A-Infos (en) France, Organisation Communiste Libertarie (OCL) - Some elements of the situation in Brazil by RaÃl Zibechi (fr) [machine translation]

The mass protests that shook Brazil reflect a deep and growing public discontent over 
living conditions. In a country ruled by the left for a decade, this is the political 
panorama find upset. ---- Also with the emergence of new urban struggles, the emergence of 
a new generation of movements and activists, most proponents of direct action, outreach 
work, flexible modes of organization and assemblÃaires that bureaucratic structures the 
traditional left, who also openly support the government, were integrated into the state 
apparatus and are bound up with the Brazilian multinationals. ---- The texts of RaÃl 
Zibechi that we publish are written for different media and different readers, Uruguay, 
Mexico, South Basque Country ... These are articles on the most with the limits and 
constraints of this type of exercise .

They have some inevitable repetitions. However, depending on when the main topic, this or 
that aspect is particularly emphasized.

course, these texts are not exhaustive. And elsewhere for now, few are as the Brazilian 
situation is fluid, where many local initiatives mobilizations were taken in the wake of 
major events of June (including in remote areas such as in the city of Tefà in the Amazon) 
and for which the information is difficult to collect in a country as vast.

One thing is certain, there is a before and an after in June 2013 in Brazil. Almost 
everywhere, the claims have been met: increases in public transport fares have been 
canceled. Local authorities who thought they could resist the wave of protests ended up 
with occupations mayor or local parliaments ... And finally let go.

Other claims arising in particular against police violence, especially after the attack on 
the Military Police (MP) of Compexo do Marà in Rio [a set of 13 favelas and 130,000 
inhabitants in the north of Rio, close to the Airport], which resulted in the deaths of 13 
people, killed by the bullets, real, not rubber, the notorious Special Operations 
Battalion (BOPE) of the PM. Starts a campaign calling for the demilitarization of the 
police, the dismantling of the PM which dates from the dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) rallies in various places in 
GoiÃs, northern Minas Gerais, Parà and recently occupied the site of Belo Monte as did 
hundreds of Indians a few weeks ago.

Contents

The rebellion of twenty cents , June 21

Why the World Cup causes indignation , June 20

The Fall of progressivism , July 1

The end of luliste consensus , July 7

The slow construction of a new political culture in Brazil , July 10

The return of the social movement , July 12

Lula and the Brazilian multinational , April 7

On operations metropolisation and urban restructuring in Brazil now, we can see the text 
Zibechi Rio de Janeiro: From the Marvelous City to City Business inserted in the article 
"Metropolisation, mega-events and accumulation by dispossession" consulted here

The rebellion of twenty cents

RaÃl Zibechi

June 21, 2013 - Brecha

The increase in freight rates was the breach through which has engulfed the deep 
discontent that saw the Brazilian society. Because of the poor quality of services, due to 
a paternalistic political leadership that blocks the participation, because they do not 
want to remain world champions inequality. The middle classes in action. And vinegar to 
withstand tear gas.

The boos and whistles have been around the world. Dilma Rousseff remained impassive but 
his face showed the uneasiness and Joseph Blatter personally felt stigma and is cleared by 
criticizing Brazilian soccer fans for their lack of "fair play". That the President of 
Brazil and Mandarin Cup, one of the most corrupt institutions in the world, have been 
insulted by tens of thousands of sports fans from the upper middle and middle class (as 
the popular sectors can not access to these shows), reflects the deep unease that runs 
through the Brazilian society.

What happened to Brasilia Mane Garrincha stadium overflowed into the streets, is 
amplified, Monday, June 17, when more than 200,000 people demonstrated in nine cities, 
including young people affected by shortages and inequality, reflected in the high prices 
for poor quality services while construction companies and public works amass fortunes in 
the great works for mega events financed by the budget of the State.



It all started with a very small event, as in the great revolts of the twenty-first 
century: a modest increase in urban transport of only 20 cents (from 3 to 3.20 reais, 
euros seven cents). There were first small protests activists Movimento Passe Livre (MPL) 
and the Committee against the work of the World Cup 2014. Police brutality did the rest, 
because she was able to amplify the protest turning into the biggest wave of protests 
since the empeachment against Fernando Collor de Melo in 1992.

On Friday, June 7 held the first event in SÃo Paulo against rising ticket with a little 
more than a thousand demonstrators. Tuesday 11, there were also numerous, but two buses 
were burned. The two main local authorities, the rule of the state, the social democrat 
Geraldo Alckmin and PT mayor, Fernando Haddad, were Paris where they were promoting a new 
mega-event for the city and accused protesters of being "hooligans".

Wednesday 12, a new demonstration ended with 80 bus attacked and eight policemen injured. 
On Thursday 13, the spirits were angry: Police cracked the 5000 protesters causing more 
than 80 wounded, including several journalists Folha de SÃo Paulo . A tsunami of 
indignation swept the country and led a few hours later, with boos and Dilma against 
Blatter. Even the most conservative media had to echo the police brutality. The protest 
against rising ticket unwittingly converged with the campaign against the great works of 
the Confederations Cup. What looked like small events, almost testimony became a wave of 
discontent across the country.

One of the symptoms of the seriousness of the facts is that on Monday 17 at the fifth 
mobilization, with more than 200,000 people in a dozen capitals of the country's most 
important politicians, former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz InÃcio Lula da 
Silva condemned the repression. "disqualify as the vandals is a serious mistake. That they 
are violent solves nothing. Justify repression is useless " wrote Cardoso, who attributed 
the protests to "disenchantment of youth for the future" .

Lula has tweeted something similar: "Democracy is not a pact of silence, but a moving 
company in search of new conquests. The only certainty is that the social movement and the 
claims are not police business, but negotiating table. I'm sure among the protesters most 
are willing to help build a solution for urban transport " . In addition to embarrass the 
elites, the protesters managed to suspend increases.

The feeling of injustice

Public transport in cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are among the most expensive 
in the world and the quality is dire. A survey of the daily Folha de Sao Paulo analysis 
price of public transport in the two largest cities in Brazil and the relationship with 
the working time needed to pay for a ticket, according to the average salary in different 
cities. The result is catastrophic for the Brazilians. While a resident of Rio needs to 
work 13 minutes to pay for a ticket and 14 minutes SÃo Paulo, Buenos Aires do work for a 
minute and a half, ten times less. But the list includes the world's major cities: Beijing 
tickets is three and a half minutes of work, Paris, New York and Madrid six minutes to 
Tokyo, as Santiago nine minutes. In London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, 
each ticket requires 11 minutes of work ( Folha de SÃo Paulo on 17 June 2013).

The newspaper quoted the former mayor of BogotÃ, Enrique PeÃalosa, to illustrate what 
should be the urban democratization "Advanced city is not one where the poor travel by 
car, but where the rich use public transport" . In Brazil, the paper concludes, the 
opposite happens.

Over the past eight years, the transport of the city of SÃo Paulo has deteriorated, 
according to a survey published by O Estado de SÃo Paulo . The dealership currently in 
force was signed during the management Marta Suplicy (PT) in 2004. System transport 
increased 1600-2900000000 passengers per year between 2004 and 2012. However, the number 
of buses in circulation fell from 14,100 to 13,900. The conclusion is almost obvious: 
"More people are transported by paying a higher price in fewer buses that make fewer 
trips" ( O Estado de SÃo Paulo , June 15, 2013). In each unit, travel 80% more passengers.

