“Our Task Is to Defeat Bolsonarism and Put an End to His Authoritarian Project”
- Todd Chretien
Housing organizer and socialist Guilherme Boulos recently shocked Brazil by forcing a runoff for mayor in the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, São Paolo. In an interview, he lays out his vision for the position, how to embed the Brazilian left in the country’s working class, and how to “place the periphery in the center.”
Guilherme Boulos, candidate for mayor of the city of São Paulo for the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) greets his supporters during a rally in São Paulo, Brazil. (Alexandre Schneider / Getty Images)
On November 14, Party for Socialism and Freedom (PSOL) candidate, Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) leader Guilherme Boulos, and his running mate, historic feminist and leftist leader Luiza Erundina, stunned Brazil’s elite by coming second in the mayoral elections for São Paulo, Latin America’s largest city, setting up a runoff scheduled for November 29 against the centrist incumbent Bruno Covas.
Just thirty-five years old when he ran for president in 2018, Boulos is leader of what is today one of the most important social organizations in Brazil — the Homeless Workers’ Movement. He was chosen as PSOL’s candidate together with Sônia Guajajara, an important indigenous leader with the Confederation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB).
PSOL was founded in 2004 when some sectors of the Brazilian socialist left rejected some of the pro-corporate policies adopted by the Workers Party during president Lula da Silva’s first government, from 2003 to 2007. This year, PSOL launched Boulos’s candidacy for mayor in the richest and most unequal city in Brazil, São Paulo.
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