WEBVTT - The Brazilian Election Part 1: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.000 Welcome to make it Happen Here a podcast about things 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.360 falling apart and then maybe kind of putting them back 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.119 together again sort of. Uh, this this this is this 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.520 is a special episode about the thing that happened. Where 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.080 a thing that happened is the Brazilian election. And with 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:28.680 me to talk about this is Garrison Hello and James Hello. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.200 So I think I think people probably know by now 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.519 Louis Nacio Lula is Silva, better known as Lula, has 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:42.720 defeated JR. Bosonaro in a absolutely terrifying squeaker of a 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:48.760 presidential election. Um. This is like, by far the closest 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.120 election that Lula there is, a former two term president 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.360 of Brazil, has ever won. Um. Part of this is 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.760 a campaign of last minute voter suppression that Bolsonaro own 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.320 his supporters did where like like basically like the Brazilian 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.560 federal police started setting up like they set up like 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.480 fifty roadblocks to stop people in the little strongholds from voting. 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:13.080 There's like the assaulted people. Um it wound up not 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.080 mattering and right now, as as a time of recording, 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:23.280 which is uh one pm, one third pm Pacific. On Halloween, 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.839 Bolsonaro was missing in action. There's no like, no one's 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.679 seen him. The only the only thing, the only sign 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.480 of life that there has been from him is he 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:40.080 unfollowed his wife. Amazing stuff. It's it sounds like he 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:43.319 just locked himself in the presidential palace and turn and 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.080 turn all all of the lights off. Yeah, he's she's 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:51.000 missing and no nobody's seen or heard from him. Um. 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:52.920 So by the time this episode comes out, there's like 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.000 a small chance there's been a coup. There's like a 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.240 small chance he's died from COVID. I don't know, probably 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:04.560 neither of those have happened. But you know, so Lula 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:10.520 won his election like he won like like fifty point 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.399 eight percent of the vote roughly. And okay, so there's 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.720 a lot of voter suppression. But even voters suppression cannot 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.880 explain why Lula, who won his last elections with respectively 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.120 sixty one and sixty percent of the vote, was reduced 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.360 to like fifty point eight percent this time. And okay, 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.640 so that this begs two questions, who is Luis sa 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.000 Nacia Lula da Silva and how did we get to 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:37.240 this election? So the first episode of this is going 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.399 to be answering The first question, and the second episode 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.320 is largely the second question. Okay, so who who actually 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.160 is Lula? Lula is born in actually his birthday is 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.360 a few days ago UM to a desperately poor family 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:55.600 in Brazil's northeast Um and this family moves from the 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.000 northeast to what became known as the a PC region 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.560 of Brazil, which is to Andre su Bernard sent sorry 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:09.920 Santo Andre sal Bernard, who who can't say names of Brazil? 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.640 Now this this is not a famous name. This is 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:18.960 sal Bernardo. Wait are you conflating Brazil and Argentina, which 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.040 are famously not the same country, different languages. The thing, 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.040 if this wasn't Spanish, I could do this and I'm 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.120 gonna make it. I can make this claim here. All 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.400 my pronunciations to this are based on my terrible knowledge 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.040 of Spanish. The problem is Brazil famously speaks Portuguese, a 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.600 language that is not Spanish. So yeah, but okay, so 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.360 there there's there's things of the ABC region, because there's 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:45.400 three cities there that are abc UM. As part of 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.920 this sort of mass migration, which is is popularly remembered 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.680 as like this mass migration of people from the northeast 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.520 to sub Hollo, but the sort of the actually that 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.080 that that's a popular memory of the actualities that millions 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:01.840 of people flow into sub Hollo, like from all across Brazil. Um, 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.840 the ABC region becomes the Brazil sort of industrial heartland. 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.320 Like every story you read about this, we'll call it 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.760 like Brazil's Detroit. And that's kind of true and kind 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.719 of not true. Like I don't know, every everyone who 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.800 writes about Brazil is like, how can we make this 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.880 the US? And like god, Fibida out of countries have 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.600 their own realities. Yeah, and like okay, like there is 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.960 an extent to which Brazil is also like the ex 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:37.120 slave colony thing right, but no, like Brazil bizil is 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:42.760 its own country. Um, however, come up. The ABC region 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.800 becomes the core of Brazil's massive metalworking industry. Um. In 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.240 this industry is just like from the fifties of the eighties, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.920 just like purely expanding. Um. The historian J. D. French 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.480 knows that the ABC's population increased by eight from the 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.200 so Lulu rives in the middle of a veritable industrial revolution. Um, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.240 this is going to end in one of history sort 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.960 of great built industrial working classes. But he's there, that's 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:10.880 kind of not what's happening or the other thing, as 