In case you didn't hear, there're a series of protests occurring in Brazil right now.
People -- young people, mostly -- are angry and taking to the streets to protest against bus fare prices and huge spendings on FIFA's Confederations Cup and the World Cup.
But, really, this post is just an excuse to use that tag.
More links:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/2013617215108... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22980751
Any thoughts, caio? I'd be interested in your take on this: http://hubski.com/pub?id=89468 I just spoke to a colleague that is from São Paulo, and has family there. She was pretty optimistic about the protests, and was happy for them.
I don't think fascism has co-opted the protest, but it very well could. There's a pro-life "March for Life against Abortion" scheduled for later this year. Conservatism is organized in Brazil, but, right now, these protest are very out of focus. They could swing either side. There are all kinds of people: integralistas (brazilian fascists), communists, anarchists, middle- and lower-class, pacifists, war-mongers. He's right: the majority of the opposition to the center-left Worker's Party (WP) comes from the center-right Social-Democrat party. But saying it like that sounds like there's no criticism coming from the left, which is just not true: to cite two examples, there's the Socialism and Freedom Party, which came from a more radical wing of the WP, and the United Socialist Worker's Party. Both parties are very critical with the more neoliberal policies coming from the WP. I'm also pretty optimistic. I think these protests, however aggressive and diffuse, are a first step towards a more politicized and active population. They also bring attention to the idiotic and gruesome way that the police treats demonstrators. Those are both good things. It's a confuse and happy moment to be living. Let's see how it turns out. :)You are also probably not aware that the large majority of the opposition to the Worker's Party does not come from the radical left, as I wish it did, as MPL does, but it comes from PSDB and half of their electors are nostalgic of our fascist dictatorship. So they are going out there and asking for a new one.