""METALWORKERS"" "VÁRZEA ALEGRE, STATE OF CEARÁ, brazil" " OCTOBER, 2OO2" "Dona Socorro?" "Yes!" "That 's me!" "You're the first!" "The first..." "The first in town." "You told me you'd dreamed of being a metalworker." "Can you explain that?" "I always thought it was beautiful, so I would get really excited back then, during the strikes in '79." "We didn't have a TV, but I listened to the news on the radio." "I thought all that was really beautiful, people struggling for a cause." "Because in those days it was forbidden to fight for your rights." "We watched the powers-that-be trampling on the underdogs, and nobody could do anything about it." "When I heard about the strikes, I thought to myself:" ""My God!" "Do you think maybe one day I'll be part of that struggle too?"" "And in 1981 I ended up going to São Paulo." "I was a metalworker there from 1985 to 1994." "I came back in '98, because in 1993 my son was born." "After that I only managed to work for one more year." "He was really attached to me, and kind of sickly, and there was no daycare center at the factory." "He didn't adjust to preschool, so I pulled up stakes." "At the time I was even a member of the board of the ABC Metalworker's Union." "How do you make your living now?" "I'm just a housewife." "Living off what?" "Child support for my son." "When his father and I separated, he started paying child support, and that 's how we get by." "Aren't there any jobs here?" "There's no work." "A lot of young people here are unemployed." "Just imagine somebody like me over 49." "Was it worth it to have gone to São Paulo?" "Sure!" "For me, too!" "Really worth it." "For me, the 32 years I lived in São Paulo, were one big learning experience." "How so?" "Because I used to live here, and if I'd stayed, the only thing I'd know how to do now is hoe a field, right?" "I didn't know a thing about union movements." "I'd still be voting according to the local political boss." "Trading in your vote." "The so-called "voting on a leash" system." "Does that system still exist?" "Does it ever!" "You came back here to do what?" "Are you retired?" "Marking time, right?" "I just came back and stayed, that 's all." "Doing nothing, just taking Artur to school, picking up Artur at school..." "Picking up your son at school?" "That 's the heaviest work I do..." "So your retirement pension is enough to get by here?" "Enough to get by." "Artur and I will go with you." "I'll go ahead, you follow me." "You won't have to worry about asking directions, okay?" "Zacarias is my friend, too." "is Zacarias here?" "Are you Dona Ana?" "That 's me!" "I remember all too well, going to work at Volkswagen, and I didn't have a jacket." "I would go to work, then..." "There was a cold front." "Freezing cold." "And I was on the number five assembly line." "We had to make VW beetles on the Volkswagen line." "I looked over the car roofs, and there was a layer of frost." "I was a country boy from the hot Northeast, and they'd make fun of me:" ""Boy, where's your jacket?"" "I'd say: "Who needs one?" "It 's not even cold!"" "And my legs were shivering!" "But I couldn't afford a jacket." "I'd just arrived there." "And it was the same story for all of us who'd gone there to try our luck." "Did it take long to get used to it all?" "No, not that long." "I got used to it, but, in a way, I never did, because it was my dream, that if I managed to retire, I'd come back to my birthplace." "By the grace of God, I made it." "Lots of blood, sweat and tears, but I managed to retire." "And here we are, in this laid-back life." "Do you think life at VW was nothing but suffering?" "Yes, but not only at Volkswagen." "At all the big companies, like Scania, for example, not to mention Mercedes and Ford." "We suffered." "Why?" "Because, when it all began, we were treated like slaves." "That 's the truth." "Like slaves." "Because they would exploit us, and we were afraid of losing our jobs." ""lf l lose my job, I'm..."" "They'd get on our case." "I'd often hear:" ""Get this job done, or you're fired."" "What could we do?" "Many a time I'd step off the assembly line to keep from punching the foreman in the face." "I'd go to the restroom and cry by myself." "I lost count how often." "So it was tough." "You're going to meet a lot of people who participated in the strikes in 198O, every single strike." "Slowdowns, sit-downs..." "All the movements and strikes." "The metalworkers' struggle, it was like warfare." "Guys running, the cops throwing tear gas bombs, guys getting beaten up by the cops." "Billy clubs and all, and the guys on the ground." "Guys laid off with no severance." "A mess!" "That was like a war, man!" "I'm in the struggle for a good reason." "Way back in November '79." "Seventy-nine... lt 's wonderful!" "Take a look." "You kept this since then?" "My whole life struggling with the workers!" "I belong to the left." "Holy Mary!" "People would say:" ""Lula can't lead!"" "I can lead, so Lula can all the more so!" "Who says the poor can't lead?" "It 's all about teamwork." "It 's not just Lula by himself." "It 's the team." "And the time is now..." ""l can lead, but just you try to fool me..."" "Lula was canvassing in São Bernardo on Thursday, having coffee on the street, and said that he wasn't going to govern for a handful of bankers." "I was saying to Bezerra that Lula shouldn't have said that." "It could make some people uptight." "It makes it harder for the poor people to govern, because some might say:" ""Whoa, Lula, take it easy!"" "Lula's administration is PT!" "The Workers' Party!" "He doesn't have to say what he's going to do!" "Like pave this street, pave I don't know what all!" "The Workers' Party!" "But, if he doesn't do right by us, there's going to be hell to pay!" "How old were you?" "l left when I was ...thirty-something." "Really?" "Yes." "Already had five kids." "Five kids." "So when I saw them crying from hunger, I said:" ""This place is going nowhere!" So I left..." "To São Paulo?" "Right." "Was the work very hard?" "You better believe it." "Really hard." "In the factory, or organizing strikes?" "Organizing strikes was hard, because, let 's say, we had a kind of a second father, but not to fight in our place." "He was our guide." "If you have the right guidance, you gain strength." "Because we're a machine." "As the saying goes," ""lf you don't grease the machine, it won't run."" "So we had that man that we admire so much, and not just me, all of us admire him, to help us set our course, to guide us." "To stand with us." "Come what may, so..." "Lula is your "second father"?" "Yes, because today, thank God, I have this simple house, and this little car, and some property in São Bernardo, by the grace of God." "Because if I'd stayed here, I'd be making R$ 2OO a month and wouldn't even own a mule." "The farm where l grew up is just nine miles from here, and all my relatives are poor." "I would be too, if