The Congress of South African Trade Unions congratulates the working class of Brazil for delivering a stunning victory for the Workers Party of Brazil and President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the recent national elections.

This is an important victory not just for the working class in Brazil but for the global working class because it represents the consolidation of a pushback against right-wing populism that has been gaining momentum in the last decade.

President Lula defied all the odds by not only prevailing against the trumped-up criminal charges that saw him imprisoned for two years, but he also managed to galvanise the working class against a fascistic regime that victimised the indigenous tribes, denied the reality of climate change and governed for the benefit of an elite minority.

The working-class in Brazil has reminded all of us that mass mobilisation and working-class unity remain the only reliable tools at the disposal of the working class to remove pro-capitalist and right-wing parties that are facilitating the exploitation of the working class.

Issued by COSATU   

Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794