Workers’ Struggle Goes Beyond Brazil’s Sports Shows – Big For decades, social critics have complained about the impact of sports and entertainment events that “distract” workers from fighting for their class interests. According to this analysis, “class consciousness” has been replaced by “mass” consciousness. They argue that atomized individuals, manipulated by the media, are transformed into passive consumers who identify with sports heroes, soap opera heroes, and famous movie billionaires.
Workers’ Struggle Goes Beyond Brazil’s Sports Shows
oragoo – The pinnacle of this “mystification” — the massive extravagance — are the “world championships” watched by billions of people around the world and sponsored and financed by billionaire corporations: the World Series (Baseball), the World Cup (Football), and the Super Bowl ( American football). Today, Brazil clearly rejects this political-cultural analysis. Brazilians have been described as “football crazy”. His team won the most trophies in the world. The players are being targeted by the owners of the biggest football teams in Europe. Their supporters are said to “live or die for football”… or so they say.
After all, it was in Brazil that the largest protests in World Cup history took place. A year before the World Cup, scheduled for June 2014, mass demonstrations gathered nearly a million Brazilians. Strikes by teachers, police, construction workers and city employees have escalated in recent weeks. The myth about mass media hypnotizing the masses has been debunked – at least now in Brazil. To understand why mass protests are a failure of propaganda, it is important to understand the political and economic context in which such propaganda is carried out, as well as the costs, benefits and tactical planning of popular movements.
Political and economic context: World Cup and Olympics.
In 2002, the candidate of the Brazilian Labor Party, Lula da Silva, won the presidential election. His two terms as president (2003-2010) were marked by a strong adherence to free market capitalism as well as a populist agenda against poverty. Aided by a large influx of speculative capital, attracted by high interest rates and high prices of raw materials for his agro-mineral exports, Lula launched a major poverty alleviation program offering about $60 per month to Brazil’s 40 million poor. , which was part of his basis for electing Lula.
Labor lowered unemployment, raised wages, and supported low-interest consumer credit, thereby fueling a “consumption boom” that pushed the economy forward. For Lula and his advisers, Brazil has become a global power, attracting investors from around the world and attracting poor people to the domestic market. Lula was hailed as a “left-wing pragmatist” by Wall Street and a “brilliant statesman” by the left!
In keeping with this grand vision (and in response to the increasing accumulation of members of the presidential palace from both North and South), Lula believed that Brazil’s rise to global dominance was necessary to “host” the World Cup and the Olympics, and he embarked on an aggressive campaign… Brazil was selected. Lula was deceived and sent a message: Brazil, as host, would receive the symbolic recognition and material rewards that a world power deserved.
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The Rise and Fall of the Great Illusion
Brazil’s growth was based on foreign capital flows driven by different (favorable) interest rates. And when interest rates change, so does capital. Brazil’s reliance on high demand for agro-mineral exports is driven by continued double-digit economic growth in Asia. When China’s economy slowed, demand and prices fell, as did Brazil’s export earnings.
The Labor Party’s “pragmatism” meant acceptance of the political, administrative and regulatory structures inherited from the previous neoliberal regime. The agency was absorbed by corrupt officials with ties to construction contractors notorious for cost overruns and long delays in public contracts. Moreover, the “pragmatic” Labor Party election machine was built on bribery and corruption. Vast amounts of money are being diverted from public services into private pockets.
Based on his rhetoric, Lula believes that Brazil’s economic recovery on the world stage is “certain”. He said that a Pharaonic-style sports complex – billions in public money spent on dozens of stadiums and huge infrastructure – would “pay for itself”.
The deadly ‘demonstration effect’: social reality beyond global abundance
Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s protégé, has allocated billions of reais to finance her predecessor’s massive construction projects: stadiums, hotels, highways and…airports to welcome and anticipate the influx of foreign football fans. The contrast between easy access to large amounts of public funding for the World Cup and the continued shortage of funds to finance deteriorating public services (transport, schools, hospitals and clinics) has come as a major shock to Brazil and Brazilian society. a provocation against massive street actions.
For decades, the vast majority of Brazilians, who depend on public services for transportation, education and healthcare (the upper middle class can afford private services) have said that “no, there are no funds”, that “the budget must be balanced.” necessary to honor IMF agreements and pay debts.” For years, public funds have been misused by corrupt politicians to finance election campaigns, leading to poor and overcrowded transport, frequent traffic jams and passenger delays, hot and cramped buses and long queues at stations.
For decades, schools were in disarray, with teachers moving from one school to another to survive on miserable minimum wages, leading to neglect and poor quality education. Public hospitals are dirty, dangerous and overcrowded; Low-paid doctors often treat their patients privately, and essential medicines are rarely available in public hospitals and expensive in pharmacies. The public is angered by the contrast between the reality of dilapidated clinics with broken windows, overcrowded schools with leaking roofs and poor public transport. unreliable for the average Brazilian with huge new stadiums, luxury, luxury hotels and airports for sports fans and wealthy foreign visitors. The public was outraged by a blatant official lie: the claim that there were no “funds” for teachers when billions of reais were suddenly available to build luxury hotels and luxury school grounds for wealthy football fans.
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Conclusion
The political elite, especially those surrounding the Lula-Rousseff presidency, have fallen victim to their illusions of popular support. They believe that bribes in the form of sembako (food baskets) to the poor enable these elites to spend billions of people’s money on sporting events to entertain and impress the global elite. They believe that the working masses will be so dazzled by the prestige of hosting the World Cup in Brazil that they will ignore the gap between government spending on major elite events and the lack of support to meet the daily needs of Brazilian workers.
Even the unions, apparently indebted to Lula, who boasted of his past as a metallurgical leader, severed ties when they realized that “the money was there” – and that the regime, under the pressure of construction deadlines. . . , can be encouraged to increase wages for doing work.
Make no mistake, Brazilians love sports. They are enthusiastic about following and supporting their national team. But they are also aware of their needs. They are not content to passively accept the huge social disparities resulting from the massive push to host the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil. The huge public spending on these Olympics makes it clear that Brazil is a rich country with many social inequalities. They know that sufficient funds are available to improve basic services in everyday life.
They were aware that, despite their rhetoric, the Labor Party was playing an excessive prestige game to impress the international capitalist public. They realized that they had strategic influence to put pressure on the government and protest injustice in the housing sector and injustice through mass action. And they hit. They understand that they have the right to enjoy the World Cup in decent, affordable social housing and travel to work (or some matches) on decent buses and trains. Class consciousness, in Brazil’s case, takes precedence over mass performance. “Bread and Circus” led to mass demonstrations.