Members of the State and Municipal Executive Branches of SP and RJ announced today their decision to return the price of tickets to the price it was before the increase. The reason for the new demonstrations scheduled for tomorrow is to celebrate. Not just, of course. The well-known leaders of the MPL (Free Pass Movement) already said the struggle goes on, for the liberation of prisoners, against the movement’s criminalisation and for the deepening of debate around urban mobility and public transport. And what about the world cup or the Military Police…are we going to stop the discussion about these issues?
This is a good moment to analyse these historical events and get ready for the new demands that will certainly be brought up now, since all public services in Brazil, starting by education and public health, are trashed, disrespecting the people in many ways and denying their basic human rights! This victory will certainly encourage the homeless, the sick, the unemployed, the people lacking adequate education, and those lacking everything. Even because the government said we ourselves would pay for the costs, which will be charged in other services. They did not mention touching corporative profits or taking advantage of the renewal of concessions, that is about to happen in São Paulo, choosing less greedy corporations, they do not even think of that.
We experience the emergence of demonstrations all over the country, in capital cities and smaller inland cities, with hundreds of thousands of people. Its unbelievable to hear them singing the same slogans and claiming for the same things, and how the Internet transformed our mobilisations. This afternoon in São Paulo, demonstrations would take place in the Eastern and Northern Zones; in the morning, there were demonstrations in the Southern Zone and in the ABC. How similar are these words to those of the Arab Spring youth, where there is a great dispute for the course of the on-going movement. The demonstrators are testing the formal and representative democracy, now distorted and discredited and that no longer represents us! Meanwhile, opinion manipulators are relentless and the right wing is present too, because political acuity is necessary!
Dispute in the movement leadership
The largest movement occurred recently in our country is under dispute! I do not speak of those who mingle to ravage or loot – people with this attitude may be deprived, undercover troublemakers, even activists who admit this radical modus operandi. But this is a small part compared to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. I speak of the sudden support of the mass media oligopolies, about the change of discourse of the right wing propaganda, and some attitudes and “discourses” announced in the large march of Monday the 17th, that happened in various cities in Brazil. I also speak of the putschist thesis of some activists, of the PT party especially, they began with propaganda, as if the youths movement at this moment would be willing to be the leaders of the right wing organisation seeking a coup d’État. Well! Please…
The movement leadership is in dispute, with some slogans standing out, showing certain kind of image in detriment of other images. Apart from a grotesque nationalism, they tried to introduce a kind of phobia to political parties that completely anti-democratic and unwise, because they pretend that is an advancement to show lack of interests for politics, when they cooperate in the construction of one of the most important political actions of recent times. Why not to allow political flags in the events? The parties who wish to be represented are lifelong fighters for democracy and liberties in our country and some of them have always struggled against capitalism. We saw some demonstrators being violent with people carrying left wing parties’ flags and who opposes so fiercely to that presence can only be ashamed of the parties they themselves have voted for! They tell a story with plenty of green-yellow and Brazilian Hymn and try to confuse the movement with the notorious and recent “Wake Up Brazil” which also pretended to be apolitical, always meaning, wrongly, politically neutral. And sooner than before they will vote again for the most reactionary.
Autonomy and sharing
The splitting of Monday’s large demonstration in three branches was highly symbolical and left no doubt about the demonstration’s targets and direction: Globo Network, on the Espraiada Bridge; the Governor, in his palace at Morumbi; and Paulista Ave. the hub of bankers and of visibility. The politically neutral bias that exists in the MPL’s constitution as well as in other youth’s movements does not necessarily mean they are apolitical, and they know that.
A good portion of these new activists does not believe in the kind of political and social organization built by capitalism – democracy and its republican powers. They challenge this Democracy that has never been authentic, since inequality and exploitation are the basis of capitalism. What freedom of speech do the youths have? What participation? What kind of inclusion people truly get in society nowadays? They challenge the supremacy of automobiles over public transport; the market and the financing strategies that intervene everything; the media’s lies; hypocrisy and violence; consumerism that dehumanizes and destroys life on the planet. Unfortunately, governments allow the states to be controlled by corporations and institutions, through the corrupt, the fundamentalists and the capitalists themselves, with their lobbies in banks, in the agro business, in the media, etc.
This is a movement of a new time, to build another kind of world, where people can be as they really are and where love for money will not be the motor of history. These wonderful youths want organizations that are not authoritarian or corrupt, they organize the movement horizontally, have neither institutional funding nor personalized leaderships, various leaders shine and take turns to lead. Cooperation and solidarity are the values preconized by this new form of political activity and lifestyle, and have been exercised in the housing and land occupations, in the collective housings and other manifestations like the movement named “Occupy”, which recently occurred in several big cities all over the world.
They are experiences, new points of view, new learning. It is useless that commercial mass media try to get on board in the demonstrations, trying to deviate their path or to neutralize the movement’s visibility. They run the risk of being left out of History since the sharing of information among the youths is permanent, photos and videos circulate the facts instantly and all know that “the revolution will not be on TV”.
Families watching and supporting the demonstration on Berrini Ave.