Brazil at the Crossroads: Landless Movement Confronts Crisis of the Left
by Tarso Luís Ramos
RIO DE JANEIRO - By all rights, social movements in Brazil should be flourishing. In 2002 Brazilians elected as their president Luíz Inácio “Lula” da Silva of the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Workers Party). The PT has roots in the militant labor
and popular movements that helped bring a close to Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship in the mid-’80s. Its presidential victory raised hopes that, some twenty years after the end of military rule, the promise of popular democracy in Brazil might finally be fulfilled.
However, the current political reality in Brazil is far more complicated – and sobering.
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