I'd stayed." "What do your children do for a living?" "I passed down my place at Volks to one of my sons." "Another one is a metalworker, too." "One used to be a worker, too, but he's off the track now." "Things didn't work out for him." "By the grace of God, I have seven children... I have three married daughters." "Only the youngest one doesn't own her home yet." "My other two daughters are well off with their husbands." "But you live here." "No, I don't." "I'm just here for a few days." "Because it 's like I say, I was born and raised here, but I can't leave São Bernardo, where everything important in my life happened." "I wouldn't trade São Bernardo." "You're just visiting?" "Yes." "When did you get here?" "Four years ago." ""A few days"?" "For me, a few days means "as long as it works out"." "Once in a while I catch a plane." "I just got back from there last month." "So you miss it." "l miss it." "When I miss my kids, I take off for a visit." "1959" " THE brazilian automobile industry WAS BORN." "multinational companies SET UP factories in THE ABC Industrial BELT, in GREATER SÃO PAULO." "1964" " A military COUP STARTED A dictatorship" "THAT LASTED 21 YEARS AND intervened in THE unions." "THE right TO strike WAS virtually abolished." "1979" " THE ABC METALWORKERS LAUNCH A GENERAL strike." "It WAS THE first WORKERS' MASS MOVEMENT since 1964." "LUlZ lNÁClO LULA DA silva, "LULA"," "LED SOME 14O THOUSAND strikers." "ABC united will never be defeated!" "ABC united will never be defeated!" "The workers united will never be defeated!" "Lula!" "Lula!" "Lula!" "Lula!" "Lula!" "Lula!" "THE GOVERNMENT OUTLAWED THE strike, intervened in THE SÃO BERNARDO DO CAMPO union" "AND REMOVED its BOARD OF directors." "You all know what to do tomorrow morning!" "Everybody!" "You all know what to do." "We've been on strike for ten straight days." "Ten days!" "Nobody can forget it!" "There is a job to be done in the districts, at the bus stops, and, what 's more important, nobody should go to the factory gates!" "AFTER TWO WEEKS ON strike, THE METALWORKERS VOTED FOR" "A 45-DAY TRUCE TO RESUME negotiations" "AND RETURN TO WORK." "WHEN THE TRUCE expired," "THE strike ENDED in A WAGE AGREEMENT" "with virtually ZERO gains FOR WORKERS." "We're going back to work!" "And if they don't honor our demands, we'll go on strike again!" "And I promise... I promise you here and now:" "I myself will call the strike again!" "198O" " STRENGTHENED BY their OWN strike FUND," "THE ABC METALWORKERS SHUT DOWN" "THE brazilian automobile industry FOR 41 DAYS." "We all know why we're on strike." "Everybody, except the government." "And the bosses pretend they don't know." "We all know that everywhere else in the world workers have never gotten anywhere without a struggle, without dedication to the struggle, without the determination to fight to the end." "THE CRACKDOWN WAS RUTHLESS." "LULA AND OTHER LEADERS WERE ARRESTED." "DEFEATED, THE METALWORKERS RETURNED TO WORK." "HUNDREDS OF strikers WERE fired." "LULA BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME ALL OVER brazil." "1981" " LULA registered THE PT (WORKERS' PARTY)" "with THE ELECTORAL COURT SYSTEM." "2OO2" " LUlZ lNÁClO LULA DA silva WAS running" "FOR president OF brazil FOR THE FOURTH time." "THE POLLS GAVE him A HUGE LEAD." "OCTOBER 1ST, 2OO2, 5 DAYS BEFORE THE first ROUND OF THE elections" "I'd like to thank you all for coming." "We're making a feature-length documentary, part of which will be Lula's campaign, and the other part memories of the strikers, preferably anonymous ones, who didn't become famous, or were elected to Congress, and people who appear" "in the photos and videos of that time." "So, I want you to know we're going to show a 34-minute video with a brief story and lots of anonymous strikers from the assemblies in the stadium and elsewhere in 1979 and 198O." "When you recognize somebody, point them out, all right?" "I'm asking the workers for a vote of confidence forthe Union's board of directors." "Forthem to sign an agreement which is terrible, ...but if we,as a union..." "Look, that 's Ratinho!" "Isn't that Geraldo Siqueira?" "That 's "Feijoada", the tall black guy." "That 's Severino, who was the Union treasurer then." "That guy is always hanging around there." "Look, I'm sure that 's Miguel do Cavaquinho." "Miguel do Cavaquinho." "He's easy to locate." "There's Feijoada!" "This one shows Manuel and Janjão." "Set this one aside?" "No, pass it on." "This here's Elza from the Polimatic factory." "Elza from Polimatic." "I have her phone number." "Try to remember who this guy is, here." "The one with his hand on Lula's back." "l missed a guy there." "Sorry!" "I flipped too fast." "I think this one here is Formigão." "He lives close to the Union Headquarters." "Trying to find all these guys and remember their names... is going to be difficult." "Here's a really important guy, a fighter." "Geraldão!" "ls that Carrapicho?" "Carrapicho..." "There are three or four of them, but this one here is the original one." "Used to work at..." "Fabrini, which is now Racine." "He disappeared, too." "This guy here, look!" "You've got to interview him." "He's dying." "He's the Hornet." "Another man you can talk to is Contreiras." "I think this is him." "Sonia has his phone number." "I can't remember his name." "What about this one?" "That guy looks like me." "Good-looking, right?" "To this day, if I do say so myself!" "Do you tell your children, and hope they'll be proud of the legacy?" "I always tell them, and I like talking about it." "I hope they'll be proud of me and say:" ""My Dad was a metalworker!"" "The day is not far off." "In the future it 's going to be even more of a story." "The farther into history you go, the better the story gets." "If I talk about something that happened yesterday, they'll say: "That 's a lie!"" "But if it happened 2O years ago, they'll say:" ""Hey, that 's History, isn't it?"" "I'd like to ask a friend of ours to stepup..." "A friend of yours." "A brother from the Union board," "Djalma de Souza Bom, come sing a song for us." "Thou art divine and graceful" "Majestic statue" "Sculpted with God's love" "WIth the passion from the soul" "Loveliest blossom" "Most wonderful scent" "The hummingbird's favorite..." "Listen,brothers, let's get ready for Monday." "A half-hour sIt-down to prepare for Monday,all right?" "Let's do It,all right?" "We have to show that we're really prepared." "No giving in to Mercedes." "They're exploiting us." "I know all too well!" "I've worked there for fifteen years!" "Let's do It,guys." "Don't worry about being arrested." "Jails were made for men." "We're fighting for a better life." "We'd meet right here, in the middle of the square." "Right here." "Right about here..." "Yes, the rank and file there, and us up here." "The first assembly took place right after they'd closed down the Union." "Lula stayed at his mother-in-law's." "So