As I suspected...

Began the research down at the PT´s regional offices yesterday. And just as I suspected, they have a far better set-up than many other regional offices I´ve visited.

Izabel, who runs the archives, showed me the amount of space which they have got. They have stacks of shelves and boxes and are due to take over even more space. All this dates not just from the recent past but right back to 1982 and ever earlier, relating both to Porto Alegre and the wider state. There´s material enough waiting for a historian to write the definitive volume of the party in the state.

No wonder the PT gets such a favourable response from researchers. If all Brazilian political parties were like this life would be so much easier. Instead we usually rely on interview material and official publications.