Draft:Trotskyism in Brazil

Trotskyism in Brazil

Between 1928 and 1968, there occurred a succession of three distinct trotskyist organizations in Brazil. They were distinct organizations because its leaders and most of the support base of these organizations had broken with trotskyism, which demanded two refoundings of the movement. From 1968, there started to be various splits within the Trotskyist organizations and these again would go through more splits. In 2017 there were identified 30 organizations which reindicated the legacy of Leon Trotsky in Brazil.

Origins

From 1927 to 1929, there were numerous controversies that proved various divergences within the Brazilian Communist Party. The controversies were based on the tactic of aliances, questions on internal governance and the syndicalist policy of the party. They were national questions but also illuminated by international debates. The figure of Mario Pedrosa is directly related with these divergences and with the emergence of the first generation of trotskyists in Brazil. Still in the country, he had contact with the newspaper of the french communist party, "L'Humanite" and the magazine "Clarte". Both publications brought questions surrounding the Russian revolution and the bureaucratization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU) and the Communist International.

In 1927 Mario Pedrosa was sent to the Soviet Union by PCB(Brazillian Communist Party) to do a course at the Leninist School. However a disease forced him to interrupt the trip in Berlin, where he had mre contact with the critiques of Trotsky and he initiated intense correspondence with his friend Livio Xavier which became then on the connection to the group of young communist intellectuals that had divergenced with PCB. In a letter sent on 24th of December 1927, Pedrosa wrote to Lívio about his impression on the XV Congress of the CPSU which consolidated the victory of the Stalinist fraction over the Unified Opposition.

"I was disappointed to go one time, today I still write you. The Bolshevik congress of PR expelled Trotsky and the opposition of the party!"

In this moment Pedrosa, had not moved away from PCB, keeping close relations with Astrojildo and Brandao, but he saw that his return to the party would face him directly against the leadership. With time he starts critiquing more firmly the soviet bureaucracy and the leadership of PCB. It's not possible to confirm an exact moment in which he breaks and joins the Trotskyists, but his stay in Paris was fundamentally and his contact with the French opposition of Pierre Naville.

Vargas Era(1930-1945)

From the Communist Lenin Group to The Internationalist Communist League

In august of 1929, Mario Pedrosa returned to Brazil and organized this group of divergent young people in an aggregation called Grupo Communista Lenine(Communist Lenin Group)(GCL). This organization included intellectuals like Rodolfo Coutinho and Livio Xavier which were signatories of the panflet of the Syndical Opposition which criticized the syndicate police of the PCB and its lack of democratic centralism. This group had left PCB in the "Split of 1928". Another split occurred in 1929, which included some syndicalists like Joaquim Barbosa(PCB secretary for syndicate matters) Joao da Costa Pimenta(syndicalist, granfather of Rui Costa Pimenta), Leonel Pessoa(ex-cadet, expelled from the army for participating in the Revolte of The Vaccine in 1904, at the time he was working as a graphics factory worker), Joao Dalla Dea(graphics factory worker) and Hilcar Leite.

In the 8th of May of 1930, the first trotskyists  in Brazil started the publishing of the Newspaper "A Luta de Classe"(The fight of class), which was published probably until august of 1939. This newspaper had irregular frequency, with editions printed until number 33 and mimeographs between numbers 34 and 49. With the political work other people approached the Communist League like: Mario Dupont, José Auto, Manuel Medeiros, Raquel de Queiroz, Mirno Tibor and Azis Simao(students), Arnaldo Tommasini; Ariston Rusciolelli, Lelia and Fulvio Abramo(traders); L. Massara and Fernando Bertolotti(accountants), Mario Colleoni(metallurgic) and Josefina Mendez(textile worker). Still in the october of 1930 Mario Pedrosa and Livio Xavier published an essay which would become the first marxist contribution to the study of history of capitalist production in brazilian lands: "Esboco de uma analise da situacao economica e social do Brasil" (Draft of an analysis of the economic and political situation in Brazil"

In november of 1930, the signs of wear and tear and paralyzation of the group became evident. Some letters describe this scenario of failure of GCL. In january of 1931 the oppositioners could one more time overcome dispersion and regroup the dissidents in a new organization, forming in 21 of january, The Communist League- Left Opposition, adopting a denomination that followed the tendency of the groupings that seemed to approach what would be called the 4th International. Reuniting the remains of GCL, it would have new members, highlighting, Aristides Lobo and Plinio de Melo, both members of PCB that had broken with the leadership and approached the oppositionists.

The Communist League would establish that its central base would be in Sao Paulo. Aristides Lobo was elected to occupy the secretarial position. In Organization Lobo, Mario Dupont and Joao Mateus would operate, in Agitation and Propaganda, Livio Xavier, Benjamin Peret(french poet) and Salvador Pintaude and, at last in The Syndical Commussion, Joao Costa Pimenta and Plinio Mello. Pedrosa did not occupy any functional position in these commissions but he stayed responsible for reorganizing the Rio de Janeiro group. Until march of 1933, the League had 54 members in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

In october of 1933, the brazilian oppositionists abandoned the fractionist policy and the perspective of reforming the Communist Parties and the III International. From then on the Communist League would be denominated as the Internationalist Communist League and would work for the creation of the 4th International, meaning it would stop to have members that acted inside PCB to oppose Stalinism. After this, hungarians would join the group, Rudolf Josip Lauff and Anton Macek (both soldiers of the red army), the Italian Goffedo Rosine and to the brazilians, Paschoal Petraccone(editor which alongside Salvador Pintaude collaborated with the translation of foreign works), Livio Abramo(Journalist, artist and recorder) and Nestor Reis(medical doctor)

Also in 1933 The Communist Internationalist League participated in the Frente Unica Antifascista(Unique Antifascist Front) which united, socialists, anarchists and communists in the common fight against the integralists. This front would publish the antifascist semanary "O Homem Livre"(The Free Man) Lead by Pedrosa and Geraldo Ferraz. On the 7th October 1934 the front would participate in the Battle of Praca da Se, a confrontation with the integralists.