they called me, and he said:" ""lt 's important that you go there and speak to the metalworkers, so that we don't lose the leadership of the movement."" "Very carefully, we came here and addressed the metalworkers." "Then later a second assembly, and Lula took over again." "We will stand by all Brazilians who fight to eliminate exploitation from multinational capital." "Look there, it 's me, in the blue shirt." "This one?" "Yeah, that 's me." "If lwere afraid to speak out, lwouldn't be here." "You don't want to be seen?" "No way!" "is it because..." "because you don't like... lt 's not that I don't like to." "I don't want to get involved because... I don't want to get involved!" "Not even when he talks about your courtship?" "No, the love thing... lt 's up to you." "If you think you..." "No, let him talk!" "I don't want to." "You don't want to be seen, but if you change your mind, it 's your call, okay?" "Tell me how you met your wife." "I met my wife when..." "We were just kids." "Were you poorer than she was, or richer?" "Well, she was..." "Compared to me, she was better off." "Why?" "Because she had a little piece of land." "She had a little family business, a manioc flour mill." "I was a sharecropper, and didn't have any land of my own." "The door to my house was made of sticks, and the house was mud-and-wattle." "Five years later, when I was already here in São Paulo, her father passed away." "They came to São Paulo." "So life was tough in the countryside." "So she came here." "I said to her:" ""Do you still want to marry me?" "If you do, let 's get hitched!"" "I get all choked up!" "That 's how it was." "We dated for a year, and then got married." "So we had a toast with guaraná soft drink." "Your wedding toast was with guaraná?" "It had to be guaraná, right?" "Then, we got married." "And I'm happy, thank God." "Sorry, I get all choked up." "This film... my life... actually..." "My life is being filmed here today." "Since I migrated from the Northeast, my life story would make a soap opera." "We'd been on strike for 41 days." "So then I went back to work." "And I worked for two days." "Then I said to a co-worker:" ""We just missed getting sacked, right?"" "The next day, my punch card wasn't there on the rack." "So then I went to Personnel to complain, and they said:" ""Look, you're fired."" "My son was sad, because he'd been proud of me." "Whenever he'd see a Mercedes truck, he'd say:" ""Dad, that truck's got a part you made!"" "So I knew that he was proud of me!" ""See, Dad?" "Every Mercedes truck has a part you made!"" "And I'd say:" ""That 's right, son!"" "How long have you been driving a taxi?" "For twenty-one years." "I never worked in a factory again." "Do you like being a taxi driver?" "Yeah, well..." "I have no choice, right?" "But I didn't used to." "I'm not a real taxi driver." "It pays the bills." "I'm no good at making money, because I'm too honest." "I don't like stealing from anybody." "Why would you like Lula to win?" "I'll tell it straight." "I want Lula to win, because he's from my own homeland, back in the Northeast, where he used to go hungry like me." "He arrived here, just with his mother, who worked as a domestic." "She'd leave Lula up to his chest in a pit she dug in her back yard, to go to work, to be able to feed him." "So I know what he went through." "I'm not ashamed to say I'm a communist." "To die as a communist would be a honor." "I won't be moved!" "I'll die as a communist!" "When I first joined the Union, I began to read that we could only improve things through a struggle." "And I learned about other countries." "So I said:" ""That 's the path to follow!"" "And I tell it straight!" "It 's beautiful!" "The most beautiful thing... in the world is the word "Union"." "Simply beautiful!" "You know what I think?" "I think..." "Dancing, back home in the Northeast." "These two things..." "Dancing and the Union." "What do you think of his involvement in politics?" "Just your voice... I respect his choice." "We have to respect everybody, but I don't agree with him." "Did you used to argue?" "Just your voice." "No, it wouldn't have done any good to argue!" "His problem is his idealism." "He idealizes that, right?" "And life's not like that!" "But the strikes were non-partisan, and for justice." "Back then I wasn't very well informed." "Now I've seen the truth." "Which is?" "It 's God!" "I think we got married out of love." "So I think love conquers all." "Only love wins out over adversity." "Because that 's where love comes in." "Then comes friendship, then companionship, and then even accommodation, right?" "A lot of things together." "ls she right, Chapéu?" "4O years, right?" "But is she right?" "Yeah, she's right..." "When did you get involved in politics and strikes?" "Conscientiously, knowing what I was doing, it was in 1979, okay?" "It was in the 1979 strike, when I'd only been at the Polimatic for two months." "I raced all over." "It was like this: at the company, there were those police platoons." "We tried to approach the factory to talk to the co-workers, to avoid being scabs, to not to go to work, so we had to race around, and I was a fast runner, back then." "I saw horrible things, co-workers getting beaten up... I didn't go out much." "I got married when I was 28." "To whom?" "To a former director of the Metalworkers' Union." "Was married life good?" "While it lasted." "But unfortunately, plus the financial squeeze, the unemployment, and the lack of money..." "So I went through a lot of hard times." "At the time, I really wanted to go to the university." "My dream back then was to be a journalist." "I didn't manage to, because I didn't make enough." "But last year I managed to graduate in Education." "I had my three children when I was still a union leader." "And I had serious health problems." "The doctors thought I couldn't get pregnant." "But I had all my kids by caesarean, and six weeks later I'd be back at the Union." "I have a heartache, although I don't regret what I did." "I didn't get to see my kids growing up." "I think that 's why today I love playing with kids, with my nieces and nephews." "I love to dance with them, and I didn't have that with my children." "I was really involved in the union movement." "I hardly saw them." "I didn't even breastfeed my kids." "My son, who's going to be 13, says to me: "lf l could vote, I'd vote against anybody you support." "Just to annoy you, so you'd get mad and drop politics."" "So my kids don't swallow it, but I talk to them." "I don't think it was bad for me." "I don't think it was bad for them, either." "I played my little part in history." "I made my contribution for people to demonstrate today, to criticize and have freedom of expression." "Back then, we couldn't." "I did my part for my kids to be able to speak out." "Even for my son to criticize a candidate he doesn't like." "But for a good reason, right?" "In