November 22, 2006. Copyright 2006, Graphic News. All rights reserved

BrazilÕs President Lula determined to fulfil his destiny
By Jo Griffin

LONDON, November 22, Graphic News:  In his second term as president, BrazilÕs Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to build on his governmentÕs efforts to reduce chronic inequality in the vast South American nation, and to put behind him the political scandals that forced him into a second round of elections in October.

His leftwing WorkersÕ Party (PT) will have to secure alliances if it is to push through an agenda that includes far-reaching reforms of tax and social security, as well as programmes to boost education for the countryÕs impoverished millions.

The widespread popularity of Lula, a former shoeshine boy who first won the presidency on his fourth attempt in 2002, secured him 60 percent of the votes in the run-off despite his party becoming engulfed in scandal over a Òdirty tricksÓ affair. It marked the end of a long journey for the former unionist firebrand turned savvy politician.

It had begun so differently. Lula was born in 1945 in the parched north-eastern state of Pernambuco. As a young boy, he travelled overland on the back of a truck with his mother and seven siblings to start a new life with his father in Guajara, in San Paolo state. The future president sold peanuts and shined shoes before he was eventually taken on as an apprentice lathe worker, and it was in this role that he lost a finger in an accident at age 19.

After his first wife and son died during childbirth Lula became increasingly involved in trade unionism, and in 1975 he was elected leader of the 100,000-strong SteelworkersÕ Union. He can fairly claim to have played a key role in forging a real alternative to the ruling elite: in 1980 he brought together leftwing and church groups to form the WorkersÕ Party (PT), whose campaigns succeeded in restoring the democratic vote in 1989.

He lost his bid for the presidency that year, and two subsequent attempts before winning a landslide victory in 2002. By then Lula had tamed not only his beard but also his fiery leftwing rhetoric. He donned a suit, brought leading economists on side and promised that he would both reduce inequality and boost economic growth.

Since then his government has spent billions of dollars on social programmes and increased the minimum wage well above inflation. Innovative policies such as the Òbolsa familiaÓ, a monthly grant to the poorest, have certainly helped him to ride out political storms that have engulfed the PT, including a cash-for-votes scandal last year. 

Critics may take issue with his habit of presenting himself as the only possible saviour of the poor in Brazil, where almost a third live on under $2 a day, but persuading them to think differently about their first working class president has proven difficult. His policies have alienated farmers while many landless accuse him of stalling on land reform.

Neither is he completely out of the woods over the scandal of the dirty tricks Òdossier affairÓ, which police are still investigating. If he does emerge unscathed, however, his story may yet end with his historic role in reversing the fates of many poor in Brazil.
/ENDS