However after the battle, the LCI did not join the Alianca Nacional Libertadora(National Liberation Alliance), but it accompanied closely the activities of the organization. From the tactical turn consolidated in the VII congress of the Comintern and the adhesion of the communists to the policy of ample alliances, the trotskyists published articles critiquing and denouncing the collaborationist orientation of the stalinists.

(Subtitles for the image): Integralists running from the shooting in a rally started in Praca da Se in 1934. Anarchists, syndicalists, trotskyists and communists, united in the same unique antifascist front, confronted with the fascists in this occasion trying to stop the realization of a rally.

In this period the International Left Opposition found itself with problems. The ILO had declared that the III International was dead, however it hadn't reunited a group big enough to found the IV International. To resolve the issue and break with the isolation, some tactics were adopted. The french section launched in August of 1934 with the help of Trotsky the policy of entryism in the French Socialist Party. The goal was to unmask the reformist direction and push the more advanced workers to the opposition. In France, center of debate, Naville accused entryism of being a way that would lead to capitulation opposed to reformism. In Brazil, there were formed two groups, the wing that favoured the tactic of ingress of the Socialist Party lead by Mario Pedrosa, Hilcar Leite and Fulvio Abramo and on the other site the group that fought that policy and reunited Aristides Lobo, Victor de Azevedo Pinheiro and Joao Mateus.

The split consolidated itself in the beginning of 1935 and put an end to the growth of LCI, opening the way to the decline of the organization. The expulsion of the group the united itself around Lobo and Pinheiro made itself known publically  in april. Facing repression triggered by the law of national security, the oppositionists reduced their activities in relation to the publication of newspapers and pamphlets. In this period, the trotskyists lead some syndicates in Sao Paulo, like the Trader's, the Banker's and the Graphical Worker's. During the repression triggered after the failure of the communist revolt of 1935, Manuel Medeiro was killed, meanwhile Mario Pedrosa, Fulvio Abramo, Mariano and Ines Besouchet exile themselves in Bolivia. The last edition of "A luta de Classe" came out in November of 1936. After this edition the organization ceased its activities.

From the Leninist Worker's Party to the Socialist Revolutionary Party

The remaining trotskyists allied themselves to the ex-supporters of PCB and in january of 1937, they founded the Leninist Worker's party(POL), now under a state of exception.

In 1937, PCB passes through a new internal crisis. Disagreeing with the conception that the national bourgeoisie "would be the driving force of the brazilian revolution" Most of the regional comitee in Sao Paulo, with an alliance with sectors from other regionals give birth to the Central Provisional Committee(CCP) also known as the PCB Regional Comitee, lead by Herminio Sachetta and Heitor Ferreira Lima. Defeated by the party faction of Lauro Reginaldo da Rocha, the CCP suffered a split, denominated Dissidence Pro Regrupment of The Revolutionary Vanguard which beyond its leaders had figures like Alberto Moniz da Rocha Barros and Jose Stacchini

In April of 1939, POL and the dissidents from PCB united in a Pro Regrupment of The Revolutionary Vanguard Comittee  of Brazil, and in august of 1939 in a meeting in Guarulhos the Socialist Revolutionary Party was founded(PSR), brasilian section of the IV International, in which the following would join: Plinio Gomes de Mello, Vitor de Azevedo, Jose Stacchini, Patricia Galvao(holy shit PAgu!!), Florestan Fernandes, Mauricio Tragtenberg, Leoncio Martins Rodrigues, Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, Edmundo Moniz, Boris Fausto and Ruy Fausto. The group that passed to naming itself PSR had as its general secretary(chairman) Herminio Sacchetta and it kept the newspaper "Orientacao Socialista"(socialist orientation) under its control

(subtitles for the image): Herminio Sacchetta, general secretary of PSR

(Photo from the 30s)

2nd World War and The Murder of Trotsky

With the beginning of the second world war in September of 1939, there begins the first great split of Trotskyists  at the international level, involving the question of the defense or non defense of the Soviet Union in the hypothesis of war against capitalist countries. In this context there were formed to fractions:

1. The major one lead by James Patrick Cannon, leader of The Socialist Worker's Party in the United States that position himself in favour of the defense of the Soviet Union

2. The minor faction lead by Max Shachtman, James Burnham, Martin Abern, C.R.L James, Nathan Gould and Farrel Dobbs, that understood that the Soviet Union should not be supported in its war against Finland, because it had degenerated to a point where it didn't deserve any sort of defense.

In this context, Trotsky was favourable to the majority position and convened the Emergency Conference of the IV International(may 1940), meanwhile Pedrosa positioned himself in the minor faction, which would cause his rupture with the IV international. Members of the secretariat that supported Shachtman were expelled by the conference with the support of Trotsky himself.

The 4th International was hit greatly during the second world war. Trotsky was assassinated, a lot of sections of QI were destroyed by nazis and various asian sections were destroyed by imperial japan. The survivors in Europe, in asian and in other places, were separated from each other and the international secretariat. The new secretary, Jean Van Heijenoort, was only capable of publishing articles in the theoretical magazine of SWP, Fourth International. In Brazil, PSR which lost its international tie, Pedrosa still had to deal with the repression from Estado Novo.

After the end of the war the international debate on the perspectives was accelerated by the resolution of the european conference of the 4th International, in february of 1944. During the conference a new european secretariat was nominated, Michel Raptis also known as Michel Pablo. Pablo and other members reestablished contact between trotskyist parties. In april of 1946, delegates from the main european sections and some from other sections participated in the Second International Congress. This one had as its goal the reconstruction of the International secretariat of the organization, with Michel Pablo being nominated as secretary and Ernest Mandel, a belgian assuming the leadership role.

In this period, in Brazil, PSR invited the left group to form an electoral front for the 1945 elections, the Democratic Radical Coalition; in the meantime the proposal soured, mainly due to the candidacy of Yedo Fiuza by PCB. In the next elections there was called a "blank vote" for governor and a "critical vote" for deputies of PCB. With a pretty big insertion the party waned.