time, they'll understand." "They'll even be proud of me." "Here, this one." "Here." "Antonio's three days off..." "The news story was written in late 1975." "You were saying that, "to finish building your house, you put in 1,O56 hours of overtime... with only three days off in the entire year."" "What does that mean?" "Your worked Saturdays and Sundays?" "Yes!" "Only three days?" "Yes, only three days off." "ln the news story..." "Yes." ""ln 37 months, the house and the car will be paid off..."" "Color TV, sofa..."" "You got it all?" "Of course!" "I was able to buy a piece of land back in my home state." "When I was planning for my retirement, I bought a little farm, and I'm really happy about the way I worked to make my dreams come true." "ls he a metalworker, too?" "Of course!" "lt was already..." "lt was in the news story, right?" "Right, it was foreseen!" "You said it." "Right!" ""l'm making the effort, but I'm already prepared to see my son ...working at the factory." "Right!" "is anything wrong with that?" "is there some problem?" "Not at all!" "I'm proud of him!" "Did you take a course to work at Volkswagen?" "The vocational course at SENAl." "Electronics..." "Electronic technician, which was the requirement back then for an electrician." "Now you need a college degree, and I have to go to the university." "Have you?" "No." "The vast majority have." "I'd say that ninety per cent..." "To get promoted?" "No, just to stay even." "In the area where l work you've got welding, completely hazardous, in a 6O-foot radius." "Explain that again." "lt 's a welding area." "The area where l do maintenance." "There's a robot, and, 4O feet away, there's the hand-welding." "The man's got a leather apron, long sleeves, gloves..." "The old leather overalls?" "Exactly." "With a mask and welding." "You asked why there was a strike." "One of the reasons was this:" "no respect for human life." "Take Lula." "Why is he missing a finger?" "Right!" "Why did Lula lose a finger?" "That kind of thing." "Lula was a lathe worker." "I'm an electrician." "I've got shock marks." "Look here, I've got scars." "Do welders have more calluses?" "Not calluses." "Burns." "They can get cut, for the tools are sharp." "I still have burn scars here." "My last burn was in 1979." "1979." "I still have it here, but it hurts the soul more than the skin." "When you have an accident, it 's a terrible blot on you as a worker." "It makes you look incompetent?" "Exactly." ""Could have been avoided."" "Yes." "ls she your granddaughter?" "Yes." "What 's her name?" "Joana Alves de Souza." "My first granddaughter, named after my own mother." "The socialist who raised me, who left me that legacy." "Go with Auntie." "Her eyes are so..." "She wants to take a nap." "When I was seven, I already worked in the fields." "Seven?" "Yes." "Until I was nineteen, I worked in the fields, and then I came to São Paulo." "You came with your father and mother?" "No, just me and the Lord above." "A tough separation, right?" "What did you do in the strike?" "Assembling, picketing..." "You name it." "Whatever you can think of, I participated." "Did you witness or suffer any violence?" "I got beaten up a lot." "At almost all factory gates, because, as an activist, I went to all the factory gates and picketed." "I didn't let people in." "I, plus Jair, Riva, and Djalma Bom, got beaten up many times at Volks." "In the Artec showdown, six workers were shot." "During a march in São Bernardo, my wife started going into labor." "She said: "Honey, I'm going into labor."" "But I couldn't miss the demonstration." "Old Oswaldo had an old van, and I asked him to take us." "He said yes, and on the way, I got more people to go to beef up the march." "And we took her to the hospital." "I hurried to get her out and go to the protest march." "As I was leaving, the nurse said:" ""Bring your daughter's clothes." "She'll be born any minute."" ""Fine, I'll bring them soon." And I went to the march." "Took me four and a half hours to get back to the hospital." "I got there, and the girl was already..." "You showed up four and a half hours late?" "More or less." "Maybe more." "The march started just after noon, and I arrived at 7 PM." "Didn't your wife complain?" "My wife didn't, but the nurse did!" ""What kind of father are you?" "Lady, I was kind of busy." "l got held up."" "Did your wife forgive you?" "She says she did, but who knows?" "What else can you do?" "Was he a fanatic about the strike?" "Not just a fanatic." "It was like a disease." "And is he still?" "Same thing." "Politics is what he's all about." "And what about you?" "No, I don't care." "Do the kids accept that?" "Yes." "They're all like him." "I was jobless." "I tried to set up a mechanic shop with a friend." "You were laid off from Vilares?" "l was fired." "When?" "In 1988." "Based on what?" "For going on strike." "I worked for 19 months as a hired man on a farm." "I saved some and went to work on the road out of Paraguay." "Five and half years bringing things across the border to sell." "Bringing in goods." "Yes." "Could you make a living?" "Back then, yes, for l made three trips a week." "Without eating or sleeping." "Just working." "Because you had to..." "The trip is 1,4OO miles, 7OO each way." "1,466 miles a trip." "Three trips a week." "Do the figures." "Since then, do you count only on your pension?" "I'm not retired. I work for the São Bernardo City Hall." "The Mayor invited me to go work there." "What do you do there?" "l work in the" "Political Advisory Department, with grassroots organizing." "What do you do?" "I work in the Social Development Department, with slum upgrading, slum removal..." "Wherever there's community organizing, there I am." "Do you like your job?" "l love it." "What 'll be the outcome of our strike?" "If all the brothers here don't go out and tell them:" ""You don't have to work!" "They've shut down the union!"" "You have to think!" "I won't dictate opinions!" "You're all adults!" "And that 's why we're doing this!" "You have to stop and think." "Where you're most important." "I've already said that the Union is not this building." "It 's each of you on the assembly line!" "Each of you on the street!" "What I want to ask you now is even if they arrest me, you continue the strike until the final victory!" "Home of Henok Batista, a skilled worker." "It 's her." "My husband gets up at 5 AM to go to work, and gets home at 7 PM." "We hardly have time to talk to each other." "Do you support him?" "Yes,I do." "They have to fight to change all this." "It 's the first time you've seen this?" "First time." "Does it bring back any memories?" "Good memories, because I saw my wife." "Good memories." "What was her name?" "Maria da Penha Fernandes Batista." "She passed away two years ago, on November 4th." "Who do you live with here?" "l live alone." "And your children?" "My children..." "You know how kids grow up, get