At the very end of September, Heloisa Helena, the senator at the forefront of opposition to the Brazilian government's right-wing economic policies, announced she had no intention of walking out of the governing Workers Party (PT). If the leadership really wanted to silence her, they would have to pay the price of expelling
Heloisa, who is a member of the Socialist Democracy Tendency (which organises supporters of the Fourth International in the PT), has been under pressure to stand in next year's local elections for Mayor of Maceio, the capital of her home state of Alagoas.
The PT leadership postponed until the end of October the meeting that was to decide whether to expel Heloisa and three other members of parliament. This would be after the deadline for registering as a candidate in those elections and was widely seen as a manoeuvre to persuade Heloisa to leave the PT of her own accord in time to register under the name of another party.
At least two other parties on the left had offered her their ticket. But the former teachers' leader whose term as senator is now coming towards its end, has decided to stay and fight within the PT.
Heloisa spoke to Brazil's biggest daily newspaper, the Folha de Sao Paulo, about her decision. Folha: By staying in the PT, have you given up standing for Mayor of Maceio? Heloisa Helena: I am not going to be dictated to by the electoral calendar. I'm putting my name down for the PT primaries, I want to stand for mayor, but I'm not going to do what they want. As a girl growing up in a Andrew Kennedy
The protests against the DSEi Systems Equipment International) arms fair in London's Docklands in September were successful in many ways. They attracted a lot of publicity, much of it positive, and put Britain's role in the murderous international arms trade squarely on the agenda.
The government and police had hoped to get away with using anti-terrorist legislation against the protestors but they faced a backlash on this issue. Channel Four News showed a young protestor explaining that his rucksack had been searched under antiterrorism legislation to reveal only a jumper and potato salad! It was patently obvious to many people that the "war on terrorism" was being used to criminalise dissent.
Credit should go to the anarchists and members of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) who initiated the umbrella co-ordinating group "Disarm DEi" and organised for the event for over a year
The "organised" socialist left got involved in building the protests relatively late and poor family, I often had to enter by the back door. I've no intention of leaving by it. It's not my style. If they want me to leave, they'll have to go through with their show trial and point their totalitarian, neo-stalinist finger at me. Folha: Aren't you afraid of expulsion? Heloisa: I was brought up out in the drought-ridden backlands of the Northeast, where you learn to live with solitude and hunger. The presidential palace cannot punish me for voting in favour of the positions we've defended for so long in the PT, and which have now been changed without any democratic debate. Those positions were decided by our last national conference. Folha: Do you still believe in Lula's government? Heloisa: In the first nine months the economic policy has been conservative and subservient to the markets, continuing that of the previous government. This could change. Not because the government itself decides to change, but because of the pressure of objective reality, because of pressure from the social movements and from many PT members. It may be forced to change. Folha: What are you most disappointed about in the Lula government? Heloisa: Being submitted to a process of expulsion while the government licks the boots of some of the biggest crooks in Brazilian politics. That really hurts. And I'm depressed by the huge chasm that has opened up between what we promised people when we were in opposition and what we are doing now in government. were only peripherally involved in the regular planning meetings and political discussions. CND seem to have lent their support earlier than the Stop the War Coalition, but neither seemed to regard it as a priority. However, anti-DSEi campaigners could have put more effort into winning over sections of the Stop the War Coalition. Links were established with several local Stop the War groups, but the Coalition was too often viewed with suspicion.
There was also a lack of success in gaining local involvement, with little sustained campaigning activity over the spring and summer to mobilise East Londoners to understand and sympathise, let alone join in with the protests.
Local socialists, with their trade union and community association connections, could have played a part in building community SUPPOLL
The lack of trade union involvement was a big problem. The police were emboldened to raid squats, to follow the organisers late at night, to stop and search people under the terrorism laws and to engage in cheeky, paparazzi-like behaviour taking picGrief as another Palestinian teenager is buried after more Israeli violence