According to the Secretariat of the municipality for the city transport, improving the 
economic situation has led to an increase in passenger numbers, but on the other hand, 
buses make fewer trips due to traffic congestion, it inevitably "falls on the users who 
suffer from the inefficiency of the system, with the increase in travel time ' .

Costs have also soared because of the inefficiency of misuse infrastructure. If to this is 
added the waste of millions invested in the work of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic 
Games, with its corollary of forced relocation of residents, it is possible to understand 
the prevailing malaise.

The six stadiums that have been opened for the Confederations Cup has cost nearly two 
billion dollars. The renovation of the Maracanà [Rio] has exceeded 500 million and Mane 
Garrincha [Brasilia] has engulfed much a monumental site with 288 columns that give it the 
appearance of "modern Roman Colosseum" , according to the secretary general of FIFA Jerome 
Valcke. All this public money to receive a single match for the Cup and September during 
the World Cup.

These are pregnant luxury built by a half-dozen construction companies, some of which have 
also been administering these arenas that will host performances which few have access. 
The final cost of all this work usually doubles the initial budget. Still missing six 
stages which are under construction, and renovation of airports, roads and hotels. BNDES 
[National Bank of Economic and Social Development] has granted a loan of $ 200 million for 
the completion of the ItaquerÃo, the new stadium of Corinthians [club SÃo Paulo] which 
will host the first game of the Cup World 2014.

Tired of bread and circus

The National Coordination of Popular Committees Cup, has released a report that indicates 
that in the twelve cities hosting matches of the World Cup, there are 250,000 people at 
risk of being deported, adding the threat of relocation and those living in the disputed 
by the work (areas BBC Brazil , June 15, 2013). In some cases, houses were demolished with 
only 48 hours notice. Many families complain that they have been transferred to remote 
locations with inadequate compensation to buy new homes, less than five thousand dollars 
on average.
To complete the picture, just for the Confederations Cup, a military operation was mounted 
which involved the mobilization of 23,000 soldiers of the three weapons, with a central 
command, control and intelligence. The device mobilizes 60 aircraft and 500 vehicles.



The World in 2014 forced Brazil to build 12 stadiums, 21 new airport terminals, seven 
runways and 5 port terminals. The total cost to the state of all this work will be $ 15 
billion. With such an array of spending to build luxury kept pregnant with maximum 
security, the National Council of Christian Churches (CONIC) issued a statement condemning 
the police brutality saying that what happened on June 13 in Sao Paulo " us back to the 
dark times in the history of our country " ( www.conic.org.br ). The text of the churches 
denounced the lack of openness to dialogue and ensures that "the authoritarian culture 
continues to be a feature of the Brazilian state. "

It reminds the Government that the Council of Human Rights of the UN just made ââa number 
of recommendations, among them to do away with the military police. CONIC believes that 
the police crackdown is the same as "extermination of young people takes place every day 
in the outskirts of cities. " He ends by saying that the great events that bring 
additional profit "in financial markets and mega-industrial conglomerates" . "We not only 
want the circus. We want bread, fruit of social justice " . If this is the spirit of the 
state churches, one can imagine the feelings of millions of young people who spend two 
hours to go to work, three to return to their homes "in stupid and expensive bus and faced 
200 kilometers caps " , as described in the writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva ( O Estado de SÃo 
Paulo , 16 June 2013).

All Paulistas know that the rich travel by helicopter. Brazil has one of the main fleets 
of business aviation in the world. Since the PT governs the country, the helicopter fleet 
increased by 58.6%, according to the Brazilian Association of General Aviation (ABAG). SÃo 
Paulo has 272 heliports and business more than 650 helicopters which carry around 400 
daily flights. Many more cities like Tokyo and New York. "Currently, the Paulista capital 
is the only city in the world with an air traffic control only for helicopters" , said the 
ABAG. This is why the outrage spread and that which they have been so many to celebrate 
the return of the protest, why they had to wait no less than two decades.

___

[Insert]

A response of social dignity

"Oooo, acordou o Povo" (Oooo, the people woke up), shouted the thousands of people who 
took to the streets. As if they were asleep for years. Dilma Rousseff even mentioned the 
term "Brazil today, woke up stronger. The magnitude of the events of yesterday shows the 
power of our democracy, the strength of the voice of the street " . There was not much 
room to say something else after the huge demonstrations that we had not seen for two 
decades. Gilberto Carvalho, Secretary General of the Presidency, was less politically 
correct and recognized "does not understand" what was happening in the street. One of the 
reasons why politicians do not understand what is happening, is that while the governments 
of PT, 40 million Brazilians out of poverty and entered the consumer market in a favorable 
economic environment .

Meanwhile, social movements are weak and fragmented. The second problem is the generation 
gap. In seven out of ten protesters, according to the institute Datafolha, it was the 
first time they participated in a demonstration. More than eight out of ten does not 
support any party and 53% are under 25. In a passionate football country, 70% of Paulistas 
were interested in demonstrations against 18% after the Confederations Cup.
Half the population of Brazil's main city rejects the institutions, including the Congress 
is distinguished by the highest level rejection at 82%, while 77% support the protests. 
How a small movement to free transport can it generate as membership?

The Movimento Passe Livre (MPL) was born in 2003 in Salvador (Bahia) in the "Revolta do 
Buzu" when thousands of students and young workers off the streets for ten days against 
the rising cost of transport in common. The National Union of Students, pro-government, 
managed to co-opt a spontaneous and independent she could never lead mobilization. A year 
later, in 2004, students from FlorianÃpolis [State of Santa Catarina] inspired by the 
events of Bahia, organized the "Revolta da Catracas" (revolt tourniquets) which could 
count on the support of residents' associations , teachers and workers.

During the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2005, held a large plenary where was 
formalized Movimento Passe Livre today is present in all major cities. The principles of 
organization adopted reject hierarchical and bureaucratic style of the official student 
associations and character is independent, horizontal, autonomous, federal, with 
decision-making by consensus and non-party political, which they point out, is not 
synonymous with anti-party political.

In its statement of principles, the MPL emphasizes that the movement "is not an end in 
itself but a means to build a new society" ( www.mpl.org.br ) and in their struggle for 
"free passage student "they note that their perspective is "the expropriation of public 
transport, removing the private sector, without compensation, by placing it under the 
control of the workers and the public. " The police also expressed surprise, in addition 
to being upset by this type of movement. An intelligence report of the Military Police, 
commented by the media, noted that "the absence of leaders is considered the worst 
nightmare for the police because it is not clear objectives" ( Folha de SÃo Paulo June 16, 
2013).

Sociologist Rudà Ricci, near the trade union movement believes that activists and 
politicians who still have their feet in the twentieth century "to be bothered by the lack 
of unity of command, avant-garde" ( http: / / rudaricci.blogspot.com ). It supports a 
small movement created in 2005 won such a projection due to "channel blocking 
participation classical entities of representation" and the "inability of the historical 
social leaders to read the daily life of the population Because of their confinement in 
locked institutions " . Political analyst Jorge Almeida, of the Federal University of 
Bahia, says that under the Lula government two important events took place: the movements 
were demobilized by supporting a government, on the other hand, "represented the 
strengthening of hegemony of big business in Brazil " ( Valor , 19 June 2013).

