The Party and the Multitude: Brazil?s Workers? Party (PT) and the Challenges of Building a Just Social Order in a Globalizing Context*

Authors

  • Gianpaolo Baiocchi University of Massachusetts, Amherst

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2004.305

Abstract

What is the role of Brazil?s Workers? Party (PT) in its sponsorship of the World Social Forum, and what is the signi?cance of this relationship to the struggles to build a more just social order? Some have criticized the pres-ence of the PT in the Forum, juxtaposing its partisan motives to the democratic impulses of the ?multitude.? This article challenges this reading by tracing the development of the PT in the last decade, bringing to light the ways the party?s development challenges traditional narratives about leftist parties. In particular, this article discusses the way that the successful resolution of the challenges of governance in local and regional levels through ?participatory solutions? has progressively transformed the party towards a party of radical democracy that values non-instrumental relationships to social movements and unorganized sectors of civil society. This radically democratic stance is represented in the way that the PT spon-sors, but does not control or seek to control, the WSF or its proceedings. Re-imagining the relationship between social movements and political parties is an urgent task in the struggle for global social justice and the PT serves as a useful model. Abandoning this relationship as implicitly suggested by advocates of the ?multitude? would be to the detriment of the struggle for global justice.

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Published

2004-02-26

How to Cite

Baiocchi, G. (2004). The Party and the Multitude: Brazil?s Workers? Party (PT) and the Challenges of Building a Just Social Order in a Globalizing Context*. Journal of World-Systems Research, 10(1), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2004.305

Issue

Volume 10, Issue 1, 2004

Section

Global Social Movements Before & After 9/11

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