39 years of PT - A party of commitment and struggle.

On February 10th, we celebrated 39 years of struggle for the Workers' Party, but we are saddened by the unjust imprisonment of our greatest inspiration and leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The Workers' Party (PT) was founded in 1980 to give voice and agency to workers, women, youth, indigenous people, black men and women, in short, to all those excluded and persecuted by the then military dictatorship.

Throughout its history, the voice of the oppressed has transformed into social movements and government programs focused on access and rights, initially occurring in city halls, then in state governments, and finally in the federal government with the election of Lula as president.

The social inclusion of 40 million people, the quota policy in universities, the creation of 20 million jobs with formal contracts, and the effective confrontation of racism and discrimination against women, with the creation of opportunities for all who suffered from oppression, made the PT government, and Lula in particular, the number one enemy of the backward elite, which, since 2002, has lost every presidential election.

To regain the Presidency of the Republic, this same elite had no choice but to stage a coup, because they have always treated the federal government as if it were their private property.

Ever since the Constituent Assembly, the reactionary elite, linked to economic power and the mainstream media, never recognized the people's democratic right to elect their president, much less a worker and a woman, for whom the exercise of politics was forbidden.

With the victory of the impeachment coup, the forces of backwardness returned to the executive branch where they continued, tragically for the people, with the strange election of the candidate representing fascism. In other words, the repressive authoritarianism of the new government represents precisely the return of those nostalgic for the dictatorship, who have been out of the federal government since the 1988 Constituent Assembly.

As one of the founders of the largest popular and democratic opposition party this country has ever had, I affirm that the Workers' Party has never been more necessary than now, when it is necessary to reunite the social fabric and unify its hopes and disappointments into a powerful torrent that occupies the streets and the platforms, frees Lula, and reclaims democracy with the people at its core.

The Workers' Party will never die, as its political enemies wish and dream, because it lives in the hearts and minds of the working people and grows stronger with the growth of their struggle.
Congratulations, PT!