Have you ever been to a meeting, a congress or a conference with young people? Not a music festival or a university sporting event but a meeting of young people who only meet because they have ideas in common, shared dreams and a desire to fight together? It is worth describing the energy and the screams of truth.
Oh, Moooro
We want you to
Oh Moooro
We want you to
Understand that you won’t
be able to destroy the PT
Understand that you won’t
be able to destroy the PT
This chorus broke out innumerable times on Saturday, June 2, on the second day of the three day extraordinary PT Youth Congress in Curitiba. This scream, which echoed like a giant sonic flag, with more than 1200 young voices from across Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and South Africa summed up a lot of things. It is worth describing them.
Before being removed from power in a coup, the PT government lasted for 13 years in Brazil. This means that all of the youth that were here this Saturday singing and debating in the Congress in Curitiba lived under the PT government from the time when they started understanding and gettinginterested in politics.
Rebellion, which is such a natural feeling for humans when they are young, normally would position them against this political force, which was in power with all of its trappings. Could it be that these youth, who braved the cold of Curitiba to camp out to discuss politics, are not rebellious? They were politically raised under PT governments and are still yelling with all their hearts in support for the Workers Party governmental project. Are they not rebels?
Clélia Moreira, high school student from the Juventude Avante movement and PT party in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, took the microphone and said, “Why do we have to resist? Because where I come from, the Northeast, we know how many people were living in mud and straw shacks without three meals a day and when this started to change. We know who built rainwater capture systems for us in the semi arid region, who brought electricity to those who didn’t have it. We know very well why we have to resist, for who we have to fight and why we put this red star on our chest.” Spoken like a rebel with a cause.
João Luís Lemos, a history student at Universidade de São Paulo, explained the scenario to the youth, “we live in a period in which an economic crisis is being put on the backs of the working class. We live in a time in which 30% of the youth are unemployed. Imagine this percentage only considering poor and Afro-Brazilian youth. What did they propose and what did they do to reduce unemployment? They dismantled the labor rights system. The costs are on the backs of the workers. There is a candidate who has affirmed that he will undo the recent coup measures and promote structural changes to return to a scenario of growth with more equality. For this, we say with great force and clarity with all the letters that there is no Plan B.” Spoken like a rebel with a plan.
Bringing international solidarity, Karina Beatriz Cáceres Ortega, from the Frente Guasú in Paraguay also participated in the PT Youth Congress. “Does Brazil know the history of the continent? Are there teachers in the schools that teach clases on Latin American and Caribbean history? Or do they always look to the United States and Europe? Does anyone here know what is happening in Northern Paraguay? Do you know about the assassinations of peasants who are fighting for land rights there? Do your communications vehicles cover these facts here? There is a comrade who started changing this, who created UNILA (the Federal University for Latin American Integration), on the border of Brazil and Paraguay. Today this comrade is in prison. But I am sure he will return. Free Lula, Lula President!” Spoken like a rebel who knows her history.
Gleisi Hoffman, President of PT, praised the first two days of the Congress. “The PT youth cannot be complacent, the PT youth have to be transgressive, including with some of the codes from our own party. Because it is this transgression, this demanding, this rebellion that wakes us up, changes our way of acting, shakes us and does not let bureaucracy take over our daily lives,” she said.
Vinícius Segalla, da Agência PT de Notícias, em Curitiba