married, and have wives and kids of their own to take care of." "Do you live on worker's compensation?" "I injured my back and survive on worker's compensation." "I live on that, waiting for my retirement pension." "How do you cook, and...?" "I don't cook." "The neighbors bring my meals." "They come clean the house, you understand?" "That helps a lot." "They are your friends, then?" "Better than family." "We're Evangelicals, and she used to pray for others." "This place used to be full of people." "She prayed here?" "Yes." "She prayed for others." "Just the other day, I got a telephone call asking for a prayer, you see?" "Based on the film, you were a hothead?" "Yeah, I was a hothead." "You mentioned an injury on the lip, a sergeant..." "No, there we..." "As for myself, today... lt was due to the hard times, understand?" "I calmed down a lot." "I'm much calmer now." "But at the time I used to fight over anything." "Over anything, you understand?" "Back then there were guys who would finger Lula to the judge." "We were crazy to find out who those rats were, to beat them up, but it was hard." "The police hid them." "Scabs and snitches?" "Snitches." "Volkswagen found out and fired you?" "Yes, and I was fired as a result." "When was that?" "After the 198O strike, they fired me." "There were some snitches that had kept an eye out and said:" ""So-and-so is on strike." "That 's the one."" "They sent the blacklist to the management." "You draw up ten plans to get one that works." "Planning is useless?" "No, but we do anyway." "They say each mind is a world in its own." "Isn't that true?" "Each head thinks differently from the next, and so on." "That 's why there are clashes." "We drew up all kinds of plans." "I planned making it here and going to the countryside, to buy a farm, but then my wife died, and things went bad." "My friends tell me to buy a farm, but what am I going to do alone on a farm?" "Lula once called an assembly... I'm bad!" "He took the mike and said:" ""Brothers, we have five matters to discuss."" "And I said: "Four!"" "He said: "Five matters!" l said: "Four!"" ""You son-of-a-bitch, we have five matters!"" "Does he get pissed off?" "He's a real joker!" "During the last election, I said: "You lost three times." "Don't worry." "Allende also ran three times."" ""So I have a chance!" "The fourth time, he won!"" ""Yes, but he died!"" "I'm closer to my own family, even though I was separated from my family because of the struggles." "I've been at it since I was 14." "You've worked since then?" "ln the student movement, the grassroots church movement, the workers..." "A political activist since I was fourteen." "In 198O, I worked in the shop steward committee." "After the strike, in 1981, I was elected to three terms." "In 1986, Ford canceled the terms of 28 stewards and fired 24." "I presented a proposal:" ""l'm an amateur photographer." "How about the Union investing in my training?" "I myself will record the Union's history."" "It 's different from a newspaper photographer." "He photographs the same strike, but with a different view." "He's an outsider." "I'm from the shop floor." "I learned with the struggle." "It 's the same angle, but the view is different." "It was a tough time in my life." "I didn't ask my daughters or wife to include them in that." "I simply dived in." "I didn't see my daughters grow up." "I don't exactly regret it, but I feel a pain inside." "I'm trying to make up for the lost time, without ever abandoning the struggle." "If I had to do it all over, I would, and I don't regret anything, not even the mistakes." "Lula taught us:" ""We're nothing!" "Union leaders come and go." "The workers stay." "They are more important than we are."" "Lula is a great teacher, with that kind of honesty." "In 1979, there was an industry-wide strike." "14O thousand workers." "The Union board was meeting in Lula's office." "As usual, there was his cap and that beard." "A box was delivered, the size of this table here." "It was a fancy sound system." ""Who sent this?" "lt was Mr. So-and-So."" "He picked up the phone and said: "You bastard, you've got ten minutes to get this out of here, or I'll call the police and tell all the workers that you tried to buy me off!" And hung up." "From then on, I said:" ""Lula's the man!"" "You'd leave Ford and go work at Coca-Cola." "From Coca-Cola, to Souza Cruz." "You'd leave Souza Cruz..." "More jobs than workers." "But today... a man stays unemployed for at least three or four years." "There are no jobs." "Not specifically "jobs":" "that one's been downsized." "To assemble a car, for example, a section used to employ ten workers." "Today, it 's one:" "the robot." "You go to Volkswagen now, and it 's a joke!" "Lula recently went there with Meneghelli, and I said:" ""What if you called a strike with all those robots?"" "I started working at my first job on July 25, 1979." "I still have my old Union card." "Right after the industry-wide strike." "I participated in that one as a spectator, because my brother was a metalworker, see?" "And I could already feel that "fire" in the brothers." "The 198O strike was the best thing that could have happened." "I consider it a milestone." "I think..." "How did you view that strike?" "I really lived that strike intensively." "intensively, because it was like childbirth." "We'd been preparing everything since June, holding meetings..." "One of my frustrations was not being able to stay on as metalworker, because I was certain that if I had stayed in the Union as a metalworker, I'd have been on the board, and I'd have done more organizing." "And twenty years went by." "I became a domestic, but I'm still a metalworker at heart." "So I really identify with the metalworkers." "One of our founding proposals in the Workers' Party was:" ""PT will never take the road of conventional politics."" "We wanted to stick to grassroots work." "That Workers' Party I helped found, the nuts-and-bolts one, I see that has..." "Let me make this very clear:" "I like Lula." "I haven't seen him for years, but I think he's a very intelligent person." "I'm going to vote for Lula, one of the most intelligent people I know." "He's got all the moves, but, in my opinion, it 's Lula that 's getting elected President, not the Workers' Party." "It 's a pity I can't be 23 again." "If I could, I think I would... I pulled out too soon." "I could have struggled more." "I could have..." "I don't know what happened." "Two daughters to raise, and I always wanted to be independent." "Wanting to make it on my own." "So I didn't have what it takes." "It was a pity." "I was born in Paraíba, on a ranch called Capoeira." "ln Monteiro?" "Yes." "I was baptized in Monteiro." "What 's your family like?" "My family..." "was a very poor family." "We were all very poor." "My father was a cowhand on the ranch." "So we left Monteiro and came to São Bernardo." "I had a relative who lived