Brazil under Lula


Book Description

This book offers the first multidisciplinary analysis of the impact of the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Workers' Party on Brazilian economy and society, as he begins his second four-year term.




Brazil's Lula


Book Description

Raised in a shack in the Brazilian northeast by a single mother, Lula da Silva rose from a working-class background to become a union leader, organizer of Brazil's Workers' Party, and in time, the most popular president of Brazil. In admiration, Barack Obama called Lula "the most popular politician on Earth"-perhaps a fitting title for the man who finished eight years as Brazil's president with popularity ratings above 80%. As president, he rose above ideology to build his country's self-esteem with a growing economy and relief from poverty. This is the first full biography of a democratic leader whose remarkable success will be an inspiration for decades to come. Spanning his childhood, his years in the labor movement, his four campaigns for the presidency, his two presidential terms and the election of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, this volume focuses on Lula as a personality and explores his impact on Brazilian society. Elected on an ill-defined platform of "change," Lula's inaugural address promised that hope had conquered fear and that it was time for Brazil to blaze a new path. However, he understood that what most Brazilians really wanted was relief from stressful and demanding changes. Drawing strength from his mother's courage, optimism, and religious faith, Lula forged a new leadership style contrasting sharply with that of populist Latin American leaders who aggravate social class and international conflicts. Lula offers a model of leadership for an age when democratic revolutions sweep the globe and presidents-for-life are thrown out of office in disgrace. Despite his overwhelming popularity, Lula refused to allow his supporters to advocate amending the Brazilian constitution to allow him a third term as president. His biography is essential reading for anyone concerned with building democratic order in a developing society.




Lula and the Workers Party in Brazil


Book Description

An up-to-date account of the sweeping victory for the left in Latin America's largest country. Look, my friend. I don't speak the language here, I've got no money, the food stinks, there's no rice, no beans. I'd rather be arrested in Brazil than stay in this dump of a country.Lula, on being advised to stay in the United States after his brother had been arrested in Brazil as a communist subversive, 1975 In October 2002, Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva made history when he became Latin America's first democratically elected socialist leader since Salvador Allende. Lula and his Workers' Party won comfortably with nearly 62 percent of Brazil's popular vote. This book examines the Workers' Party's origins and electoral history, outlining the key politicians behind it and the riveting story of their four successive tries for power. It charts Lula's extraordinary life story, his rise from poverty, decades of struggle in the country's union movement, and his increasing political influence and eventual victory. With coverage of the first six months of the new government, the authors explore how Lula's government is dealing with current crises elsewhere in Latin America from the neo-liberal collapse in Argentina to political instability in Venezuela, and how it is managing potentially difficult relations with the United States and the IMF.




Political Economy of Brazil


Book Description

This book assesses the performance of the first Lula government (2002-06) from different perspectives including economics, politics, history and social policy. While the focus is on Brazil, it also refers to the experiences of similar countries both for comparative purposes and for evidence of the success or otherwise of this 'new' era for Brazil.




Brazil Apart


Book Description

Leading English-language account of the fall of Lula’s Workers’ Party and rise of Bolsonaro and the New Right What does Brazil’s lurch to the hard right under Jair Bolsonaro portend for Latin America’s largest country, and how has it come about? Always something of a world unto itself, Brazil became, under the Workers’ Party from 2003 to 2016, “the theatre of a socio-political drama without equivalent in any other major state.” Bucking the global trend towards a tighter neoliberalism, former steelworker Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva swept aside the broken promises of previous years to invest in social transfers, defying vituperations in the Brazilian media to become the most popular ruler of the age. But in a second spectacular reversal, a parliamentary coup d’état against Lula’s successor—backed by forces in the judiciary and a youthful New Right—has been consolidated by Bolsonaro’s 2018 capture of the Planalto. With the PT’s lodestar now behind bars, a weighing up of his legacy, and of the contrasting Bolsonaro regime, is urgently needed. Brazil Apart is the sharp-edged, comprehensive analytic account required.




Lula and His Politics of Cunning


Book Description

Known around the world simply as Lula, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was born in 1945 to illiterate parents who migrated to industrializing Sao Paulo. He learned to read at ten years of age, left school at fourteen, became a skilled metalworker, rose to union leadership, helped end a military dictatorship—and in 2003 became the thirty-fifth president of Brazil. During his administration, Lula led his country through reforms that lifted tens of millions out of poverty. Here, John D. French, one of the foremost historians of Brazil, provides the first critical biography of the leader whom even his political opponents see as strikingly charismatic, humorous, and endearing. Interweaving an intimate and colorful story of Lula's life—his love for home, soccer, factory floor, and union hall—with an analysis of large-scale forces, French argues that Lula was uniquely equipped to influence the authoritarian structures of power in this developing nation. His cunning capacity to speak with, not at, people and to create shared political meaning was fundamental to his political triumphs. After Lula left office, his opponents convicted and incarcerated him on charges of money laundering and corruption—but his immense army of voters celebrated his recent release from jail, insisting that he is the victim of a right-wing political ambush. The story of Lula is not over.




Truth Will Prevail


Book Description




The Jakarta Method


Book Description

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND GQ The hidden story of the wanton slaughter -- in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world -- backed by the United States. In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful. In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.




Leftist Governments in Latin America


Book Description

Can Latin America's 'new left' stimulate economic development, enhance social equity, and deepen democracy in spite of the economic and political constraints it faces? This is the first book to systematically examine the policies and performance of the left-wing governments that have risen to power in Latin America during the last decade. Featuring thorough studies of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela by renowned experts, the volume argues that moderate leftist governments have attained greater, more sustainable success than their more radical, contestatory counterparts. Moderate governments in Brazil and Chile have generated solid economic growth, reduced poverty and inequality, and created innovative and fiscally sound social programs, while respecting the fundamental principles of market economics and liberal democracy. By contrast, more radical governments, exemplified by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, have expanded state intervention and popular participation and attained some short-term economic and social successes.




Securing Democracy


Book Description

In this riveting follow-up to his acclaimed international bestseller No Place to Hide, Glenn Greenwald documents the courageous fight for press freedom in Brazil, where authoritarianism and rampant corruption threaten the most fundamental principles of democracy. In 2019, award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald writes in his gripping new book, “a series of events commenced that once again placed me at the heart of a sustained and explosive journalistic controversy.” New reporting by Greenwald and a team of Brazilian journalists had brought to light stunning information about grave corruption, deceit, and wrongdoing by the most powerful political actors in Brazil, his home since 2005. These stories, based on a massive trove of previously undisclosed telephone calls, audio, and text shared by an anonymous source, came to light only months after the January 2019 inauguration of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. The revelations “had an explosive impact on Brazilian politics” (Guardian) and prompted serious rancor, including direct attacks by President Bolsonaro himself, and ultimately an attempt by the government to criminally prosecute Greenwald for his reporting. “A wave of death threats — in a country where political violence is commonplace — have poured in, preventing me from ever leaving my house for any reason without armed guards and an armored vehicle,” Greenwald writes. Securing Democracy takes readers on a gripping journey through Brazilian politics as Greenwald, his husband, the left-wing congressman David Miranda, and a powerful opposition movement courageously challenge political corruption, homophobia, and tyranny. Most vitally, Greenwald demonstrates the importance of independent journalism in holding governments to account, reversing injustices, and ultimately securing the freedoms of democracy.