By the Free Fare Movement São Paulo, translated by Federico Fuentes
June 24, 2013
To President Dilma Rousseff
We
were surprised by your invitation to this meeting. We imagine that you
were also taken by surprise by what has occurred in the country in
recent weeks. This gesture of dialogue on the part of the federal
government is in contradiction with the treatment you have given social
movements, a policy that has remained consistent through this
administration. It seems that the uprisings that have spread throughout
the cities of Brazil since June 6 has broken old barriers and opened new
paths.
From the beginning, the Free Fare
Movement has been part of this process. We are an autonomous, horizontal
and non-partisan social movement, that never intended to represent all
of the protesters who took to the streets of the country. Our voice is
just one more among those shouted in the streets, written on placards,
scrawled on walls. In São Paulo, we initiated protests around a clear
and concrete demand: repeal the fare increase. If previously this seemed
impossible, we proved that it was not and have advanced the struggle
for what is and always has been our central concern, a truly public
transport system. That is why we came to Brasilia.
Transport
can only be public if it is truly accessible to all people, that is, it
is understood as a universal right. The injustice of fare prices
becomes clearer with every increase, as each time more people can no
longer afford to pay the fare. To question the increases is to question
the very logic of the policy of fares, which subordinates public
transport to the profits of entrepreneurs, not the needs of the
population. Having to pay to move around the city means treating
mobility as a commodity, not a right. This puts all other rights in
check: being able to go to school, to the hospital, to the park requires
setting fares at a level everyone can afford. Transportation is limited
to going to and from work, while closing off the rest of the city to
its residents. In order to open up the city we fight for free public
transport.
For this reason we would like
to know the position of the President regarding free public transport
and the PEC 90/11, which includes access to transport in the list of
social rights in Article 6 of the constitution. It is understood that
access to transport should be treated as a complete and unrestricted
social right, which we believe necessarily goes beyond a policy limited
to a particular segment of society, such as students and the issue of
the free fare for students. We fight for a free fare for everyone!
Although
prioritising public transport is part of the government's discourse, in
practice Brazil invests eleven times more in individual transport, via
road projects and loans for purchasing cars (IPEA, 2011). Public money
should be invested in public transport! We would like to know why the
president vetoed item V of Article 16 of the National Policy on Urban
Mobility (Law No. 12.587/12) which would have given the federal
government the responsibility of giving financial support to
municipalities that adopted policies that prioritise public transport.
As Article 9 makes clear, this law prioritises a private management
model based on charging for fares, thereby adopting the point of view of
the companies and not commuters. The federal government needs to take
the lead in the process of building a real public transport system. The
municipalisation of CIDE [Contribution for Economic Intervention][1],
and its full and exclusive allocation to public transport, would
represent a step long the path toward free transport.
Tax
exemptions, a measure that historically has been defended by transport
companies, go in the opposite direction. Forgoing taxes means losing
power over public money, blindly freeing funds for transport mafias,
without any transparency and control. To meet the peoples' demands for
transport, it is necessary to build instruments that put at the heart of
decision making those whose needs should be met: commuters and
transport workers.
This meeting with the
president was forced upon her by the mobilisations in the streets, which
advanced in the face of bombs, bullets and prisons. Social movements in
Brazil have always suffered from repression and criminalisation. Until
now, 2013 has been no different: in Mato Grosso do Sul, there was a
massacre of indigenous peoples and last month the National Public
Security Force murdered a Terena indigenous leader while attempting to
re-occupy their land; in the Federal District, five activists from the
Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST) were arrested a few weeks ago amid
protests against the impacts of the FIFA World Cup.
The
police response to the protests which started in June has been no
different: tear gas were thrown into hospitals and university;
protesters were chased and beaten by the Military Police, others were
shot; hundreds of people were arbitrarily arrested, some being accused
of conspiracy and incitement to commit a crime; a man lost his sight; a
girl was sexually assaulted by police; a woman died due to suffocation
caused by tear gas. The real violence that we witnessed in June came
from the state - in all its spheres.
The
demilitarisation of the police, supported by the United Nations, and a
national policy to regulate less lethal weapons that are banned in many
countries and condemned by international bodies, are urgently needed. By
deploying the National Public Security Force to contain demonstrations,
the minister of justice demonstrated that the federal government
insists on treating social movements as a police matter. News of the
monitoring of activists by the Federal Police and the ABIN [Brazilian
Intelligence Agency] go in the same direction: the criminalisation of
popular struggle.
We hope that this
meeting marks a shift in attitude of the federal government that will be
extended to other social struggles: indigenous peoples, such as the
Guarani-Kaiowá and Mundurukú, who have suffered several attacks at the
hands of landowners and the government; communities affected by
dispossession; the homeless; the landless; and mothers whose children
have been murdered by the police in the poor neighbourhoods. That the
same approach is also extended across all the cities struggling against
the prices hikes and for a different public transport model: São José
dos Campos, Florianopolis, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Goiânia,
and many others.
Rather than sitting at
the table and talking, what matters is meeting the clear demands that
have already been raised by social movements across the country. Against
all increases in the price of public transport, against the fare, we
will continue in the streets! Free fare now!
All power to those fighting for a life without barriers!
Note
[1]
CIDE applies to royalty payments, technology transfers and compensation
of technology supply, and technical assistance. It is be paid by those
who import or commercialise items and assets covered by the tax.