The increased purchasing power of the population and the fact that large companies come to 
defend the social order, "a fact that bourgeois hegemony are becoming more stable. " 
However, "as inequalities continue, other organizations had to be built" , capable of 
filling the void left by historical movements. The Cup was the spark that lit the fire. 
"World Cup seems like a genuine intervention by FIFA in large urban centers. It restricts 
freedom of expression, commerce, within two kilometers of stages, it can be no 
demonstrations " .

Prices skyrocket because of mega-events particularly affecting poorer classes who undergo 
inflation% from November to December. Finally, Almeida said, while powerful thought they 
could do what they wanted, the repression has placed before "a response of social dignity" .

Why the World Cup provokes outrage

RaÃl Zibechi

June 20, 2013 - MediosAlt

In Brazil, twelve were formed People's Committees in each of the cities that will host the 
World to resist eviction and denounce the significance of these events revealed Zibechi in 
this research.

Although it seems hard to believe football is a matter of elites as well for those who 
profit from the sport for those who can access the stage. World Cups speeds up the process 
by turning stadiums large platforms for business and denying access to the majority. A 
half-century history of the legendary Maracanà is the latest confirmation.

Approximately 203,000 people attended the 1950 final at the Maracana, which represented 
8.5% of the population of Rio de Janeiro. The entries in the so-called "general" and 
"popular" locations, where the popular sectors attended the game, accounted for 80% of the 
total audience. An important part of the audience watching the match standing in a stadium 
that had a capacity of 199,000 people.

Today, the Maracana is a "multi-purpose vessel" which hosts sporting events, concerts and 
performances of all kinds. The bleachers were built cabins overlooking the entire field, 
with windows that separate the VIPs from the rest of the spectators. They are equipped 
with bar, TV and air conditioning and are generally rented by companies who invite their 
associates or partners and officials. They have the privilege to get directly drive a ramp 
without incurring any contact with the "crowd".

Stages began to change in 1990 with the pretext of security and comfort, as part of a 
global campaign that not only participated but also FIFA clubs, driven by their private 
sponsors. Towards the end of the decade, the price of tickets worldwide, has risen well 
above inflation, making access more difficult for working families.

The Maracanà has reduced its capacity after a renovation conducted in 1999 for the FIFA 
Club World Cup 2000, only 103,022 people because individual seats were installed on the 
top ring. Between April 2005 and January 2006, it was closed for renovations to 
accommodate the 2007 Pan American Games. On this occasion have been removed "general" 
areas where the public meeting followed up and the seats were installed, reducing the 
ability to only 82,238 people, but with reclining seats.

Currently the new Maracana undergoes renovation for the final of the 2014 World Cup and 
2016 Olympic Games.
Since mid-2010, it is closed to the transformations that follow the model "fifa" which 
requires that all sites are covered, which requires to change the entire roof. In fact, 
the stadium was imploded and only the exterior has been preserved because it is considered 
as a national heritage. Reconstruction will cost a billion reais, a minimum of $ 600 
million, the stadium will be a concession to the private sector, will have even less of 
locations that will become increasingly expensive.



More than just a football stadium, it will become a theater with numbered seats where you 
can not watch the game standing. Thus were abolished spaces collective creations of fan 
clubs, rowdy and disorderly, and in their place there will remain the possibility of 
choreography preformatted as "olas" and the wise and orderly deployment of individual mini 
flags.

After the maior do mundo , Maracanà has come to occupy a modest 14th place behind the two 
largest stadiums in the world: Rungrado May Day Pyongyang (North Korea), with a capacity 
of 150,000 spectators, and Salt Lake Kolkata (India) with 120,000 seats. More importantly, 
it has ceased to be a popular space to become a media and entertainment business.

Social cleansing

The People's Committee of Rio de Janeiro, which was created during the 2007 Pan American 
Games, while people were forcibly evicted for construction, began to resist transfers. "We 
also began to see that evictions are not the only problem of major events. We noted other 
factors such as corruption. The work of the Pan American Games were budgeted at 300 
million reais, but have cost 3.5 billion " , about two billion, says Roberto Morales, 
adviser to Congressman Marcelo Freixo, the Party of Socialism and Liberty.

Rio is the Brazilian city most affected by the work, as it will host the 2014 World Cup 
and 2016 Olympic Games. In the twelve host cities of the World Cup, popular committees 
have been established which are coordinated and mobilized under the slogan "The Cup and 
the Olympics in respect for human rights."

The report "Mega events and human rights violations", published in April by the People's 
Committee of Rio de Janeiro, noted that during the last five national championships, 
public participation per game declined, although there a slight increase in total public 
while revenue soared. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of spectators per game in the 
league has dropped from 17,400 to 14,900, the total audience of the entire league has 
increased from 5.6 to 6,500,000 while revenue rose nearly 50%, indicating that the input 
price is increasing.

As elsewhere in the world, Brazil soccer is more than what is paid depends on the 
audience. In 2010, clubs have their budgets mainly covered by the export of players 
occupying position 28% of the budget, followed by the televised games representing 24% of 
revenues and 12% advertising. The entries cover only 11% of budgets.

The People's Committees report notes that Brazil has a deficit of five million units. The 
major work of the World, stadiums to expand airports and highways, will cost a total of 
about $ 20 billion for a championship that lasts less than a month. A colossal sum that 
comes from Brazilian taxes which have only a few mega-corporations.

The displaced

Although the government does not give information on forced evictions that work cause, it 
is estimated that affect approximately 170,000 people. The Popular Committees have 
detected a kind of model that is repeated in each city that will host the expulsions 
victims never know anything from the government but are informed by rumors or because work 
starts close to home. "The lack of information and notification generates instability and 
fear about the future" , which paralyzes families and makes thank you powers or 
speculators, the report says.


Almost all of those affected live in low-income areas, in precarious or informal.
In the metropolitan Curitiba (ParanÃ) region, 1173 buildings will be affected for the 
construction of the Metropolitan Corridor 52 km long, rail access and the reconstruction 
and widening of several avenues and highways. The only expansion of the airport and its 
parking area involves the demolition of 320 homes without any of their residents were 
informed of the compensation they receive or where they will be moved.

In Belo Horizonte, a huge building complex is under construction, which will occupy 10,000 
hectares of green space to build 75,000 apartments. He called Vila da Copa and will 
initially accommodate delegations, tourists and journalists at the World Cup.
A Fortaleza, 15,000 families will be affected, nearly 10,000 will be resettled, but have 
not yet been informed of where they live.

Most of those affected will be displaced by the expansion or construction of new highways.
La Voie Express Fortaleza cross 22 districts to connect the resort with the city center 
and the CastelÃo stage. In this case, families can choose between compensation, an 
apartment in an apartment complex or exchange against another housing in a neighborhood of 
the capital. Although 70% of nine thousand affected families have chosen a residential, 
social pressure has slowed the whole process until presents an alternative project in 
better conditions.

Hundreds of houses on the outskirts of Fortaleza were marked in green ink to be demolished 
this year, but people have no official communication informing when will the demolition.

