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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Social Movements in Brazil: Democratization and Politicization

Author : Lucy Earle

Published in: Transgressive Citizenship and the Struggle for Social Justice

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The chapter situates the housing movements in the context of social mobilization that began during the military dictatorship. An examination of this period aids understanding of the way in which rights claims are perceived and made in the country today. The peripheries of São Paulo were a breeding ground for the collective action that emerged, first, to meet basic needs and then to put pressure on the military dictatorship as these needs were perceived as rights—a position supported by the nascent Workers’ Party. Continuing deprivation in São Paulo explains the ongoing purchase of the idea of the right to the city. The chapter ends with a discussion of the 2013 protests as the latest manifestation of a demand for this right.

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previous chapter São Paulo: The Illegal City
next chapter Fronting Up to the State: Constructing a ‘Politics of Rights’
Footnotes
1
Translation mine.
 
2
Interview with Renato Simão, PT official and former São Paulo state deputy, 29.06.07.
 
3
In the 120 years since independence from Portugal, Brazilian society has had two experiences with military rule. The first was under Getúlio Vargas, who took power in a bloodless coup, also referred to as a Revolution, in 1930 and ruled until 1945.
 
4
Although it dealt with these groups ruthlessly, and used repressive tactics against the unions and other organized groups, levels of human rights violations were not as high as in Chile and Argentina during their dictatorships (Keck 1992).
 
5
The term trabalhador, or ‘worker’, is a synonym for the hardworking, honest poor in Brazil.
 
6
The formation of the PT was also supported by left-wing intellectuals and members of former revolutionary and resistance groups (Duquette 2005).
 
7
Arantes (2004: 189) explains Freire’s pedagogy thus: ‘According to Freire’s teachings, literacy moves from being a process of domesticating and mechanizing students towards a means of awareness and liberation. Learning to read and write becomes, most importantly, an act of learning how to read the world and to write one’s own history. What was required was an emphasis on the reality of each community and its problem situations with a view to the formulation of generative themes with transformative educational properties’.
 
8
The question of the autonomy of social movements is a highly charged and complex one, and will be discussed in greater detail below and in the following chapters.
 
9
Interview with Luiz Kohara, representative of a legal assistance NGO, 27.03.07.
 
10
Members of the student movement, particularly during the dictatorship, affiliated themselves with a variety of popular movements. Middle-class students were less likely to suffer persecution for publicly defending movement demands.
 
11
Key UMM leaders, who will be introduced in Chap. 5.
 
12
It is normal for politicians in Brazil to dedicate themselves to legislative production on specific sectoral areas. This is in part because there is little idea of a geographical constituency. For example, with the open-list system, every voter in São Paulo state will be presented with the same (extremely long) list of candidates for state deputy.
 
13
Interviews with Simão Pedro, 23.07.07, and Mario Reali, 18.07.07.
 
14
Interview with Luiz Kohara, 27.03.07.
 
15
Interview with Benjamin, 05.06.07.
 
16
Conversation with Diogo, 07.07.07.
 
17
Interview with Benjamin, 25.11.14.
 
18
Interview with Ana, 27.11.14.
 
19
Interview with Adana, 19.11.14.
 
20
Interview with Kelly, 28.11.14.
 
21
For example, the late Plínio de Arruda Sampaio, who ran for President under the PSOL banner in 2010, provided the foreword to the movement’s introductory text, Por Que Ocupamos (Boulos 2012).
 
22
Interview with Elaine, 04.12.14.
 
23
www.​saopaulo.​mpl.​org.​br. Accessed July 20th 2015.
 
24
Interview with Neves, 26.11.14.
 
25
Interview with Ana, 27.11.14.
 
26
Conversation with Anderson, 17.11.14.
 
27
Interview with Ernesto, 19.11.14.
 
28
Interview with Leide, 01.12.14.
 
29
Interview with Benjamin, 25.11.14.
 
30
Interview with Ana, 27.11.14.
 
31
Source: Folha de São Paulo, 25.11.14, ‘Invasões de sem-teto quase triplicam durante gestão Haddad.’ www.​folha.​com.​br. Accessed 27.11.15.
 
32
Source: Folha de São Paulo, 25.11.14, ‘Prefeitura culpa Estado por onda de ocupações em São Paulo.’ www.​folha.​com.​br. Accessed 27.11.15.
 
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Metadata
Title
Social Movements in Brazil: Democratization and Politicization
Author
Lucy Earle
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Transgressive Citizenship and the Struggle for Social Justice

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51399-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-51400-0

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51400-0_4