A Revolta do Vinagre

Yesterday`s march of 100,000 cariocas occurred almost 45 years to the day as the famous march of the 100,000 against the dictatorship in 1968. That movement was led by very strong student organizations and was a brave confrontation of the status quo. A second protest a few days later resulted in 28 deaths and the jailing of hundreds of students.  The dictatorship lasted until 1985.

Throughout Brazil, hundreds of thousands are taking to the streets in what is being called A Revolta do Vinagre. The Vinegar Revolt refers to the arrest of a São Paulo journalist that was arrested for having a bottle of vinegar in his pocket. Vinegar is used to minimize the effects of tear gas. Yesterday one banner in Rio read: Liberté, egalité, fraternité, vinagraté.

The Vinegar Revolt is a reaction to the total absence of quality in public services and the deteriorating condition of institutional democracy. The protest began as a response to an increase in bus fares. The increase in bus fares has been constant and as I have been cataloguing here for years, service has not improved in the least. To the contrary, everything in Brazil is much more expensive with no increase in quality. Traffic is worse than ever, public transportation is completely inadequate. The government is spending tens of billions on mega-events guaranteeing profits for the rest of the world while ordinary people struggle to get from A to B. Their children struggle to get from A to Z.

This is a general revolt of the middle classes who are thoroughly disgusted with the country`s direction. They see incredibly high taxes going into the pockets of corrupt politicians that have never opened up any meaningful democratic channels. The Brazilian president, Dilma, is authoritarian and detached from reality. After some initial positive steps to combat corruption she stopped. Her lack of political capacity has ruined economic growth. The taxes we pay here disappear into a black box that is sometimes put on four wheels, stuffed with people and recklessly driven around cities.

Brazil is emptying its coffers to FIFA and the IOC, with little chance of them being refilled. The hosting of the various megas means that the city streets are more for tourists than locals and when locals try to take the street back, they are met with violence. It was no accident that Dilma was booed off the stage at the opening of the Confederations Cup.

Public education is terrible, so the middle class feels like they have to send their children to private school. Public health care is also terrible, so those who can pay for private care. Public culture is increasingly commoditized and branded, given over to private interests. Iconic football venues have been “transformed” into shopping malls with no public consultation. There are infinite public projects para o ingles ver: tramlines, UPP, choque de ordem, blinged-out stadiums that attend to the desperate needs of VIPs to pretend they live in Europe. The only way to carry this off is through violence, or the threat of violence, which amounts to the same thing. These are not growing pains, this is pure sacanagem.

As yesterday’s Al Jazeera piece clearly demonstrated, the Brazilian police are absolutely un-prepared to deal with peaceful demonstrators. If you need more evidence, check out http://copaemcuiaba.com.br/ and draw your own conclusions. Not only do the police receive terrible wages, they are stuck in a corrupt system that has never had any significant reform in ideology, functioning or control. Never. Not before the dictatorship and not after the return to democracy. There were several reports yesterday that indicated the police wanted to be out protesting as well, but alas, duty called. There were also confirmed reports that police were using live ammunition against protesters in Rio. It is also likely that the vandals involved in yesterday`s protest were acting on behalf of the government in order to de-legitimize the protest.

Here is a Brazilian explaining the general context very clearly:

Tear gas is a magic potion

Tear gas is a magic potion. Those who launch it are weakened while those forced to inhale it are strengthened. The temporary blindness caused by the gas allows for thousands more to have their eyes opened, while police and politicians continue in their myopic pursuit of “order and progress”. The temporary dispersions provoked by tear gas bring together multitudes the next day. The bombas de efeito moral  (percussion grenades) erect a moral platform for protests while eliminating the legitimacy of the state. Pepper spray in the faces of children guarantees the pursuit of social justice in the face of criminal actions committed by those who are supposed to protect the common good.

The only way to explain what happened around the x-Maracanã yesterday is through video. This Al Jazeera piece by Gabriel Elizondo and Douglas Engle captures things nicely.

It is, of course, much worse than this as there is no way to effectively show the spectacle of consumption that was going on inside the x-Maracanã at the same time the state was violently repressing peaceful protestors. The World Cup project at the x-Maracanã has resulted in a sanitization of the urban space around the

Truth in advertising

stadium where there are no street vendors, no public bathrooms and kilometers of concrete that will create blistering heat islands that will force fans into the stadium as quickly as possible. The sterilization of urban space comes with a commensurate sterilization of social actors – when the two things do not conform, in come the police to make sure that nothing gets in the way of the smooth delivery of the event.

