The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) warmly congratulates President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) or Workers’ Party and the Brazilian working people on their outstanding electoral victory. We also congratulate BWI’s Brazilian affiliates, whose tireless organising and commitment to workers’ rights have contributed to this historic achievement. Together, they have demonstrated that they will not step back to defend democracy, dignity, and a future built on solidarity and social justice.

Lula’s electoral triumph is a victory for the global working class and the labour movement. It strengthens the fight for decent jobs, fair wages, safe workplaces, social protection, and workers’ fundamental rights to organise, form trade unions, and bargain collectively. It is also a victory for women’s rights and gender equality, strengthening the struggle against discrimination and gender-based violence and for women’s full participation in society.

This victory is also inseparable from our fight to protect our planet. Lula’s win is a massive victory for the Amazon, climate justice, and the protection of our planet. BWI asserts that workers must not bear the cost of a climate crisis that they did not create. A just transition must put workers and communities first, creating decent jobs while protecting forests, biodiversity, and Indigenous peoples’ rights. Lula’s new mandate offers an important opportunity to advance a future where social justice and environmental protection go hand in hand.

Yet, this victory must not be mistaken for the end of Brazil’s far right. Bolsonaro’s forces and allies continue to be a dangerous threat. The fight for democracy cannot end at the ballot box. It demands sustained popular mobilisation, strong trade unions, and solidarity among workers and communities.

Beyond Brazil, Lula’s victory offers hope for Latin America and the world at a time when regional peace and cooperation face growing threats from US unilateralism and its right-wing allies. Working people demand peace, international solidarity, and cooperation, not militarism, authoritarianism and anti-labour policies that serve powerful interests. BWI stands firmly with Brazil’s workers and trade unions in the continuing struggle for social justice, labour rights, climate action, and peace. Lula’s electoral victory is an important milestone, but the fight for democracy, workers’ dignity, and a fairer world continues.

*BWI looks forward to celebrating this victory in person at the BWI World Congress in São Paulo from 17 to 20 November, where workers from all over the world will come together to carry this momentum forward.