Editing Workers' Party (Brazil) (section)

==Ideology==
{{main|Socialism in Brazil}}
[[File:Manifestation of the CUT in Brasilia.jpg|thumb|Demonstration of the [[Central Única dos Trabalhadores]] (CUT) — Brazil's largest [[national trade union center]] — in [[Brasília]]. Both CUT and PT share the same origin and both organizations maintain a strong connection]]

Although PT deliberately never identified itself with a particular brand of leftism, it nevertheless "always defined itself as socialist" and espoused many radical positions.<ref name="dilm"/> For example, at the [[Brazilian Constituent Assembly (1988)|Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1988]] it advocated repudiation of Brazil's [[external debt]], nationalization of the country's banks and mineral wealth and a radical [[land reform]].<ref name="dilm">[http://dilmanarede.com.br/ondavermelha/blogs-amigos/convocacao-dia-nacional-de-mobilizacao-dilma-presidente-27-de-outubro Convocação: Dia Nacional de Mobilização Dilma Presidente 27 DE OUTUBRO] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706152118/http://dilmanarede.com.br/ondavermelha/blogs-amigos/convocacao-dia-nacional-de-mobilizacao-dilma-presidente-27-de-outubro |date=July 6, 2011 }}, Secretaria de cultura do PT-DF, 22 October 2010</ref> In addition, as a form of protest and as a signal that the party did not fully accept the "rules of the game" PT's delegates refused to sign the draft constitution.<ref name="dilm"/>

Over the next few years, the party moderated a bit, but it never clearly shed its radicalism and undertook no major reforms of party principles even after Lula's defeat in the [[1989 Brazilian presidential election|1989 presidential elections]].<ref name="dilm"/> For example, the resolution from the party's 8th National Meeting in 1993 reaffirmed PT's "revolutionary and socialist character", condemned the "conspiracy" of the elites to subvert democracy, stated that the party advocated "radical agrarian reform and suspension of the external debt" and concluded that "capitalism and private property cannot provide a future for humanity".<ref name="dilm"/>
[[File:MST International Socialist46623.jpeg|thumb|Activists of the [[Landless Workers' Movement]], one of the main social movements linked to the Worker's Party]]
In 1994, Lula ran for the presidency again and during his campaign dismissed [[Fernando Henrique Cardoso]]'s recently implemented Real Plan as an "electoral swindle".<ref name="dilm"/> The resolutions from the 1994 National Meeting condemned the "control by the dominant classes over the means of production" and reaffirmed the party's "commitment to socialism".<ref name="dilm"/> PT's Program of Government that year also committed the party to "anti-monopolist, anti-[[Latifundium|latifúndio]], and anti-imperialist change [...] as part of a long-term strategy to construct an alternative to capitalism", statements that "sent shivers down the spine of the international financial community". Thus, as of 1995 "little or nothing" had changed in PT's official ideology since the early 1990s.<ref name="dilm"/>

After Lula's 1994 loss, the party began a slow process of self-examination.<ref name="dilm"/> The resolution adopted at its 10th National Meeting in 1995 stated that "our 1994 defeat invites a cruel reflection about our image in society, about the external impact of our internal battles, [and] about our ideological and political ambiguities".<ref name="dilm"/> The move from self-examination did not involve a clean break with the past as in other socialist parties after the end of the Cold War.<ref name="dilm"/> The process was gradual, full of contradictions and replete with intra-party tension.<ref name="dilm"/> By 1997, the National Meeting resolution redefined PT's version of socialism as a "democratic revolution", emphasizing a political rather than economic vision of socialism that aimed to make the state "more transparent and socially accountable".<ref name="dilm"/>

Lula's third presidential campaign platform in 1998 cut socialist proposals and even the mention of a transition to a socialist society, but the party's self-definition remained highly ambiguous as the resolution from the party's Meeting that year affirmed that Lula's platform "should not be confused with the socialist program of PT".<ref name="dilm"/> Thus, while PT had begun to distance itself from its original socialist rhetoric and proposals by 1998, a clearer shift did not occur until after Lula lost again that year and after Lula and his group had more fully digested the impact of Brazil's changing political context and of Cardoso's economic reforms.<ref name="dilm"/>

