<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Nicolas Krausz</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nicolas.krausz@fph.ch">nicolas.krausz@fph.ch</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 2:16 AM<br>Subject: Fwd: From Ibase - Brazil - The “explosion” of citizenship on the streets / O "Estouro" da Cidadania nas ruas<br><br><br>
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From Candido, about the situation in Brazil. <br>
<div>Regards<br>
Nicolas<br>
<br>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap valign="BASELINE">Assunto:
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<td>Brazil - The “explosion” of citizenship on the
streets</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap valign="BASELINE">Data:
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<td>Fri, 21 Jun 2013 17:00:52 -0300</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap valign="BASELINE">De:
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<td><a href="mailto:antonia@ibase.br" target="_blank">antonia@ibase.br</a>
<a href="mailto:antonia@ibase.br" target="_blank"><antonia@ibase.br></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap valign="BASELINE">CC:
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<td><a href="mailto:secretariageral@ibase.br" target="_blank">secretariageral@ibase.br</a>
<a href="mailto:secretariageral@ibase.br" target="_blank"><secretariageral@ibase.br></a></td>
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<br>
Dear Friends,<br>
<br>
In this article, director of Ibase supports the protestings
and affirms that the reduction of public transport fares is
the evidence that the "streets" indeed set the public agenda.
<font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="5"><b><br>
<br>
The “explosion” of citizenship on the streets</b></font></font>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-top:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0.49cm"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><b>Cândido
Grzybowski</b><br>
<b>Sociologist, director of Ibase</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">Nothing better for democracy than
streets and avenues taken by citizens protesting. That
is the evidence that the streets indeed set the public
agenda. What was deemed as unthinkable a little while
ago has actually happened: the mayors of São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro reduced public transport fares. More than
the immediate reasons, what really matters is the
symbolism of the protests and the signals that they
convey to the political arena. Once again it was up to
the youth to open way for the ressurgence of
insatisfactions and claims, through a cacophony of
voices, some of them provocative in their own ways. I am
not referring here to the opportunist riots, which were
also present at these occasions. The dominant tone of
the dispute for a new sense and direction of everyday
Brazil is not violent, as it should be in order to be
strongly anchored in democracy.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">I mention “explosion” of citizenship
to remember that a diffuse insatisfaction with the
“emerging Brazil” (as the political and business elites
like to call) was choked. Back in 2004, I wrote an
article called “Cornered citizenship”, published in
Ibase's magazine <i>Democracia Viva</i>. Back then I
reminded readers about the risk for democracy of
silencing the diversity of citizenship claims, through a
government who indeed dialogues, yes, but does not
really listen or change anything. Thus the notion of
being cornered.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">Much has happened since then. Social
policies for minimum protection of the poorest and
excluded – Ibase itself through sociologist Betinho
struggled for this in many years –, economic growth, job
generation to millions, increase of minimum wage,
expansion of access to universities and facilitated
financial credit, among other political initiatives,
have undoubtly brought much change. But no structural
change that would transform the base of a destructive
development, which concentrates wealth and generates
deep inequality in society, with alarming social
exclusion. </font></font> </p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">Many have argued, as myself, that
the changes occurred in the short term are needed and
welcome, but do not ensure sustainability, because they
depend and rely on growth, on consummer inclusion, more
than on citizenship inclusion.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">This scenario explains the lack of
priority to transformative policies towards the
universalization of rights. To facilitate the purchase
of a car is to satisfy a need for individual
consumption, but does not solve the massive problem of
urban mobility. On the contrary, it causes huge traffic
jams and makes transport even worse. To set priority to
football arenas and the transport to and from them is
not to universalize rights. Even worse, to spend public
money on pharaonic enterprises – which afterwards are
privatized at bargain prices, like the famous Maracanã
arena, which costed US$ 540 million to taxpayers and
shall be offered for private management for 50 years at
a price of around US$ 110 million to Odebrecht
Corporation and oil-tycoon Eike Batista – and not having
money to other priorities can only breed insatisfaction.
To celebrate the acquisition of precarious private
health plans by a supposedly “new middle class” is not
to implement the universal public health system SUS.
There are many other examples. Large enterprises are
justified by the need of growth and accumulation, but
instead of improving they may actually deteriorate the
life quality of many people. Such as the indigenous
peoples, those affected by mining, those expelled by
force to give way to new football arenas and the
“progress”, among many others.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">As a democracy activist, I have been
looking for the “signals” on where this cornered diffuse
insatisfaction was likely to explode, in the cities or
in the fields, to show the contradictions that Brazilian
democracy must face, thus creating a new wave of
substantial democracy. The only thing I was sure was
that this would explode. And it did, where no one
expected.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">Even under pression from media, I
will not analyse the circumstances. There is always a
spark, a last drop. In the case of the recent protests,
it was probably the increase of public transport fares
in a context of visible quality deterioration. The
disastrous and definitely anti-citizenship attitude of
the Military Police, expressing extreme intolerance
against protesters, only caused the irradiation of
solidarity and mobilization around the youth groups that
protested. Finally, coming from youth groups usually
considered disorganized and unexperienced, the perfect
choice of timing with FIFA's Confederation Cup set the
scenario to a gesture of citizenship so deeply critic to
representative institutions and elected politicians.
Another new feature of such mobilizations has been the
use of new technologies and social networks as a tool
for democratic action.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">We salute the protests, because the
streets are the cradle of democracy. In History, the
streets are the place where struggles are born and end
up not only reaching the epicenter of political power,
but also alternating the arenas and political agendas,
forcing everyone of us to revisit our practices and
proposals. On democratic regimes, only mobilized
citizenship has a constitutive power. It does not matter
that citizenship is expressed on a confused way, it is
part of its essence. Citizenship casts light and
explodes contradictions; the subsequent public debate
shall then settle the agenda. We shall solve the
contradictions through democratic action. Solutions?
Unpredictable, as the protests themselves. One never
knows how or when they begin, nor how or when they stop.
Political will must be created to face the
contradictions turned visible. That is the secret of the
power of mobilizations as a disruption of the imaginary,
of shifting the ideas from the place where they were.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.49cm;margin-right:0.49cm;margin-bottom:0cm"> <font face="Times New Roman,
serif"><font size="3">This moment is a cornerstone in
democracy. We are seeing an uproar that wants to see the
whole society, with all the democracy forces of Brazil,
working towards reconnecting with a new social reality
collectively created. Behind a healthy utopic veil that
covers the claims that come from the streets, there is a
society craving for more democracy.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal" align="JUSTIFY"> <b>Rio de
Janeiro, June 19th 2013.<br>
<br>
</b></p>
Portuguese version<br>
<a href="http://www.canalibase.org.br/o-estouro-da-cidadania/" target="_blank">http://www.canalibase.org.br/o-estouro-da-cidadania/</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ibase.br/pt/2013/06/nota-sobre-as-manifestacoes/" target="_blank">http://www.ibase.br/pt/2013/06/nota-sobre-as-manifestacoes/</a><br>
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<font color="#000000">Antonia Rodrigues
General Secretary
Tel. direto: 55 21 2178-9405
Skype: antoniarodrigues1499
Acesse <a href="http://www.ibase.br" target="_blank">www.ibase.br</a>
“O Ibase, para ter sentido, precisa manter a dimensão do sonho.” (Betinho)</font></pre>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
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