here." "She's passed away." "I lived with them for several years, in a shack." "Later my husband left me, because I've always been a very spontaneous woman." "I don't like receiving orders, like:" ""Stop!" "Shut up!" No way!" "We all have the right to speak our minds." "Right or wrong, and set things right later." "My husband left me and went away." "You kept the kids?" "Yes..." "How many?" "l was left with seven kids." "Some three years later I met Zito." "What did Zito do?" "Zito?" "He slept." "He was a sleepyhead back then." "Still wasn't working, living in his uncle's boarding house." "We lived together for 22 years." "22 years married to Zito?" "To Zito." "Wasn't Zito a metalworker?" "At Volks, but not until after he met me." "He was going to scab, and we had a big argument." "We had a big falling out, but that was not the reason..." "Just because I threw a rock at him and hurt him." "He said he couldn't go on living with me, and he drank a lot." "You managed to break free." "Free as a bird!" "Always have been!" "ln everything!" "ln love, politics..." "Love, politics, kids, cooking, washing... I've had my disillusions, sometimes I cry, I curse, but I'm free." "I'm free to go outside." "My thing in life is arguing and cursing." "I love curse words and have ever since I lived in my hometown." "My sister lived on one street, and I lived on the next." "Eduardo was my firstborn son, and I would shout from my street to my sister's house, and I'd curse him:" ""Come here, son-of-a-cornuto!" "You son-of-a-bitch!" No holds barred." "I'm close to Lula." "I can tell you that he's a great person." "He's a great brother in the struggle." "I'm certain that his mother, Euride, wherever she is, must be very proud and happy, for having given birth to such a beautiful son." "l've been there for 22 years." "Making food for the Union?" "So the kitchen cooking was over, because the Union couldn't keep the kitchen up." "So I started making rice, salad, grilled steak, and people started eating there and enjoying it." "Today it 's that beautiful lunch counter." "Every Union and PT policy has been discussed at that lunch counter." "And you listened in..." "Every word." "Putting in your two bits?" "Sure!" "There were times when I'd say: "Stop!" "That 's not the way!" Back then, we used to attack and hit those guys!" "Hello?" "Hello, son." "I was just talking about you!" "Fine." "The press is here." "You should have invited them to go talk to you." "Okay?" "They're here." "Here in my house." "I'm serving coffee to the friends of mine that were able to come." "My heart?" "I had some tests made early Monday." "It 's fine." "My leg's bad, but my heart 's fine." "Fine." "Don't worry, you'll make it." "Okay?" "Fine." "Goodbye." "My son." "It 's the same one I'd curse at:" ""Son-of-a-bitch!"" "He used to live on this street where there was a woman who cursed at her kids like that, and he said:" ""My own mom used to call me that way!"" "He tells that story to this day." "That 's why I say I love all my kids." ""ASSEMBLY line"" "I would like to ask you, that if you ever think that this Union leadership has ever failed you, you're free... to give it a no-confidence vote." "Hey, Lula!" "Don't cry, kid!" "Come on!" "Lula!" "Go ahead, son." "What for, Leo?" "I'll give it to you when you get here, okay?" "You coming?" "So you can come on home." "Okay?" "Bye!" "Was it really your son?" "That 's him." "ls everything okay?" "He asked for some change to go to the movies." ""Can you give me some, Mom?" "Sure, Mom'll give you some."" "To watch cartoons, that kind of stuff." "You came to São Paulo alone?" "No, I came with my brother." "Did you find a job right away?" "He worked at Volks, and brought me later." "I went to Wheaton, but it didn't work out there." "I asked to be laid off." "When I asked to leave, I applied for a job at Volkswagen transportation, and they hired me." "I worked on the ignition assembly, on the line, fitting cables into the casings, and I worked on the machines, and later, on the assembly line, with ignition cables." "On the assembly line, it 's like this:" "you fit the ignition cable into the casing, and toss it back." "You pick it up with one hand, and toss it back with the other hand." "And so, all day long, picking up and tossing, picking up and tossing... lt got so I waved my arms around in my sleep." "ln your sleep?" "ln my sleep." "My brother would say:" ""Hey, what the..."" "I'd say: "God, I'm dreaming, waving my arms..."" "Did you wake up?" "No, I was dreaming I was on the assembly line, so I'd wave my arms." "When I'd pick up a part, my tendonitis would hurt, and also a herniated disc in my neck." "I wasn't supposed to lift weight, and I did." "They claimed there were no other jobs for me, because I was illiterate." "I can't complain about Volkswagen." "Today, I have a salary to raise my kid, thank God." "Right?" "It 's very hard for a divorced woman to work." "I can raise my son and pay the bills." "I thank the company, despite all the problems." "In my struggle, I was left with all the problems." "But that 's life." "We have to..." "How so?" "Sometimes problems happen in life." "Some people manage to make it as far as I did, and, for some people, not even that." "Antônio, why is your pantry full of books?" "It 's because I don't use this kitchen to eat, to serve meals, or to sing Happy Birthday." "I only use it for this stuff." "Are the books on the table yours?" "They're all mine." "Do you live alone here?" "Yes, I do." "A lonely heart." "What do you mean?" "Alone." "How do you manage to cook food?" "I cook for myself." "I cook my beans, my rice with carrots, all by myself." "So when did you get married?" "In 1963." "Did you go out first, or get married straight away?" "It was kind of complicated." "Kind of complicated, because I went out with several girls." "I met her mother later." "Was she a metalworker, too?" "No, she worked in a pasta factory." "A food products factory." "Blue collar, too?" "Blue collar." "How did you get involved in the strikes?" "In the strikes?" "Because I liked the organizing." "I was already very active in the Union, and I liked the meetings I attended." "From then on, I participated in all the strikes." "Didn't your wife get upset?" "Well, she did, to tell the truth." "Sometimes I'd get home late." "I'd go to the assembly meetings first, instead." "I'd come home at 11 PM." "She wasn't happy." "She said I was supposed to come straight home after work." "You had just one daughter?" "One daughter." "She went to the university?" "She did." "Fortunately." "Thank God." "What does she do?" "She's a journalist." "That 's her hiding over there?" "Yeah, she's hiding." "Come here." "Don't hide." "Come here, girl!" "I'd wake up, and he'd already have the radio on." "After breakfast, he'd start singing." "She also loved to sing." "She's kidding..." "Did you sing for her?" "Turned on the radio and sang to