Page 374 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-23 1/10/09 8:55 AM Page 345

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL 345

nucleus of their demands remains practically the official administrative advisory bodies.
the same, they are adopting new practices. Health Councils are part of a movement in
Among the popular movements, the strug- which political actors and civil society have
gle for housing has continued to have central joined forces to institutionalize social partic-
importance as the most organized popular ipation in the process of formulating, imple-
struggle in the urban area. Some sectors menting and monitoring public policies (see
became institutionalized, operating on the Coelho, 2004).
judicial plane, through advisory bodies, and The movement for transportation became
making important conquests, such as the considerably institutionalized and other
aforementioned City Statute. Another sector, actors came on stage, among them the inde-
together with its advisors, transferred to the pendent bus drivers (who offer alternative
NGOs in civil society, taking part in institu- transport), with their extremely undemocratic
tional projects, such as the self-administered behaviour, as shown in their strikes. Changes
mutual-help cooperatives and various branches in public policies related to mass transport
of the shanty-town movements, which have were responsible for diminishing the con-
initiated projects dealing with re-urbanization, flicts in this area. But, for some social cate-
removal or transfer to projects run by gories, such as students, there has been
the public sector. A third segment has fol- conflict whenever the ticket price has
lowed the model of the rural popular move- increased.
ment: it carried out invasions, no longer of The movement for day nurseries, which
empty areas (increasingly scarce and distant was important in the 1970s and became quite
in the great urban centres), but of public and institutionalized in the 1980s, is being revived
private buildings, either not in use or aban- in several cities, such as São Paulo. One
doned, in the central area of large cities. example is the movement of those without a
A fourth category in the housing struggle day nursery.
was headed by street dwellers (in São Paulo The popular movement for education is
alone they number about 10,000). Living worth noting. Even though it has never had
under bridges, in the doorways of shops, in great visibility as an independent actor, at the
squares and public places, these ‘dwellers’ beginning of this millennium it is taking a
increased significantly in the 1990s, both in new form among all levels of society. Its
number and in the spaces occupied. The demands have frequently been adopted by
organization of street-dwellers is rather diffi- the teachers’ union and by other educational
cult because they ‘float’ in space and they professionals. They have also been absorbed
usually do not have steady jobs. In the 1990s, into more comprehensive battles such as the
many of these dwellers were ‘recruited’ by struggle for education at the time that the
MST (we will analyze this movement in the 1988 Constitution was being drawn up.
next section). These demands for education were put into
The urban popular health movement, practice by the National Forum for the
despite having become fragmented, entered Struggle for Public Schools and were basi-
into a struggle on the question of the cost of cally put forward by middle-class actors. In
health insurance and medicine, the role of fact, the economic crisis and unemployment
public health centres and so on. It has taken have led many middle-class families to seek
part in National Health Conferences and places in public schools. Not only are these
many of its members became involved in the families now more numerous, they were
administration of health advisory bodies as already used to taking an interest in school-
consumers’ representatives. With regard to life and expected to do so within the State
the field of health, it is important to note that system, even though the latter had previously
in some places the popular advisory bodies, been closed to any community participation.
created in the 1980s, still survive alongside As a result, schools began to play the role of