The radicalness of social solidarity: protests and political change in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

Since 2013, Brazil has faced a process of political, institutional, and social upheaval, translated into outbreaks of political scandals and major street mobilizations that evoke a certain social radicalism. Between May and June 2020, amid the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrations by organized social movements and civil society took to the streets of cities in the country for "democracy and life," guided by an agenda characterized as antifascist. These mobilizations seemed to indicate that something would happen quickly, especially from the impoverished social strata - those most affected by the political scenario and the pandemic - but they cooled off at the same speed as they started. What has happened since then? The article examines this question, analyzing the protests through the category of social solidarity. We investigate their role in building social cohesion in Brazil during the last year, both in mobilizing sectors of the population and in the very corrosion and reversal of our society's social fabric bases.