your wife and to your daughter?" "I sang because I felt happy near them." "Not because I could sing." "Come on." "You sing." "You sing with me." "lf l remember the lyrics." "One day your feet will touch the white sand" "The blue sea water willwet your hair" "Doors and windows will open" "To see you pass by" "And feeling back at home" "Smiling you willweep" "Underyourcurly hair" "A story to tell" "Of a world so far away" "Underyourcurly hair" "A sigh and the wish" "To stay for another moment" "Remember?" "l can't remember the lyrics." "What can I do?" "Was that his favorite?" "He sang that one for me, but, for my mother, he sang another by Roberto Carlos:" "When the kids go on vacation" "Maybe we can make love A little more..." "Remember?" "My father was always a lonely person, but in the sense of growth." "He shared those moments with us." "He supported the house, took care of me, cared for my mother, but he had his own thing:" "to pursue what he believed in." "The songs were part of our daily life, but the main thing in his life was to discuss politics and citizens' rights." "When I was a kid, he was so involved in politics, and my mother was so afraid." "Even before the big strikes, he would speak up in the bus, on the streets, as if he was talking to her, but loud, for others to hear." "That 's it." "She'd get upset, and pinch him." "I didn't get it." "I think I even felt an aversion to it for a while, like:" ""Dad's more interested in politics than in my mother." "More than in us."" "When did your mother die?" "She died in 1985, just before I graduated from the university." "Did that make you closer to your father?" "Not at first." "Each of us went off to mourn alone." "We both stayed to ourselves." "But as time passed, we started coming back, getting closer to each other." "Not that we'd drifted apart." "As two solitary people, we went off to feel our sadness, without discussing it at all." "is this the ABC Union?" "It 's the Diadema branch, where l work." "What do you do here?" "l do..." "Janitorial work, and make coffee." "That 's what those thermos bottles are for?" "Right!" "That coffee and tea were all made by me." "You do everything?" "l used to do janitorial work, but now I just make coffee." "They gave me this privilege." "I got promoted." "When did you begin in the Union as a janitor?" "1976." "October 1st, 1976." "Did you meet Lula back then?" "Yes." "He was becoming Union President, and I, janitor..." "How was the relationship?" "...in that year." "Excellent." "My relationship with Lula was great." "Lula is like my father, my brother, my everything." "One day I'll make coffee for the President, who'll be" "Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva." "I'm going to see him as President, and I'll make him coffee, and I'll serve it there, in Brasília." "I'll have the privilege of entering that kitchen and ask those women for the tray to serve the coffee." "Were you there in the '79 and '8O strikes?" "I saw it all with my own two eyes." "Were you backing them?" "Yes, and very much." "The work they did, shop floor organizing... I distributed the Tribuna paper for them, which was forbidden at the time." "I did that for them." "I hid the paper inside my panties, inside my slacks, in my bra, and went around distributing it." "One fine day I was cleaning the Union Headquarters, mopping the ground floor, wearing those plastic boots you've seen around, and an apron." "The boys came banging on the emergency door." "What "boys"?" "The Union leadership." "A half dozen from the board:" ""Zelinha!" "Zelinha!"" ""What 's going on?" l went and opened the door." "Hide this film." lt was one of those big old film reels." "I wrapped the film in some old newspapers I'd found and dropped it into a big burlap shopping bag," "and covered it with some shoes." "Then I said to them:" ""Ready." "All set."" "I went out on foot, and they left by car." "You walked by, and the Feds were at the door?" "Yes, the police was there, like I said." "The Feds, you know?" "Those tall, muscular types." "Did the leaders think they were after the film?" "They were, for sure." "They came to seize the film, but the boys were quicker." "I walked right past them, and said:" ""Good evening, officers." "Good evening."" "They nodded their heads, and there I went with the bag." "I saw that there was nobody following me, and saw the boys whizzing up in the car." "They pulled up, and said:" ""Jump in, Zelinha!" "Jump in!"" "I got in the back seat, took the film out of the sack, threw it under the seat and arranged the shoes again." "I rode with them for about twenty blocks... and I said:" ""You can let me out here."" "Are you proud of having saved the film?" "Sure I am!" "l'm really proud." "Why?" "It was the only recorded history we had at the time." "Had they seized it, we'd be left without any history." "We'd have to go back to scratch." "What was the film called?" ""Assembly Line"." "Have you ever seen the film?" "Never." "I used to work with a uniform, with the heat, a collar, goggles, gloves, a canvas apron... I was a robot, and that burned all the calories ...from the pork and beans." "Was your work hard?" "Not that hard." "You know what 's hard?" "Lifting weight in the sun." "But that 's not hard for me." "Wasn't there fire, sparks, dust...?" "No..." "Well, there was dust." "Fiberglass, but you get used to it." "Didn't you hear Lula say that workers have thick skins?" "It 's the part I like the most in our National Anthem:" ""Thy sons shall not flee from battle."" "Why?" "Because... it 's beautiful to see a person who struggles, like you asked about Lula." "Lula is tough." "He went through hard times in the strikes." "He suffered." "If the metalworkers suffered, having to pick up bags of groceries at the church, he suffered more, because he was banned." "He was arrested." "He suffered more, and did he abandon the struggle?" "Look where is he today." "He is our National Anthem:" ""Thy sons shall not flee from battle."" "Lula?" "Lula." "He doesn't flee." "Elza, what magazine is this?" ""Visão"." "April, 198O." "That 's it." "April, 198O." "Are you in it?" "Yes." "Did you come across it by chance at the newsstand?" "No, from a security guard at the company where l worked." "The guard tipped you off." "He told you." "He told me when I arrived..." ""lt 's the girl from the magazine!"" "I got the magazine and said to him:" ""Pick up this magazine and get a copy for me, so someday I'll show my kids that their mother struggled."" "Now, single and childless, I show it to my nephews!" "And I ask them not to flee from battle." "Do you remember where you where, and when?" "This here was May 1st, at an assembly meeting." "Who agrees with management 's proposal?" "Who wants the strike on Monday night?" "I'd like you to raise your hands again!" "Keep your hands raised, for everyone to see what the São Bernardo and Diadema workers want!" "At