Republica Nova[New Republic](1946-1964)

The III Congress of the IV International and the formation of POR-T

In 1951, before the III Congress of the IV International, Sachetta and Stachini moved away from PSR. Sacchetta went on to the understanding that it would be impossible to defend the Soviet Union as a "degenerated worker's state" and enters a new stage in his political activity that would result in the foundation in 1956 of the Independent Socialist League(LSI), which had as its main reference Rosa Luxembourg, with the presence of Paul Singer, Michael Lowy, Mauricio Trangtenberg, Moniz Bandeira, and the brothers Emir Sader and Eder Sader.

The III congress of the IV International, in 1951, had as its main consequence the biggest split in trotskyism worldwide, which by consequence generated other splits. Michel Pablo defended that the only way in which trotskyists could not suffer from isolation was if various sections of the IV international would infiltrate themselves long term in communist parties or social democratic mass ones, tactic that would be known as entryism sui generis, and adopted by the group nominated as International Secretariat. The leaders of the biggest trotskyist organizations in France, Belibtreu Marcel and Pierre Lambert, of the american SWP and the argentian Partido Obrero Revolucionario(lead by Nahuel Moreno) rejected the line of the International, organizing the International Comitee.

In this context, PSR stopped existing, without any explanations.

The Latino-American Bureau of the IV International, aligned itself to the International Secretariat, lead  by the argentian, Juan R Posadas, sent the argentian Guillermo Marcelo Almeyra Casares to reorganize the trotskyists in Brazil. He lodged himself in the residence of the parents of Leoncio Martins Rodrigues and, in november of 1952 joined ex supporters of PSR, Milton Camargo, Antonio Pinto Freitas, some young members of PSB like Sebastiao Simoes de Lima, and he founded the Partido Operario Revolucionario Trotskista(Revolutionary Trotskyist Worker's Party)(POR-T) which started publishing the newspaper "Worker's Front" which would be published until 1990. The group also a little after the creation of the party counted with the presence of Jorge Milano, Boris and Ruy  Fausto.

For two years POR-T acted with the perspective of creating a marxist and revolutionary party. Meanwhile the IV Congress of 1954, of the International Secretariat, emphasized entryism in communist parties, as well as in the nationalist parties in colonies, pressing for democratic reforms to encourage the left of the communist parties to unify with the trotskyists in a revolution. Like this POR-T, following these guidelines, adopted entryism in PCB. For this task were highlighted Leoncio Martins Rodrigues, and Ruy Fausto. The entryist tactic in PCB proved an immense failure. But the ex federal deputeee constituant Jose Maria Crispim, expelled in february of 1952 out of PCB, adhered in an open letter to POR-T

In 1962, accompaniyng Posadas in a new international decision, POR-T abandoned the International Secretariat and became a section of the Fourth Posadist International. In the same year POR-T moved two members to do entryism in the recent Partido Comunista do Brazil(PCdoB) (Communist party of brazil), which were quickly found out and expelled. From 1963 onwards, due to the failure of the previous ones, the party would adopt entryism in the nationalist Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro(Brazillian Workerist Party) of Leonel Brizola. It is estimated that during the 50s, POR-T would count with 100 members, which acted in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, and Parana. In the 60s it started activity in the states of Pernambuco, Paraiba, Ceara(in the beggining of 1965) and in Rio Grande do Sul.

In the 8th of august of 1963, the graphics and metallurgical worker Paulo Roberto Pinto, member of POR-T, known by the name of Jeremias, was assassinated at 22 years old by shooters employed by landlords while he lead a strike negotiation of rural workers in the region of Itambe. In the end of 1963, POR-T started to identify the national situation as revolutionary. They started then acting strongly within the armed forces, structuring party cells in the brazillian air force and in the army, highlighting the members, Jair Borin and Ovidio Ferreira Dias. Highlighting also the strong work accomplished within the peasant movement in the northeast, incorporating the members that  had passed through the Movimento Revolucionario Tiradentes(Revolutionary Movement Tiradentes), attached to the peasant leagues of Franciso Juliao

(Image subtitles: Paulo Roberto Pinto, member of POR-T assassinated by shooters employed by landowners in august of 1963)

Military Dictatorship(1964-1985)

Coup d'etat of 1964 and the POR-T situation

The 1964 Coup d'etat profoundly shook all organizations on the left. POR-T lost a lot more members with the repression of the civil and military dictatorship installed, they were the chemical worker Olavo Hanssen, who was assassinated on the 9th of may of 1970, the metallurgical worker Rui Osvaldo Aguiar Pfutzenreuter, killed in Sao Paulo, on the 14th of april of 1972, and the student and programmer Sidney Fix Marques dos Santos, disappeared on the 15th of february of 1976 in Buenos Aires. Adding on to that POR-T was going through political divergences internally, mainly a strong critique to the intervention of Posadas in the party, which lost its autonomy beginning in 1962 due to monolithism.

In the beginning of 1966 during the V National Congress of POR-T, the document "Criticar, Planejar, e Construir o Partido Coletivamente"(Critique, Plan and Build the Party Collectively) was spread, it was signed by various members, and it was a beginning of a rupture with posadism. This document was signed by Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida, Jose Leão de Carvalho, Fabio Munhoz, Antônio Carlos Leal Campos and Gilvan Rocha.

From august of 1967, Fabio Munhoz, Mtnos Abdala Calil and Julio Callaso, already away from POR-T started publishing the newspaper Jornal Chispa, presented as "Órgão do Movimento por uma nova Internacional Comunista"(Organ of The Movement for a new Communist International). This would be in thr 1 of may of 1968, the founding nucleus of the 1st of May Student Movement(ME 1st of May), to which would join Luiz Araujo, Arkan Simaan, Otaviano de Fiori, Gabriela Rabelo and Francisco Solano

In 1968, there were other splits from POR-T, from the expulsion of the regions of Rio Grande Do Sul, Nordeste, and part of the Sao Paulo section:

-The Grupo Trotskista Revolucionario(GTR)(Revolutionary Trotskyist Group) which would be active for a short time

-The Liga Socialista Internacionalista(The Socialist Internationalist League) which would adopt the denomination of Movimento Comunista Internacionalista(MCI)(Communist Internationalist Movement)

-The Fracao Bolchevique Trotskista(FBT) (Bolshevik Trotskyist Fraction)

POR-T would slow down its activities until the death of Posadas in 1981, after that most of the international posadist movement would enter its collapse.