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:12.280 you mentioned about this region is that when I say 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.279 metal working, so there's a the reason there's so many 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.520 Detroit comparisons is that this is this is a reason 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.640 that is massively involved in Brazil's auto industry, which in 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.200 this period is expanding. It is very large. Um. I 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.520 think I think I've actually talked about this in the 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:32.839 Neoliberalism episodes. Um a little bit. But yeah, so Lula 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:38.039 like leaves school in fifth grade to basically find whatever 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:39.800 work he can in the street. And this is another 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.960 sort of very famous thing that everyone talks about about 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.799 Lula Alkio, Like he has like a grade school education, 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:46.760 and that's like sort of true, Like it is true 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.800 that he never like like graduate, like you know, he 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.080 never went to school past like fifth grade. Mostly. I 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.040 thought we'll get to some other stuff that he did later. Um. 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.479 What happens basically is that his his mom is able 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.960 to get him into this this metal this this government 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.600 metal working sort of apprenticeship program that is teaching like 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:06.799 young people how to do how to basically become skilled 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.000 metal workers. And this also is an education, right like 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.200 you know, the people people in this there's there's a 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.279 lot of very interesting sort of like theory stuff about 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.240 this about how these people like are are also kind 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.599 of worker intellectuals, because in order to like be a 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.359 metal worker and to do all this stuff, you have 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.280 to know a ship ton of stuff. You have to know. 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:27.200 You have to know a bunch of typtical stuff about 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:28.640 how metal works. You have to know that. You know, 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.159 it's it's very highly skilled, very high like degree of 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:33.800 knowledge you have to have. So you know, he he 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:38.440 gets this kind of education, Um, and he becomes a 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.720 very very good metal worker, and he's he's part of 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.680 a a like a highly skilled and the academic literature 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.160 will call it highly paid, although like, okay, this is 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.240 highly paid compared to like someone like someone who is 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.360 a worker, but who's not like a metal work like 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.080 one of the sort of skilled quote unquote metal workers. Um, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.920 they're not like these people aren't like lawyers right like 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.320 they're they're they're so closer to the actual sort of 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:06.040 working class than you know, so some almost like people 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.120 who are sort of like auxiliary parts of the ruling class. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.200 And he enters, you know, he enders the sort of 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.640 manufacturing boom as part of what's called the Brazilian miracle. Well, okay, 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.280 so he he's there a bit before the sort of 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.520 Brazilian miracle starts. But there's this period u of the 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.640 militaryed kattership wh sake power where they kind of like 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.320 luck into a functioning economy. Although I should I should 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:32.520 mention this now, um okay, So in this period in Brazil, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.560 like inflation being good and under control is inflation is 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.800 like when inflations everything is considered fine and when it 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.080 goes up from it's like, oh no, we've lost control 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.600 of inflation. And this this kind of like this is 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:51.280 a survivable thing because people's wages are short of indexed 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.000 to um like that their index to constant living increases 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.840 to some extent, which is the thing that like, yeah, 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.160 it would never happen here. Yeah, well, I mean, I 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.320 guess if if you do the kind of stuff these 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:08.760 guys do, you can probably get some of this. But yeah, so, 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.920 but the sort of interesting thing about what's happening here 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.200 is you have a very large industrial working class, but 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.440 it's not really very militant for most of the time 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.920 Lula's in it, except for sort of right around the 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:26.160 military like Kuive, Lulas sees some of kind of like 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.280 the old radicalism like he he talks about like you know, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:35.800 like watching people like storming factories because they're on strike. Uh, 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.320 the Brazilian working class does. There's a lot of fun 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.679 stuff that they do. Like they do things like, okay, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:43.600 so that everyone will show up to a protest with 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.560 like a bunch of like pockets full of marbles, and 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:48.560 when when a calvary recharge starts, still just roll the 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.720 all rolling marbles down the street and the person fall. 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.319 It's an o G Battle of Cable Street. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.200 my my absolute favorite one. This is just like like 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:06.680 pure looty tune ship. Um. They do this thing where okay, 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.400 so they'll string piano wire up like between light posts 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.640 and then they'll bait cavalry units and the charging at 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:15.800 them and then the thing and the guys will just 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:21.160 get sucking close. Look that's so good. Yeah, that's pretty great. 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:26.520 Horse cups You didn't in America but no, no, no, no, 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.000 well they you see them sometimes, like I have seen 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.400 some horse cops. Portland's horse cops only like stop existing 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.920 a few years ago. Yeah. Yeah. In the UK until 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.839 very recently they used them to police protest. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.079 there was fwenty of people getting run over by horses 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:51.200 in the States. Yeah, yeah, they do this. Yeah, fucking 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:56.040 sucks there. Actually, okay, I think the most famous police 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.240 horse you latest story in the US is a Philly 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.120 sports fan. I think it like en punching a police horse. 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:08.800 What a city. Yeah, the most famous British police horse 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:14.800 thing is that the horse humping the cop. Critical support 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:20.720 to the Yeah, it's quickly copy the image into the 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.520 chat so you can all enjoy it. I'm okay, I'm 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.240 glad that we've taken this episode in this direction. My 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:33.880 holy sh it, that oh my god. Okay, it was graphic. 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.320 Do you know what else will take a cop and 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:45.079 bend it over and nope? Alright, well promise that Garrison. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:59.840 Here's some advertisements, and we're back with other things. That 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:09.760 old scar bite soul forever boy. Up until sort of there, 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:11.680 there has been a kind of left wing government in 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.080 Brazil and then the military q like just overthrowst it, 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.800 and the left is kind of just like annihilated from this. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:21.920 And it's not just from the pure political repression which 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.920 forces like like all of the communist parties are forced 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:29.640 underground like um, but one of the one of the things. 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.319 Like one of the real things that sort of like 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:36.600 really shatters the Brazilian left is that, like the coup 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.840 happens and the left, you know, the left sort of 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:41.640 noses a cue coming, right, but they expect that when 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.160 the coup happens, there's going to be strikes and like 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.800 the working class is gonna fight them and they're gonna 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.600 beat it, and everyone kind of just like in the 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.640 factories kind of just shrugs and nothing happens, and they 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.960 just get rolled over. And this is the start of 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.679 this period of sort of like you know, this kind 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.640 of like the workers movement, like nothing is happening in 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.760 there's some sort of radical student groups trying to do stuff, 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.800 but like I know, there's a Brazilian version of sixty eight, 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.160 but mostly what happens there was like one factory gets 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.520 occupied and then the army shows up with guns and 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.000 they get owned and it's really grim, and you know 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.120 you have these sort of like like tiny like actually okay, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:24.200 you're these tiny catholic maoist groups who these mauist student groups. 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.640 Yeah yeah, yeah, okay, we just right through that. It's 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.640 it's nuts um normal, totally normal. Yeah yeah. And then 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.280 you know they're trying who trying to do like drill 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:37.960 in certainty stuff, and the army just sort of like 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.400 kills them all. Um, they're horribly destroyed. So for almost 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.080 a decade and a half, like you have a very 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.920 deep politicized industrial politaria. And and and Lula's part of this, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:49.720 right like from from from like when he enters the 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.920 workforce ntil like the late seventies, he is not political 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.920 at all. Are they doing the thing under the dictatorship 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.400 where they have like pet unions? I guess when it's 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.600 like one man day ted union for the industry. Actually, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.040 I was about to talk about this, um. Yeah, so 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.000 the Brazilian libor system and the thing is, so this 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.439 wasn't set up under this military stipetatorship. It was kind 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.319 of set up under like a previous one. But this, yeah, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.120 it's still sort of a thing. All of the unions 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:15.800 have to register with the state. And when they're doing 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.199 contract negotiations, right, they're not negotiating with the corporations to 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.440 negotiating with the state. And so this means that like 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.079 the state is setting wage Rage's gonna become important later. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.160 But yeah, there's a really interesting sort of problem here 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.000 because there's this entire class of basically sort of like 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.600 government union guy who's like basically a bureaucrat, and it's 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:38.240 like really corrupt, and yeah, well and and this is 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:39.840 something like and like like a lot of people just 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.480 hate them because like that, like you know, because because 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.560 they like literally what these people are are, like they're 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.600 a guy who's doing this job to get ahead, and 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.560 then their job is to sort of like like you know, 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.720 technically it's like mediate the class struggle, right, but like 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.040 what that actually means is like make sure that like 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.439 there isn't actually sort of like like make sure the 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.720 union isn't actually sort of a source of class conflict. 