Brazilian Protest: It's Not Just About Bus Fares

Source: O Globo

For the past week, protests have been taking place in Brazil, largely unreported, or under-reported, by the US media. During that same time, there has been fairly detailed coverage of protests in Turkey, but not much at all about those in Brazil. Even Brazilian papers provided minimal coverage during the first days of the protests.

The protests began over a rate hike in public transit fares. The hike of 20 centavos amounts to about 10 cents in US currency. That may not seem like much, but for someone making minimum wage, who needs to make multiple bus trips every day to get to and from work, it's a cost that can mount up quickly.

More than that, these protests have provided a focal point around which people can express frustration over even larger issues confronting Brazil. Protesters have cited concerns about political corruption, the wide income gap between the affluent and the poor, the inferior quality of public education, health care, and hospitals, and the huge amounts of public money being spent on soccer stadiums and other facilities in preparation for the World Cup.

Police over-reacted during some of the protests, using tear gas and rubber bullets, and injuring news reporters and other innocent bystanders. This has only intensified the outrage of the people, and yesterday, protests took place in at least 11 major cities across Brazil. Estimates of the total number of protesters in the streets ranged from 250,000 to as many as a million. 

Reports are that these are the biggest protests in Brazil in 20 years.

And the story is finally getting serious coverage. Today's issue of Globo has a large headline "O Brasil Nas Ruas" (Brazil in the Streets) along with two big photos. 

There's an item in BBC News, including a brief analysis, and bloggers are writing about the protests as well: Adam at "Eyes on Brazil" has written several detailed posts, including links to videos, and you can also read what Tom of eatrio.net and Alex of BossaBreezes have to say about the protests. 

More reports are available from the Guardian, USAToday, Reuters, and even the NYTimes is finally giving the story the attention that it deserves. (Update: More coverage by the NYTimes here). 

Dilma, who was imprisoned as a member of a movement that fought against the military dictatorship, issued a statement that said, "Peaceful demonstrations are legitimate. It is natural for the young to demonstrate." 

Politically, the timing of these protests causes a real challenge for Dilma. She's already receiving a lot of criticism for her handling of the economy and for Brazil's sluggish economic growth. While her approval ratings have remained very high in spite of the sluggish economy, public opinion about the protests is bound to have an effect on that. 

It's almost a no-win situation for her: if people support the protests, they are likely to feel that Dilma's government has not done enough to address the issues behind the protests. If they oppose the protests, they may feel that Dilma's government should be cracking down harder on the protesters. 

In his post about the protests, Tom of eatrio.net wrote the following: "Where the Occupy Wall St movement was commonly accused of not having a clear demand, I think the protesters have made a smart decision in choosing a concrete issue to start off with." I think he's made a very important point here. It's much more difficult to mobilize people for a prolonged period of time when there's not a tangible goal involved. 

It will be interesting to see how the local, state, and federal government respond to these protests that appear to be gaining strength. 

Meanwhile, those of us who live in the US might want to ask ourselves, "Why did the protests in Turkey appear to receive more immediate and more thorough US news coverage than those in Brazil?" Another question I have is this: "What would the US news coverage be if large anti-government protests took place in a country like Cuba?" 

Just something to think about.

Update: Articles in Estadão report that bus rates have been reduced in Porto Alegre and Recife. (Of course I can't read more than the headlines, because Estadão now limits access to 5 articles a month. And Folha has just started limiting access to no more than 10 articles a month. In both cases, they require not only an email address, but a CPF in order to register. Very annoying for those of us who live outside of Brazil, or for whatever other reason do not have a CPF).