Formation of the Socialist Internationalist Organization

The Student Movement of the 1st of may(ME1M) wanted to integrate itself to the most important political happenings of the year of 1968. Especially in the student struggles, which at that time in Sao Paulo had as itsmain focus the agitation of the University of Philosophy of USP in street Maria Antonia, in the struggles against the University Reform of the dictatorship, and in smaller syndicalist struggles of bankers and metallurgical workers.

In 1969 the continuity of ME1M was uncertain, with the difficulties to the open political situation there came the necessity to expand its activities beyond the student movement. In the end of 1968, Francisco Solano and Gabriela Rabelo, members of ME1M, were exiled to France, where they would meet members of the Internationalist Communist League lead by Pierre Lambert, which was vinculated to the International Comittee of the IV International(CI-QI) and after, The Comittee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International(CORQUI) founded in 1972. Fabio Munhoz was arrested in 1969 and after he was released he exiled himself in Chile. Julio Calasso, Abdala Calil and Ottaviano de Fiori moved away. It was under these conditions that the structuring of a new political organization would start. In november of 1970 ME1M adopted the name of Communist Organization of the 1st of May(OC1M). The OC1M, acted in the student movement through the  Socialist Studentist Front consolidating itself.

The Bolshevik Trotskyist Fraction(FBT) had its origin in a document, published in april of 1968 by the University Fraction of POR-T. In july of 1968, some gaucho(people from Rio Grande do Sul) members which would form FBT went to Sao Paulo to make contact with ME1M, in a first attempt of unification which resulted in nothing in that moment. In october of 1969, Vito Letizia also made a trip to Europe where he reunited with OCI, in which Stephane Just represented the french organization and also counted with the participation of Francisco Solano of the ME1M. From that moment onwards the II Conference of FBT, carried out in february of 1970, organized internally with the election of a Central Committee(CC), with the formation of three regional Committees, Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo and Nordeste, was created also a political Bureau with three members elected by the CC, responsible for centralizing the political direction of the organization. The new possibilities of development of FBT were open, with the expansion to the northeast and its contact with the international trotskyist movement, they were however interrupted by the repression of the dictatorship which through prisons, from Porto Alegre disarticulated the Fraction nationally in may of 1970. Resorting to torture, the repression quickly arrested almost all of the leadership of the Fraction.

In 1970, still fragile and with very little members, ME1M consolidated itself. The year was marked by repression which reached FBT and almost disarticulated it, imposing on ME1M a necessary retreat in its activities, for security reasons. The repercussion of the repression of FBT went beyond security reasons, it initiated a moment of inflection in the trajectory of the parties. After that repression, the little militants that could escape, mainly the ones from the Northeast, tried reorganizing FBT. In july of 1971 both organizations converged for a unification process with the creation of the comitee of unifification FBT-OC1M. During the unification process, members of the two groups, would enter in contact with other trotskyist organizations in latin america, like the Politica Obrera(Worker's Politics, you know spanish) (lead by Jorge Altamira and the Revolutionary Workers Party(La Verdade)(lead by Nahuel Moreno) of Argentina(which in 1972 would start calling itself Partido Socialista dos trabalhadores) (Socialist Worker's Party) and the Socialist Worker's Party of Bolivia, lead Guilhermo Lora. However in 1972 with a new represive attack, FBT desarticulates totallt with the emprisonment of the rest of its members.

On the other side, between 1969 and 1971, Solano Gabriela, Arkan, Vitor Paes de Barros Leonardi, Paulo Rodolfo Rodrigues Pereira and Delvis Hutz, exhiled brazillians in France, ingressed in OCi. In 1972, these members started publishing the Revista Outubro(October Magazine) and would form a political group with the same name. At this moment these members from FBT and OC1M, mainly Julio Tavares and Arnaldo Schreine were already beggining to aproximate themselves to The Revolutionary Worker's Party(La Verdade) (PRT-LV), argentinian organization vinculated to SU-QI, rivals of CI-QI, to which the October Group was vinculated.

In april of 1972, the Politica Obrera and the Bolivian POR carried out the I Latino American Conference for the Reconsctruction of the IV International, to which were invented representatives from OCI, OC1M and FBT. The main question was surrounding the policy of the Bolivian POR during the coup of Hugo Banzer against General Torres in august of 1971. Considering this context, it was elaborated a document by the majority of the OC1M and FBT that criticized the policy adopted by the Bolivian POR, for having defended a front with General Torres against the coup, which was considered to be a capitulation to bourgeois nationalism. Luiz Araujo, representative of OC1M disagreed with this document, which was defended in the conference by Paulo Eduardo aguiar, representative of FBT. Politica Obrera defended the policy adopted by the Bolivian POR, while OCI was favourable mostly to the critique presented by Aguiar.

In the end of 1972, the October Group, starts organizing in Brazil, lead by Solano which starts agglutinating secundarist(?) students. In the end of 1972, Deivis Hutz and Vito Letizia, manifested an agreement with CORQUI. OC1M, which at that time counted in its membership Julio Turra, in its I Conference, carried out in the beggining of 1973, it confirmed its adhesion to CORQUI.

In another movement, what remained of FBT approximated itself to the October Group and to the Organizacao da Mobilizacao Operaria(OMO)(Organization of the Workers Mobilization) which counted amongst its members, Paulo Skromov, ex-student of History of USP, he exhiled himself in Argentina in novemember of 1973, where he had contact with Politica Obrera. In december of 1974, a meeting was organized in Tramandai, a beach next to Porto Alegre, this meeting united OMO, The October Group and FBT, in the Organizacao Marxista Brasileira(OMB). In this moment OMB counted with 60 members, amongst them Markus Sokol, Arlete Sampaio and Maria Laura, majority were from OMO.

