In October 2022, Brazilians will flood to their ballots to have their say in an election that will not only initiate a vital political chapter for the nation but will also represent an encounter between two distinct tracts of social memory. Brazil’s current president Jair Bolsonaro hopes to reinvigorate his far-right populist base in order to defeat former socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both men symbolise historical trajectories which are irreconcilable yet inescapably connected; both stem from the bygone years of military dictatorship and both were set in motion in 1983 by one revolutionary athlete. 

This is the story of how one headbanded, chain-smoking footballer set the cogs in motion for these two histories, and whether October 2022 will provide their final chapter.

It’s the 14th of December 1983 and the final of the São Paulo State Title is being played out in front of thousands of spectators spilling over the barriers of the Estádio do Morumbi, not to mention thousands on television across Brazil. Corinthians captain and national poster-boy Sócrates scores the one-and-only goal in a victory over São Paulo. The referee’s final whistle, barely audible above the sonic bedlam created by the crowd, confirmed back-to-back titles for Corinthians for the first time in 30 years. Nevertheless, the outcome of the game would forever be eclipsed by something that the Corinthians players did before kick-off. 

Before this however, we must understand the life and beliefs of the enigma that was Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira. Sócrates grew up in Ribeirão Preto, a predominantly conservative North-eastern suburb of São Paulo. Although his Father was financially poor he was self-taught and insisted that his sons pursue their education. Thus, Sócrates would complete a bachelor’s degree in medicine whilst concurrently playing professional football for local side Botafogo. Devoted to his medical studies on weekdays and footballing elegance on the weekends, Sócrates earned himself the nickname of ‘The Doctor,’ for which he gained international fame. His experiences at the University of São Paulo provided Sócrates with philosophical and political beliefs that were indispensable in a nation stifled by the absolutism of a military dictatorship.

However, his intellectual formation was by no means limited to the classroom; Sócrates was motivated by the inequality between his teammates at Corinthians to realise a fairer vision of society. In 1982, with the support of several other politically-motivated Corinthians players and the socialist Director of Football Adilson Monteiro Alves, Sócrates created Democracia Corinthiana, an ideology that stipulated that everyone within the team has the right to vote on any issue. If the club needed a striker, the physio had an equal say as did the manager on who they signed. By exhibiting a microcosm of equality and democracy, Democracia Corinthiana resembled a revolutionary ideology behind which the masses could congregate. After two decades of despotic oppression, football provided the spark for revolutionary action. 

It is here that we return to the 1983 São Paulo State final; the moment that forever established Democracia Corinthiana in Brazilian history. As the players came onto the field on that December evening the Corinthians players held up a banner which read: “Win or Lose but always with Democracy.” With their studs firmly sunk into the softened turf they lifted that banner in unison amidst a crucible of noise and in front of thousands watching on television. The message of Democracia Corinthiana instantly became a cultural vanguard for democracy in Brazil. 

The Corinthians players helped catalyse two years of mass popular protests across Brazil, culminating in the Diretas Já movement. The movement demanded an immediate end to military rule in Brazil and that free and fair presidential elections take place; a message that attracted students, journalists, trade unionists, religious figures, and politicians from diverse and previously disparate elements of Brazilian society. Sócrates and his Corinthians team remained at the forefront of this movement, printing Diretas Já on the back of their shirts and frequently speaking out against the military dictatorship. Such was his magnetism in popular culture, over a million people turned out to listen to Sócrates and his Corinthians teammates deliver a speech at a Diretas Já rally in São Paulo in 1984, demanding free and fair ballots. 

These protests coincided with chronic economic failure under the military dictatorship and a wave of democratisationwave democratisation across Latin America (Nicaragua, 1979, Peru, 1980, and Argentina and Bolivia, 1983). The military dictatorship ended in 1985 and direct elections were finally held in 1989. With Sócrates as its popular face, the Diretas Já movement was vital in hastening this change. 

Whilst the fall of the military dictatorship represented the end of an era, it also marks the symbolic beginning for the political careers of two men who would go on to represent two alternative historical trajectories: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro. 

Lula, a former steel worker and union leader, was heavily involved in the Diretas Já movement and would go on to become the nation’s most popular president from 2003-2010 thanks to his funding of welfare programmes and advocacy of social justice. 

Bolsonaro, current Brazilian president and former military officer during the dictatorship, entered politics invigorated by his vehemence towards the social exclusion of former soldiers and his defence of the conservative values propagated by the military dictatorship. 

Both men represent two strains of social memory which are at once incongruent yet inseparably tied to the same event. One sees the dictatorship as an institution of violence and oppression whilst the other sees it as one of masculinity and security. Whilst the latter viewpoint has certainly raised eyebrows in the U.S. and Europe, both boast significant levels of support in Brazil. This is proven by the electoral success of both men.  

Whilst Lula left office in 2010 with a record-high approval rating, it would be a grave mistake to assume that Brazil’s electorate is unilateral. The dictatorship remains a fractious element of social memory, and Bolsonaro’s ability to evoke this has played to his benefit. Despite various obscenities with regards to LGBT and environmental politics, Bolsonaro’s conservative platform has mobilised Brazil’s rural interior and reinvigorated nostalgia towards the days of military absolutism. 

In 1985 these two histories were triggered by the fall of dictatorship and in October 2022 they will collide head-on. Should Bolsonaro defend his position, concerns will immediately be raised regarding the future of the Amazon Rainforest and the role of leftist political beliefs in Brazil, particularly given that Jair’s sons would be primed to succeed him at the end of his second term. If Lula is able to score a victory then Brazil might just kickstart a reinvigoration of Latin American ‘Pink Tide’ socialism. We also must not overlook the probable volatility of a Bolsonaro loss, with many speculating that he would mimic the tactics of his populist teammate Donald Trump. 

Regardless of the electoral outcome, the old football proverb runs true for Brazil’s polarised political landscape: It’s a Game of Two Halves; one of conservative sentimentality for bygone years of masculinity, militaristic security measures, and political absolutism, another of hope for a future of democratic liberty and personal freedom. In 1983 Sócrates took the kick-off which set these two halves in motion and in October 2022 the referee will blow the final whistle.