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woensdag 18 september 2013

Brazil, Brief analysis of the episodes of September 7, 2013 by Bruno Lima Rocha

As I have been doing for the months of June and July I present here, in point form, a 
brief analysis of this year?s ?Independence? Day protests. The Saturday, ?day of the 
nation?, was marked by protests in all the state capitals in Brazil, besides Brasilia. I 
can say without a shadow of a doubt that they were the most violent September 7 protests 
in the country?s history, with acts in more than 150 cities. The analysis follows: - ? It 
is a fact. The date of Brazil?s Independence is a factor of national unity. The Brazilian 
Army as a myth of the integrating institution of the three ?races? arising from the Battle 
of Guararapes (in the current state of Pernambuco, in 1654) against the Dutch has no great 
significance. September 7 never enthused, like much of the official history of a country 
that was born as a united kingdom with a Lusophone colonial metropolis.
 
? A date like February 7(martyrdom of Sep? Tiaraju in the region of the Guaranis 
Missions), November 18 (Workers Insurrection of Rio de Janeiro in 1918), July 09 (1917 Sao 
Paulo General Strike) and November 20 (for Zumbi dos Palmares) has a much stronger 
representational weight, equating the popular struggles in Brazil to those of the 1st of 
May to the working class on a world scale.
 
? For the previous stage of the Brazilian struggle, even at the time before and after the 
PT?s assumption of Executive Power, the Grito dos Exclu?dos (Cry of the Excluded), a 
consensual march convened by Liberation Theology within the Catholic left, was enough for 
the level of the previous protest. The first Grito dos Exclu?dos took place during the 
ECO-92 summit in Rio de Janeiro (World Ecology Conference organised by the UN in Rio) and 
afterwards the date gained regularity in the year 1995. The day has always been about 
symbolic struggle and so it remained, changing perspective. From the 1980s until the 
middle of the last decade protests with the same significance as Grito dos Exclu?dos have 
even functioned like an escape valve or a way to make public a permanent agenda and 
struggle. For the current moment, a large part of Grito has become irrelevant.
 
? September 7, 2013 carried with it the prospect of renewing the June protests. It is 
obvious that the date is symbolic and the distance between the left coming from the 
tradition of radical reformism and that of libertarian orientation is also obvious. Within 
this path, organised, especifista, anarchism is not the majority but, in focus, it is 
large. Particularly, one such incident gained a larger dimension in Rio Grande do Sul, 
when Governor Tarso Genro (PT) ordered ? without a warrant ? the Pol?cia Civil 
intelligence to invade the headquarters of the political organisation the Federa??o 
Anarquista Ga?cha (Gaucha Anarchist Federation, FAG). The attempt to criminalise the 
Federation resulted in the national dissemination of the episode, increasing the FAG?s 
notoriety and political respect. But, contrary to what was understood at the end of July, 
the attempts to criminalise the protests and the hijacking of the agenda and direction of 
the movement did not stop.
 
? The criminalisation is in regards to the issue of the use of masks. First it was the 
state of Pernambuco which, through an ordinance (administrative decree) from the Secretary 
of Public Security and ratified by Governor Eduardo Campos (PSB), prohibited the use of 
masks in any form of protest. Since then repression against any type of protest increased, 
forcing the demonstrators to seek forms of protection and response. The increase in the 
level of violence and the criminalisation of the act of hiding one?s face ? something 
predictable once there is filming the whole time ? may increase the confrontations, but 
decrease the number of adherents of disorganised people like there were in May, June (the 
peak) and July of this year.
 
? Already the hijacking of the agenda, when the mainstream media ends up singing the choir 
with the government ? when they affirm the absurd, that the protests are a blow from the 
right ? when it includes demands foreign to all the demonstrators. Who ever is organised 
would no longer convene an act in order to strengthen measures that favour the opposition 
to Dilma, and even less the young people who join the Black Bloc. Tackling the endemic 
corruption and denouncing it is one way of exemplifying the crime of the Rio and Sao Paulo 
governing elite and their relations with Brazilian and transnational capital. 
Respectively, S?rgio Cabral Filho (PMDB) and Geraldo Ackmin (PSDB) today galvanise in 
their respective governments an umbilical relationship with campaign financiers and 
government purchasing and service contracts. Thus, in the country?s two largest cities and 
states the level of conflict will only rise.
 
? I conclude by affirming that it is the tendency of mass movements to have ebbs and 
flows, thus being that the incidence of fighting on the street decreased in the months 
after June, but they have not stopped. The state agendas gained strength, but at the same 
time are in tandom with a new culture of street politics. On July 25 even Globo 
(television network) recognised the anarchist presence in Brazil and did a special report 
(Sem Fronteiras, on its 24 hour news channel, Globo News) which although very much centred 
on Occupy Wall Street and the anti-globalisation movement, at least made the ideology and 
its organised component visible. Those who know the power of agenda know that this is the 
recognition of a new relation of forces. Today, in Brazil, exists the paradox of having 
greater capacity for  timely mobilisation ? even violent ? than conditions of permanent 
grassroots organisation throughout the year. If this distance decreases, the new political 
culture of the streets may be the balancing scales in the year of the 2014 World Cup.
 
Translation: Jonathan Payn

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