The largest left-wing party in Latin America, the Brazilian Workers Party, or PT, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary.

The party's honorary president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the BBC that he believed the PT had made an extraordinary contribution to democracy in Brazil, giving a voice to the marginalised of society.

The country, he said had evolved a lot over the past twenty years, but much remained to be done to bring equality to all.

Set up by a coalition of trade unionists, Christians, Marxists and libertarians, the PT became famous for its strong grass-roots support and its refusal to abandon the ideal of socialism. The party has never won power at national level but has been successful in important local elections._

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service