A few weeks ago, Valcke (VP of FIFA) was again honest in his desire that FIFA have ~clean~ stadiums for the Cup. Of course, the stadium does not end at the end of the pitch or on the bottom side of the stands but is connected to the urban and social environments. So a clean stadium means clean streets and clean access and a clean conscious. Yesterday, we saw that this process of cleansing is going to be very messy.

Speaking of Messi, Rio`s mayor gave an interview last week in which he said that if Argentina won the World Cup in Brazil, he would commit suicide. There has been a marked increase in the number of Argentina jerseys in Rio as well as a facebook movement that has more than 10,000 followers.

The Copa das Remoções on Saturday was a great success. A video link to the story (Portuguese):

http://video.br.msn.com/watch/video/copa-popular-contra-as-remocoes/kpx5x5pc?from=

Inverno Brasileiro (The best new Brazilian porn)

The collective, public expression of righteous indignation in response to a twenty cent increase in bus fares has led to massive police repression in a number of Brazilian cities in the past week. On the eve of the Confederations Cup, meant to be a systems test for FIFA and a small showpiece event for Brazil, this latest revolt against public transport has caught the world`s attention. Back in March, there was a similar protest about the poor ferry service in Rio. Last year, there was a revolt against the State Transportation Secretary`s criminal negligence in the case of the Santa Teresa tram, the military occupation of the Complexo do Alemão happened after cars and buses were torched. 

As I tried to point out in my last post, there are a number of similarities between what is happening in Brazil and in Turkey, and throughout much of the world. Brazilian journalists are being attacked with rubber bullets and tear gas. Press reports are explicitly linking the #Taksim and #Gezi struggles with that of #passelivre which has expanded to six major cities.

The ongoing protests and violent responses are about much more than a fare increase or the fate of a vital public space. These are responses, in part, to the systematic erosion of public life and culture that come with the two step movement to empty public coffers into private pockets. These movements are fundamentally about a fight to maintain rights as citizens versus privileges as consumers.

Unfortunately, the governments` responses in both Turkey and Brazil are as violent as they are predictable. In both cases police have been instigators of violence and perpetrators of vandalism. In both cases, the major media outlets have walked hand in hand with the government to try to discredit these movements and to call into question the rights of citizens in a democracy to take to the streets to demand their rights. In both, journalists have been arrested, shot, silenced and hassled. Unarmed people are met with lethal force on city streets, escalating crises of governance.

One major difference is that in Istanbul, football fans have been politicized even more than usual, coming together to lead the fight. In Rio, the torcidas organizdas have been anesthetized, depoliticized and co-opted for so long that they are completely irrelevant.

Below is a press release for the Copa Popular, an initiative of the Comite Popular da Cope e das Olim-piadas that will draw attention to the forced removals undertaken in order “to prepare” the city for mega-events. Hopefully the international journalists covering FIFA’s party will pay attention to the realities beyond the air-conditioned, securitized and segmented off-worlds in which they circulate.

Residents of communities threatened with removal compete at the “Popular Cup” this Saturday

- Tournament represents a different form of protest against forced removals and the exclusion of low-income residents of Rio de Janeiro

- Official launch of Saci Pererê as the popular mascot

Far from the billion-dollar marketing campaigns and overpriced stadiums of the Confederations Cup, Brazilian and international audiences will be able to follow a different championship that is taking place this weekend. On Saturday (June 15), communities being threatened with forced removal will gather for the “Popular Cup” at 10:00am in the Port Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The initiative—organized by “Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics”—will show that soccer should be synonymous with fun and integration, as opposed to with alienation and tragedy. Men’s and women’s teams from diverse communities including Morro da Providência, Santa Marta, Salgueiro, Vila Autódromo, Indiana, and others, will compete for the Cup, while simultaneously and symbolically protesting the city’s exclusion of low-income residents in the name of huge sporting events. 

In addition to the players, the “People’s Cup” expects the presence of other residents from the communities who will both support their teams and tell personal stories facing the threat of removal. The intention of the event is to show that behind the soccer festivities of the Confederations Cup, the government is committing a series of irregularities and human rights violations. In Rio de Janeiro alone, more than 11,000 people have already lost their homes and another 29,000 are being threatened with removal, based on the false justification that this is necessary for the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016). While the country spends R$ 15.8 million (about US $7.4 million) per game of the Confederation’s Cups(R$ 252.5 billion in total; US $118.4 billion), families are displaced, receiving tiny compensation which does not allow them to find adequate and dignified housing. In a city where the average square meter costs R$ 9,000 (according to a study by the Institute of Economic Research, FIPE), forcibly displaced families are receiving sums as low as R$ 10,000 (about US $5,000), which cannot even pay for two square meters of property in Rio de Janeiro. There are also cases of families that are removed and have spent two years waiting for any reparation from the government. 

