{"id":15996,"date":"2014-06-15T15:19:15","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=15996"},"modified":"2014-08-01T14:52:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T17:52:39","slug":"naovaitercopa-from-social-media-to-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=15996","title":{"rendered":"#NaoVaiTerCopa: From Social Media to the Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few would have imagined in 2007, when Brazil won its bid to host the World Cup<\/a>, that the controversy surrounding use of public money, corruption and militarization would have unfolded as it did. A Fifa poll showed that as much as 79% of the population felt the World Cup would make a great contribution to the country. Now, with the event unfolding, polls are showing that 61% of Brazilians think the event will be bad for the country.<\/p>\n

Amidst the controversy, one slogan rings out above others: N\u00e3o Vai Ter Copa<\/em>\u2013There Won\u2019t be a World Cup–which began to be used in last June\u2019s widespread protests<\/a>. Yet now, even with the event upon us, this defiant call has not abated, projecting itself across social media and the streets of host cities.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s favelas, the heartland of Carioca popular\u2013and by extension, footballing\u2013culture, have perhaps borne the brunt of the upcoming World Cup most acutely. From removals<\/a> to rising costs of living and heavy-handed policing programs, these are the places in which many of the World Cup\u2019s social conflicts have played out.<\/p>\n

Nossa Copa \u00e9 na Rua<\/b><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>On Thursday June 12, only hours before the tournament kicked off in S\u00e3o Paulo, over a thousand people congregated in the center of Rio, under the moniker Nossa Copa \u00e9 na Rua<\/em>\u2013Our Cup is on the Street, during one of various opening day protests across Rio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people saying that to go to the street during the World Cup is to root against Brazil,\u201d explained the organizers. \u201cIt\u2019s precisely the opposite. Everyone knows that the contractors, Fifa, the sponsors and some politicians will win a lot with the World Cup. The people are left out. That\u2019s why our Cup will be on the street!\u201d<\/p>\n

The protest, which marched across the center, from Candel\u00e1ria to Lapa in around two hours, was packed and carnivalesque in mood, with diverse sectors of civil society represented. \u201cN\u00e3o Vai Ter Copa<\/em>,\u201d \u201cCopa das Greves<\/em>,\u201d (The Cup of Strikes) and \u201cFifa Go Home\u201d dominated the discourse, with a focus on striking public sector workers and groups marginalized by World Cup preparations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI come for a better country, better education, and [to protest] waste in building the stadiums,\u201d explained Oswaldo Barros, an education student from Jacarepagu\u00e1, West Zone. As a result of the World Cup Law<\/a>, which enshrines Fifa\u2019s commercial interests in Brazilian law, \u201cBrazil has been turned into a colony of Fifa,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

There were various favela movements present, from Ocupa Alem\u00e3o<\/a> to Favela N\u00e3o Se Cala<\/a>. Leonardo Souza, resident of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> and participant in Ocupa Alem\u00e3o, explained his motives for being there. \u201cAs a resident of a favela, it is more the question of the militarization of the favelas,\u201d referring to the government\u2019s controversial introduction of increasingly draconian security measures, beyond the UPPs<\/a>\u2013Alem\u00e3o is currently being patrolled by BOPE<\/a> officers, while Mar\u00e9<\/a> is being occupied by the army. Leonardo also complained about the \u201cwastes\u201d of the World Cup. \u201cIn Alem\u00e3o we don\u2019t have basic sanitation<\/a> and we only have one school inside for 15 favelas [approximately 70,000 residents]. As for hospitals, we only have the UPA\u201d (Emergency Treatment Unit). \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Feminist and LGBT movements were there to express their opposition to the handling of the World Cup, and its adverse effects on their rights. \u201cThis World Cup is not a World Cup for women, it actually excludes this population\u2013women, black women, poor people, favela residents,\u201d argued Taiana da Silva Lima, from the Coletivo Rua, speaking about the situation of women. \u201cThe lack of investment in education<\/a> and health<\/a> affects women more, who are responsible for finding a school for their children, [taking care of] old people, sick people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet protesters made it clear that soccer, a symbol of Brazilian popular culture, was not their target. \u201cWe are not against football, we\u2019re against the way the World Cup is being organized,\u201d explained Taiana.<\/p>\n

However, once the protest settled under the Lapa Arches, violence broke out, reportedly when police attempted to arrest a protester. The situation quickly escalated, with tear gas and bombs used by police to pacify an increasingly frustrated crowd. RioOnWatch witnessed excessive force on the part of Shock\u00a0police officers, with protesters unnecessarily hit and kicked once arrested.<\/p>\n

Social Media Speaks<\/b><\/h3>\n
\"\"The controversy about the upcoming World Cup has reverberated well beyond the streets, with much of the debate playing out across social media. #NaoVaiTerCopa, #NaoWorldCup and #CopaPraQuem hashtags are reproduced every few minutes as people, both in Brazil and beyond, express their frustration with preparations for the mega-event.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The campaign is being used to highlight human rights questions related to the World Cup\u2013for example, to highlight the militarization of security: \u201cMissiles Installed on Apartment Buildings to Protect FIFA\u2019s World Cup, 200,000 Troops Deployed #NaoVaiTerCopa,\u201d read one frequently retweeted post<\/a>. \u201cEnjoyed [the] game of football?! Now let\u2019s get back to the reality outside the stadium #CopaPraQuem #NaoVaiTerCopa,\u201d tweeted @TheBlogPirate<\/a> along with pictures of violence and brutality in the protests.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Favela voices have been active across social media, organizing protests and resistance to injustices committed in the name of the World Cup. \u201cThe party in the stadiums is not worth the tears in the favelas,\u201d wrote residents mobilizing to attend Thursday’s protest, alongside pictures of home demolitions. The Mar\u00e9 Vive<\/a> collective called Brazilians to protest, writing that \u201cWith so many ‘missed shots,’ Brazil cannot be the champion. We want education, health, work, security, the right to life.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n

The World Cup That Won\u2019t Happen<\/b><\/h3>\n

Ultimately, as the World Cup unfolds, and slogans such as #NaoVaiTerCopa move from the realm of the literal to the poetic, it captures a sentiment that many in Brazil feel: their excitement and hopes for the tournament\u2013the return of soccer\u00a0to its symbolic home\u2013have been dashed. The World Cup they once dreamed of\u00a0hosting has been soured by exposure of\u00a0the corruption, waste and greed that have been at the core of preparations. Yet protesters must continue to emphasize that the problems are bigger than a sports tournament: as unpleasant an organization as Fifa might be, it is a corrupt political and social system, where opportunism, impunity and prejudice run amok, that allows one of the champions of Brazil\u2019s popular culture\u2013football\u2013to be twisted and exploited, dashing Brazilians\u2019 dreams for the tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few would have imagined in 2007, when Brazil won its bid to host the World Cup, that the controversy surrounding use of public money, corruption and militarization would have unfolded as it did. A Fifa […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":16024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1290,329,336],"tags":[1087,255,280,32,140,783,189,11,107,918,964,15,18,535,796,167],"writer":[1776],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-voicesfromsocialmedia","12":"tag-activism","13":"tag-complexo-da-mare","14":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","15":"tag-corruption","16":"tag-favela-nao-se-cala","17":"tag-fifa","18":"tag-forced-evictions","19":"tag-health","20":"tag-military-police","21":"tag-occupy-alemao","22":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","23":"tag-protest","24":"tag-sanitation","25":"tag-social-media","26":"tag-world-cup","27":"writer-benjamin-parkin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=15996"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=15996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}