is a very impressive result. José Correa e Joao Machado
Unlike previous Brazilian elections, this campaign was marked by a high level of apathy. After four years of Lula's social-liberal government, the trustrated hopes were revealed in the almost complete absence of the kind of vibrant street activity that charaterized the PT in the past.
However, this widespread For Heloisa to win more than 6.5 million votes, or 6.85% of the disenchantment with politics has deeper roots too. There have been big changes in The country's increasingly subordinate insertion into the world market and the neo-liberal reshaping of its productive capacity means ist left - rooted in the workPT and the CUT trade union federation ceased to exist. one thing that distinguished
the Brazilian left from that in the rest of Latin America throughout the 1980s and 1990s - mass, socialist, political action, rooted in the organized proletariat and autonomous from the capitalist class. The same thing has happened to the social move. Throughout the 1990s, the Landless Workers' Movement was the only social movement capable of valid votes, in the historical context of Brazil and the world today,
mobilizing on a large scale. The trade unions long ceased Brazilian society since 1990. to have any political impact.
The new generations have no mobilisations. What emerged in these elections was a neo-populist hat a large part of the social- PT - an electoral machine
based on Lula's own charising class, which founded the matic leadership and on the
control of public funds; a vote tactically increased. - has simply machine committed to the
There no longer exists the but which presents itself as political weakness. It proved
the champion of the poor -thereby ensuring that business continues as usual.
In this context of retreat,
the candidacy of Heloisa
Helena standing for the Left
Front expressed the resistance to this deformation of
the left. The P-SOL played a
more significant part in these
than I LS fragile
organisation and minority
social base would have suggested - thanks to the popularity and of
Senator Heloisa Helena.
By August she had reached 12% in the opinion polls. However, from the moment experience of big social the official election TV propaganda began and the big electoral machines moved into action, that relatively favourable situation ceased to exist. The Left Front could not compete. The pressure to
Another difficulty for the stability of the ruling classes, Left Front campaign was its impossible to build a unified
page 13 of the scan
Heloisa Helena political leadership for the Canvas mu must slalcs ment that was clearly socialliberal; he followed, on the welcome conference: outbreak of
their own hands and change Hugo Chavez