Mr Benn

On this day in 1945, Brazil’s🇧🇷 President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was born. He would go on to be one of the most consequential and transformative Latin American mass movement leaders of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Born in Garanhuns, Pernambuco, one of Brazil’s poorest northeastern states. His childhood was shaped by the material conditions experienced by millions of Brazilian workers and peasants: rural poverty, insecure employment, hunger and the necessity of migration in search of a livelihood. His family moved to São Paulo as millions of Brazilians did in search for work in the major industrial centres. Lula began working at an early age, including as a shoeshiner, delivery boy, and industrial employee. At the age of 17, he lost a finger in an industrial machine accident during a night shift, which helped spark his involvement in Brazil’s trade union movement. During the era of Brazil’s US-backed military dictatorship, which saw foreign corporations profiteering off of the wealth of Brazil while ordinary Brazilians remained in shocking poverty, Lula became President of Metalworkers’ Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema in 1975. He became a central figure in the struggle against the dictatorship and the capitalist class, organising strikes and union action to secure higher wages and better working conditions. The dictatorship imprisoned him. In 1980, Lula helped establish the Worker’s Party (PT), a broad church of Marxists, trade unionists, democratic socialists, rural movements, and left-wing intellectuals. When Lula Da Silva contested and lost the election to become São Paulo’s Governor in 1982, a dejected Lula considered leaving politics altogether, which prompted an intervention by legendary Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. According to Lula's biographer and friend, Fernando Morais, Fidel told him: "Listen, Lula…you don't have the right to abandon politics. You don't have the right to do this to the working class…get back into politics!" Lula would go on to lose 3 Presidential elections in 1989, 1994, and 1998, before finally winning the Presidency in 2002, becoming the first working class President of Brazil. His first two terms were remarkably transformative: -22.9 million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty thanks to programs introduced by the PT government -13 million were lifted out of extreme poverty -6 million families were lifted out of poverty in 2006 alone -12.7 million families (almost 50 million people) were reached by the Bolsa Familia cash-transfer program. -A 39.7% reduction in infant mortality was seen between 2003-2010 -37.2% real cumulative GDP growth from 2003-2010. During his third term, faced with obstruction and legislative chaos by conservative forces and those loyal to Bolsonaro, striking achievements were still reached: -8.7 million were lifted out of poverty in 2023 alone. -Extreme poverty had halved from 7% to 3.5% by 2024. -Real minimum wages increased by 12.7% between 2022-2026. -Amazon deforestation fell by 38% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. Abroad, one of Lula’s biggest legacies has been the founding of BRICS, which continues to build a multipolar world today and is seen as a major threat to US hegemony. He has consistently stood with the Palestinian people and opposed the US-UK-EU-armed Gaza genocide. By defeating Flávio Bolsonaro, he thwarted an assault on the BRICS project, and the drive for Trump’s renewed Monroe Doctrine which sought to turn Latin American into a collection of vassal states loyal to Washington and Israel. While Lula has had his fair share of shortcomings and mistakes, both at home and abroad, he stands as one of the most transformative Latin American leaders in recent history and has shown through mass mobilisation and popular resistance, Washington’s will and dominance can be successfully resisted. @LulaOficial @ptbrasil