Conti reinforces criticism of "Dirceu" with a list of further errors.

247 – In response to the article published in Folha by the editor of the unauthorized biography of José Dirceu, Carlos Andreazza, the reporter from “piauí” magazine, Mario Sergio Conti, presents a list of further errors identified in the book: a biography with five dozen absurdities is useless for understanding a life. Read more:

The mistakes of "Dirceu"

Political disputes are becoming detrimental due to books that do not value the truth, which is always revolutionary and will set us free.

The August issue of "piauí" features a review highlighting 30 factual errors in "Dirceu," by Otávio Cabral. The book's editor, Carlos Andreazza, did not contest them in his article in Folha (August 23). However, he wrote that the "astonishing survey" is "a resentful inventory of trivialities."

What's astonishing are the absurdities of the biography, not its compilation. There's no resentment because I didn't draw any conclusions from the book. And even if they were minor details, why were they included in "Dirceu," and incorrectly at that?

Andreazza insinuated that I exposed the errors in order to defend defendants in the Mensalão scandal. This is a way of avoiding the issue, the inconsistencies in the book he edited. But let me state for the record: I have already criticized José Dirceu's politics from the 60s to the 2000s, from armed struggle to praise for the Cuban dictatorship, from deals with the bourgeoisie to the criminal fundraising for the PT (Workers' Party).

Besides those I've pointed out, the book has another 30 inaccuracies. Here are ten of them. "The student movement, from 1967 onwards, had become the only voice of civil society against the military regime," writes Cabral. This was not the case. There were workers' strikes in Contagem and Osasco in 1968. Rebellious theater and cinema existed until AI-5, as did the resistance of intellectuals.

In 1971, he says, "the colonies of Africa began to fight for independence against the European powers and China threatened to invade Taiwan." Neither one nor the other. The African anti-colonial struggle had begun decades earlier. In 1971, the UN expelled Taiwan and elected the People's Republic as the sole representative of the Chinese people. "Trifles" or ignorance about Dirceu's world, the world of the left?

According to Otávio Cabral, Dirceu was a "fierce opponent" of Governor Franco Montoro. The politician from the PSDB party had been his teacher and helped his family during their years of exile and clandestinity. Therefore, he was always frank in his criticisms of Montoro.

The author perpetuates the myth that the PT (Workers' Party) did not ratify the Constitution. The PT's constituent assembly members voted against the Charter, but the party eventually ratified it. This is a significant nuance of the PT's ambiguities, which escapes Cabral. Between the chaff of myth and the wheat of reality, he chooses the chaff.

He claims that the subject of the biography supported Virgílio Guimarães for the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, but his opponent, Luiz Eduardo Greenhalgh, said that Dirceu campaigned for him. The swimming pool at Dirceu's house in Vinhedo is decorated with a PT (Workers' Party) star, Cabral says. I was there once on business and there was no star at all. He says that his mother suffers from Alzheimer's, but she doesn't have the disease.

Regarding Dirceu's consulting firm, he writes that he "gave up his headquarters, next to Ibirapuera Park." If you were to call the company, as I did yesterday, a friendly secretary would tell you that the consulting firm is still there. He makes such a fuss over dates that the ubiquitous Dirceu appears on the same night (June 7, 2005) in Brasília and Lisbon.

According to Andreazza, this hodgepodge of absurdities constitutes a "memorable work of journalistic investigation and historical reconstruction." But I think any biography with five dozen absurdities is useless for understanding a life. And since "Dirceu" is also a swamp of insinuations, in which the author wallows, he pollutes the political environment.

Among other reasons, political disputes are becoming detrimental due to books that do not value the truth, which is always revolutionary and will set us free. They only serve to fuel the insults of scoundrels. Such books are equivalent: "Dirceu" rivals "A Privataria Tucana," by Amaury Ribeiro Jr., in incompetence, recklessness, and bad faith.