by Mark Johnson

Lucio Costa is a leading member of the Workers Party and of the revolutionary current Socialist Democracy (Democracia Socialista, or DS). “A bad Leninist, and a bad Catholic,” he makes no apologies for the tendency’s willingness to take positions in state institutions, or any of their other unorthodox policies.

“There is no manual for social revolution,” insists Costa. “Many ‘Leninists’ forget that Lenin based his political thinking on a thorough analysis of his country’s political economy and history. His What Is to Be Done? was written for one country (Russia), at one moment (1902–03). If we understand Leninism as absolute confidence in the working class, and an absolute conviction that communists must organize in a democratic and coordinated fashion, then we in DS are perfect Leninists. Or maybe I am just a bad Leninist, as well as a bad Catholic.”

“There is an immense difference between our tendency in Brazil, and much of the European Trotskyist movement. For us, the value of Trotskyism is its critique of Stalinism, its insistence on democracy in the movement, and Trotsky’s analysis of the degeneration of the Russian revolution. As for the model of party building adopted by most European Trotskyist organizations, I find it, frankly, unconvincing.

“For these reasons, I would say that here in Rio Grande do Sul, DS is not a Trotskyist organization. Maybe one in four of our cadre are ‘pure’ Trotskyists. Many of the rest have their roots and their identity closer to the progressive Catholic movements. In fact, when church people join DS, we tell them not to leave the church. But that is hardly surprising here in Brazil, Latin America.

“The Latin American left has tried everything — armed struggle, populism, electoral politics. As Che Guevara and Fidel Castro said, the most important thing is to do things, not tell other people what they should be doing.”

City councilor Helena Bonhuma shares much of Costa’s outlook, but worries that DS has moved too far from its roots in the rank-and-file movement. “We are all in the institutions now.”

Like much of the Brazilian left, Socialist Democracy (DS) began in the student vanguard. In 1979, the current decided to focus its activities on the labor movement. But, unlike “turns to industry” by revolutionary groups in many imperialist countries, the strategy was not based on cadre taking jobs in the industrial working class — largely because of the marked income differentials at that time.

Bonhuma has good memories of that period. “We built massive popular movements, and gained a lot of experience. I myself began organizing women agricultural workers. Women united to identify and defend their rights, and we forced the trade unions to vote to accept women as members. In those days, the DS had a big impact in the social movements. We need to rebuild that area of our work. To have more people in the social movements. To reinforce the autonomy of the social movements, irrespective of the type of government. Despite their many positive qualities, the people now leading the social movements don’t come from our tradition.

“But, if anything, there is a trend toward greater involvement of our tendency in the institutions. This is a complicated process. It is not just a question of having more and more positions in the state, at the expense of the social movements. We are also going deeper into the state. The PT victory in the state government means that we have much more power than at the municipal level. True, we are further from the citizen. But at the same time we can create new fields of struggle. We have a broader strategic focus, which gives us the possibility to create bigger conflicts with the establishment.

“The PT and DS are increasingly hegemonic in the left in Rio Grande do Sul state. Many young people want to join the DS because they like Miguel Rosseto, the state’s vice governor, and most prominent member of DS. But many of these new comrades have a low level of political education and consciousness. We have to educate these new members about our tradition, our ideas, and our way of working. People don’t know what the DS is and what we want. Our identity as a countercurrent is less visible than in the past.

“At the same time, our leading role is creating exciting new challenges. We are one of the few expressive, radical, national tendencies in the PT. And our role in Rio Grande has captured the interest of the left across Brazil. This gives us a growing power of attraction.

“To try and reinforce the DS, we have created a three-member leadership. Those comrades have elected positions in the PT, but not in government. That gives them the time to develop the DS as well as the PT. Part of their responsibility is to improve our connections with the national leadership of the DS, in São Paulo.

“For a number of years, the PT majority was hostile to the existence of tendencies within the party. As a result we lost members and our identity became more blurred. We are now trying to reverse those trends. Shortly after the 1995 Fourth International world congress we reestablished a more systematic national training program, with activities in all the states where we are active.”

Although the participatory budget process is 10 years old, and the PT in Rio Grande do Sul is strongly influenced by internationalist and Marxist currents, there are comparatively few contacts with the left in other countries. And those contacts are not always fruitful. In place of the “sometimes stratospheric” discussions of the far left, Mayor Raul Pont of Porto Alegre would like to see more international discussion of the questions that preoccupy DS and PT members in the government — how to confront the state from local institutions, how to govern without accepting the neoliberal logic, how to develop “can’t pay, won’t pay” and debt cancellation campaigns, direct democracy, and the relationship between social movements and political power.