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On Sluts, Teachers, and Black Blocs: The Street and the Construction of Political Dissent in Brazil
Abstract
Since June 2013, the streets of Brazil’s big cities have been filled with countless demonstrations and marches for a wide range of demands. As with other movements around the world, the protests were composed mostly of young people and students, organized without hierarchies. The rapid mobilization of the protests has principally been achieved through social networks. As in other countries, police repression of the demonstrations has been very violent, and those in government and the traditional media are clearly confused about how to deal with protests in the streets. In this article, I discuss two demonstrations that took place in Rio de Janeiro: a Brazilian version of the SlutWalk and the March for Education that supported a city and state teachers’ strike. I raise questions about the bodies that took to the streets to protest on these occasions, considering the wider political issues that are currently mobilizing Brazilian society.
... The constitution of collective corporeal spaces emerge as political rage and possibilities are felt in and across bodies. Aligned with these new orientations, feminist scholars study the significance of bodies in various Brazilian street protests led by sexual minorities and teachers to claim a sense of autonomy (Mattos, 2014) and others explore how women across generations take and circulate images of their bodies to create "microrevolutions" in cyberspaces (Salime, 2014). ...
Passed in December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act intensified Hindu majoritarian rule, emerging as another legal measure to systematically deny citizenship to Muslims and other minoritized populations. These legislations were met by protests which were responded to by police violence. Young Muslim women at Jamia Milia Islamia University followed the lead of elders in Shaheen Bagh, crafting an intergenerational feminist‐led protest which emerged at the forefront of resistance efforts. This article attends to young women's spatiotemporal claims of recognition and belonging. Dwelling on the collective and corporeal nature of their engagement, I highlight the theoretical significance of this unwavering collective still presence that characterizes their participation. In an India that increasingly questions their belonging, these student protesters craft home as an expanded political site. They make embodied claims to the university, public space, and by extension, the nation, as home.
... The criminalization and persecution social movements, protesters and activists have been long-standing features of Brazilian society (Mattos 2014 Recently leaked secret files have cast doubt on the prosecution of the 'bandits of the left'. Greenwald (2019) published a series of exposés showing how guilty verdicts were manufactured with the assistance of the judiciary. ...
This article examines how the persecution of dissenting and marginalized populations in Brazil has intensified under the banner of crime control since the rise of the far-right to mainstream politics. Through decolonial lenses (Walsh and Mignolo 2018; Dimou 2021), it explores the ways in which anti-human rights discourses and Brazil’s myth of racial democracy relate to the legacy of colonialism in the experiences of urban poor and racialized communities. The aims of this work are to interrogate social relations and critically engage with the intensification of authoritarian neoliberal forms of governance. Reflecting on examples, such as the persecution and criminalization of political opponents, this article sheds light on examples of how coloniality is continuously reproduced in the politics of backlash that have become globally prevalent. The politics of backlash, as a variant of contested politics, often fuelled by anger and resentment, are central in the construction of retrograde and discriminatory transformations (Alter and Zürn 2020). By examining cases in Brazil, the article offers an analysis of how ‘coloniality’ (Quijano 1992; Walsh and Mignolo 2018) enriches critical understandings of the inequalities and discourses that operate to dispossess, silence, persecute and criminalize thousands of people.
... Así, su resistencia pública y rebelde respecto de las normas sexuales y de género representa una audaz política cultural radical (Carr, 2014;Ferreira, 2013;Name y Zanetti, 2013). Las personas queer y feministas también han estado a la vanguardia de muchos movimientos recientes de protesta, en favor de la democracia y de la justicia social de toda la región, desde el Yo soy 132 de México y los movimientos estudiantiles chilenos de la década del dos mil diez, hasta las revueltas y demostraciones de junio de 2013 en Brasil contra la Copa Mundial y las Olimpíadas (Balaguera, 2015;Larrabure y Torchia, 2015;Mattos, 2014). ...
... Complaints regarding public transportation were extended to dissatisfaction with the political system itself, deficiencies in health and education, spending on 2014 World Cup and corruption (MATOS, 2014;MORAES;RIBEIRO, 2014). On June 15, 2013, the Confederations Cup started, as the countdown to the World Cup, which further intensified the protests (GUTTERRES, 2014). ...
In recent years, Brazil has witnessed protests organized by a group called Free Pass Movement. In 2013, the main demand was against the raise of the price for public transportation, and complaints were expanded to the political system, health and education demands, corruption and spending on the 2014 World Cup. In 2015, public protests returned to the national political scene. The use of social networks as people’s communication vehicle to show dissatisfaction was widely used as well as a means of articulation of groups. This study aimed to identify the factors that led people to use social networks to participate in the protests, with 257 respondents who took part of the Free Pass Movement. Results show the factors that positively influence the use of social networks with protest purposes and demonstrate the respondents’ disbelief regarding some positive effect to solve public management problems. Keywords: Free Pass Movement, protests, information technology, technology adoption, social networks.
... Complaints regarding public transportation were extended to dissatisfaction with the political system itself, deficiencies in health and education, spending on 2014 World Cup and corruption (MATOS, 2014;MORAES;RIBEIRO, 2014). On June 15, 2013, the Confederations Cup started, as the countdown to the World Cup, which further intensified the protests (GUTTERRES, 2014). ...
In recent years, Brazil has witnessed protests organized by a group called Free Pass Movement. In 2013, the main demand was against the raise of the price for public transportation, and complaints were expanded to the political system, health and education demands, corruption and spending on the 2014 World Cup. In 2015, public protests returned to the national political scene. The use of social networks as people’s communication vehicle to show dissatisfaction was widely used as well as a means of articulation of groups. This study aimed to identify the factors that led people to use social networks to participate in the protests, with 257 respondents who took part of the Free Pass Movement. Results show the factors that
positively influence the use of social networks with protest purposes and demonstrate the respondents’ disbelief regarding some positive effect to solve public management problems.
... This locale is very important, since this issue is little discussed in other social movements whose main claims are not related to these themes. In these movements, demands related to women and LGBT rights are invisible or underrepresented (Mattos, 2014). ...
Synopsis
Prior to becoming a robust transnational movement, SlutWalk was a local movement in response to a local issue, influenced by the political, cultural, and historical realities of Toronto, Canada in 2011. This paper focuses on the specific local contexts that led to the movement's emergence in Toronto, and in so doing, can inform the diverse commentaries of SlutWalk both in academic publications and elsewhere. Contextualizing SlutWalk in this way allows for meaningful dialogue around the issues of the movement that can be critical, without simply criticizing. Contributing to feminist theory-building, it analyzes the challenges and opportunities that arise as younger generations of feminists assume leadership roles within feminist activism, and the inevitable frictions that arise when a local feminist movement is transnationalized. Positioning Slutwalk as a case study, this paper emphasizes the importance of context as a basis for first understanding, and then critiquing, feminist activism.
Come to the Streets, but Without Parties': The Challenges of the New Brazilian Protests
- Ann Mische
Mische, Ann. 2013. " 'Come to the Streets, but Without Parties': The Challenges of
the New Brazilian Protests." Mobilizing Ideas, September 4. http://mobilizingideas
.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/come-to-the-streets-but-without-parties-the
-challenges-of-the-new-brazilian-protests.