The Popular Committees Cup argue that in 21 districts and poor favelas of seven cities 
that will host the World Cup, the State applies "strategies of war and persecution, such 
as the marking of houses with ink without explanation, the invasion of homes without a 
warrant, illegal appropriation and destruction of buildings " , as well as threats, 
cutting services and other acts of intimidation.

Work for the World facilitate a kind of "social cleansing" driven by speculation and 
displacement of families living on land for four five decades, as in SÃo Paulo with the 
construction of Parque Lineal VÃrzeas do Tietà [Linear Park Plain TietÃ], a floodplain 
which four thousand families were evicted and six thousand others will be evicted.

State of emergency

Parliament was forced to approve the General Law of the Cup, which establishes the legal 
standards for the conduct of the Confederations Cup in June 2013 and the World the 
following year. The project was presented by the Executive on the basis of criteria 
established by the federation, but many members felt that it contradicts the Brazilian 
legislation. For example, in Brazil, the sale of alcohol in stadiums is prohibited, but 
FIFA requires that there be complete freedom, which can generate situations of violence, 
as many MPs.

Another point of disagreement revolves around the rights acquired by students, pensioners, 
beneficiaries of the Bolsa Familia and the sick, who pay half the price of entry, that 
FIFA refuses too. The law called Act Pele, which benefits the unions of professional 
athletes, with 5% of revenue from audiovisual broadcasting rights to sporting events, will 
also be suspended for the World Cup.

The federation also requires that the host country issues visas and work permits to all 
delegates, guests, officials confederations, journalists and visitors from other countries 
who have bought tickets. These special permit that will expire December 31, 2014, six 
months after the end of the World Cup. In short, a large part of national legislation is 
suspended to meet FIFA requirements.

The report of the Coordination of Popular Committees Cup adds to the list of grievances, 
violations of rights of informal workers (nearly two-thirds of Brazilians). Indeed, 
Article 11 of the Act Cup banned the sale of all types of goods in "official venues in 
their area and main access routes" without the express permission of the federation. The 
definition and limits of "exclusive areas" trade products FIFA must be delimited by 
municipalities "considering the requirements of FIFA or third indicated by it" , which are 
expressly excluded vendors in radius of two kilometers of stages.

Article 23 punishes even bars that would transmit the matches of the World Cup without 
permission and if in addition they promote certain unauthorized brands. The National 
Confederation of Commerce and other business associations of traders have expressed their 
opposition to the Law of the Cup. The most serious is perhaps the bill, through Article 
37, that "special courts may be established for procedures indictments and trials of cases 
related to events" .

Accumulated by the sports federations in recent decades power is able to impose millions 
of people around the world who are actually those who support them, and powerful states 
from all continents without causing debates in which the public interest may be reflected 
frame.

The Fall of progressivism

RaÃl Zibechi

On July 1, 2013 - La Jornada

People want solutions and after a decade we can not continue to say that there are no 
resources. Those who believe that it is a spring eruption, are wrong. This is the 
beginning of something new.

The President Dilma Rousseff took the political initiative by calling Monday, June 25, 
before the 27 governors and 26 mayors of state capitals, five agreements for Brazil: 
fiscal responsibility, political reform, health, public transport and education . She 
proposed a referendum authorizing the convening of a constituent assembly to drive 
political reform, which is the most polemical and most fought by institutions. Although 
the next day she had to backtrack about the constituent, it maintained the initiative, 
since it is possible to channel reforms through parliament.

Time will tell if reforms are realized, and especially if they manage to meet the 
expectations of the population, especially irritated by corruption and inequality, old 
Brazilian problems have not decreased during the decade led by Workers Party. At present, 
two things seem clear: the institutions continue to be on the defensive, despite the 
efforts of the President, and the street is still the choice for many young people to be 
heard.

Alarmed by the continuing protests, Congress shelved the proposed constitutional amendment 
No. 37 (by 430 votes against nine), which promoted a constitutional reform to remove the 
Attorney General the ability to conduct criminal investigations that only the police could 
do in a country where only 11% of common crimes and 8% of homicides are solved. The 
proposed constitutional amendment 37 has raised a storm of protest under the slogan 
"Brazil against impunity."
On the same day, the House passed a bill that 75% of oil royalties to education and 25 % 
to health. Until then, there had been heavy fighting between the different States to 
spread the benefits of one of the most promising sources of revenue for the state, but the 
street was able to convince them.

The protests continue and will continue for some time. But we begin to notice changes and 
differentiations. In SÃo Paulo, the Movimento Passe Livre (MPL) decided to walk in urban 
peripheries, while groups like MudanÃa JÃ ("change now"), who do not accept the parties 
and only speak of corruption, tend to concentrate in the center - the middle class enclave 
- as the sociologist analysis Rudà Ricci.

Brazilian street sends a strong message not only to the government of Dilma Rousseff, but 
all progressive governments in the region: the passivity came to an end. After a decade of 
excellent international prices for exports and an obvious economic boom - which seems to 
be coming to an end - not much has changed. In particular, there has been no structural 
change.

Even a conservative like former Minister of Finance of the military regime, Antonio Delfim 
Netto, commenting international Researh Pew Center notes that the main problem is that a 
market economy controlled by the finance carries serious problems of inequalities ( Valor 
, 18 June 2013).

The majority of respondents in 39 countries around the world believe that the operation of 
the system benefits the rich. This indicates that the population is well aware of what is 
happening, and we can conclude that if it was not raised before it's because she has not 
found the right moment.

A study of the PIT-CNT trade union center Uruguayan reveals that the wage bill relative to 
GDP in 2010 was lower than in 1998, when the right and ruled that reigned the most 
unbridled neoliberalism. The data speak for themselves: in 1998, the wages of workers 
accounted for 27.2% of GDP. In 2010, after eight years of government of the Frente Amplio 
[left coalition] and sustained growth of the economy, they receive 23.5% of the product. 
This indicates an increase in appropriate by the owners of capital (Cuesta-Duarte 
Institute, December 2011) portion.

30% of Uruguayan workers earn little more than minimum wage, and half of those who work 
earn less than two minimum wages. The situation is not very different in Brazil and 
Argentina. There is no doubt that part of the population out of extreme poverty, with more 
the cycle of economic growth by making social policies that always do that cover the 
problems, but do not resolve the situation background majorities.

This half of the population is no longer hungry, but can not live either in dignity, is 
tired and starts to lose patience. So far, the progressive governments have played with 
two cards in their favor: the working poor has improved somewhat, and a triumph of right 
could involve social decline. But the ghost of the right has ceased to operate in the 
collective imagination. Because it is a little more than a ghost.

If in one of the countries mentioned above right should prevail, those who lose the most 
are the thousands of activists and professionals left who occupy positions of trust in 
government departments, municipalities, enterprises state and central governments. The 
impression is that most people, like those who protest these days in Brazil but also in 
Uruguay streets are not willing to continue to be fooled by the ghost of blackmail from 
the right. A good example is the case of Chile, where the population has intensified its 
protests against the right-wing government of SebastiÃn PiÃera, but shows no enthusiasm 
for the likely return of Michelle Bachelet during the presidential election in November of 
this year.

