| Became President: | January 1, 2003 |
| Predecessor: | Fernando Henrique Cardoso |
| Date of Birth: | October 6, 1945 |
| Place of Birth: | Vargem Grande (now Caetés), Garanhuns, Pernambuco State |
| Party: | Workers' Party |
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (born October 6, 1945) is a left-wing Brazilian politician. Lula gained election as the President of Brazil in 2002 and took office on January 1, 2003.
Lula was born as Luiz Inácio da Silva in a small city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, from a family of poor farmers. He has been registered as born on the 6th of October, but he claims, believing his mother's memory, been born on the 27th of october.
His father moved shortly after his birth to the coastal city of Santos, São Paulo state, where he worked as a cargo lifter in the harbor. Lula's mother, his 7 siblings and himself joined his father in 1952, facing a voyage of 13 days in an open truck's cargo area. Even though they had better living conditions than in Pernambuco, life was still difficult.
In 1956 his family relocates to São Paulo, then a land of greater opportunities. Lula, his mother and the 7 siblings lived in a small room in the back area of a pub. He had little formal education, quitting school when he completed the 4th grade. His proffessional life begins at age 12, as a shoeshine boy. By the age of 14 he gets his first formal job in a steel processing factory.
At the age of 19, he lost a finger in a work accident while working as a press operator in an automobile parts factory. Around the same time, he became involved in union activities and held several important union posts. The right-wing dictatorship of Brazil in this era strongly suppressed union activities, and Lula's views moved further to the political left in reaction.
In 1966 he marries Maria de Lourdes, his first wife, who died together with his first son at birth. He marries again, Marisa, in 1974, who gave him three sons.
In 1972 he is elected president of the Steel Workers' Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema, the cities that were home to virtually all the automobile manufacturing facilities (like Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and others) and among the most idustrialized in the country.
In the 1970s, Lula helped organize major union activities including several huge strikes. He was arrested and jailed for a month, but was released following protests. The strikes ended with both pro-union and pro-government forces dissatisfied with the outcome, On 10 February 1980 a group of academics, union leaders and intellectuals, Lula included, founded the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) or Workers' Party, a left-wing, with radical ideas in the beggining and born right in the middle of the military dictorship.
In 1982 he added the nickname "Lula" to his legal name. In 1983 he helped founding the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), an association of unions. In 1984 PT and Lula himself joins the popular campaign called Diretas Já demanding popular vote for country president. By then, the presidents were elected by the members of the Congress, but in a clear military dictorship, and since the Military Coup only high level military personal (mainly Generals) got to the presidency.
As a direct result of the 1984 and following years popular campaign, the 1989 elections were the first to elect a president by direct in more than 30 years. In 1992 he joins the campaign for the impeachment of the popular elected president Fernando Collor de Mello after a series of scandals involving public money.
Elections
In 1986, Lula won the election to a seat in Brazil's Congress with a record percentage of the votes. The Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) helped to write the country's post-dictatorship constitution, ensuring strong constitutional guarantees for workers' rights, but failing to gain redistribution of rural agricultural land.
In 1989, Lula stood as the PT presidential candidate. He proved to be popular with a wide spectrum of Brazilian society, but was feared as an opponent by business owners and financial interests, and lost the election. His party was formed by left-center wing social-democrats as well as Trotskyite socialists, which also earned him the distrust of better-off sectors in Brazilian society.
Lula continued to run for the office of President in subsequent elections. In his 2002 campaign he abandoned his style of informal clothing, as well as his platform plank of refusing to pay the Brazilian foreign debt. This last point had very much worried economists around the , businessmen and banks, who feared that a Brazilian default along with the already ongoing Argentine default would have a massive ripple effect through the world economy.
In the second round of the 2002 election, held on October 27, Lula defeated José Serra of the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (Brazilian Social Democracy Party or PSDB) to become the president-elect of Brazil.
The Government
Political Orientation
The once-feared Lula (even called a "son of Moscow" in 1989) accepted changes to his original ideas. His party progressively changed to a centrist-left political position. Instead of deep social changes (as proposed in the past) the new government chose a reformist line, passing laws of Retirement, Tributary, Labour, Judicial and University Reform.
