Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is set to return to the Vila Euclides stadium in São Bernardo do Campo, the symbolic birthplace of his political career, to launch his seventh and final presidential campaign. The event, scheduled for Sunday, is expected to draw thousands of Workers’ party (PT) supporters to the football ground where Lula, then a 33-year-old union chief, led the metalworkers’ strikes of 1979-80 that helped pave the way for Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985.
A Symbol of Democracy
The invitation to the rally describes Vila Euclides as “more than a stadium. It’s a symbol of democracy. A cradle of change,” urging activists to travel to “where it all began.” The strikes, which saw tens of thousands of workers cram onto the pitch demanding higher wages, were a bold act of defiance against the military dictatorship, whose forces often surrounded the stadium with truncheons and guns.
Photographer Jesus Carlos, who documented the strikes with his 24mm lens, recalled sensing the momentous nature of the events. “You weren’t just documenting a fact – you were documenting history,” he said. Carlos, a former Communist party activist now 75, added: “I was a photographer – but before being a photographer I was a leftie. So I was fully aware what all it meant … [and] that the whole situation would be really important for the future.”
From Union Chief to President
Lula’s leadership during the strikes catapulted him to national and international fame. The New York Times hailed him as “the continent’s leading working-class hero” and “a Brazilian equivalent of Poland’s Lech Walesa.” In 1980, he helped found the Workers’ party, and in 2002, after three unsuccessful attempts, he was elected Brazil’s first working-class president. He was re-elected in 2006 and won a historic third term in 2022, defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
João de Deus Martinez, a metalworker who knew Lula during the strikes, recalled his magnetism: “There was no one who could beat him up there on the podium … He had this magnetism. People cried [when he spoke] – tears of hope.” Martinez, now 85 and nicknamed “Cabeludo” (Shaggy) by Lula, said Lula’s leadership potential was obvious.
A Tight Election Ahead
This year’s election is expected to be close, similar to 2022 when Lula beat Bolsonaro by a narrow margin. Bolsonaro is barred from running after receiving a 27-year jail sentence for plotting to stop Lula taking power. His senator son, Flávio Bolsonaro, will stand in his place, with polls giving Lula a modest lead. Lula’s American biographer, John D French, said: “I don’t think it’s going to be a walkaway.”
The ABC region, once known as the “red belt” for its leftwing leanings, has shifted right in recent years, with much of the area backing Bolsonaro in 2018. Today, only one of the seven cities in the ABC has a PT mayor, and São Paulo state is governed by Tarcísio de Freitas, a close Bolsonaro ally. Dalila Teles Veras, a PT-voting poet and cultural activist, lamented the rightward drift, saying, “Today, the sons of those [1979] union leaders are grown men who subscribe to fascist ideas.”
Despite the changes, Martinez vowed to vote for Lula again, saying, “I can’t betray my way of thinking. He showed us the path.”