People want solutions and after a decade can not continue to say that there are no 
resources. Those who believe that this is a spring eruption wrong. This is the beginning 
of something new. The debate over whether the political crisis that has settled in Brazil, 
which deepens in Argentina benefit right-wing parties or those on the left, is of little 
importance.

Today, the reality is in the street, and this is where the future plays.

The end of consensus luliste

RaÃl Zibechi

July 7, 2013 - Gara

Uruguayan journalist analyzes the causes of the events of recent weeks in Brazil. Before 
the fall of protest movements, especially from the governments of Lula and because of 
their social policies, emerged a large number of urban organizations at the initiative of 
young people who began their activism in the government and who " feel bound to their 
history "and experience the urban reforms as privatization. According Zibechi, next year 
will be decisive, and the PT in power and the political elites will have to take into 
account the demands of the street.

In Brazil, the floodgates of social protest are open to such an extent that they can not 
be closed in the short term. June will be remembered as the period of the largest 
demonstrations in the history of the country, with days that have recorded two million 
demonstrators in a process that began June 6 and is far from over . The massiveness of the 
protests is frayed and modalities have mutated into a multitude of small and medium 
actions in the most diverse places, but in the center of large cities.

Many wonder why, if the situation was so bad, the protests have not arisen earlier. The 
answer is that the two governments of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) articulated 
major social policy with the neutralization of the main movements in the country, in a 
context marked by a certain economic boom sitting on good prices commodities [ commodities 
for export]. Two data to consider: the program Bolsa Familia has affected 50 million 
Brazilians, or 25% of the total population, improving the incomes of the underground 
strata [*]. The second is that the minimum wage was increased threefold in ten years (from 
240 reais in 2003 to nearly 700 in 2013, about 250 euros). Therefore, between 30 and 40 
million are out of poverty and entered the consumer market.

Most significant, however, is what happened on the side of social struggles. Brazil 
experienced at the end of the dictatorship, the largest amount of the world strikes: 4000 
1989. From there, the labor movement has declined, with an average of 500 strikes per year 
in 1990 and between 300 and 400 under the Lula government. More important is the 
institutionalization of unions, with features unknown in Europe. A good example are the 
acts of May 1, where the two main stations (CUT and ForÃa Sindical, both allies of the 
government) do not realize events with an ideological content but organize parties, 
financed by companies that enhance the consumerism.

The events of May 1, 2011 in SÃo Paulo were the paradigm of this union culture that 
reserve VIP areas in their actions to "personalities". Both parties have claimed more than 
two million. The state company Petrobras has contributed 250,000 euros, while Banco do 
Brasil and other Crown corporations have provided about 70,000 euros each. Private 
companies were also represented: banks Itaà and Bradesco, multinational Brahma, Carrefour 
and BMG, department stores Casas Bahia and PÃo de AÃÃcar, contributed between 50 and 80 
thousand euros each. Between the two parties, 20 cars were won by lottery.

The Landless Workers Movement (MST) has also suffered a major setback in terms of the 
amount of its struggles, though he maintained essentially principles for land reform and 
against the developmentalist model. During the decade of the Government of the Workers' 
Party (PT), the land conflicts have not diminished, but the first level of the 
organization, camps [occupation], experienced a net outflow. 285 in 2003, when the arrival 
of the Lula government, the number of settlements fell to a low of 13 in 2012. Conflicts 
are increasing de facto permanent offensive agribusiness, but resilience (which 
materializes in the camps) decreases steadily.

Faced with this panorama of institutionalization and setbacks, were born many urban 
organizations: Free Radio Indymedia , which functions as Independent Media Center (IMC), 
the movement of unemployed workers movement roofless and best known in recent weeks: the 
Movimento Passe Livre and the People's Committees of the Cup. It is a new generation of 
activists who began his activism in the governments of PT, do not feel bound to its 
history and, instead, undergo urban reforms as privatization led by their governments.

MPL (which literally means Movement for Free ticket) was born in the World Social Forum in 
Porto Alegre in 2005, having recaptured two important experiences: the "revolt of the bus" 
( Revolta do Buzu ) from 2003 to Salvador ( Bahia), which mobilized 40,000 people against 
rising prices and the "revolt of turnstiles" ( Revolta das Catracas ) in FlorianÃpolis in 
2004. These are small groups of a few dozen militants who operate in many cities, they 
study and publicize the reality of urban transport, complain and practice direct action 
with which they put pressure on the authorities.

The Popular Committees Cup were born around 2008 in the twelve cities hosting the World 
Cup in 2014 and coordinate at the national level. In their reports, they estimate that 
some 170,000 people will be evicted to larger airports, stadiums and highways. They claim 
that in 21 poor districts and slums of seven cities that will host the World Cup, the 
State applies strategies of war and persecution, the invasion of homes without a warrant, 
illegal appropriation and destruction of buildings and threats, cut services to force 
people to abandon their neighborhoods.

Major works for the World facilitate a kind of "social cleansing" driven by speculation 
and displacement of families living on land for four five decades,
The experience left by previous sports mega-events, not only in emerging countries but 
also in the developed world, the cost of living adds, real estate speculation explodes 
because infrastructure projects move some populations, attract those who can afford more 
expensive housing while the poorest are transferred to the periphery, which dislocates 
their survival strategies.

PaÃque Duques Lima, MPL activist, anthropologist, 27, born in a favela in one of the 
satellite cities of Brasilia, explained to me these days that both the MPL and the 
Committees Cup began to make a large work in urban peripheries in 2008, where they are 
related to the culture of Black and precarious youth, who made ââhip-hop mode of asserting 
their identity. In the peripheries of these two cultures are mixed: the young activists of 
organizations practicing horizontality and autonomy and those of black youth gangs by 
repression. "Both cultures have come together with the growth of cities and real estate 
speculation has strengthened urban segregation, because both sectors have common problems 
such as transport " indicates PaÃque.

This youth that the media are trying to call "middle class" has shattered the "luliste 
consensus" in just three weeks, forcing the government of Dilma Rousseff to recognize 
late, correctness protests. An investigation revealed that, in SÃo Paulo, more than a 
million people go to work on foot for more than three hours because they can not afford 
transportation or because it would take them longer than walk.

2014 will be a decisive year. The World Cup will take place and there will be protests. 
Elections will be held and Dilma may not be re-elected, although it is in the polls. 
Without social peace, PT and political elites will have to meet at least part of the 
requirements of the street: an end to corruption and a substantial improvement in 
transport, health and education.

___

NdT
[*] The social program Bolsa Familia [Family Shopping] is a conditional aid paid to 
families against schooling and child immunization. The monthly amount is 22 reais [â 7.50] 
per child, up to a limit of 3. It is paid to families with incomes below 140 reais [47 
euros] per capita monthly income. In May 2012, it was distributed to about 13.4 million 
families (26% of the population). But, according to various surveys, nearly 4 million 
families who nevertheless qualify, are excluded. The rate of unmet demand reached 80% in 
some favelas . This program represents about 4% of public social state aid to 0.46% of GDP.

The slow construction of a new political culture in Brazil

Interview with a social activist MPL conducted by RaÃl Zibechi

On July 10, 2013 - CIPAmÃricas

Passed the most critical times of mobilization in Brazil, it seems necessary to 
investigate the roots of the horizontal and autonomous political culture that emerged in 
the streets, but that has matured slowly in everyday resistance, driven by a new 
generation of social fighters. Dialogue with them is the best way to understand.



