Workers' Party (Brazil)

The Workers' Party  is a democratic socialist political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003. After the 2010 parliamentary election, PT became the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the second largest in the Federal Senate for the first time ever.[4] Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President with the highest approval rating in the history of the country, is PT's most prominent member. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, is also a member of PT; she took office on January 1, 2011. The party's symbols are the red flag with a white star in the center; the five-pointed red star, inscribed with the initials "PT" in the center; and the Workers Party' s anthem. Workers' Party's TSE (Supreme Electoral Court) Identification Number is 13.The changes in the political orientation of PT (from a far-left socialist to a centre-left social-democratic party) after Lula was elected President were well received by many in the population, but, as a historically more radical party, PT has experienced a series of internal struggles with members who have refused to embrace the new political positions of the party. These struggles have fueled public debates, the worst of which had its climax in December 2003, when four dissident legislators were expelled from the party for not following majority sanctioned political decisions. Among these members were congressman João Batista Oliveira de Araujo (known as Babá), and senator Heloísa Helena, who formed the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) in June 2004 and ran for President in 2006, becoming, at the time, the woman who had garnered the most votes in Brazilian history.
In another move, 112 members of the radical-wing of the party announced they were abandoning PT in the World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre, on January 30, 2005. They also published a manifesto entitled Manifesto of the Rupture that states that PT "is no longer an instrument of social transformation, but only an instrument of the status quo", continuing with references to the IMF and other economic and social issues.