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.120 And then this, this is this is the whole sort 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:06.400 of thing behind this because before like still had this 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.080 really really built and like labor movement, they had a 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.560 bunch of anarchists, like the anarchistractor over the government a 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.200 couple of times, maybe he's huge general strikes. There's the 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.080 communist parties like a real thing. And then the government 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.000 tries to bring all of like you know, okay, we're 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:22.560 gonna bring all the unions under our control. And it's 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.920 still also true that these are like they're still technically unions, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.640 So there are people who are sort of doing union 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.000 organizing in them, right, like they still do some regular 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.280 union stuff. And yeah, we're gonna talk about this a 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.680 bit more later, but there's I don't know, these unions 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.840 are fucking weird, like they're not like unions anywhere else 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.680 have ever seen. Yeah, but so okay, So the other thing, 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.440 like lu Lula in this point, like it's a political 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.400 right people, people keep trying to talk to him about politics, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.480 and he's like, I just want to play soccer and 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.400 light chase girls. And he talks about this like changing 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.520 like it speeches a lot. But his brother, who's known 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.440 as Frey Chico, is a Brazilian Communist Party buility for 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.760 like his entire life and being being a PCB militant 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.280 in like the cities and seventies, this is like life threatening. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.760 The party is outlawed. Everyone is so clandestine that like 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.200 Fried Chico's own wife doesn't know that he's a communist 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.360 and finds out that he's a communist when he gets arrested, 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.680 Like it's it's this, this is this, this is like 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.320 this is like the level of like clandestine shit that 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.200 everyone that that that like, you know, the sort of 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.040 communist parties that are working on under here um. But 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.400 Freschico is also like an open union activists and everyone 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.720 knows he's like he's a leftist basically because you know, 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.840 the even even the sort of like the unions are 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.520 sort of like split between like there's sort of left 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.880 factions that are like trying to actually do union stuff, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.240 but like for towards sort of leftist goals. There are 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.040 like more moderate people who are like bread and butter 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.120 trade unionists, and then there's also just like a bunch 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:51.640 of people who are like just the corruption faction. Um. 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.000 But yeah, like Lula doesn't like Lula like doesn't care 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:55.960 about the union at all, Like he's not even in 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.320 the union until Free Chico, like his brother just like 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.120 like literally just drags him, kicking and screaming into running 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.280 for an elected position in the union because I like 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.120 he needed a guy to run on a slate, but 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.120 he couldn't run himself because everyone knew he was a leftist. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.680 So he was like, Okay, I'm gonna your brother, you run. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.440 You're you're you're not like openly a leftist. You can 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.440 actually win this and this is you know, and then 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.600 this works and he gets elected, and this is where 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.600 Lula like learns politics. Um from the book Lula and 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.080 His Politics of Cunning quote. Lulu would have to master 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.520 the mundane aspects of union life, including bureaucratic routines, budgets, services, 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.240 and preparing union assemblies. Lula would also undergo a gradual 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:42.240 politicization through relationships with fellow directors, union lawyers and staff, 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.440 and activists central to the union's turbulent internal politics. Finally, 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.200 Lula would need to learn about the repressive dimension of 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.120 working class life unto military rule, including close supervision and 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:58.240 surveillance by police, employers and labor ministry officials. And what's 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.800 interesting about this story is like every one around him 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.040 when he joins this union, including basically he's boss and 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.000 the unions a guy named Vidal who's a very powerful 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.840 union leader, um, like you know, his brother to like 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:10.600 everyone thinks he's going to be this sort of like 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.520 compliance like obedient fingerhead. And instead what they have done 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.440 is they have created arguably the greatest politician of the 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.320 twenty first century. Um. What are the things that's important 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:22.840 to note here is that like, okay, so like the 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.880 unions are are like fucked up, right, and everyone kind 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.359 of says they're sucked up. These are still probably the 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.440 most like, like, these are probably still the most competitive 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.760 democratic collections that are happening in Brazil. Like Brazil technically 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.040 has elections that there's these sort of like two official parties. 