A series of chance events transformed the one-time metalworker Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, more concerned with football than politics, into the most important labor leader in Brazilian history: the death of his first wife because of precarious conditions in the public hospital where she was admitted; the imprisonment and torture of his brother, Frei Chico, a member of the PCB and vice president of the Santo André Metalworkers Union; and the brutal salary squeeze in the 1970s.
Lula was a central figure at various decisive moments in Brazilian society’s redemoc-ratization process. He made great efforts to transform the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party or PT) into a viable political party and to consolidate the confederation of unions, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), into a body capable of effectively linking together unions scattered all over the country. Richard Bourne insists, however, that Lula has always been an intuitive leader...