In between may and july of 1976, the unification between the Studentist Socialist Front, connected with the OC of the 1st of May, and the Tendency for The Alliance of Students and Workers, connected with OMB. From this fusion, the student current Liberdade e Luta(Libelu) (Liberty and Struggle) was created. In november of 1976 there was a meeting in the city of Praia Grande in which the fusion of OMB and the Communist Organization of the 1st of May was decided upon, from this there came the Socialist Internationalist Organization allying itself internationally to the Comittee for the Reconstruction of The Fourth International of Pierre Lambert. In the 1st of may of 1978 the first edition of the newspaper "O Trabalho"(The work) came out, a name that would be adopted posteriorly by OSI

Formation of the Socialist Convergence

In the beginning of the decade of 1970 there were various Brazilians exiled in Chile. In 1972, by intermediary of Mario Pedrosa, Hugo Blanco and Peter Camejo(leader of the Socialist Workers Party(SWP) of the United States), several other of those exiled in Chile, entered in contact with the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International(SU-QI) and formed the group Ponto de Partida.( Starting Point). In between these there can be cited: Jorge Pinheiro, Maria Jose Lourenco (ex-members of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement), Enio Bucchioni(ex-member of Popular Action, AP) and Tulio Quintiliano(ex-member of the Brazilian Communist Revolutionary Party, PCBR). At this time, SU-QI was divided between the majority, that defended that the members would go fight for guerillas and the minority(Leninist Trotskyist Fraction), which was against the participation in Guerilla movements. Hugo Bllanco and Peter Camejo were supporters of FLT, and influenced Starting Point to have the same position.

In the end of 1973, after the overturning of Salvador Allende: Jorge Pinheiro, Maria Jose Lourenco, Valderez Duarte and Waldo Mermelstein searched for exhile in Argentina, where in december of 1973, after contacting the Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores (Socialist Party of the Workers), an organization aligned with FLT of SU-QI, directed by Nahuel Moreno, formed the Liga Operaria(LO)(Workers League). In 1974, these members returned to Brazil and ex-members of FLT, an organization already disarticulated by repression, joined LO. LO starts publishing the newspaper "Independencia Operaria"(Worker's Independence"

Despite the name, the action of LO, concentrated on the Student Movement, considering this, it initiated its action in PUC-SP, in USP and in UFF in Niteroi(all universities btw). In august of 1975, it crossed the 50 thousand members mark and in march of 1976 it started acting in Unicamp(Campinas) and in the Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos(Federal University of Sao Carlos(UFSCAR), where it got the adhesion of its 100th member: Celso Brambilla, ex-president of DCE of UFSCAR. The name that was utilized to act in the student movement was: Alicerce Tendency, which in 1980, elected Henrique Carneiro as president of the Uniao Municipal de Estudantes Secundaristas(Municipal Union of High School Students) of Sao Paulo. In 1981, Henrique would be elected as president of the Uniao Paulista de Estudantes Secundaristas.(Paulist(people from sao paulo) Union of High School Students).

In the days prior to the 1st of May of 1977, members from LO, between them: Celso Brambilla, Marcia Basseto Paes and Jose Maria de Almeida, at the time a mere 19 year old mettalurgical worker, were arrested while they were distributing panflets, the action had repercussion because there were various studantist mobilizations against prisons. By the end of 1977, LO counted with 250 members.

In march of 1978, LO created Movimento Convergencia Socialista(MCS)(Socialist Convergence Movement) which intended to reunite various political and social groupings that fought for the end of the authoritarian regime, guided by socialist ideologgues and in that way it absorbed the Redaction Council of the newspaper Versus, which was publushed since 1975. On the 19th of august, the I National Convention of MCS occurred. In the 1st of May of 1978, LO, changed its name to Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores(PST)(Socialist Party of the Workers)

(Subtitles for the image: Jose Maria de Alemeia, known as Ze Maria, in 2016, current president of PSTU)

On the international scope, in 1979, the definitive split between the Bolshevik International Fraction of the Unified Secretariat of The Fourth International(SU-QI) lead by Nahuel Moreno and SU-QI. The split happened due to the support given by the majority of the SU-QI lead by Mandel, to the Sandinista Front, meanwhile Moreno opposed the Sandinista Front due to the conflicts with the Simon Bolivar Brigade, which was composed by members linked to the morenists. In this context Pierre Lambert supported the thesis of Nahuel Moreno, this reflected in an approximation between OSI(Lambertist) and CS(Morenist)

In the beggining of 1979, PST dissolves in the Movimento Convergencia Socialista(MCS)(Convergence Socialist Movement), which would be called "Socialist Convergence". In January of 1979, the IX Congress of Metallurgical, Mechanical and electricians of the state of São Paulo was carried out in the City of Lins, in which a motion was approved that was favorable to the construction of a "Worker's Party" From that moment, the Socialist Convergence started working on the implementation of that proposal, which still existed as a civil association and at the same time, starting the struggle for a mass party that would be formed by workers and syndicalists.

Formation of Socialist Democracy

In 1977, the newspaper "Em Tempo"(In Time) started being published, it circulated until 1995, and defended the construction of a party independent from the working class. It was edited by a left split that approximated itself to trotskyism, of the group that edited the newspaper "Movimento"(Movement) influenced by PCdoB, which defended a democratic politicl front in unity with MDB. In tha newspaper there participated other non trotskyist groups like Acao Popular Marxista Leninista(AP-ML) (Popular Marxist Leninist Action) and Movimento Revolucionario 8 de Outubro(MR8)Revolutionary Movement of the 8th of October

After disputes, MR8 and AP-ML disconnected themselves from the newspaper, that would have been controlled then on by trotskyists, which later would form Democracia Socialista (Socialist Democracy). A part of these supporters were from Partido Operário Comunista Combate(POC-Combate) (Combat-Communist Workers Party) or from the Comando de Libertação Nacional(Colina) (Command of National Liberation), which still in the 60s,(no logical conclusion in this paragraph I think the guy forgot) while ORM-POLOP would approximate itself to the formulations of Trotsky, after critiques to Stalinism. Another part came from minor groups that did not have a name. In the end these groups would end up organizing around the newspaper "Em Tempo" dividing themselves in two groups, the Centelha, which acted in the studantist movement in Minas Gerais and the Socialist Tendency of MDB in Rio Grande do Sul, which called itself Peleia no Movimento Estudantil (Peleia=slang for fight)(Fight in the Studentist Movement)

The two groups defended democratic socialism and had critiques towards stalinism, the reformism of PCB and armed vanguardism; they valued democracy in internal organization and defended the construction of a revolutionary party in Brazil with the capacity to enroot itself in the working class; they were critics of varguism(Vargas ideology), because it would be an experiment of workerist organization without class independency.

