LULA VS. WALESA

1970’SBRAZIL was under a military dictatorship, with strong conservative values and anti-communist propaganda, since a coup d’état that happened in 1964. The opposition forces were persecuted and artists, activists and socialist guerrillas were tortured, murdered and exiled. After a small period of growing industrialization during the 1970’s, the economy went down and factory workers were laid off in droves. As trade unions were legally associated to the government, the working class didn’t have official instruments to claim for its rights and interests.

“WANTED TERRORISTSHelp to protect the life of your family

Call the police”

BRAZIL

1970’SPOLAND was a communist country allied to the soviet power since the end of World War II. The reconstruction of the country faced many economic problems, even after the end of Stalinst Era, when reformist groups became hegemonic. The 1970’s was marked by big crisis in the eastern bloc, and the oil shock of 1973 influenced Poland’s economy dramatically. As trade unions were related to the ruling party and subordinated by the state, organizations for workers who were disappointed or opposed the government couldn’t exist.

POLAND

In May of 1978, two thousand ironmasters that worked for Saab-Scania started an illegal strike requesting a 20% increase in their salaries. The movement soon extended to the workers of other companies in São Paulo, like Volkswagen, Ford and Mercedes. Another big wave of strikes happened in 1979, this time involving also professors, bank employees, journalists, physicians and many other categories. The strikes were strongly repressed by the military regime.

War tanks at “Companhia SIderúrgica Nacional”

A wave of illegal strikes started in Poland in 1970, when the workers protested against the increase of prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the riots, which were put down by the Polish People’s Army and the Citizen’s Militia, at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded. More strikes happened in 1976 and 1980, with the participation of the workers of the Lenin Shipyard and the emergence of a charismatic leader named Lech Walesa.

Walesa speaks at the 1980 strike in Gdańsk Shipyard

In 1980, 300,000 ironmasters stopped working for 41 days. They went to the football stadium Vila Euclides to listen to the improvisations of Lula, a charismatic worker that became the leader of the “ABC strikes”.

Over 200 factories and enterprises of Poland joined the strike committee in 1980. On august, the government signed an agreement ratifying many of the workers’ demands, including the right to strike.

The dictatorship started making reforms that pointed to a democratic opening. After the government admitted the multiparty system, in 1980, the workers from the ABC strikes joined forces with progressive sectors of the church, students, peasants, trotskists and other anti-soviet democratic socialists to create the Worker’s Party (PT). Two years later, the unionist workers created the first independent trade union federation in the history of Brazil, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT).

Encouraged by the success of the August strikes, on September 17 workers’ representatives, including Lech Wałęsa, formed a nationwide labor union, Solidarity (“Solidarność”). It was the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country. Meanwhile, Solidarity had been transforming itself from a trade union into a social movement.

Lula was inspired by Walesa. They managed to meet in Rome during the 1980’s. Both told that they didn’t get along after a short conversation.

“Walesa is a pelegão!”

- Lula“Pelego” is a wool pad used to smooth the

contact of the saddle with the horse.

“Lula wanted to implant socialism in Brazil and I wanted to kill it”

- Walesa

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1980’S1980 was a decade of important struggles for PT and CUT. The redemocratization started in 1985, but the president was elected indirectly because the oligarchies were afraid that Lula could win the elections. After a strong and non-violent campaign led by democratic politicians, PT and its associated social movements, there was the first direct election since 1960.

In 1989, Lula went to the second round of elections against Collor, an unknown neoliberal yuppie that was created artificially and promoted by the mass media. Collor won the elections.

1980’SIn October of 1982, Solidarity was delegalized and banned. It managed to persevere throughout the mid-80s as an underground movement, garnering extensive international support: Reagan, Thatcher, the Pope, Carrillo, NATO, Christians, Western communists, liberals, conservatives, and socialists - all voiced support for Solidarity’s cause.

When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed control over the Soviet Union in 1985, he was forced to initiate a series of reforms due to the worsening economic situation across the entire Eastern Bloc. On April 17, 1989, Solidarity was again legalised and the party was allowed to field candidates in upcoming elections. Walesa was elected president.

Two years after his election, Collor was facing big problems with the economy, increasing inflation and lack of support in the parliament. He failed as a puppy of the old oligarchies and was involved in a big corruption scandal. Students led by UNE (National Students Union), sympathizer of PT and CUT, went to the streets in a protest known as the “painted-faces”. They wanted the Impeachment of the President.

Collor resigned in 1992.

During his presidency, Walesa saw Poland through privatization and transition to a free-market economy. The fall of the communist regime marked a new chapter in the history of Poland and solidarity found itself in a role it was much less prepared for — that of a political party.

The 1991 elections were characterized by a large number of competing parties claiming the legacy of anti-communism, and the Solidarity party garnered only 5%.

Walesa has been criticized for a confrontational style and for instigating “war at the top,” whereby former Solidarity allies clashed with one another. This increasingly isolated Wałęsa on the political scene. His popular support dwindled to 10%, and he lost the 1995 presidential election. Wałęsa said he was going to go into “political retirement”.

Lula lost 2 more elections, but PT remained as the second stronger party until 2002. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc influenced all the Left-wing organizations around the world, and PT as well. Lula was elected in 2002 with an anti-neoliberal, but social-democrat agenda rather than socialist.

His government was responsible for important social programmes, the eradication of hunger in Brazil and the reduction of extreme poverty from 25% to 3,5% of the population.

Lula was reelected and became the most popular president of his time (with more than 80% of approval). The Worker’s Party elected and reelected his sucessor Dilma, the first woman President of Brazil.

Walesa received the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize and represented Polish in the funeral of Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin.

He is the director of the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation.

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Lula receives the Lech Walesa Award in 2011.

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