During Lula's fourth presidential run in 2002, the transition away from overt left-wing policies was fully cemented, and in a document known as the ''Letter to the Brazilian People'', Lula committed himself and his party to the reform of taxes and pensions, and to promoting economic growth.<ref>[https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u33908.shtml]. Retrieved 2020-12-04.</ref> He also accepted some of the liberal reforms from the Cardoso government, meaning that the party program was now ''de facto'' centre-left and social democratic in its ideology. Lula won the 2002 election in a landslide. However, some of the more left-wing factions of the party were critical of this turn toward the center and later left to form new left-wing parties like the [[Socialism and Liberty Party]].

The party has a strong left-wing Catholic faction, and the Catholic left is considered the leading force behind the creation of the party, together with the Marxist left and 'new unionism'. Catholic grassroots communities known as CEBs became widespread in Brazil and became the backbone of organization development of the PT in rural peripheries and rural areas, where the party relied on its Catholic faction to provide structural network. Whereas the party was considered a 'vehicle' for social change, supportive Catholic communities were "gasoline stations". The socialism of PT appealed to the Brazilian Catholic left, who was heavily influenced by [[liberation theology]] and believed that Marxism and [[Political Catholicism]] complemented one another. One of pro-PT Catholic priests, [[Frei Betto]], declared in 1986: "A real Christian is a communist, and a real communist a Christian."<ref name="dyk">{{cite book |title=The Paradox of Adversity: New Left Party Survival and Collapse in Latin America |first=Brandon Philip |last=van Dyck |year=2014 |publisher=Harvard University |pages=111–114}}</ref>

Thanks to its large grassroots base, the Catholic left allowed PT to expand en masse and influenced the ideology of the party, as the Catholic factions provided meeting places for PT nuclei and engaged in "political consciousness-raising" amongst the rural population. Because of this, the pastoral work of the Catholic Church is considered to have been "fundamental for the PT's achieving a truly national character". One of the co-founders of PT, Hamilton Pereira, wrote that thanks to its Catholic origins, the party "became a party that [brought] along the various expressions of Brazil". Lula also stated several times that the Catholic left played a more important role in the PT than trade unions.<ref name="dyk"/> The Workers' Party was the only party in Brazil able to develop such close relations with the Catholic Church.<ref name="smith"/>

The PT is also influenced by [[liberation theology]], considered an important factor in the creation of the party.<ref name="faith"/> Peter Flynn in the [[Third World Quarterly]] wrote that the party is closely linked to liberation theology, and its liberation Catholic faction was an important contribution towards the party's victory in the [[2002 Brazilian general election]].<ref name="flynn"/> The liberation theology faction of the party is also regularly included in the party's cabinet appointment. Liberationist bishop [[Mauro Morelli]] served as president of the National Council for Food Security, and later became a political advisor of Lula. The PT mayor and Catholic lawyer [[Patrus Ananias]] became famous through his administration in [[Belo Horizonte]], which became distinguished for its church-coordinated work against hunger and poverty. Liberation theologist Frei Betto also served as Lula's special adviser, and the faction also played a crucial role in the education policy of the party and the 2010 anti-corruption "clean slate" law.<ref name="knoll"/> Major liberation theology figures such as [[Leonardo Boff]] became supporters of the party.<ref>{{cite book |language=pt |title=Os católicos oPTaram?: os "setores católicos" e o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) na grande São Paulo (1978-1982) |first=Adriano Henriques |last=Machado |year=2010 |page=89}}</ref> The PT's close relationship with Brazil's progressive Catholic Church continues to influence the rherotic of the party, with its politicians referring concepts from liberation theology.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Chalmers |first=Douglas A. |title=The new politics of inequality in Latin America: rethinking participation and representation |author2=Vilas |first2=Carlos M. |author3=Hite |first3=Katherine |author-link3=Katherine Hite |author4=Martin |first4=Scott B. |author5=Piester |first5=Kerianne |author6=Segarra |first6=Monique |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-19-878183-0 |location=New York |page=431}}</ref>