Sue Branford – författare

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) became Latin America's first democratically elected socialist leaders since Salvador Allende on October 27, 2002. He achieved nearly 62 per cent of the vote, to become the first left-wing politician to win his country's presidency. But behind this victory for Lula and his Workers' party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT) is a long and difficult struggle for ascendancy which began in the early 1980s. Written by a Brazilian academic and a British journalist who have long associations with the PT, this book tells the story of the PT's origins and electoral history, outlining the key politicians behind it, as well as their four subsequent tries for power.

While the US wages the ''War on Terror'' in the Middle East, it is conducting a terror campaign of its own closer to home. Chemical spraying is being used in Colombia as a deterrent and to destroy ''illicit'' coca crops. But most people growing coca are poor campesinos with no alternatives to make a living. Whole towns, rivers, livestock and legitimate food crops have been sprayed and livelihoods destroyed by these US-administered fumigation programmes, backed by the Colombian state. Herbicides such as Glyphosate and Cosmo Flux are being used in high concentrations and sprayed from low-flying planes. The effects of heavy exposure to these chemicals on humans is still unknown. As O''Shaughnessy reveals, fumigation doesn''t just harm people - farmers'' livestock are being killed, and much of the area sprayed is rainforest - a fragile environment rich in diversity that is being poisoned by chemicals. This path-breaking book of investigative journalism lifts the veil on fumigation: why is it really happening, and who benefits? O''Shaughnessy travels to the Putumayo and Bolivar departments of Colombia, where most of the spraying takes place, talking to those affected. He draws a vivid and damning picture of a futile and indiscriminate chemical war, waged largely on the poor.

The rise of the Brazilian Workers'' Party (PT) is unique. Founded in 1980, it rapidly became the world''s largest left-wing party, winning 31 million votes in 1989. In 1994 the PT seemed on the brink of winning power, headed by its charismatic presidential candidates Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, universally known as Lula. Only a strong last-minute campaign by former Finance Minister Fernando Henrique Cardosa, deprived it of victory. But the PT''s significance goes far beyond electoral success. It is a new kind of party, a rainbow coalition of trade unions, peasant organisations and slum dwellers which has brought Brazilian politics to life at grassroots.Brazil: Carnival of the Oppressed is the essential introduction to the PT phenomenon. It traces the growth of party and its search for a new way of making politics. It explores the nature of the ''social apartheid'' which has made Brazil one of the most unequal nations on earth. Brazil: Carnival of the Oppressed features an exclusive in-depth interview with Lula, reflecting on the election campaign and the PT''s future.

In 2002, after a long political struggle, Lula was elected Brazil’s first working class President amid huge expectations that he and the Workers’ Party (PT) would bring much-needed reform. A great deal was achieved, including a dramatic reduction in poverty. But, just months before the staging of the World Cup in 2014, a series of social protests swept across the country. In 2015 further demonstrations erupted, with insistent calls for the impeachment of Lula’s re-elected successor, President Dilma Rousseff, for corruption.Brazil Under the Workers’ Party, the first serious look at what went right – and what went wrong – during the 12 years of Workers’ Party rule, tells a fascinating story of realpolitik, as Brazil’s first ethical party uses the old corrupt ways of Brazil’s dysfunctional political system to achieve real change and is then devoured by the political system it has failed to reform. An enthralling tale, of great significance for Latin America and the world, told by two experienced commentators on Brazil.

Brazil Under the Workers’ Party, the first serious look at what went right – and what went wrong – during the 12 years of Workers’ Party rule, tells a fascinating story of realpolitik. An enthralling tale, of great significance for Latin America and the world, told by two experienced commentators on Brazil.

The Tapajós River, a major tributary of the Amazon, is renowned for its extraordinary biodiversity and the vitality of its indigenous and riverine communities. But it is gradually being carved up by highways, hydroelectric dams and railways, built to allow agribusiness, the new powerhouse of the Brazilian economy, to export soya and other products though the Amazon River. Amazon Besieged tells the story of two writers’ long investigative trip along the basin in 2016 and 2017. As if travelling through history, the authors were able to trace the way an outside economic force arrives and dispossesses earlier inhabitants. They started their journey in the south of the Tapajós river basin, where modern Brazil is firmly entrenched, with its paved roads and huge soya plantations, and moved north, where outsiders are engaged in a violent tussle with the earlier inhabitants who still occupy much of the land. Travelling by canoe and pick-up, the authors visited remote indigenous villages and isolated communities of rubber-tappers and fisherfolk. They recorded moving testimony of the pressure these people are experiencing, with the arrival of dam builders, loggers and land-grabbers. At times, these outsiders show little respect for the law, openly sending in illegal militias to evict the original inhabitants. Yet the outcome is far from clear, for today indigenous and riverine communities know full well that they are struggling for their very survival. Overcoming traditional hostilities, they have created powerful new alliances and are forging links with environmentalists, who know that they are the true guardians of the forest.