When Lula came in the Planalto Palace, in January 2003, PaÃque Duques Lima was 17 years 
old and took his first steps in social activism. He lived with his parents in Brasilia, 
Federal District. The rest of his family lived in one of the many favelas , away from 
aseptic urban modernism designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the biggest Brazilian architect and 
one of the most admired in the world. Over the years, became PaÃque anthropologist, 
perhaps as a form of loyalty to his race and service to his class, and it is linked to 
various social movements, including the MPL (Movimento Passe Livre) which says it: "in 
Portuguese means free pass" .

-Major events in June seem like small local history movement that created the 
organizational and subjective conditions such as MPL and the People's Committees of the 
Cup. Do you share this reading?

Throughout the period of the Lula government, but even before there was alternative 
movements and small and medium struggles have created a new culture of struggle, linked to 
the right or left of the traditional organizations. With protests against globalization, 
around 2000, was born a culture of direct action for much of urban youth: free radios, CMI 
(Indymedia), youth groups of political parties which fought against their own parties and 
broke with them, and generally young people who rejected the traditional structures such 
as unions and students bureaucracies.

- You give more importance to this new horizontal political culture assemblÃaire and 
autonomous than the amount of militants that each group has. Do you mean that it is more 
about quality than quantity?

It is relative. In 2003, in Salvador, 40,000 people took to the streets against the rise 
in prices of transport, in what was known as the "Revolta do Buzu" (buses in local slang). 
Youth is took to the streets spontaneously and then the student organizations have 
negotiated with the government in passing over the lead.
It was a betrayal. Nine demands of the movement have been approved by the municipality, 
all but the cancellation of the rate increase, which was the main point. Ã from the time 
we saw it was possible to fight without being in a party or in a traditional structure. In 
2004, in FlorianÃpolis comes the "Revolta das Catracas "(turnstiles), initiated by a small 
organization for free transport with a few dozen people. But it was possible to politicize 
the struggle, calling for action and talk with the authorities. Members of the movement 
are not negotiated but only sent to people's concerns. This is what was the power 
struggle, a horizontal organization, without permanent leadership.

In 2005, the National MPL was created with demands for transport and free, on the basis of 
a culture and a way to fight with the principles of apartidisme (but not antipartyism), 
the autonomy, horizontality, independence, federalism and practices focused on direct 
action and an anti-capitalist horizon. Since then, every year in different cities, there 
have been struggles against price increases.
struggles are usually localized, because each city has its own transportation management. 
Over the past decade, in about 60 cities, there have been small and medium mobilization, 
ranging from a handful of protesters in ten thousand people. In some cities, the increases 
were offset, in others, free transport were won for students. The Popular Committees Cup 
appeared in 2008 and other organizations have also built a culture of horizontal fighting 
in the streets.

- It is said that these are movements of the middle class, students and skilled workers. 
Would you agree with this characterization?

Not. It is a mobilization of the proletarian youth who still has many divisions, as in 
Brazil there is a split in the cities, which have a center with a class of informal 
workers and suburbs with more formal class workers and a large periphery where the working 
class precarious lives. When they talk about the middle class, they invisibilisent 
participation informal center of the city participating in the demonstrations. These are 
divided into cities classes, spaces and races. There are many black activists and protesters.



- In this new militant culture, is there something about the hip-hop culture is a movement 
not very structured, more diffuse, but very powerful and very present in Brazil in youth? 
What was the daily activity of nuclei MPL before June?

In the organization of MPL and Committees Cup, there are youth center and the periphery. 
In our meetings at the beginning of the movement, in Brasilia, for example, there were 
between 40 and 80 people, but after 2007, when we had a free period increase, there was 
much less crowded, we were between 8 and 20 . during our weekly or biweekly meetings
We mainly three types of activities: direct action, study and information on public 
transport and urban mobility with approaches in terms of class, gender and race, we lobby 
and proposals towards government by offering free passage [Free Shipping], the "zero 
tariff", and we mobilize when they increase rates or privatization occur.

- Today, while Brazil know that the Cup is a business and that transport is a disaster, 
which shows the effectiveness of the work done for years. Somehow this new critical 
awareness talks about the importance of small groups of activists with a high level of 
commitment.

The Popular Committees Cup are involved joints where movement of undocumented roof, 
expelled communities and academic activists. Both committees that MPL have always been in 
contact with the culture of the suburbs, the favelas . The culture of black youth, 
precarious and favelada was very challenged over the last decade by the government policy 
of Lula and Dilma promoting consumption. But control has its double meanings and its 
vulnerabilities.
Neighbourhood associations have an historical relationship with the PT and did their job 
with the state and social plans. This has created a vacuum that was filled by the new 
horizontal militant culture and youth culture favelada which are closer over the past five 
years, young workers in the periphery and the center have many contacts. I live in the 
center of the Federal District of Brasilia, but my family is favelada . The important 
point is that these two cultures have come together with the growth of cities and real 
estate speculation that increased urban segregation because both sectors have common 
problems such as transport.



Since 2007 and 2008, the MPL comes increasingly in schools and neighborhoods on the 
outskirts. Our movement began to do workshops on public transport on urban segregation and 
the right to the city in schools and universities, but now the work is mainly in the 
peripheral communities. In many cases, we have been called to discuss the problem of 
transportation.
Populaire Committees Cup followed the same path, approaching the evicted communities. 
Police violence that speech committees had an echo in people. Before, in the periphery, 
many people thought that the Cup was their salvation because it would create jobs, but 
that changed very quickly and they are now in the protests. The Popular Committees began 
to gain strength in the elimination of entire neighborhoods. On the other hand, some 
traditional media are open to criticism against the Cup as Le Monde Diplomatique , Carta 
Capital , the magazine Piauà and the television channel ESPN Brasil, where there are many 
former leftists who are critical of sports journalism and were very hard with FIFA.

But the key is that people have begun to organize. Since the beginning of this year, the 
mobilizations for free transportation were more numerous. In ten cities, they managed to 
bring down the price of the ticket. Ã GoiÃnia in May in Porto Alegre in March in Natal, 
Terezinha and BelÃm, they mobilized before what happened in SÃo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. 
This tells us that when the events in Rio and SÃo Paulo occur, this culture of horizontal 
mobilization embodied by the MPL and Committees Cup had already spread.

- All indications repression SÃo Paulo played a key role in the expansion of the movement.

I am not an activist of the movement of SÃo Paulo (I MPL in Brasilia), but I can make an 
assessment of what I saw and heard, because we are a national organization. I think it is 
a combination of three questions.

The first and most important is that there are years of work by several organizations that 
have created this culture of struggle, not only the MPL and the Committees of the Cup, but 
the CMI, the radical students , the homeless, free radio, hip-hop, the movement of 
unemployed workers [BAT], the cartoneros [ catadores in Brazil], all urban movements that 
participated in the creation of this culture.

The second issue is that the actions called by the MPL in the center of SÃo Paulo received 
a brutal police response when many thought that having won the municipality, PT Fernando 
Haddad, there would be co-opted and negotiation, but no one ever imagined that there would 
be a harsh crackdown. We knew that the state government, the Social Democrat Geraldo 
Alckmin (PSDB) was very repressive, but we do not believe that the city of PT would 
support terrorist actions of the police. This brutal repression was important in the 
nationalization of solidarity and increase the number of protesters. It is also important 
to note that early manifestations, prior to the crackdown, were already very large, with 
20, 40 and 70 thousand people.

