“Come to the Street!”: Urban Protest, Brazil 2013

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)When demonstrations overtook Brazilian cities in June, critics from Leftto Right were quick to assert what they were not: they were not organized by recognizable, tried-and-true forms of social protest (social movements, political parties, labor unions, churches, professional associations, human rights groups, NGOs); they were leaderless; they lacked political articulation; they had no consolidated agenda; they refused the Press; they disdained elected politicians and rejected a decade of ruling Workers' Party (PT) megapublicity about Brazilian successes. In short, they were splintered, anarchic, unrepresentative, unverifiable, ungrateful, and apolitical. Yet, by mid-June, more than a million people were participating in demonstrations, clearly mobilized by something rather than nothing. Their sustained force rendered the regularly-consulted media pundits, politicians, and political scientists, usually so confident, shocked not clueless. Every day and night massive numbers of citizens in all of Brazil's major cities and many smaller ones accepted the riotous invitation Vem pra rua! (Come to the street!) that was distributed through social media, held high on cardboard posters, and stamped on t-shirts (Figure 1). Often emblazoned on a clenched fist, the invitation became a hortatory take the street that individuals felt compelled to extend and multitudes to heed.Given this massive response, the call for insurgence, though suddenly answered, could only have developed out of a deep popular of what and how to protest. To find this sense of the people, one needs to look at the itself as the domain of urban insurgence. As in Occupy and Indignado movements elsewhere, the Brazilian protesters voiced their grievances under a tide of posters, overwhelmingly handwritten and individually carried, rather than collective banners or flags of political parties (the latter often aggressively repressed by the protestors themselves). The initial spark was a 20-cent fare increase (approximately $0.10 USD) for public buses in a number of cities. The Movimento Passe Livre (the Free Fare Movement, MPL) called for a protest march in Paulo on June 6, 2013. Founded in 2003 to challenge a fare increase in Salvador, Bahia, MPL has ever since demanded that public transportation be considered a fundamental constitutional right, campaigned for massive investments, and developed economic models to justify its battle cry-tarifa or zero fare-as a radical measure to address Brazil's public transportation nightmare.The first march in Paulo mobilized around 6,000 protestors focused on public transportation. Their marching chant was if the fare doesn't go down, the city will (which rhymes in Portuguese and challenges the famous slogan Sao Paulo never stops). By the sixth march on June 20, many cities including Paulo had indeed stopped, as a million and more people took to the streets of Brazil to publicize their revulsion at current conditions (Figure 2). Many were moved initially to protest the egregious police violence against demonstrators in Paulo. By mid- June, their anger had mushroomed far beyond 20 cents to target a hive of issues displayed individually, brilliantly, countlessly on posters: stop police violence; urban mobility is a right; a teacher is worth more than [soccer star] Neymar; there is money for the World Cup, there is money for health and education; housing is a right-stop evictions; the vandals are the politicians; freedom of expression; say no to the 'gay cure'; justice delayed is justice denied; where is Amarildo? [who disappeared while in police custody]; and so on and on. Transportation, infrastructure, health, education, housing, women-gay-indigenous-black-citizen rights, corruption, political reform (parties, elections, congress), justice, security, environment, specific legislation, energy (nuclear, hydro, oil), and violence. …