Saturday will also be the official launch of the Popular Mascot of the Cup, “Saci Pererê." If soccer is our rightful heritage, we cannot accept that companies are owners of the symbols of the sport. As such, the image of Saci, which will be on the front of the teams’ t-shirts, will adhere to the rules of “copyleft,” and can therefore be used by any people or vendors wanting to reproduce and sell the t-shirts on their own.

Information about the communities and the teams on the field can be followed in real time through the Facebook of the Committee: www.facebook.com/ComitePopularCopaRJ

 Event information: https://www.facebook.com/events/354614781332029/

The matches will be played in Quilombo da Gamboa, an area of land taken over by the population in order to construct affordable housing—well in the middle of the Port Zone, which is undergoing a process of real estate speculation with the "Porto Maravilha" project. All are invited for a true democratic celebration of the sport.

Copa Popular - Contra as Remoções

Quilombo da Gamboa - Rua da Gamboa 345, Rio de Janeiro

Starting at 10:00am

Comitê Popular da Copa e das Olimpíadas

Information for the press

Kate Steiker-Ginzberg (21) 8369-0077

Mario Campagnani (21) 9849-2025

Renato Cosentino (21) 8267-2760

  

Aldeia Taksim

Having heard rumors that a new breed of white elephants had emerged in Turkey, I took to the hunt. To my surprise, I encountered with Brazilian consultants and architects who had perfected the murky techniques of pachyderm insemination.  While promising that the Brazilian variety (loxodonta brasilense) would bring infinite returns for those who financed them, these same professionals had mastered the art of depoliticizing the authoritarian use of public money to ensure private profit. These post-modern fakirs go to great lengths to disguise the wrapping of concrete and steel in high-tensile, translucent membranes (manufactured and maintained by foreign companies) as a necessary passage towards modernization and return on investment. Public space has no apparent financial returns and could be used more profitably if given to developers so it is “natural” that this happen.

Except it isn’t natural at all.

After the conference as I walked around one of the great football and stadium cities in the world, I came across the Hippodromo where 30,000 chariot fans were once slaughtered for being on the wrong side of a political debate. In the Byzantium city of the Greens and the Blues, Circus Factions could determine the fate of Empire.  1500 years later, the fans of Beşiktaş welcomed the rival fans of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray as they organized to protest the Erdogan government in the streets around their stadium. 

Don`t cry for me...Brazil?

The battle for Taksim Square is as much about symbolism as it is about the functional use of public space and the future of Turkish democracy. By eliminating one of the few remaining green spaces in central Istanbul, The Turkish government wants to rebuild an Ottoman-era (read: pre-secular Turkey) military barracks that will then be transformed into a shopping mall. There was no public consultation and the NGO established to preserve the park was violently ousted by riot police. This kicked off the larger protest that has engulfed Turkey over the last week.

As the Rio state and city governments showed in the struggle for the Maracanã, the Turkish state has shown itself willing to use maximum force to eliminate peaceful, public dissent and the right to public assembly. That both police forces use tear gas manufactured in Brazil is an ironic coincidence. That these struggles have as their flash points the authoritarian appropriation of public space and culture to produce symbolic spaces dedicated to conservative and consumerist ideologies is sadly consistent with larger governmental trends in both countries.

Putting down the violent rebels in Istanbul

...using the same perfume and good sense as in Brazil. 

We can see in the recent history of the Aldeia Maracanã he same kind of struggle being played out over Taksim Square. The major difference is that in Rio, no larger protest emerged over the loss of the city`s most iconic public space. Reading the news reports of the Maracanã‘s official opening (Brazil x England) I saw no mention of the years’ long struggles to keep the stadium in public hands. As we know, once the lights are on and the ball is rolling, no one remembers the past. This is a major genetic flaw in the White Elephant.

The extent to which the state will use violence to protect the interests of private capital has been demonstrated time and time again as Brazil prepares to host the World Cup and Olympics. Istanbul, until last week, was the leading candidate for the 2020 Olympics and Turkey will host the U-20 World Cup in July of this year. The Turkish state has demonstrated quite clearly that they too are willing to intercede violently in the pursuit of conservative consumerism. We will find out in September what impression this leaves on the IOC.

As the Turks battle for their public spaces and democratic rights, Brazilians (and everyone else) should pay close attention to what is happening. Brazilians should remember that there is always a chance to raise a collective voice over what has happened in the name of the same kind of governmental regime that the Turks are fed up with. This is especially true in Rio where the mayor reacts to public criticism through personal acts of violence (he punched someone in the face after being called a piece of sh*te). The mayor`s personal actions are a perfect expression of the way he handles the government and this should be reason enough for large-scale protest.

For those with the stomach of an elephant the following shows disturbing scenes from the last week of protests in Turkey.