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.200 So okay, so it's kind of weird that the military 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.120 like is in power, but like they have this sort 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.960 of veneer that they're not and theydeically they technically sometimes 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:46.720 have a civilian president. They have these sort of like 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.520 parties that are kind of real. But you know, the 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.000 the Union actually has like there are like leftist slates, 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:54.760 there are conservative slaves. Like there there's actually sort of 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:58.400 politics going on, and Lula is actually able to sort 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.000 of like make his mark through through his abilities just 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.560 like make friends with people on both the sort of 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.560 like radical and moderate side of the Union um Union 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.720 sort of political aisle. And this is because Lula, like 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.439 Lula is just it's funny. He loves playing soccer, he 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.840 loves just like dancing and hanging out. And this lets 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.680 him like win his election slate like pretty easily, because 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.479 you know, she's she's just she's just very popular. So 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.560 these are things that like I don't know, like the 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.000 other workers in the factory a lot of times don't 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.120 care that much about union politics, but they do care 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.600 about like that you care about soccer a lot. And 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:33.200 so Lula was able to build a bunch of support 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.600 and this lets him sort of easily take a position 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.840 in a union system that, like I it's basically a 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.520 miniature state. Like the unions have their own welfare programs, 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.439 they have they have their own education system, and you know, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:48.760 this is part of the thing that people talking about. 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:50.800 Lula is like completely uneducated. Like no, it's not like 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.439 he spends a bunch of time like in classes that 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.600 like the the the union like puts on basically like 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.480 university and academic classes right for for its workers and 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:00.720 for other people short affiliated with him. So he spends 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:01.919 a bunch and this is like, you know, part of 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:03.560 where he'd learned sort of politics and where he larned 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:05.639 political economy is like is through the through these classes 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.800 the union has and he sorry, the union also like 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.639 you know I talked about like they run welfare programs, right, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.840 So he's like he's like a social worker, right, trying 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:17.920 trying to sort of like help workers and pensioners with 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:22.040 his job he gets this position that like everyone hates, 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.280 like he has this position basically like running running there 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.879 sort of like like welfare program and like nobody wants it, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.480 but he like does it and he doesn't really well. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.000 And this makes him really popular because he's the guy that, like, 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:36.600 you know, if you're like a pensioner, right, like he's 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.439 the guy you go to you to figure out pension bullshit, 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.000 and he's the guy you just go to in order 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:45.480 to sort of get stuff done. And yeah, you know, 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:47.840 this means he's spending a bunch of time doing paperwork 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.280 and like negotiating with government bureaucracy. And he this makes 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:56.159 him a very very effective politician. Ums from lueless politics 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.760 and cutting again, but Lula also gained access to an 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.800 even larger constituency. At the union headquarters, a working class 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.520 public sphere. Do you know how many people passed by 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.280 the union daily? He asked a journalist in ninety nine, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:12.199 at minimum fift hundred. Those frequenting the union did so 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:18.040 for many reasons, often for various sorts of assistance or sistencia, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.560 which I think is yeah, like government union assistant stuff, 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:26.879 but also to complain about work, shoot the breeze or 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.080 catch up with friends. Some union directors often arrived late 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.640 to the headquarters and we're always busy when they did. 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.000 The gregarious Lula, by contrast, maintained an open door policy 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.080 and his office became a gathering point for rank and 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:42.240 file workers, factory activists, and fellow directors still linked to production. 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:44.800 And this is everything that's sort of important about this 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.199 is that like, okay, like once you reach like a 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.400 certain position in the union, like you're just a full 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:50.879 time a union guy. And so there's a lot of 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.960 people who like join the union and become like union 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:55.639 people because it means like it takes you off the 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.560 shop floor. And this you know, the government does as 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.040 deliberately right, because it means, you know, you create your 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.040 they're they're they're they're. The thing they're trying to do 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.359 is create a certain democratic mayora between the working class 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.040 and like their union. But Lula's like still really connected 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:11.440 to what's going on the shot floor because he's just 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.760 like talking to everyone all the time. And the product 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.320 of this is that Lula is becomes a very very 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.239 like he comes to trade union leader, becomes a very 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.679 very powerful one. He who rapidly becomes the president of 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:28.080 his union after some like Vidal, who's like his boss 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.120 had there's this whole thing where he's trying to stay 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.600 in power, but he doesn't run for president of the 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.439 union because of some complicated political maneuvering, and so Lula 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.080 ends up as the head of the union. Fadells like, 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:42.800 it's fine, I'm still going to be a control here. 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.040 And that's not what happens. You You you have just 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.320 you have just given the presidency to like like a 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:55.000 a a genuinely truly singular like political figure. Um. But 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.120 but there's not There's something that's very very important about 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.000 Lula that you need to understand. You figure to like 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.040 to understand anything that's about to happen here, and basically 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.439