Manifesting Democracy?. Группа авторов

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Название Manifesting Democracy?
Автор произведения Группа авторов
Жанр География
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Издательство География
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isbn 9781119331247



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      The June 2013 ‘revolts’ that occurred throughout Brazil have become one of the most controversial political events in the country’s recent history. These enormous protests, which took issue with all of the main national political parties and overturned public transport fare increases for buses and trains in over 100 cities and towns, have had a tremendous impact on the context of Brazilian national conflicts, and have been referred to by the left and the right, whether by way of celebration or vilification. Political differences, disputes over the interpretation of these events, and opportunist discourses framing them, continue the struggle over the meaning of the past and obscure possibilities for the future.

      ***

      In the 1930s, the impossibility of paying for public transport was the subject of a popular carnival song called ‘Não pago o bonde’ (I won’t pay the tram fare):

      I won’t pay the tram fare

      Because I can’t afford to

      I have very little

      Not enough to get by

      I live in those houses

      Over there, on the other side of the city,

      Tell the tram company to come and get the

      In order to live in the city, everyone has to use the public transport ticket turnstiles, not only to make a living – to go from home to work and back again – but to actually experience the city, to make use of everything that continues to be produced by the urban workforce every day.

      In a big city, all social rights, such as health and education, necessarily depend on the right to transportation. However, this right is effectively denied to many in virtually all Brazilian cities. Research by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, IPEA) from 2010 found that 38 million Brazilians (almost 20% of the entire national population) do not use collective transport because they cannot afford it. To fully grasp these limitations on urban mobility in Brazil, we have to consider the journeys that people with some access to the transport system fail to make, as well as those that they do not even contemplate making because they lack access to transportation. Day trips, medical treatment, supplementary educational courses, visiting family members or friends, and taking part in political events and acts, become extremely expensive depending on one’s income bracket. Even benefits that have been obtained after lengthy political struggles, like transport vouchers (which are only provided for registered workers, in other words, approximately 50% of the economically active population of Brazil), or the free student pass (obtained in just a few of the country’s big cities), still do not rupture this exclusivity caused by the market logic of collective transportation systems. The only mobility which is guaranteed is that of workers as commodities, as a workforce sold for wages (to go to and from the workplace), and for basic education (to go to and from school).