We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The June Uprisings in Brazil: Below and Behind the Huge Mobilizations (Part 1 of 2)

Click here to access article by Raúl Zibechi from Upside Down World.

This is a well-researched, well-documented analysis of the latest forms of social organizing that led to the June uprising in Brazil. The author through his writings has gained a reputation as a leading political theorist on the left throughout Latin America. The following is an apt introduction by his translator:
An unprecedented wave of mass protest rocked multiple Brazilian cities beginning in June, 2013, and shows no sign of letting up. In this special two-part series, Raúl Zibechi argues that the huge mobilizations were not simply a demand for reduced bus fares -- as portrayed in mainstream media -- but the product of a decade of grassroots, anti-capitalist organizing. He dispels the myth that it was a spontaneous protest fueled by social networks, investigates the radical social movements behind the countrywide uprising, and explores the forms of organizing based on horizontalism, consensus and direct action. 
The organizing going on in Brazil is another illustration of the rise of a new global political culture that has developed through global ideological crowdsourcing. One can see the influences of grassroots resistance movements all over the world in Brazil's grassroots political actions.