Social Movements and Political Parties in Brazil: Expanding Democracy, the ‘Struggle for the Possible’ and the Reproduction of Power Structures

Abstract

During the past 15 years, the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) has changed from a party with a mission of radical social transformation through democratic representation to a party which accepts and has integrated itself into the dominant political and economic regimes of the day. Concurrently, many social movements have come to depend on PT governments to express and successfully achieve their existential and program claims while others have abandoned their goals of social transformation for specific social programs which they call the ‘struggle for the possible’. The result is that social movements, in their relationship to the ruling national party, contribute to reproducing the structure of power, but concurrently open a political space for the excluded populations they represent. This article analyzes the relationship between social movements and political parties through a comparative study of three Brazilian social movements (São Paulo housing movement, the women's movement, and the MST) and their relationship with the Workers' Party since it gained power at the national level in 2003. It describes how these social movements participate in party politics, how their political strategy relates to overall movement goals and mission, how they interact with political parties during elections, and if their political participation advances their claims.

Durante los últimos 15 años, el Partido de Trabajadores Brasileños (PT, por sus siglas en inglés) ha cambiado de ser un partido con una misión de transformación social radical a través de una representación democrática, a un partido que ha aceptado e integrado a sí mismo dentro de los respectivos regímenes políticos y económicos dominantes. Simultáneamente, muchos movimientos sociales han llegado a depender de los gobiernos del PT para expresar y alcanzar exitosamente sus reclamaciones existenciales y programas, mientras otros han abandonado sus objetivos de transformación social por programas sociales específicos a los cuales llaman “la lucha por lo posible”. El resultado es que los movimientos sociales, en su relación con el partido nacional en el poder, contribuyen a reproducir la estructura del poder, pero simultáneamente abren un espacio político para las poblaciones excluidas que ellos representan. Este artículo analiza la relación entre los movimientos sociales y los partidos políticos a través de un estudio comparativo de tres movimientos sociales brasileños (Movimiento en favor de la vivienda de San Pablo, el Movimiento de las mujeres y el MST) y su relación con el Partido de los Trabajadores desde que ganó poder a nivel nacional en 2003. Describe cómo participan estos movimientos sociales en política de partido, cómo se relaciona su estrategia política a los objetivos y la misión del movimiento, cómo interactúan con los partidos políticos durante las elecciones y si su participación avanza sus objetivos.

在过去的15年中，巴西劳工党(PT)已经从一个追求通过民主代表实现激进社会转型的党，变成了一个接受并融入当今主导性政治经济体制的党。同时，许多社会运动已开始依靠巴西劳工党表达并成功实现了其根本的和纲领性目标；其他社会运动已经放弃了社会转型的目标而转向它们美其名曰“为追求可能而斗争”的特定社会项目。结果是，通过与该执政党的关系，这些社会运动推动了权力结构的再生产，但同时也为它们所代表的受到排斥的群体打开了一个政治空间。本文通过对巴西三个社会运动——圣保罗住房运动、妇女运动和巴西无地工人运动(MST)——与2003年上台执政后的巴西劳工党的关系进行比较研究，分析了社会运动与政党之间的关系。本文描述了这些社会运动如何参与党派政治，其政治战略如何与其总体目标和使命相联系，它们在选举中如何与政党互动，以及其政治参与是否有助于其主张的实现。

지난 15년 동안 브라질의 노동자당(PT)은 민주적 대표를 통한 급진적 사회변혁 임무를 지진 정당에서 당시 지배적인 정치적, 경제적 레짐을 받아들이고, 거기에 자신을 통합시키는 정당으로 변했다. 그리하여 많은 다른 사회운동들이 “가능성을 위한 투쟁(the struggle for the possible)”이라고 부른 구체적인 사회 프로그램을 실현시키기 위한 사회변혁의 목표를 포기하였지만, 또 다른 많은 사회운동들은 정부에 정책 요구를 드러내고 그것을 성공적으로 실현시키기 위해 PT 정부에 의존하게 되었다. 그 결과 사회운동이 여당과의 관계에서 권력을 재생산하는데 기여하고 결과적으로 그들이 대변하는 배제된 인구에 정치적 공간을 열게 되었다. 이 글은 2003년 3개의 브라질 사회운동(싸웅파울로 주거운동, 여성운동과MST)의 비교연구를 통해서 사회운동과 여러 정당들과의 관계 그리고 PT와의 관계를 분석하고, 선거에서 어떻게 정당들과 상호작용하고 그리고 정치참여가 그들의 요구를 진전시켰는지를 다룬다.

Keywords:

• social movements
• political parties
• political society
• Brazil
• Left
• MST
• housing movement
• women's movement
• Workers' Party

Notes

The PT is considered a mass party with highly formalized and institutionalized processes of decision-making and leadership elections. At all levels, the rank and file have many opportunities to participate in party deliberations and manifest their preferences. Dissidence is permitted and institutionalized through different internal groups and currents (Samuels, 2004, pp. 9–10).

Each sector elects a representative which represents it at the city level, which in turn elects a group of representatives at the state level which then elects a group of representatives at the national level.

UMM website, http://www.sp.unmp.org.br/.

This aims at changing the habits of individuals in order to create a collective understanding of city living and a sense of citizenship to motivate individuals into taking action to claim their rights.

In the 1980s many of these agents came from the Catholic Church, but during the 1990s and 2000s most came from NGOs.

Interviewed in September 2010.

Excluded from this definition are all forms of ‘state-linked mass organizations for women, women's branches of political parties, trade unions and other organizations of civil society that are not primarily organised to advance women's gender specific concerns’ (Alvarez, 1990, p. 23).

Some dissident voices within the MST state that certain leaders have endured at the national and intermediate levels (Interviews with two past sector coordinators, September 2011).

For this reason it launched the Consulta Popular to regroup Leftist forces outside of the party and create a socialist alternative to capitalist society.

Some of these candidates have come from MST leadership and others have come from allied organizations. The former run and serve as individuals not as representatives of the MST (Vergara-Camus, 2009, p. 186).

In this letter, over 50 leaders accuse the MST of becoming dependent on the state, abandoning trangressional forms of contention so as to not destabilize the PT government despite numerous policies against MST interests (government investment in agro-business, the legal approval of genetically modified crops, and the expansion of the agricultural border towards the Amazon region).

Early on in the first PT mandate the Left split when PT deputies left the party to form a new party, the PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade).

In 2005, the mensalão scandal broke out tarnishing the PT's reputation among social movements and the larger public demonstrating that the PT is no more ethical than traditional ruling elite parties. Following this scandal the PT embarked upon a new effort to strengthen ties with its traditional movement allies.

Although Hochstetler (2008, p. 39) stresses broadly shared positions of CSOs because Brazilian CSOs are inclined to organize themselves into temporary or permanent networks plan collective action, I see a fundamental difference between social movements and NGOs in terms of representation, governance, and composition.

However, according to an interview with an ex-member of the MST national coordination, it did participate for four years in the PT national directory during the 1990s.

This included expanding its alliances to include the middle classes in order to enlarge its electoral base and increase its possibilities to win future elections.

Interview with dissent ex-MST member in September 2011.