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 For the first time an incoming president of the Workers Party (PT) has recognized the need for change. It is no coincidence that he does not form part of the São Paulo nucleus that always led the party in the past.
Tarso Genro, the new PT president, comes from Rio Grande do Sul and from a different tendency within the party. But since he and the rest of the directors are from the majority bloc that has controlled the party and the government since President Lula's election, we still do not know if he will lead the changes advocated by PT militants for years.
Concrete, urgent measures should be initiated soon. Doing just the opposite - responding to the public clamor with window-dressing or publicity campaigns - could bring about the party's disappearance. The result will be either a new PT or none whatsoever.
Accept economic realism.
Now matured thanks to its time in public office, the new PT needs to admit that the economy has no place for either demagogy or adventures, that economic policy is of neither the Left nor the Right.
It is simply competent or incompetent, responsible or irresponsible. The new leadership must present proposals and adjustments to the present policy that can be adopted in the future without endangering past accomplishments.
Assume the commitment to change society.
The experience of holding public office led the PT to abandon old promises, making it equal to the other parties. The new PT needs to commit itself to the creation of a more just society.
Define concrete banners.
The militants need unifying banners:
1. an end to illiteracy;
2. distributive tax policy;
3. agrarian reform;
4. environmental protection;
5. reduction of income inequality;
6. increased funding for the Bolsa Família program, linked to educational objectives;
7. federalization of education, setting floors for teachers' qualifications and salary, educational content and school equipment;
8. end of reelection for all executive offices;
9. public campaign financing;
10. party fidelity;
11. an end to bank and fiscal confidentiality for PT directors and members in elected or public office.
Abolish the tendencies.
After setting common objectives for all militants, the PT must abolish formal, internally organized tendencies. Nothing must impede the formation of affinities within the party, but this should be done without a tainted, divisive structure.
Nationalize leadership within the PT.
The new PT management's most difficult but most necessary task will be removing from São Paulo and from the tendencies the power that dominated, tainted, and isolated them.
The PT needs to democratize representation of all the states in its internal structure. The party should transfer its national headquarters to the Brazilian capital and guarantee regional representation within its national leadership.
Bring social movements into the PT leadership.
Beside regional distribution, the PT needs to attract the social movements into its nucleus, guaranteeing them seats on all the party directory boards.
The Workers Party will thus be the party of the Brazilian people and not just the workers. It also must constantly renew its leadership, prohibiting reelection to executive posts and permitting only one reelection to the directory boards.
Promote transparency.
The PT needs to adopt total administrative and financial transparency, divulging its financial accounts on the Internet and conducting regular external audits.
With these and other actions by a democratic, transparent, grassroots board of directors, the PT can be reborn as a vanguard party for the reorientation Brazil needs. If not, the change in its direction will have been a mere false allure.
Instead of the PT occupying the government, we will have the government occupying the PT. And everything else will be business as usual.
Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at cristovam@senador.gov.br.
Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome - LinJerome@cs.com.
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To end any special legal privileges given to the rich, to the educated and to the politicians; to change the state prison rules; to increase the length of punishment for hard-core criminals including kidnappers; to establish lifetime sentences for serial killers; to give more rights to the victims; to establish speedy and effective trials with better court rules; to establish more rigorous rules for the conduct of the lawyers in Brazil (make them more liable for mal-practice, for example); to establish a highly effective and fast-action police force, etc, etc