Brazil: Information on the Partido Trabalhista (PT), particularly in Ponta Grossa, the location of its offices, the name of its key officials, its results in the 1995-1996 national elections, its party platform and whether there are any reports that it is responsible for threats to someone who switches allegiance from PT to another party

For general information on the Partido de Trabalhistas (Workers Party—PT), please consult Political Parties of the Americas 1980s to 1990s available at regional documentation centres. You will find the main address of the PT in the 1997 Europa World Yearbook, also available in regional documentation centres.

Please note that one of PT's founder and national president of the party from 1980 to 1995 is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, nicknamed Lula. He was defeated in the 1994 presidential campaign by Fernando-Henrique Cardoso. You will find attached, interviews with Benedita da Silva, a PT senator and with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva which both provide information on the party's platform and ideology.

The following information was provided during a 16 January 1998 telephone interview with an assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The professor specializes in Brazilian politics, lived in Brazil from 1988 to 1990 and has done field research in the country at least once a year from 1990 to the present. The professor is the author of  Democracy Without Equity: Failures of Reform in Brazil (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996). He has also published recent articles on Brazilian politics in the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs and the Journal of Democracy.

The professor stated that he had no information on reports of threats made by the PT to former supporters who have switched political allegiance. The professor mentioned that the fact that a political party like PT can form an alliance with one or many other poltical parties at the national level does not mean that there can not be conflicts between them at the local level. However, the professor stated that political parties in Brazil "are often times too disorganized themselves to run after or harrass someone who has deserted one party to join another and even if that would be the case, it would be more than easy for a supporter who has received threats in a particular city to move to another region of the country considering the size of Brazil."

Please find attached an article that outlines problems in the PT and the Partido Democratico de Trabalhistas (Democratic Labor Party—PDT) alliance in Rio de Janeiro.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Reference

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. 16 January 1998. Telephone interview with an assistant professor of  political science specializing in Brazilian politics.

Attachments

Gazeta Mercantil. 28 October 1997. "Problems Arise in PT and PDT Alliance." (NEXIS)

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Report. July-Aug. 1997. Vol. XXXI, No. 1. "Voices on the Left," pp. 13-19.