"Social movements, partisan or not, will always need politics to mediate conflicts and arrive at concrete solutions."
[Movimentos sociais, apartidários ou não, sempre precisarão da política para mediar conflitos e chegar a soluções concretas.]
Kennedy Alencar, journalist
This is a very interesting thing that suddenly started in Brazil ! The protests started in Sao Paulo city after that mayor - and the governor - decided to raise the price of (city) bus and (state) subway tickets. The announcement was made on April 11th, but the protests only started on June 3rd, when the new prices come into effect. A few people started to protest against it and they were strongly repressed by the police (headed by the governor, right wing).
Also on Saturday (June 15th) started the soccer Confederations Cup in Brazil (prior of the World Cup next year), and protests against government spending in these events (mostly by federal) were also suffocated.
People were shocked by the police brutality (of Sao Paulo state) and decided to protest for their right to protest. Because of the social networks, people from big cities all over Brazil also decided to protest against their local transportation prices, supporting Sao Paulo and soccer expenses protests. The number of people protesting was much larger than expected, and a lot of "emotion" was deposited in the marches, for the reasons I expose below.
Since always, Brazil was ruled by a right-wing political orientation, and the people labeled as passive, accepting everything that comes from the government. The first time Brazil had a leftist government was with Lula election in 2003, a period from which Brazil achieved a spectacular economical and social development.
All our media has always supported the right-wing politicians. So, since 2003, the leftist government was "bombarded" by corruption scandals and inefficiencies - something that ALWAYS occurred in even greater severity, but with which the media was a historical complicit.
The recent emotion on the protests, amplified by the media, originates in the following fact: the new mayor of Sao Paulo - possible candidate for president - comes from the leftist government. Because Sao Paulo city and state are historical right-wing political centers, that's why the protests started there. The entire right-wing media is in "despair" because the federal government has high popularity ratings and they know that from the next elections most of Brazil will be governed by left-wing politicians.
My view is that, once the elections are inevitably lost, the media in Brazil wants to create a climate of "popular uprising" to apply a coup in the federal government and return it to a political right wing. So they are exploiting this image of passivity of the people and prompting more protests. You can see this from the their tone, where many people do not know what exactly they are claiming for!
A coup d'etat may sound exaggerated, but the media wants at least tarnish the image of the leftist government to have any chance at the next dispute.
A major problem with the current Dilma and Lula governments was not to have democratized the media, opening space for leftist political views. Another mistake was not to have invited the public to take a more active government role, factors that contributed to the current state of moods.
I just hope that people do not believe the lies of the media, and make concrete proposals for improving this government that, despite all the problems it has, is the best government the country has ever had.
(Thanks to my friend Barb that inspired me to write about this).
[Movimentos sociais, apartidários ou não, sempre precisarão da política para mediar conflitos e chegar a soluções concretas.]
Kennedy Alencar, journalist
This is a very interesting thing that suddenly started in Brazil ! The protests started in Sao Paulo city after that mayor - and the governor - decided to raise the price of (city) bus and (state) subway tickets. The announcement was made on April 11th, but the protests only started on June 3rd, when the new prices come into effect. A few people started to protest against it and they were strongly repressed by the police (headed by the governor, right wing).
Also on Saturday (June 15th) started the soccer Confederations Cup in Brazil (prior of the World Cup next year), and protests against government spending in these events (mostly by federal) were also suffocated.
People were shocked by the police brutality (of Sao Paulo state) and decided to protest for their right to protest. Because of the social networks, people from big cities all over Brazil also decided to protest against their local transportation prices, supporting Sao Paulo and soccer expenses protests. The number of people protesting was much larger than expected, and a lot of "emotion" was deposited in the marches, for the reasons I expose below.
Since always, Brazil was ruled by a right-wing political orientation, and the people labeled as passive, accepting everything that comes from the government. The first time Brazil had a leftist government was with Lula election in 2003, a period from which Brazil achieved a spectacular economical and social development.
All our media has always supported the right-wing politicians. So, since 2003, the leftist government was "bombarded" by corruption scandals and inefficiencies - something that ALWAYS occurred in even greater severity, but with which the media was a historical complicit.
The recent emotion on the protests, amplified by the media, originates in the following fact: the new mayor of Sao Paulo - possible candidate for president - comes from the leftist government. Because Sao Paulo city and state are historical right-wing political centers, that's why the protests started there. The entire right-wing media is in "despair" because the federal government has high popularity ratings and they know that from the next elections most of Brazil will be governed by left-wing politicians.
My view is that, once the elections are inevitably lost, the media in Brazil wants to create a climate of "popular uprising" to apply a coup in the federal government and return it to a political right wing. So they are exploiting this image of passivity of the people and prompting more protests. You can see this from the their tone, where many people do not know what exactly they are claiming for!
A coup d'etat may sound exaggerated, but the media wants at least tarnish the image of the leftist government to have any chance at the next dispute.
A major problem with the current Dilma and Lula governments was not to have democratized the media, opening space for leftist political views. Another mistake was not to have invited the public to take a more active government role, factors that contributed to the current state of moods.
I just hope that people do not believe the lies of the media, and make concrete proposals for improving this government that, despite all the problems it has, is the best government the country has ever had.
(Thanks to my friend Barb that inspired me to write about this).
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