This relative change in the political orientation of Lula, PT and the Government was well received by the majority of the population, but as a historically more radical party, PT has been suffering from internal fights with members that followed the old standards. This fights are publicly demonstrated and had their climax on December 2003, when several members of the Party were expelled for not following political decisions. Among these members were Congressman João Batista Oliveira de Araujo, known as Babá and Senator Heloísa Helena.
In a recent move by the radical wing of the Party, sometimes even called rebels by the media, 112 members announced they are abandoning PT in the World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre, on January 30 2005. [1] They also published a manifest entitled Manifest of the Rupture that states that PT is no more an instrument of social transformation, but only an instrument of status quo, continuing with references to the IMF and other economic and social issues.
Social Projects
As a left-wing president, Lula has made the social programs his priority during the campaign and since his election. Lula states that one of the main problems in Brazil today is hunger. Possibly remembering his early years of poverty and hunger in Pernambuco and São Paulo, he states he made the fight against hunger a personal one.
The most notorious social program if his government is "Fome Zero" (Zero Hunger). This program distributes money to people in need from selected regions and cities with severe dificulties. The money can then be exchanged for food in local commerce. Fome Zero has a governmental budget and accepts donations from the public and international comunity.
Another important social program is "Bolsa Família" (Family Aid), whose objective is to fight poverty and hunger and consists in helping families with income of less than R$100.00 (around US$30.00 by the time of this writing) by giving them a financial aid.
Economy
The single most important member of the cabinet for the economy in Brazil is the Ministro da Fazenda, a Minister, who responsible for the economic decisions.
Lula has appointed Antonio Palocci as his Ministro da Fazenda, even before he had assumed the presidency. Palocci, who is a Medical Doctor by profession, is a member of Lula's party and was previously mayor of Ribeirão Preto. Palocci was considered a right choice by the market and international community.
PT and Lula decided to choose a figure from the market as President of Banco Central do Brasil, the brazilian economic authority. This person was Henrique Meirelles, who was approved by the Brazilian Senate. Meirelles was well known to the maket, both inland and internationally. He occupied high level offices in financial institutions and even worked for George Soros before.
Lula and the cabinet continued in part with the ideas of the previous government, by renewing the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was signed by the time Argentina declared the default in 2001. Government has achieved good primary budget surplus in the first 2 years of President Lula, necessary to keep up with the IMF agreement.
The fear of some more drastic move by President Lula (taking for example what Hugo Chávez is doing in Venezuela) led to big market speculations by the time Lula was considered favourite in the 2002 election. These speculations resulted in low demand for sovereign bonds, in the raise of the inflation rate, currency attacks and ultimately in the sovereign risk attributed by Moody's to the Brazilian bonds raising to more than 2000 base points.
Two years after the election, Palocci is still gaining slowly but firmly the confidence of the market, and the same sovereign risk measurement is now in the level of around 500 points. The system of inflation target adopted by the current government has had good results in keeping the economy stable, and was subject to compliments in the World Economic Forum of Davos in 2005. This system is, nevertheless, criticised in public by a number of important members of the Government.
The economic agenda for 2005 has a debate for a greater autonomy of the president of the economic authority, using as example what goes on in a number of countries and the European Union.
Foreign Policy
Lula has an assertive foreign policy: this involves unifying opposition to the Washington Consensus among developing nations to push for better terms of trade for the global South. This was seen in the collapse of the Cancun World Trade Organization talks in 2003 over G-8 agricultural subsidies with the walkout of developing nations. Another key proposal of Lula's is a small Tobin tax on international financial transactions that will go to fund developing nations. Brazil has also sent troops to Haiti to show its resolve as a global player.
External links
Political Orientation
- Senator Heloísa Helena's homepage
- Congressman Babá's homepage
- Article about expulsion of members from the party
Social
Economy
- Antonio Palocci, Minstro da Fazenda
- Henrique Meirelles, President of Banco Central do Brasil
- About the autonomy of the Banco Central do Brasil
Articles about Lula's election and foreign policy
- Lula's foreign policy of Third World unity, The Nation
- Joy as Brazil swings Left, Melbourne Herald Sun
- Brazil's 'Lula' Celebrates Election as President, Voice of America News
- Financial markets hold for Lula, BBC News
- Peace, love and power, Radio Netherlands
| Preceded by: Fernando Henrique Cardoso |
President of Brazil | Succeeded by: |