On the 22nd of december of 1979, around 25 members, in its majority from Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, met in Sao Paulo to found the Democracia Socialista(Socialist Democracy) organization, denomination was in tune with the document "Democracia socialista e ditadura do proletariado"(Socialist Democracy and dictatorship of the proletariat) elaborated by Ernest Mandel, leader of the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International(SU-QI) It basically dealt with the fusion of "Centelha" and "Tendencia Socialista". In its founders, can be cited:Raul Pont, Virgilio Guimaraes, Joao Machado, Aloisio Marques, Joaquim Soriano, Flavio Andrare and Robson Aires. From its founding DS actively participated in the process of the foundation of PT and CUT

Between 1979 and 1982, another two groups of Trotskyist origin joined DS. The Organização Revolucionário dos Trabalhadores(ORT)(Revolutionary Organization of Workers), formed by a split of the Socialist Convergence, lead by Julio Tavares, and the Comitê de Ligação dos Trotskistas Brasileiros, originating from a split of OSI, that occurred in 1978, denominated as Trotskyist Worker Fraction(FOT), which at the time was lead by Paulo Skromov. The FOT had as its objective "breaking the vicious cycle of fractioning" of trotskyist organizations, and in this way it would promote a trotskyist reunification, starting from the balance that the history of this revolutionary tradition had promoted various "irresponsible splits" in the thirty years prior. According to the evuluation of CLTB, the failure of trotskyism occurred due to its social composition that was "essentially petit bourgeois" in its membership, that worsened the capable formulation of insertion in popular sectors. After the unification, DS began being called Organização Revolucionaria Marxista- Democracia Socialista(ORM-DS) (Revolutionary Marxist Organization-Socialist Democracy) In 1984, the II Congress of ORM-DS occurred, in which the filiation to the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International (SU-QI) was decided upon.

Re-Democratization and formation of Partido dos Trabalhadores(Worker's Party)

The approximation between OSI(Lambertist) and CS(Morenist) would last for a very short time. In 1981, Moreno criticizes the support of OCI(lead by Lambert) to the government of Francois Miterrand. In January of 1982, the Morenists  would form their own version of the 4th International, the Liga Internacional of workers (LIT-QI)(International Workers League). On the national scope, divergences between CS and OSI had as its focus the fact that CS had a negative evaluation of the figure of Lula, meanwhile the OSI had a more positive evalutation of the syndicalist figure.

The discussions inside CORQUI about syndicates, peronism and nationalism in Argentina, results in some splits, including the brazilian OSI. The debate intensifies and in 1979 in the II Congress of OCI, expells the dissidents, that form the Organizacao Quarta Internacional(TQI)(Fourth International Organization), which receives its name in the country as Tendencia Trotskista do Brasil(TTB) (Trotskyist Tendency of Brazil), they would be mostly known for their mouthpiece newspaper Causa Operaria(Workers Cause) which would then be adopted as the name of the organization.

PT was founded by a heterogenous group of members of opposition to the military dictorship, syndicalists, intelectuals, artists and catholics linked to Liberation Theology, in the 10 of february of 1980, in the Sion College of Sao Paulo, the party was born between the approximation of syndicalist movements of the ABC Region(Southeast Sao Paulo), which organized big strikes between 1978 and 1980, and members of the old brazilian left, among them ex political prisoners and exhiled which had their rights returned due to the amnesty law. From the foundation, the party assumed the defense of democratic socialism. From the beginning, they took part in the initiative to form PT Trotskyist groups, among them and mainly, Socialist Internationalist Organization, Socialist Convergence, Socialist Democracy and the Workers Cause.

Nova Republica (1986-Present)

According to the growth of the party, it intensified its internal differences of program and strategy. In 1983, Articulation of the 113 is formed, having as its leader Lula, this would become in time an anti leninist camp, a reaction to the marxists of the party. After the formation of the Articulation of the 113, DS allies itself with Partido Revolucionario Comunista(PRC)(Revolutionary Communist Party) and the Movimento Comunista Revolucionario(MCR(Revolutionary Communist Movement), in its internal struggle inside PT. In counterpart, members of OSI which starts calling itself O Trabalho(The Work), sought to work together with the Articulation.

In 1987, the policy of approximation with Articulation of the 113, culminated in the formal acceptance of the dissolution and dilution of OT in ART. For the majority of its national direction, this posture was coherent with the policy of the tendency, which start defending the possibility that PT constituing itself as a party of the IV International, which would be the instrument for a socialist revolution. and that joining itself to ART, was to compose the main propelling force of the party. The minority leadership agreed with the construction of an articulation surrounding the leading nucleus of PT(Lula and the syndicalists), but the divergence was a tacttical order: the leading minority did not accept the dissolution of the tendency. It desired the union with ART, but under a political basis that permitted the organization to still exist and the ties with the Centro Internacional Para a Reconstrucao da Quarta Internacional (CIRQUI) (International Center for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International). In the end of the 450 estimated members members before the split, 240 would stay with the minority. With this data, the minoritarian direction concluded that the majority of the basis still stayed in OT.

In the elections of 1985, 1988 and 1989, Socialist Convergence would insert itself inside PT in a much more critical way relating to the general policy of the leading nucleus, mainly in relation to the coligations with PSB and PDT. Still, they had a great expectation that the victories won in the elections would be converted for management in favour of the workers, like in the case of 1989, in the prefecture of Luiza Erundina in Sao Paulo. However, after six months of prefecture, the tone was already of deception with the paulistan government.