six-thirty..." "You have to tell me when to stop." "This here?" "No, it 's not that one." "But I just recognized him." "Where?" "Look." "There he is." "lt 's rewinding." "You went too far!" "Look there!" "Right there!" "That joker there!" "This guy?" "That 's the one!" "With the big moustache?" "Yes!" "Doesn't he recognize?" "No!" "No, I..." "He didn't see." "No, I noticed." "I started working at Volks in July, 197O." "Was it good working at Volkswagen then?" "Working at Volkswagen was really hard then." "I don't know what it 's like today." "It was really tough." "I remember working 75 days straight without a single day off." "And how did you participate in the strike movement?" "I picketed." "In the last strike, in 198O, and Djalma is proof of it..." "On this side of the Anchieta road, I headed 153 men." "I set up pickets at all the factories and roads." "I was in charge of it all." "We held meetings and spread our people out." "I loaded my people up on this side of the Anchieta." "Did you hold your ground?" "Yes." "Did it get physical sometimes?" "I got beaten up, but I could dish it out, too." "A lot of people resisted, and guns were pointed at us." "Nobody got shot..." "Well, eventually." "A scab or a cop?" "No, a scab!" "I myself asked to pull out, because I had a dream of my own." "It didn't work out, but I wanted a business of my own." "That 's why I wanted out." "Did you set it up?" "Yes, but it didn't work out." "What was it?" "lt was a dance hall." "A dance hall?" "Right." "From the strike to a dance hall?" "A dance hall!" "Why was it your dream?" "l already played music, and had such a great band, called "The Seven Northeasterners"." "We played very well, so I set up a dance hall for us, but it didn't work out." "Industry was in a slump, so the entertainment business went bad." "The factories laid everybody off, and the strikers couldn't find work anywhere." "There was no money circulating." "That 's when Djalma got me a job as a ticket-taker ...on the city bus line." "Djalma Bom?" "You ended up as a ticket-taker..." "Yes." "Businessman, then..." "l've been everything." "For how long?" "For almost ten years:" "nine years and two months." "A bus ticket-taker?" "Yes." "Did you like it?" "l hated it, but unfortunately, I had no choice." "Why did you hate it?" "Because it 's dangerous." "A ticket-taker?" "lt 's very dangerous." "Muggers constantly enter the bus, robbing everybody at gunpoint." "As a musician, were you more of a bohemian, or businessman?" "Part bohemian, part businessman." "Bohemian, businessman and metalworker." "That 's right." "Worse yet, as a ticket-taker, I was still a bohemian." "I played several times with Luiz Gonzaga in the 196O's, on Radio ABC in Santo André." "He once said to me:" ""Kid, keep it up." "You've got a great future."" "But sometimes we miss some chances." "The opportunities you miss never come around again, and we don't move on." "Geraldo, tell me something." "Today is October 27, 2OO2." "It 's 12:2O PM." "What did you do today?" "Today?" "Today I voted!" "l voted." "For whom?" "13:" "Lula for President and Genoíno here in São Paulo." "Will he win?" "Sure!" "Do you realize you're the last person we're interviewing?" "Really, Coutinho?" "Yes." "lt 's a pleasure." "lt 's an honor for us." "For me, too." "Do you still work as a metalworker?" "Right." "ln which factory?" "In a different state, now, in Paraná." "What kind of work is it?" "I'm working as a welder." "How long is it going to last?" "Coutinho, the contract expires on November 2Oth." "Two months to dismount everything and bring back here." "Your contract is temporary?" "Yes, temporary." "You're unemployed sometimes?" "Sometimes I've been unemployed, believe it or not." "How's it been in recent years?" "In 2OO1, I spent more time laid off and doing odd jobs." "Jessica answered the phone and said: "Dad, it 's a job."" "I was eating lunch." "I got the phone immediately." ""Geraldo, there's a welding job for you here."" ""l'll be right there." l took the bus." "Didn't even have the bus fare." "They said:" ""Your experience is fine, but there is a problem, Mr. Geraldo: your age."" ""My God..." l almost slapped them in the..." ""You're over forty, so no deal, Mr. Geraldo."" "How many children are there?" "Two:" "Rafael and Jessica." "Are they in school?" "Yes." "One in vocational school, the other's in high school." "What would you like them to do?" "I wouldn't want them to do what I did, as a Peão - a worker, on an assembly line." "What?" "l don't want that for them." "They need to study engineering, something like that." "Not as a"Peão"?" "No." "What exactly is a"Peão"?" "Back in the 7O's, there was no such a thing as a factory Peão." "My situation is a good example." "I'm working here, and the company suddenly says:" ""Tomorrow you're going to work in Bahia."" "But the home office was here." "After Bahia, they'd say:" ""Tomorrow, Rio Grande do Sul."" "Peões were shuttled all over the country." "When the 8O's came they turned everybody into Peões, both on the road and in the factory." "What 's a factory Peão?" "He works on the factory floor." "What do you mean?" "On the front line, at a machine." "ls a toolmaker a Peão?" "Yes." "Toolmakers, too?" "Yes." "Even those better off?" "Yes." "All those in uniforms are Peões." "The ones who have to punch in are a Peões." "The ones who aren't Peões are engineers, office workers who come in at 8 AM and get off earlier, without having to punch out." "A Peão has to punch his timecard." "That 's a Peão." "Do you talk about the strikes with pride?" "How do you feel?" "Look, it 's a deep feeling, because we were fighting for a better life, and Lula was the hero of the times." "Lula was a hero, because I'll never forget..." "When his mother passed away, he was in jail." "We went there." "You did?" "Yes." "They released him to go see the body at the wake." "He looked at her body, wept, and was dragged back." "You saw him...?" "Yes." "Are you proud of being a good professional?" "As a welder?" "Yes." "I've been a pro for many years, and I'm proud of it." "I'm proud of it." "I learned, and I want to retire, having shown others what I learned." "What I learned, I teach to others." "In this sense, do you sometimes miss the factory?" "Sometimes I do." "I do miss it." "Even with all the suffering, I miss it." "With all the what?" "The suffering." "There wasn't much safety, but, despite the suffering, I still miss it." "But I wouldn't want my son to be a Peão." "I suffered too much." "I miss the brothers." "Sometimes I run into them:" ""How's life?" "So-so."" ""Remember the old days?" And I remember... I hope my children don't have to go through that." "It 's hard. lt 's hard... I hope they don't." "Have you ever been a Peão?" "No." "ON OCTOBER 27, 2OO2, LUlZ lNÁClO LULA DA silva" "WAS ELECTED president OF brazil in THE SECOND ROUND OF THE elections," "with MORE THAN 52 million VOTES."