9th Anniversary of the Protests of June 2013

                       Tomorrow 20th of June one of the biggest protests in Brazil history will complete nine years. The reason why this protest is so much studied with many publications  and others are not, it was its character totally spontaneous, unexpected and non-partisan. We all in Brazil watched on TV and internet millions went to the streets to protest against corruption, injustices, violence, bad use of public money, etc. A lot of protesters wearing Guy Fawkes mask. A lot of protesters with posters asking for more investment in education, political inclusion and governmental transparency. In my opinion, it was one of the most beautiful moments of the Brazilian history and the power of its people. Those protests called by some as "June Revolution," and by others as "June Journeys" must be always remembered. And it is good also to remember what the protesters were asking for and what has changed after so many years.   This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at  https://larrlasa.org/articles/10.25222/larr.69/. The second was published at  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347943300_Anticorruption_protests_alliance_system_and_political_polarization

                       In June 2013, over one million Brazilians took to the streets in a paroxysm of political mobilization that began over an increase in bus fares. Brazilians peacefully demonstrated in an attempt to make their voices heard. Protests spread throughout the country after police forcibly and violently interrupted the initial protests, fueling public resentment of what many perceived to be the state's abuse of power and disregard for its citizens, symbolized economically in the bus fare hikes and physically in the police violence. While the protests began over bus fares, they soon included concerns ranging from political corruption to health and education and the economic costs of hosting the 2014 World Cup. Though covering a variety of issues and spanning the ideological spectrum, these protests collectively criticized the state for its perceived failure to provide adequate services for the public. Between the second and third weeks of June, over one million protests took to the streets, raising a diffuse cloud of demands that took two general forms. On the one hand were anticorruption discourses, issues that rejected politics as usual in Brazil. On the other hand, in making demands for federal funding to education, health, infrastructure, and other social needs, many protesters expressed an inherent belief in the strong and positive role the state should play in providing services for citizens. What emerged were parallel political discourses that simultaneously condemned and upheld the state. They mobilized against the state's abuse of power, be it through corruption, repression, or impunity, while making demands on the notion that the state should improve the quality of life through social programs. The protests had a very real and immediate effect on national politics. By the end of June, public officials walked away from bus fare hikes in SP, RJ and elsewhere. President Roussef pledged to work toward five "pacts" that would address issues like transportation, education, health, and corruption in Brazil. In the wake of the protests, Congress rejected PEC 37, which would have prohibited the Public Ministry from investigating congressional members. Brazilians taking to the streets in June believed PEC 37 opened the way for impunity for corruption. In protests of June 2013, demands for more investment in education accompanied protests against bus fare hikes. As cities rolled back the fares, people continued to take the streets fighting for greater public spending on education. As secondary student Grazielle Paz put it, students believed the government was "worrying too much about the World Cup and forgetting students. We have to fight for the National Education Plan, because it is something that can transform education for the next ten years." The events of June 2013 were in many ways monumental, drawing worldwide attention as millions throughout the country took the streets. The 2013 protests had a dramatic impact on politics in the short and long terms. The public pressure through protests led government to provide more funding for education and address the lack of medical care in the country. However, protest activity did not disappear, nor did the educational issues that had been a key component of the demonstrations.                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Massive protests of 2013 also called "The June Journeys" enabled a greater articulation between the fight against corruption and a series of demands and discontent that were ongoing at the national level. Undoubtedly, this constitutes one of the main characteristics that differentiate recent mobilizations to combat corruption from previous ones: its greater articulation with the international anti-corruption movement. The most recent notion of political corruption leads to a criticism of 'opacity' in public spending and overpricing for the realization of major construction. This "anti-system" sentiment predominated throughout the protests, ending even in a series of mobilizations and protests against politics, parties, institutions, etc. Associated with this, a certain centrality in the demand for more transparency, democracy, participation. In a way, this was what allowed the aggregation of the most different types of discontent and dissatisfaction around a common cause: it is for more quality in infrastructure, health, education, public transport, participation, etc. One of the main features of the protests wave that began in 2011 in several countries was denouncing corruption as something that has a negative bearing on political and economic processes. In this sense, it was demonstrated that the protests in June 2013 were an important milestone in the articulation between a series of discontent and dissatisfaction related to the very dynamics of the Brazil political system and a new international anti-corruption paradigm that emerged in the wave of protests in 2011. The new anti-corruption paradigm was geared towards criticizing the opacity of the economic system and the "corruption of democracy", calling for more transparency, democracy and freedom. In the Brazilian case, more than a reaction against the corruption of the system, express a revolt against the persistence of a political system that functioned on the basis of "political co-option", closing possible channels of representation and assuming the form of a " homogeneous, amorphous and indistinct mass". Such aspects made it possible to understand how mobilization and protests initially against injustices of the system and for more transparency, freedom and democracy, gradually became decisive electoral resources for the replacement of political leaders and by government guidelines, policies and programs. This analysis demonstrated the relevance of the 'political dimension' to understand the processes of emergence and diffusion of public protests. The characteristics and functioning dynamics of the political system are not secondary aspects in relation to the economic dimension.