The third point was the extension of the movement throughout Brazil with the celebration 
of the Confederations Cup, which brought the struggle for urban mobility in the fight 
against urban reform and the right to the city as a result of major work undertaken for 
the World Cup 2014.

- The right-mobilizations took to complete his game against the Government.

The right already has a political bloc and a media block and now wants to build a social 
bloc. Many people took to the streets and then the right has tried to lead his game by 
trying to impose its focus on criticism of corruption program, but only against the 
corrupt governments of the PT, but not the PSDB , showing his electoral intentions, as 
well as campaigns for lowering the age of criminal responsibility against abortion and in 
some way against the rights of blacks and homosexuals. They tried to challenge the 
narrative of the movement. People left parties were attacked by the extreme right, but 
they avoided talking about the real problems that led us into the streets.

- How do you analyze the day of July 11, organized by the unions and the MST where there 
is no reference to police repression and the massacre of 24 June in the Complexo do MarÃ, 
the largest favela in Rio?

There are some trade union, small areas that support the movement. The anti-government and 
as Conlutas Intersindical unions participated in protests and others have criticized the 
MPL, saying that we had been manipulated by the right. The labor movement has failed to 
articulate a response class. The activities of 11 can be understood in part as a way to 
support the government, justified by the idea that the right can strike a blow against the 
government and to avoid this, it is necessary to help strengthen governance. It is also an 
attempt to control people who are in the street. But this day was also called by other 
sectors that are not in the government camp and are more related to social struggles. [*]

- How do you see the future of the movement in the medium term, say to the World Cup in 
2014 and the presidential election next year?

In this regard, we have three problems. The first is that the government and the media 
will try to control struggles with repression but also by the appointment and what we may 
call the "sociological defeat" of the movement through the construction of mechanisms for 
consensus.

The second issue is that the young activists that we are faced with the problem that we 
had a great isolation, but the people who speak ill of us do not even have a culture of 
protest and there is a field of conflict organization. This opens up the problem of the 
organization.

The MPL was a movement of dozens of people who called the masses to take to the streets. 
Now the question is whether we have the ability to be a mass organization, horizontal, 
autonomous, anti-capitalist, able to organize thousands of people on the basis of these 
principles. All small organizations are asking the same question.

The third point is that we had a late involvement of the social sectors which are 
essential because they undergo structural oppression. In Brazil, racism and exclusion are 
structural, we do not live in Brazil, not to mention the segregation of class, sexism and 
race, it is essential. In recent days, there have been 30 or 40 acts of protest on the 
outskirts of SÃo Paulo, very radical, with buses burned. In the area north of Brasilia, it 
happens the same thing. While the event was held on the esplanade of the Planalto (seat of 
government), at the same time, this is what happened. Which brings us to discuss how to 
boost the struggles that attack classist, racist and sexist structures of our society, and 
there appears the crucial question: do we have the strength to boost it?

Especially since we are facing a very short period to boost, just a year before the World 
Cup, which will be imposed anti-terrorism laws and police repression that will be very 
strong. We are facing organizational challenges, ideological, military (ie how do we deal 
with police repression and massive control) and economic. The bosses do not want reverse 
Dilma because they are fine with this model, so that if there is a consensus, it is 
against us, a consensus government and employers against us. That's why I say that we have 
enormous challenges ahead of us.



NdT
[*] The "national day of action" (strikes and demonstrations) of 11 July did not mobilize 
the masses ... A few thousand protesters in major cities have responded to this word very 
bureaucratic, with podiums, large sound systems and made ââthe speeches by the leaders. A 
report of even a manifestation of 15-20,000 steelworkers in SÃo Josà dos Campos, a dock 
strike in the port of Santos (main port terminal SÃo Paulo) and transport in Porto Alegre.
Conlutas and Intersindicale are small unions, not less bureaucratic than larger ones, but 
more "aggressive." They are both related parties located to the left of the PT and the 
subject of bitter power struggles between different fractions or trends related to 
political groups, often Trotskyites references.

The return of social movement

RaÃl Zibechi

July 12, 2013 - La Jornada

The mobilizations of June in Brazil can be a long-term shift. These are the first major 
events for 20 years, since 1992 against the then President Fernando Collor de Melo, who 
was forced to resign. Now things are different: the movement is much broader, encompassing 
hundreds of cities and best organized sectors offer larger targets with an anti-capitalist 
orientation. We are not at a point explosion, but the face of a broad mass discontent.

This allows us to assume that we are probably at the beginning of a new cycle of struggles 
driven by different than the period prior organizations. But what were these earlier 
movements?

In the 1970s, there was a real social earthquake in Brazil, seen from below, in the 
military regime. The factory committees have embodied a new unionism rejection of the 
vertical structure of the official unions. Strikes in SÃo Bernardo do Campo and other 
cities of the industrial belt of Sao Paulo broke the control of the regime, a move that 
has materialized in the creation of the Single Confederation of Workers (CUT) in 1983. In 
1979, the landless have resumed business as tools to fight with the occupation of the 
properties and Macali Brilhante considered the origin of the MST (Landless Movement). In 
1980, the Workers Party (PT) is created.

The greatest creations of Brazilian popular movement began with small movements of 
resistance and struggle, and the players, say, marginal in terms of high politics.
Creation of PT is the conjunction of three streams: the defeat of the armed struggle of 
the 60s and 70s, the basic ecclesial communities - who have never separated politics and 
ethics - and the new unionism in the context of a broad popular movement for freedom. As 
shown Chico de Oliveira, the largest Brazilian sociologist, these conjunctions are rare in 
history and are unique.

Two decades later, things have changed dramatically. The upper stratum of unionism has 
become, thanks to pension funds, an ally of financial capital and Brazilian 
multinationals. The PT is a more traditional party, which is no different parties of the 
right, with some of which he co-governance. The policy has led to the possible advantage 
of Lula to get dirty in notorious cases of corruption as mensalÃo , monthly allowance for 
parliamentarians to vote for the government. Only the MST has maintained its very high up, 
but at the cost of greater isolation.

The same year when Lula came to government, more than 40,000 young people took to the 
streets of Salvador (Bahia), against rising rates of urban transport in a move that lasted 
10 days called Revolta do Buzu (referring to the bus ). The following year, in 2004, 
another mass mobilization in Florianopolis struggled against the high cost of transport, 
Revolta das Catracas (turnstiles). The units of student unions negotiated with the 
municipal authority in passing over the head of the movement, which generated a profound 
rejection.

In 2005, at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre was created Movimento Passe Livre (MPL) 
with groups in every major city. It was a small group who worked on the principles of 
horizontality, autonomy, federalism and apartidisme, but not anti-partidisme. In this way, 
they reject the dependent hierarchical and centralized organizations, the state and 
government, which are hegemonic in the popular camp. The MPL was not the only movement of 
its kind. The Independent Media Center (IMC, or Indymedia Brasil ) Movement roofless 
(TLB), the unemployed (BAT), the cartoneros , combinations autonomous and libertarian 
students in universities and some secondary schools, formed a giant rainbow.

