Fare Free struggle on the streets of Brazil

Sean Purdy, a member of the Party of Socialism and Freedom (PSOL) and activist in the Free Fare movement in São Paulo, reports from Brazil on a police assault.

 

June 18, 2013

Taking to the streets in São Paulo to protest public transit fare hikes (Sean Purdy)
SÃO PAULO was a war zone the night of June 13 as riot police viciously attacked a peaceful demonstration of the Free Fare movement, which is protesting hikes in bus and subway fares.
Despite massive police repression and the intransigence of the city and state governments, there are have been four large demonstrations in the last two weeks by the Free Fare movement in São Paulo, South America's largest city.

Polls show that a majority of residents support the demonstrations. Protests have spread to several other Brazilian cities that also face increases in public transit fares, and there have been demonstrations of solidarity organized or planned in several dozen cities in Europe and North America. Messages of solidarity have also been sent from the protestors in Taksim Square in Turkey.
Hundreds of videos and testimonies, from both demonstrators and the mainstream media, show that during the June 13 protest, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets indiscriminately at peaceful demonstrators, journalists and passersby. Dozens of demonstrators were injured, along with at least eight journalists, one of whom was blinded in one eye after being struck by a rubber bullet. Video footage posted on YouTube shows the scope of the violence.

The Free Fare movement, which is made up of high school and university students, trade unionists, and activists from a broad section of social movements--organized its first protest soon after bus and subway fares were increased by 6 percent on June 2.
The municipal government headed by Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT) claims that the increases are below the rate of inflation, but many analysts have shown that over the last 20 years, the cost of public transit has increased well above inflation, making São Paulo the most expensive city for public transportation in Latin America.
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THE PROTESTS come at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the neoliberal politics of the two misnamed main parties in Brazil, the Brazilian Social Democratic Party and the PT. Activists have shown that the politics of these two supposed rivals are exactly the same: making Brazil safe for business while neglecting the massive social disparities and inequality in the country.

Politicians from both parties have condemned the Free Fare movement protests, as has the PT-led federal government. But many grassroots activists from the PT have participated in the demonstrations, along with militants from the Party of Socialism and Freedom.

At the same time as the protests against fare increases erupted, activists across the country have been demonstrating against preparations for next year's World Cup in Brazil. Billions have been spent upgrading stadiums and thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in an effort that has boosted the profits of large companies and produced few benefits for the population.
News of the police assault on peaceful protesters spread around the world, prompting solidarity actions, including a reported 800-strong rally in New York City. In San Diego, dozens of Brazilians and their supporters gathered for a march and rally on June 16. "We are here to show we know what is going on, and that we support the people protesting," said rally organizer Roberta Goulart.
Goulart and others also recognized how the protests against transit fare increases are connected to discontent about other issues, such as the Olympics construction and the government's record of corruption. "We pay a lot of taxes, and it goes into the pockets of politicians, not for education and health care," said Felipe Barbiere.

In Brazil, organizers are expecting tens of thousands, including large contingents of trade unionists and activists from the social movements, to participate in the next demonstration of the Free Fare movement in São Paulo. As the slogan of the movement put it: "If the fares increase, São Paulo will stop."

 SocialistWorker.org 18/6/13

Bus users at 'boiling point'

Lynfield commuters say changes to express routes and no-shows are like Third World.

Ann Fernandes and Cloyd D'Mello are sick of late buses. Photo / Sarah Ivey

 By Mathew Dearnaley

NZ Herald. Monday Jun 17, 2013

 

Passengers on a busy Auckland commuting route fear the city's public transport system is slipping into "Third World" territory after no-shows by three express buses in Friday morning's rush hour.
Ann Fernandes and Cloyd D'Mello, who are both from India but live at different addresses on the route from Lynfield to central Auckland, were among scores of passengers made late for work by what they say are increasingly erratic services.

Their problems worsened after NZ Bus and Auckland Transport changed the 267 route schedule in February, reducing express trips in favour of more "all-stops" buses.

Expresses previously left Lynfield every 10 minutes from 7am, but now there are none before 7.30am - too late for commuters rushing to 8am job starts.

