WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA BRAZIL - news journal UPDATE - (en) Brazil, OSL: Exclusion, exploitation and precariousness: the impacts of increases in public transport fares in Brazil (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 As has been the norm, taking advantage of the holiday season and the

beginning of the year, when it is more difficult to mobilize, several
city and state governments have announced increases in the already
abusive public transport fares, implementing a new attack on our class.
Each fare increase deepens the exploitation, exclusion and
precariousness of the lives of the entire working class, which is
already facing a context of rising prices for basic items such as food,
energy and housing. In this scenario, public transport, essential for
the reproduction of the workforce, is yet another element of exclusion
and exploitation in capitalism.

The increases (and the charging of fares themselves) are a reflection of
the logic of profit above collective and social needs. This model
contrasts directly with the lack of salary adjustments compatible with
the increase in the cost of living, intensifying the exploitation of
workers, who see their purchasing power being eroded. This attack not
only further limits access to transportation, but also restricts the
exercise of fundamental rights such as education, culture/leisure,
health and work, transforming what should be essential into a privilege.

The justifications given by companies and governments for the increases,
based on the discourse of the "financial sustainability" of
transportation systems, hide the real purpose: maintaining the profits
of the rich at the expense of the misery of the majority, in addition to
the need to exclude the poorest and control who can actually move around
and access the goods and services that cities concentrate in their
central regions. This policy keeps public transportation tied to the
logic of mercantile life, alienating the right to mobility of the masses
in favor of capitalists. Privatizations and concessions make services
even more precarious, while the costs fall exclusively on the shoulders
of workers and students. In addition, the transportation system, which
is increasingly privatized in large and medium-sized cities, is
concentrated in the hands of large consortiums, organized crime or
"front men" linked to politicians - in any of these situations, there is
a game of interests between companies and the political class, which
never takes into account the basic rights of the population.

It is essential that the oppressed classes organize themselves to
confront these adjustment policies that increase inequalities. It is
necessary to fight for public transportation managed by workers and
geared towards the needs of the people, with zero fares as the horizon.
Only through combative mobilizations, strikes and the organization of
grassroots committees will it be possible to reverse privatizations and
demand that transportation be a guaranteed right, and not an instrument
of exploitation, exclusion and profit for politicians and transportation
mafias.

Furthermore, we cannot dissociate the problem of public transportation
from the larger structure of the economic system. Fiscalist policies,
such as the fiscal framework, prioritize the preservation of big
capital's profits to the detriment of social investments. The neoliberal
model strangles essential services and intensifies the precariousness of
life. Against this, it is necessary to build a mass movement rooted in
the daily struggles of the working class, organizing street protests,
general strikes and mobilizations that question not only the current
transportation model, but the entire logic of income and power
concentration in Brazil.

Public transportation is an important trench in the fight against the
rising cost of living and structural inequality. This battle, however,
is part of a larger struggle: the construction of a society that does
not submit to capitalist-statist exploitation, but is based on equality,
solidarity and the collective management of common goods - on
self-managed popular power.

Therefore, as long as there are fares on public transportation, there
will be struggle in the streets!

Libertarian Socialist Organization
December 2024

https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/12/31/exclusao-exploracao-e-precarizacao-os-impactos-dos-aumentos-nas-tarifas-do-transporte-coletivo-no-brasil/
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