Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, universally known as “Lula,” defeated far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro on October 25 to win a fourth term. A former metalworker and union leader who led strikes in defiance of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, Lula was elected to the presidency in 2002, 2006, and again in 2022 as the candidate of the Workers’ Party, a working-class party formed by the country’s unions in 1980.
In a joint statement, Brazil’s main union federations declared that, “President Lula’s victory is a victory of hope and democracy. ... Throughout the country, demonstrations, marches, and gatherings multiplied. Millions of people took to the streets, of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences, united by the desire to participate in building Brazil’s future.”
Bolsonaro had narrowly won the first round of the elections on October 4 with 47 percent of the vote, but with a narrow margin of victory and no candidate receiving a majority of votes, a run-off election was held three weeks later. In the run-off, Lula received 10 million more votes than in the first round, a result of the “extraordinary democratic and popular mobilization” hailed by the unions.
Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who attempted to instigate a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. The elder Bolsonaro was tried and convicted of plotting the coup and is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence; it was widely assumed that had his son won the presidency, he would have pardoned his father and given him a role in government.
During Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, he lowered the minimum wage, closed down the country’s Ministry of Labor, and pronounced that, “You have to do away with unions in Brazil.” He cut funding for public higher education by 30 percent and pushed through a constitutional amendment to “reform” the country’s social security system by making workers work longer and cutting retirement benefits. In contrast, Lula’s presidencies have produced material improvements in the lives of the working class which lifted millions out of poverty.
In their statement, the unions point out that mobilizing for elections alone is not enough. “The force we saw in the streets needs to remain present in society and occupy space in government. We need to transform mobilization into organization, hope into participation, diversity into unity, and political energy into a permanent capacity” to propose and enact policies that can “transform” the country in interests of working people.
UE has a close relationship with Brazil’s largest metalworkers’ union, CNM-CUT, which represents Wabtec workers in Brazil and has sent video greetings to several recent UE conventions.