What Auckland Transport says were mechanical and "priority problems" meant there was no express until after 8am on Friday, leaving passengers to catch what became a crammed all-stops service which took until about 9am to reach Queen St.

"Earlier it was a pleasure travelling by bus but now every day there's a different story," said Mrs Fernandes, a finance worker for whom reliable public transport played a large part in her choice of home eight years ago.

"But now it is totally unreliable and sometimes I feel like I'm in a Third World country - most times it feels like we are back home in India, all cramped up together in a bus."
Although problems with late and missing buses had dragged on for months, Friday morning's debacle escalated passenger concerns to "boiling point".
"It is not like we are not paying for it - we're paying $140 a month."
Mr D'Mello, a music teacher training for New Zealand accreditation, said his early enjoyment of Auckland bus travel was short-lived.
Another Lynfield passenger, Laboni Haldar, said she had given up complaining about the "deteriorating service" after failing to get anywhere with Auckland Transport's call centre.

Once, after she complained about homebound buses failing to turn up in Symonds St on a Sunday, an official said they had been delayed by traffic.
"But there was hardly any traffic - I think it was a long weekend."

NZ Bus did not respond directly to a Herald inquiry, but Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan said it had told him it missed two express trips "due to priority problems" and windscreen wipers failed on a third bus.
"There was a lack of serviceable vehicles," he said.
"Auckland Transport apologises to any passengers who were affected by the cancellation of the services - we are investigating these issues with NZ Bus."

Some buses were converted from express to all-stops runs in February because passengers were getting left behind north of the Mt Roskill shops.
"The all-stops were suffering from a capacity issues whereas the expresses were being under-used. But, having said that, we are at the moment reviewing the whole thing," Mr Hannan said.

Bus-Fare protests hit Brazil's two big cities

 
 Sao Paulo, Brazil: forceful protests sparked by bus fare price hike.

By SIMON ROMERO

NEW YORK TIMES. Published: June 13, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO — Protests by an increasingly forceful movement coalescing against increases in bus fares shook Brazil’s two largest cities on Thursday night, the fourth time in a week that activists have taken to the streets in demonstrations that have been marked by clashes with security forces.

The protesters, mainly university students but also activists from leftist political parties, appear to be loosely tied to an organization called the Free Fare Movement, which advocates sharp decreases in public transportation fares or doing away with the fares and financing transit through tax increases.

The protests have been notably unruly in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, where police officers arrested dozens of protesters on Thursday night. The police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in São Paulo’s old center on Tuesday night to disperse thousands of protesters, who tried to shut important avenues. Several journalists were also injured, including two reporters hit in the face by rubber bullets fired by the police. The police also arrested at least three journalists covering the protests, prompting rebukes from press-freedom groups.

In Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, more than 1,000 demonstrators halted traffic at rush hour on a heavily congested avenue; on Tuesday night, rock-throwing protesters here damaged churches and historic buildings. Similar protests have also unfolded in smaller cities, including Porto Alegre in the south, Goiânia in the country’s central region and Natal in the northeast.

The free-fare movement has held protests against bus-fare increases in different parts of Brazil in recent years. The latest demonstrations have crystallized around resistance to new fare increases, making it the latest in a sequence of campaigns of dissent over public transportation dating to the Vintém Revolt of 1879, when protesters in Rio de Janeiro challenged Brazil’s monarchy over fares for trolley cars. “The hike in bus fares were the spark for this to happen,” said Maurício Santoro, an adviser here to Amnesty International. “Public transportation in Brazil is expensive, unsafe and poorly managed, especially impacting poor commuters who have no choice but to rely on these systems.”

The protests come at a delicate time for political leaders as they are grappling with concerns over high inflation and sluggish economic growth, and are trying to promote Brazil as a safe and stable destination in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be held here.

São Paulo’s mayor and governor were in Paris this week to lobby for the city to be chosen as the site for an international fair, the World Expo 2020. The governor, Geraldo Alckmin, called the protesters “thugs” and “vandals,” insisting that the fare increase would not be revoked.

Marcelo Hotimsky, a student who has taken part in the protests, said they were an expression of frustration. “There are serious issues about mobility and life in the city,” he said. Asked about violent episodes in the protests, he said, “There is a great attempt to make those who go to the protests look like rioters to discredit us.”