Ecology without class struggle is gardening: the Workers' Party in the socio-environmental struggle.

PRESENTATION

The Perseu Abramo Foundation, through its Sergio Buarque de Holanda Center for Documentation and Political Memory, is pleased to present to the public the Virtual Repertoire “Ecology without class struggle is gardening”: the Workers’ Party in the socio-environmental struggle.

This project is part of the sixth Repertoire produced by the CSBH with the aim of disseminating the memory of the Sectoral and National Secretariats of the Workers’ Party (PT). Through this project, we intend to research, organize, computerize, digitize, and disseminate the collections under the custody of the Memory Center.

The virtual repertoires, in this process, constitute an important research tool for the public who wish to learn more about the PT’s actions and its initiatives on each theme in which it fights for the Brazilian people. In particular, with this collection, we want to make available the debates that have permeated the party since its foundation on the environmental agenda, ecology, and development. We dedicate the content to all those who wish to learn about the memory and history of the Workers’ Party, through its organization and struggle, which culminated in the creation of the National Secretariat of… Environment and Development of the PT (Workers’ Party), whose collection is under the custody of the CSBH (Brazilian Center for Environmental Studies).

The environmental agenda has been present in the PT since its organization. The documentation shows that as early as the 1980s, PT members were organizing to discuss and present proposals for the fight against ecological issues in Brazil. We were inspired by Chico Mendes, a militant and founder of the PT, who left his legacy for all of us, highlighting the need to discuss ecology within the class struggle.

Through the documents, it is also possible to follow the beginning of the environmental trajectory in the PT. On March 26, 1988, the first meeting of the PT’s Commission of Ecologists took place, aiming to organize the 1st National Meeting of PT Ecologists. Following this, in 1988, the “National Seminar of PT Ecologists” was organized within the party, held at the Cajamar Institute on July 7th, 8th, and 9th. In that same year, in a text signed by Olívio Dutra, then national president of the PT, the party made a statement… In favor of the Brazilian Amazon, demanding an end to the destruction of this ecological and cultural heritage of our country.

The following year, when the PT ran for its first presidential election, the Environmental Issues Working Group for the PAG met with the objective of listing guidelines for the PT’s Government Plan in the elections, outlining political guidelines for our program. Among the national issues were the debate on the Amazon, Cerrado, Coastal Zone, and Atlantic Forest, with ecosocialist proposals for each region.

From this trajectory, the First Meeting of PT Ecologists emerged in 1991, which aimed to elaborate on issues related to the environmental agenda to be taken to the First Congress, also scheduled to take place that year: “How will PT members discuss the socialism we want? It is time to put forward our vision so that the party as a whole can appropriate it, critique it, and position itself in favor of a socialism that, being a collective project of another culture, creates new theoretical and philosophical bases for relating to nature.”

In 1993, by decision of the National Directorate of the Workers’ Party (PT), taking into account the deliberations of the First National Meeting of PT Ecologists, the “Secretariat of Ecology and Environment of the PT” was created. From that moment on, it ceased to be a sub-secretariat of the National Secretariat of Popular Movements and gained the political structure of a National Secretariat.

Through this Repertory, based on the documentation and research carried out by the CSBH team, we will see the long and consolidated trajectory of the National Secretariat of Environment and Development of the PT, from its creation, with roots in the founding of the party. Below, we present in more detail the entire process of collecting, organizing, and digitizing its archives to reconstruct this trajectory, told through this small portion of the documentation.

We structured the Repertory to show, firstly, a portion of the diverse documentation on the PT and ecology, the birth of SMAD, and its structuring. We present documents on the first PT members who became involved, meetings, and also National Meetings of the Secretariat. Following this, we show the external research on… Landmarks, anniversaries, and public policies, constantly evolving. The Perseu Abramo Foundation also gains space in the Repertoire; we research our productions and make content focused on environmental issues available to the public.

A tribute to our comrade Chico Mendes could not be missing! We made a simple tribute through the iconography present in the CSBH collection. We are sure that his trajectory is greater and richer. Our intention was only to show a small part of what we have in the collection about his struggle and legacy.

See the entire collection in the following sections:

The environmental agenda in the Workers’ Party documents.

We invite the public to browse through the documentation of the Workers’ Party and its National Secretariat for the Environment and Development present in the CSBH/FPA collection. First, we present the documents that were researched, selected, and digitized and are physically available in our collection, integrating all the accumulated documentation. Below, we narrate a brief history of the stages of collection and organization.

Next, we present a timeline of the Resolutions from the PT’s Meetings and Congresses, as well as Government Programs on the reflections and proposals in the struggle for the environment.

We also conducted research in nationally circulated newspapers present in our collection and compiled news items that show how the environmental issue has always been discussed and debated in our periodicals. These are: Jornal dos Trabalhadores, Boletim Nacional, Brasil Agora, and PT Notícias.

Finally, we conducted an iconographic survey of the collection, which showcases, through posters and photographs, the actions of the social movement, unions, and SMAD (Municipal Secretariat for the Rights of Children and Adolescents) and their work on environmental issues in Brazil. We also included a small sample of our three-dimensional collection, composed of t-shirts and pins.

To learn more about the collection and organization process, click here.

The collection of the National Secretariat for the Environment and Development

Meetings, National Congresses of the PT (Workers’ Party) and Government Programs

In this virtual repository, we provide a chronology of resolutions from meetings and congresses, as well as government programs of the Workers’ Party, that outline guidelines and political decisions on the environmental agenda. All documents are available in our database.

The environmental agenda in PT newspapers.

Environment in posters and photographs

Textile collection

Milestones in the struggle and advancements of public policies and legislative actions for the environment.

PERSEU ABRAMO FOUNDATION ON THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA

Publications

Political Education

Events and Debates

CURRENT ACTIONS OF THE NATIONAL SECRETARIAT FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

A TRIBUTE TO CHICO MENDES

Recalling the milestones in the fight for the environment in Brazil makes it obligatory to remember and honor Francisco Alves Mendes Filho. Our comrade Chico Mendes was a rubber tapper, trade unionist, environmentalist, and an important political figure whose struggle was invaluable in the defense of the forest, agrarian reform, environmental preservation with the sustainable use of land, and the permanence of traditional populations in their ancestral territories. Born in the Porto Rico rubber plantation in Xapuri, Acre, he began his fight against the rubber tappers for the right to land ownership in that area.

Mendes also became one of the main political leaders in Acre and an active militant against the exploitative large landholdings that have threatened our forests for many years, leading to the destruction and death of diverse forms of life on Earth. Chico Mendes was also one of the founders of the Workers’ Party, serving on the first National Directorate in 1981 and assuming leadership of the Rural Workers’ Union of Xapuri in the same year, remaining there until his death in 1988, the year he was shot and killed at the door of his home in Xapuri, at the age of 44, at the behest of a local rancher.

In times of struggle against the systematic degradation of the environment, which we undertake through the Workers’ Party and our governments, we recall the legacy of Chico Mendes and remember that without forests, there is no future! Here we honor CHICO MENDES through the photographs and posters in the CSBH collection, reinforcing the valuable lesson he left for us all: ecology without class struggle is gardening!

Chico Mendes Lives!

MEMÓRIAS DA MILITÂNCIA

The Sergio Buarque de Holanda Center for Documentation and Political Memory holds the archives of the National Directorate of the Workers’ Party. In this virtual repertoire, we have made the effort to show a small part of the documentation present in our physical collection at the National Secretariat for the Environment and Development.

Contribute to the Militancy Memory Campaign, digitize and send us documents, photos or audiovisual materials you possess, or tell us your story of activism. Click here to make your donation!