By Andrew Warshaw
May 16- Just a month before the start of the World Cup, some of the most co-ordinated street protests of recent months have swept through Brazilian cities, once again targeting the huge cost of the tournament.
In Sao Paulo, 5,000 members of the Homeless Workers’ Movement blocked one of the city’s main streets with burning tires, then marched to Corinthians Arena, which will host the World Cup’s opening match between Croatia and Brazil on June 12th. Police responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
“Our goal is symbolic. We don’t want to destroy or damage the stadium,” said Guilherme Boulos, head of the organisation. “What we want are more rights for workers to have access to housing and to show the effects the Cup has brought to the poor.”
One banner carried by demonstrators read “the cup without the people, all to the streets again!”, claiming many have been forced out of their homes because of rising rents in the neighbourhood around the new stadium.
Television pictures of the latest unrest were flashed around the world, hardly the image World Cup organisers are seeking with the tournament ever closer. The two main streets in Rio de Janeiro were blocked by demonstrations who also marched to the city hall while in the capital Brasilia protesters stormed the headquarters of Terracap which manages the city’s $630m stadium many carrying banners reading “FIFA Go Home,” and in Belo Horizonte, about 2,000 people took to the streets.
In the north-east of the country, looters ransacked stores in Recife, taking advantage of a police strike, while protests also gripped the cities of Manaus and Porto Alegre as Brazilians made their feelings known towards the $11 billion World Cup cost which, they say, should have instead been spent on improving health care, education, social projects, housing and public transport.
Local reports said over 200 arrests were made as former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who lobbied for the World Cup, criticised the protests. “The attacks against this event are becoming ever more sectarian and irrational,” Lula told the Spanish daily El Pais.
With federal police considering a nationwide strike during the tournament, there are growing security fears with some 600,000 foreign nationals expected to pout into the country.
Demonstrators are hoping to rekindle the momentum that led to millions hitting the streets last year during the Confederations Cup, the World Cup dress rehearsal but the government tried to downplay the scale of Thursday’s unrest.
“From what I’ve seen, these are specific claims by workers. I’ve seen nothing that is related to the (World) Cup,” said Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo. “There’s no reason to panic ahead of receiving three million Brazilian tourists and 600,000 foreign tourists”