PT of Sergipe: party is victim of "hate campaign and lies"

Sergipe 247 - The main leaders of the PT (Workers' Party) in Sergipe signed a document defending the party, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this week. The manifesto, signed by Rogério Carvalho (state president), federal deputy João Daniel, and state deputies Ana Lúcia and Francisco Gualberto, accuses the "private-commercial media" of spreading "misinformation and opinions that, in essence, aim to delegitimize the importance of the PT for Brazil and for Brazilians." "It is a true campaign of hatred and lies, quite well-articulated and planned, that we witness daily against the PT," it stated.

Members of the Workers' Party (PT) claim that the party has "an alliance with the Brazilian people and a commitment to building a Brazil with equality and social justice." And this, according to them, is the reason why the PT has become "a target of sectors that want to make Brazil a country of inequality, injustice, and privilege."

The text highlights actions taken by the Workers' Party (PT) administrations during their 12 years in the presidency. "It is the PT governments that, in recent years, have transformed the country. The data leaves no doubt about this: 36 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; more than 50 million Brazilians have been served by the Mais Médicos Program; worker income has grown 43,8% above inflation; 6,8 million men and women have acquired their own homes through the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program; more than 8 million young people have enrolled in Pronatec; more than 7,1 million students have enrolled in universities; 18 new federal public universities have been created and 173 new campuses; and 422 new federal technical schools have been built," it states.

For Rogério, Ana, Gualberto, and João Daniel, "these and other advances are what bother the Brazilian elite." "It's important to highlight that this media campaign of hatred against the PT also aims to politically miseducate society, to contribute to the population's aversion to politics, and thus, to ensure that decision-making spaces are privileged spaces, restricted to the national elite," they state.

Below is the full statement:

PT: 35 years of alliance with the people and commitment to Brazil

Last Tuesday, February 10th, the Workers' Party (PT) celebrated its 35th anniversary. Three and a half decades of existence, but above all, of an alliance with the Brazilian people and a commitment to building a Brazil with equality and social justice. Therefore, since February 10, 1980, the day of its founding, the PT has been targeted by sectors that, on the other hand, want to make Brazil a country of inequality, injustice, and privilege. One of these sectors is the private-commercial media which, for 35 years, has worked day and night to damage the PT's image. In the last twelve years, a period in which the PT, through the free vote of millions of Brazilians, has been at the head of the Federal Government, the media offensive has only intensified. Not a single day has passed since Lula's inauguration on January 1, 2013, without TV, radio, and newspapers broadcasting (mis)information and opinions that, at their core, aim to delegitimize the importance of the PT (Workers' Party) for Brazil and Brazilians.

It is a veritable campaign of hatred and lies, quite articulated and planned, that we witness daily against the Workers' Party. Anyone who doubts this need only recall what the then president of the National Association of Newspapers and director of Folha de São Paulo, Judith Brito, said in 2010: “In the current situation, where the opposition parties are very weak, it is up to us in the newspapers to play the role of the parties. That is why we are doing it.” It is the true Party of the Coup-Mongering Press.

In this all-out attack against the PT (Workers' Party), some, like the Cinform columnist Rodorval Ramalho, irresponsibly and recklessly go so far as to call the PT a "criminal organization." The Workers' Party currently has over 1.7 million members nationwide. So, Rodorval claims that these almost two million Brazilian men and women are also criminals since they admittedly belong, according to him, to a criminal organization?

The hatred of Rodorval and his gurus Reinaldo Azevedo, Rodrigo Constantino, Olavo de Carvalho, and Merval Pereira, among others, has a clear motivation: it is the PT governments that, in recent years, have transformed the country. On this point, the data leaves no doubt: 36 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, representing a 76% reduction; more than 50 million Brazilians have been served by the Mais Médicos Program; worker income has grown 43,8% above inflation; 6,8 million men and women have acquired their own homes through the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program; more than 8 million young people have enrolled in Pronatec; more than 7,1 million students have enrolled in universities; 18 new federal public universities have been created and 173 new campuses; 422 new federal technical schools have been built; and more than 90 university students have been able to participate in exchange programs at foreign universities with scholarships through the Ciência Sem Fronteiras program. Brazil became the 7th largest economy in the world; for the first time in history, Brazil was removed from the Hunger Map; unemployment reached its lowest historical level in the country.

These and other advances bother the Brazilian elite (who use these journalists and columnists as spokespeople). But it's important to highlight that this media campaign of hatred against the PT also aims to politically miseducate society, to contribute to the population's aversion to politics, and thus to ensure that decision-making spaces are privileged spaces, restricted to the national elite. This is why the campaign against the PT is accompanied, for example, by opposition to a democratic and popular political reform that guarantees the entire population a leading role in the political system. This is also why the media opposed the decree that regulated social participation through popular councils as a method of governance.

It is for these and other reasons that we are convinced of the centrality of democratizing the media for the consolidation of Brazilian democracy. The public space of the media cannot continue to be a place where few have a voice, nor should it be an environment of misinformation and lies.

Rogério Carvalho, President of the PT Sergipe
Ana Lúcia, State Representative and Vice-President of the PT Sergipe
Francisco Gualberto, state representative and President of the PT (Workers' Party) in Aracaju
João Daniel, federal deputy for the PT party in Sergipe.