The current protests in Brazil over concessions made to Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) in the run-up to the 2014 Soccer World Cup, is reminiscent of the South Africans who rioted in the streets just before the 2010 Cup was held here, writes Patrick Bond in an article for Pambazuka News.
The Brazilian protests are justified, Bond says, if one keeps in mind that the municipal budgets of South Africa’s main cities are “still bleeding red accountant blood, with millions of dollars annually diverted to subsidise stadium operating costs”.
Over the last fortnight, Brazil’s two million street protesters in 80 cities supporting the Free Fare Movement have declared how fed up they are with making multiple sacrifices to Brazilian neoliberalism as revitalized by one Sepp Blatter, the Swiss emperor of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa). While right-wing opportunists have been involved in some of the recent protests, the core grievances are apparently those of the left and of the disaffected youth.
Writing from South Africa, my compatriots and I should not merely offer Brazilians our admiration, since a ‘Grand Pact’ is apparently now being crafted by President Dilma Rousseff. Having failed to repress the rebellion with brute police force, she now appears ready to make large-scale concessions. As she put it on Friday, ‘We need to oxygenate our political system, to find ways to return to our institutions to be more transparent, more resistant to bad practices and more open to the influence of society.’
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- Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below by Patrick Bond
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EAN: 9781869142216
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