In 1989, Worker's Cause, still in PT, passed through a process of fragmentation that resulted in the formation of one more tendency,  Tendencia pelo Partido Operario Revolucionario(T-POR) (Tendency for the Revolutionary Worker's Party), member of Comite de Enlance pela Reconstrucao da Quarta Internacional (CERQUI) (Link Comitee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International), linked to the bolivian Guillermo Lora, allegating that CO was conditioned to a democratizing policy, succumbing to the electoral way. In the next year, in 1990, T-POR made public its break with PT. Still in 1989, Worker's Cause participates in the electoral campaign denouncing the formation of a front with PT and the bourgeoisie, asking for the rupture of that relationship, and proposed forming electoral comitees with just the "classist members" of PT. This denouncement, provoked intervention from  the leadership of PT and the dissolution of the municipal directories held by Worker's Cause. In the year after, in the 1990 elections, about 20 candidates from Workers Cause were revoked by PT's leadership. In the Federal District, in this same year, an alliance of the left that opposed the idea of class colaborationt, of which CO participated, was majoritary and chose the candidate as governor. The convention was annuled by the national leadership of the party.

Inside PT, a crackdown on divergent tendencies contrary to majority positions would start. In relation to Socialist Convergence Jose Dirceu, secretary of the party affirmed "It would be inevitable that they would get out or be individually expelled from PT, in the case they insist to pass through resolutions of the party". Still in 1988, to adapt to the regulation of tendencies in PT, ORM-DS started calling itself only "DS" again, and starts claiming that PT would be a Revolutionary Party in Construction. In 1991, members from Workers Cause are expelled out of PT in all states. In april of 1992 a resolution was approved that denounced "the operation of the Convergence in various syndicates, in flagrant opposition to the syndicalist orientations of PT" Beyond this, it associated this posture of CS to a "rupture with the resolutions of the 5th National Meeting of PT". In the 9th of May of 1992, the national Directorate "revoked the condition of tendency of CS and established a time limit of 15 days for it to revise its positions.

In june of 1992, in between the changes to the internal regiment to PT, Socialist Convergence began the process of the formation of Frente Revolucionaria(Revolutionary Front) that would result in the foundation of a new party. Meanwhile, a big part of its membership had a diferent evaluation of the national and international conjuncture, breaking with the direction of CS, and internationally with LIT-QI. This group formed Corrente Socialista dos Trabalhadores (CST)(Socialist Current of Workers), that would link itself to Uniao Internacional dos Trabalhadores(UIT-QI)(International Union of Workers), in 1997 keeping itself as an internal current of PT

The common basis that provided for formation of the Revolutionary Front, the critique to the adaptation of PT to the bourgeois instituionalization, demonstrated itself as insuficient. Different conceptions and concrete disagreements over different ideas, ended up paralising FR, and resulted in the formation of two blocks in its interior: the majority composed by CS, Partido da Frente Socialista(PFS)(Socialist Front Party), and Movimento Socialista Revolucionario (Socialist Revolutionary Movement)(MSR), Worker's Democracy and the League (movement of syndicalists from the unique central of workers called CUT by the basis), the minority however, which adopted the name of Alinhamento(Alignment), was integrated by the Independent Group of Diadema, the collective Class Struggle and the Party of Proletarian Liberation(dissidence of PFS, mainly in the states of Rio and Paraiba)

Alignment pressed the majority to accept the participation in FR of organizations like CO, T-POR and Partido da Revolucao Operaria(PRO) (Party of the Workers Revolution) and other minor groups. This sector criticized the policy of vetoing of CS and the majority of FR. In the meeting of the 5th of March of 1993, the rupture between the majority and the minority happens. The majority bloc considers unviable the maintenance of FR in the previous molds and decides to formally launch a movement for a revolutionary party and from 3rd to the 5th of july of 1994, the Congress of foundation of Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado(PSTU)(United Socialist Workers Party) happened, it got official registration in the 19th of december of 1995.

In july of 1994 a group entitling themselves as Luta Metalurgica(LM)(Metallurgical Struggle), formed in the end of the 80s in illegal strikes, mainly, members in Volta Redonda, decide to split with Workers Cause, because they believed they represented a "trotskyist opposition to a popular front". Inside CO, LM opposed to the negative of the leadership by fighting against the oppression of black people and women and opposed the calling of CO to vote for Lula, candidate of Frente Brasil Popular(Brazilian Popular Front). In april of 1996, adopted the denomination of "Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil"(4th Internationalist League of Brazil) and starts publishing the newspaper Vanguarda Operaria(Workers Vanguard). In june of 1995, a new group splits from CO, and forms Liga Bolchevique Internacionalista(LBI)(Internationalist Bolshevik League). The group criticized the position of CO that the dissolution of the ex-USSR was a progressive fact for the world proletariat. According to LBI "The destruction of workers states and the end of stalinism was not a product of the revolutionary action of the masses, but in fact the contrary, it was a product of the bourgeois counter-revolution worldwide, putting forward the task of all that reinvidicated the legacy of Lenin and Trotsky, as the combat for the historical conquests of the revolution"

In CO, one of the main reasons of all the controversy in the interior of the ex-FR, demanded that Alignment, made a self critic balance and proposed the transformation of the organization formed by these in a pro-FR comitee, denying integrating an ongoing process. Facing the rejection of the ultimatum, it went out of the meeting and launched the task of building a new revolutionary party of their own. In 1995, a provisional registree for Partido da Causa Operaria(PCO)(Party of The Workers Cause) and in 1997, a definite registree was obtained.