The MPL was noticed by the mobilization of tens of thousands in the streets against the 
poor quality of urban transport in private general and against their exorbitant prices. In 
2008, the People's Committees appear Cup, which analyzed the consequences for the 
population of the great work done for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Like the 
others are smaller groups, the heterogeneous composition, which began working with 
communities in urban peripheries and the inhabitants of favelas threatened by mega-projects.

The most important point is that in these groups is born a new culture of politics and 
protest. Some call direct action. In all cases, it is based on four axes mentioned, grew 
and spread outside the institutions, is not intended to become separated from the people 
who fight and mobilize or to participate in organizational apparatus elections. During a 
decade-long consumerist consensus, lubricated by social policies that have frozen 
inequality, this new culture is rooted in the margins of social action and from there 
began to expand.

In the past the great mobilizations June semester, these modes of action have achieved 
victories in ten cities in resistance to major works of the World and in the reduction of 
transport costs. This culture which mobilized hundreds of people came to the protests of 
tens of thousands.
As we know, police repression and arrogance FIFA did the rest. When people began to 
overwhelm the main avenues, while Brazil knew that works great for the World Cup are part 
of a segregationist urban reform concocted by speculative capital. They are fighting for 
the right to the city as the capital denied.

Today, we know that, circa 2003, in Bahia, began to gradually build a new generation of 
movements. But do not forget that it all started with small groups of young people on the 
margins of the political system and against the current modes of action and to set up.



Lula and the Brazilian multinational

RaÃl Zibechi

April 7, 2013 - Gara

Small article not directly on the current social movement protest but that illustrates the 
position and role of the "progressivism" of the PT, and its most illustrious 
representative in the stabilization and development of "indigenous" Brazilian capitalism .

On some occasions, the facts do not seem to have significant merit to show the bottom of 
it, to expose the true nature of political reality that previously did not appear as 
clearly. Something like this happened a few days ago, when a journalistic investigation 
revealed the relationship between a handful of Brazilian multinational construction and 
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The fact is that half of all trips made ââby Lula after leaving the presidency were paid 
by construction companies, all in Latin America and Africa, where these companies focus 
their greatest interests. Since 2011, Lula has visited 30 countries, 20 are in Africa and 
Latin America. The companies paid thirteen of these trips, almost all by Odebrecht, OAS 
and Camargo Correa ( Folha de Sao Paulo , March 22, 2013).

Journalistic Survey shows telegrams embassies of Brazil abroad in which it is stated that 
the travel of former President help defend the country's interests. A telegram sent by the 
Brazilian Embassy in Mozambique, after a visit by Lula, highlights the role of president 
as ambassador for multinationals. "By combining prestige companies operating here, former 
President Lula has developed the eyes of Mozambicans engagement with the results of the 
activity of Brazilian firms " , writes Ambassador Ligia Scherer.

In August 2011, Lula began a tour of Latin America in Bolivia, where he arrived with his 
entourage in a private plane RSA, the company seeking to build a road through the TIPNIS 
(Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro Secure), causing massive mobilizations 
supported by the urban indigenous communities. From there, he continued his journey in the 
same plane to Costa Rica, where the company was playing a tender to build a road, which 
was eventually awarded to 500 million dollars.

Lula activities are not illegal. Instead, his attitude is in line with what are usually 
the presidents and former presidents from around the world working to encourage large 
companies in their countries. Incidentally, this has nothing to do with an attitude of 
left solidarity with the workers and progressive governments.

The undertakings concerned have a very special history and are also large multinationals. 
Each is developed under the military dictatorship, which they were closely related. 
Odebrecht is a conglomerate of family origin is mainly in construction and petrochemicals. 
It controls Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas. This is 
one of the Brazilian companies with the largest international presence, employs 130,000 
people (40,000 only in Angola) and generates 55 billion turnover. It is present in 17 
countries, mainly in Latin America and Africa, and 52% of its revenues come from outside 
Brazil. In 2008, she was expelled from Ecuador by the government of Rafael Correa due to 
serious deficiencies in the dam of San Francisco, which forced its closure a year after 
being opened.

Camargo Correa is now the most diversified construction, with investments in cement, 
power, steel and footwear. It has 61,000 employees in eleven countries. Only in Argentina, 
she has Loma Negra, the main cement company that controls 46% of the Argentine market, in 
addition to Alpargatas, one of the main textile company in the country with Topper, Flecha 
and Pampero brands. The OAS group, meanwhile, has projects in 22 countries in Latin 
America and Africa and employs 55,000 people.

The power of large Brazilian companies is particularly acute in the smaller countries of 
the region. In Bolivia, Petrobras controls half of oil is responsible for 20% of GDP in 
Bolivia and 24% of tax revenue of the state. The construction company OAS, as we have 
seen, was a political and social crisis that came to destabilize the government of Evo 
Morales with which it maintains good relations.

Almost all infrastructure included in the Integration of South American Regional 
Infrastructure (IIRSA) project, a total of more than 500 achievements for a total of $ 100 
billion jobs are being built by the Brazilian multinational . The same goes for 
hydroelectric dams. The state bank BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social 
Development) is the main funder of this work but it does on the condition that the 
recipient of the loan commitment of Brazilian companies.

Lula's role is to promote "their" companies, helping to overcome difficulties due to his 
enormous prestige and millionaire fund BNDES, which has more money to invest in the region 
as the IMF and the World Bank combined. Nothing illegal, I insist, but politically 
unacceptable for someone who claims to be considered the left.

The March 15, 2011, the 20,000 workers employed in the construction of the Jirau dam on 
the Madeira River in RondÃnia, led one of the greatest upheavals of recent decades, burned 
offices Camargo Correa ( the company that built the plant), dormitories and more than 45 
buses. What has been called the "revolt of laborers" [laborers, laborers] was not 
motivated to pay but for dignity, to protest against working conditions of semi-slavery. 
These same companies are now fatten the work for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

Given the trajectory of Lula and the Workers Party, the temptation to speak of "treason" 
is great. However, things are more complex. In Brazil, a more intense than in other 
countries in the region mode, has produced a profound reconfiguration of elites. The 
arrival of the Lula government has accelerated the formation of an alliance, or rather an 
amalgam of the great leaders of Brazilian companies, executives of the state apparatus 
(including commanders) and a small but powerful sector of the labor movement related to 
pension funds, which together with the BNDES, are part of a select group of large investors.

Lula is the ambassador of Brazilian multinationals, most of which have close ties with the 
state, either because their grants gigantic work or because Ãtatico-union alliance has a 
decisive weight in them. Thus, the second largest mining company in the world is 
controlled by the pension fund of the state bank Banco do Brasil, under the hegemony of 
the government and the banking syndicate. The same applies to other large companies.

What is difficult is to see how generous speech speaking of workers' rights and regional 
integration, are used to facilitate business that harm workers themselves, destroy nature 
and benefit only a handful of large companies that have grown up in the shadow of one of 
the worst dictatorships on the continent.

RaÃl Zibechi is an international analyst for Brecha of Montevideo weekly, teacher and 
researcher on social movements at the Franciscan University of Latin America and adviser 
to several social organizations.

Translations: XYZ OCLibertaire
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