Wild
Bunch

A nationwide truckers' strike that resulted in the blockade of several major highways throughout Brazil at the end of July, spoke volumes about much more than problems affecting the trucking industry. Few would disagree with the truckers' demands: lower fuel prices and toll charges, better highway maintenance, and more policing against cargo theft, a serious problem on Brazilian highways in recent years. It's what the truckers' action represents in a broader context that causes concern.

Rallies and demonstrations were a risky undertaking in Brazil until the end of military rule in the mid '80s. Participants and their causes were generally portrayed by the regime as less-than legitimate, if not outright criminal. Such movements, labor or otherwise, were often dealt with in violent fashion. With the return of civilian rule in 1985, Brazilians gradually shed the aura of illegality created by the military, and re-learned that demonstrating is part of one's right to freedom of expression, not necessarily a criminal act against the State or a breach of national security, as the uniformed rulers of the past would have everyone believe.

Now, Brazilians are witnessing the other extreme, and at times being held hostage by it: a concept that says a rally must disturb, paralyze, interfere, upset or interrupt as broadly as possible, in order to be effective. Most troubling is the impression that nobody seems concerned about the need to accomplish goals without trampling on everyone else's individual rights.

That was clearly the case with the truckers' movement. It was the latest in a series of similar actions by different groups, some isolated, others ongoing and growing in stature, and they all fit into a trend. All have been loyal to the extreme approach to demonstrations on the rise for at least a year, especially in São Paulo, Brazil's main city and economic engine.

With a population of 15 million, the city is difficult enough to negotiate under normal circumstances—pollution, crime and monstrous traffic tie-ups are among its major problems. City bus drivers know a rally at the wrong place and time is enough to wreak havoc above and beyond the already difficult norm. And they put that know-how to use a week before their trucking colleagues.

They caused two days of citywide traffic hell, by parking hundreds of buses in sequence, one behind the other, along major arteries at rush hour. It was a protest against delays in benefit payments by the private companies that own the buses, and handle mass transit in the city. Not the most serious dispute of all time, but good enough to paralyze one of the largest cities in the world, and disrupt the lives of millions of people.

Free For All

A focal point for protestors has been Avenida Paulista, or Paulista Avenue, a major São Paulo thoroughfare. Street vendors defending their right to set up on every corner, van owners demanding licenses to operate legally, doctors, nurses and teachers who want better pay, the HIV-positive who want better care, even a group protesting the recent shutdown of a radio station—all of those, and many others for and against a myriad of causes, have gone to Paulista to protest recently. Always when traffic is at its peak, with predictable effects: nobody goes anywhere until the snag comes undone, usually several hours later.

City officials ask frequently that such demonstrations not be held at Paulista. Since participants and organizers attach little importance to the basic individual right to come and go—few bother to get proper authorization for a demonstration—officials like to remind them that in the vicinity of Paulista, there are nine major hospitals. In other words, bad traffic in the area could put lives at risk. So far, the argument hasn't made an impression.

But perhaps the one example of maximum impact and visibility, that helps to understand the current thinking behind protesting in Brazil, is what happens far away from major cities like São Paulo. It's in the countryside that the MST, the landless workers' movement that's been described as the largest left-wing organization in the Western Hemisphere, gets away with snubbing the law on a regular basis, without consequence.

There's a political side to what the MST does, which is a whole different story. For those unfamiliar with the movement, a brief explanation would be that it has organized thousands of so-called landless peasants throughout the country to pressure for land reform. The technique is to set up camp near lands considered unproductive and pressure the government to make it available for redistribution, either by purchasing the property from its owner, or taking it away outright based on the fact that it was unproductive to begin with. The land is then distributed to the landless.

If the government is slow to respond, the camped MST supporters will simply invade the property—recently they've taken to invading productive farms as well. Families then divide the land into plots, and begin to plant crops and set up homes. The government is then pressured to make the arrangement permanent, again by purchasing or moving to legally displace the owner.

