In fact, the image projected by the document does not do justice to the real party, the thousands of cadres it formed and the governments it headed — and heads.
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