In 1999, a polarization occurs inside CST that which found itself as an internal tendency of PT. Two groups are formed: CST-Majority, with strong political expression in Rio Grande do Sul and CST-Minority, with a bigger political expression in the state of Para. The group that composed the majority leaves and forms its own internal tendency in PT, Movimento Esquerda Socialista(MES)(Left Socialist Movement). Still in october of 1999, the group Estrategia Revolucionaria-Quarta Internacional(ER-QI) (Revolutionary Strategy-Fourth International), section of Fracao Trotskista pela Quarta Internacional(FT-QI), from members surrounding the syndicalist Claudionor Brandao, that were expelled from PTSU for criticizing the posture of peaceful coexistence between the party and the syndicalist bureaucracy of CUT, beyond the agreements between PSTU, PL, PDT, PMDB, what they called a populist front. From 2004, in its II National Conference, the group would start calling itself Liga Estrategica Revolucionaria - Quarta Internacional (LER QI)(Strategic Revolutionary League- Fourth International). In 2015 they would change their name to the current denomination, Movimento Revolucionario de Trabalhadores(MRT) (Revolutionary Workers Movement)

In 2000, TCR, another internal tendency of PSTU is forced to make a friendly separation. From this split, the Movimento Terra, Trabalho e Liberdade(MTL) (Dirt, Work and Freedom Movement) is created.

The arrival of PT to presidency and the formation of PSOL

From 2002, inside the fractions of PT, the discussin of the formation of a new socialist political instrument is reopened, mainly due to the insatisfaction of the Carta ao Povo Brasileiro, written by Lula. The magazine Veja(Look), affirmed that 30 % of the participants in PT at the time were "revolutionary, and that they would make up the new government. The formation of Frente Popular(Popular Front) accelarates this process. Before the transferal of power, the Ministery of Agriculture is given to landowner Roberto Rodrigues. Heloisa Helena, senator and member of Democracia Socialista, publically rejects the indication of Henrique Meirelles, banker connected with PSDB, the presidency of the Brazilian Central Bank and federal support to Jose Sarney to the presidency of the Senate. Meanwhile, the majority of the tendencies of the party, including the revolutionary ones and other external groups, like PCdoB, adopt the thesis of the government and defend that hegemony would be reached by the dispute with the right pressuring the government to go to the left.

In 2003, deputies Baba(CST), Joao Fontes, Luciana Genro(MES) and the senator Heloisa Helena(DS), put themselves against the reform to pensioning(PEC number 40 of 2003) supported by Lula. Beyond that, deputies from Democracia Socialista, Joao Alfredo, Orlando Fantazzini and Walter Pinheiro, beyond the members of Forca Socialista, Ivan Valente and Maninha and the independents Chico Alencar, Mauro Passos and Paulo Rubem Santiago abstain themselves in the first round of voting on the reform. Of  PCdoB, only four of the eleven parliamentaries voted against. Even with the process intiated by Silvio Pereira months before, against Luciana, Baba, and Heloisa, the leadership waited for that vote to expel them. In the meeting of the national directory, in 13 and 14 of december of 2003, in the Blue Hotel Tree in Brasilia, the three deputees are expelled, in addition to Joao Fontes. The sociologist Chico de Oliveira, in a public letter on the same day of the expulsion of the congressmen, communicates his cut off from the party. Corrente Socialista dos Trabalhadores(CST)(Socialist Workers Current) of Baba, and Movimento Esquerda Socialista(MES)(Left Socialist Movement) of Luciana Genro, consider themselves expelled and dissafiliate themselves from the party. Socialist Democracy of Heloisa Helena, decides to not leave the party, and ends up losing various members and supporters that unlink themselves from PT and the current.

PSTU opens discussions with MES and CST for the possibilities of the establishment of a new party. Still in 2003, in october the congress of PSTU happens, and a tendency splits with the party "Socialismo e Liberdade"(Socialism and Freedom", taking with it 70 members, between them 7 members of the Central Comitee. Posteriorly the group amplifies and starts calling itself Coletivo Socialismo e Liberdade (Socialism and Freedom Collective)(C-SOL) In november of 2003, there occurs in Belo Horizonte, the Brazilian Social Forum, with hegemony from PSTU, wheree its formalized the creation of "Movimento por um Novo Partido Socialista", although the recently born sectors of PT do not sign up and the articulation ceases to exist.

In 19 of January of 2004, in Rio de Janeiro, there occurs a meeting in which various members were expelled from PT. In the meeting the document Esquerda Socialista e Democratica- Movimento por um Novo Partido(Socialist and Democratic Left-Movement For a New Party), signed by CST, MES, ex PT tendencies, the group Socialismo Revolucionario(SR), in addition to tendencies from PSTU, C-SOL and MTL. The first national meeting of the new party occurred in 5 and 6 of june of 2004, more than 750 people participated where it was defined provisionnaly the National Executive, the National Directive, the program and the statehood. At last, after voting, it was decided the new definitive name of the party: Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL)(Party Socialism and Freedom)

Subtitles for image(Foundation of PSOL, in the photo, from left to right: Heloisa Helena, Luciana Genro, Joao Fontes and Baba)

In 2005, a new crisis, involving scandals of corruption, shakes up PT even more, and strenghtens PSOL basis. Socialist Democracy and Articulação de Esquerda(AE) (Left Articulation), PT currents, defend the thesis that a strike from the elites was prepared against the government, continuing its support basis. Meanwhile this was not an unanimous position. From this a series of ruptures occurs due to the series of events and previous distresses. In the 20th of August of 2005, Joao Alfredo of DS, splits with the party and signs into PSOL. On the 24th and 25th of september, the National Popular And Left Assembly  is carried out in Sao Paulo, where 400 Petists(PT members) mainly dissidents from AE and DS, split from PT and sign into PSOL. Pinio de Arruda Sampaio, right after the PT Congress, announces his exit from the party and signing into PSOL, in 26th of september, in conjuction with the deputee Ivan Valente, in which he takes his political tendency, the Acao Popular Socialista(Popular Socialist Action) (Old Forca Socialista), after tight voting of its coordination. APS enters the party as a democratic filiation and then only later becomes an internal tendency. Still in 26th of September, the deputee Orlando Fantazzini, now dissident of DS, announces his entry into PT

PSOL, by virtue of being a party formed by Tendencies, sheltered and shelters various currents inside itself, with different programs and strategies, including various that reinvidicate Trotskyism. The formation of tendencies is foreseen in the statute of the party and can organize themselves freely without direct intervention from leadership instances of the party, allowing autonomy of intra-party groups as long as they obey to the political perrogative of the statute and program of the party