Without question, Brazil has a land distribution problem, and a serious one to be sure. Cities like São Paulo are swollen by thousands who left subsistence farming to seek a better life in the city. Many would go back under better conditions, so there is merit in the idea of assisting that process, especially in a landmass as large as Brazil, with no lack of arable land. But there's a key element here: the current federal government can be accused of inaction on a number of fronts, but not this one. In fact, during President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's first term in office, the federal government settled close to 250 thousand landless families throughout Brazil—more than all previous federal administrations combined.

MST Tactics

The response of the MST to that effort has been to intensify land invasions, while attempting to discredit what the government has accomplished. Add to this a number of recent facts that have undermined the MST's credibility, such as:

Efforts to "recruit" so-called landless peasants in major cities for new campsites and future invasions;

Encouragement of ransackings of government food stores by poor peasants in Brazil's drought-stricken northeast;

Stated aims that have little to do with land reform, such as the need to not just take away and redistribute land, but also "punish farmers", as defended by MST leader Pedro Stédile;

A recent survey by Brazil's top weekly news magazine, Veja, showing that MST numbers don't add up: there are more landless peasants in Brazil now, by their accounting, than before the government settled a quarter of a million families. At this rate, the landless movement will also be endless;

Between questionable MST actions, and government land reform initiatives, there's more than enough to justify resistance to MST tactics. As there was enough to justify stopping truckers from paralyzing the country, bus drivers from disrupting São Paulo, and so many others from launching initiatives that harm the vast majority. Instead, as a recent editorial by the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said,

"... this is not what we see in today's Brazil. A near-pathological fear of facing up to transgressions permeates all levels of administration, and it starts at the presidential palace, where tolerance and complacency are becoming the norm, all in the name of a sort of abstract democratism that, in practical terms, is the equivalent of a license for any sector—social or professional—to adopt pressure tactics that are clearly illegitimate and even criminal."

Impunity

Why so much government hesitation to stand up to such a broad spectrum of questionable, often illegal actions? Impunity may be the key word. For decades, successive governments in Brazil have tolerated blatant examples of wrongdoing that have gone unpunished. From bankrupt construction companies that took the money and left thousands of would-be homeowners empty-handed, to investment scandals where the investors always took the fall, to politicians who seek office to benefit from congressional immunity, the list is extensive—Brazilians have really seen more than their share of excessive tolerance.

In nearly all cases, there's a common thread: those responsible seldom if ever pay for their wrongdoing, certainly never go to jail, or have their personal property confiscated to cover losses they've caused. It is always the public purse—the taxpayer—that makes amends, while those who ought to be punished, in many cases, flaunt ostentatious lifestyles.

Indeed, we may be witnessing a trickle-down effect of impunity, where society, perhaps unconsciously to some extent, but openly and blatantly in many instances, goes to extremes in the certainty that punishment will not be the end result. The more tolerance there is, the further people will push and test the authorities. The more serious and numerous the unpunished acts, the more difficult it becomes for the authorities to act. And to make matters worse for the government, political opponents certainly do take advantage of these perceptions, and encourage or even lead different sectors in acts of defiance of the rule of law.

That may seem like a lot of theory, but it does bear a strong resemblance to the actual sequence of recent events. A clear enough trend has been established, and to put a stop to it, the government must press on with vital reforms, including a full review of the judiciary. A clear message is needed that ending widespread impunity in Brazil is the objective. The legal system must gain the ability to deal with the rich and powerful, or risk being unable to deal with anyone at all.

Adhemar Altieri is a veteran with major news outlets in Brazil, Canada and the United States. He holds a Master's Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent ten years with CBS News reporting from Canada and Brazil. Altieri is a member of the Virtual Intelligence Community, formed by The Greenfield Consulting Group to identify future trends for Latin America. He is also the editor of InfoBrazil (http://www.infobrazil.com), an English-language weekly e-zine with analysis and opinions on Brazilian politics and economy. You can reach the author at editors@infobrazil.com  

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