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DEMOCRACY FOREIGN POLICY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAWFARE MEDIA OPINION UNITED STATES

Fait Accompli: The Cheerleaders for Impeachment

In September Bloomberg covered a Brazilian elite NYC fundraising gala which it sponsored along with Goldman Sachs, BrazilFoundation (linked to BlackRock Inc) and KAR Properties, a developer who specialises in selling Miami condominiums to wealthy Brazilian ex-pats. In it, the reporter wrote “While the sensitivity of the issue prevented anybody from speaking a word publicly about Brazilian President Dilma […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL FOREIGN POLICY LAWFARE OPINION UNITED STATES

Empire: Unchanging motives, changing means

American exceptionalism is a myth. Superpowers do not promote democracy, not at home and certainly not abroad. Democracy requires popular sovereignty – power to govern without external control – the antithesis of empire. – Jan K. Black PhD. In the recently released ‘The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire’ (Verso Books), the first […]

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DEMOCRACY ECONOMY Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil OPINION POLITICS

Time For Change To Leave The Crisis Behind

The latest article in our collaboration with Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil. There are hundreds of thousands of people like us in Brasil who are worried about the evolution of the economy and politics and are profoundly disappointed with the performance of the government, the PT and the left in general. The neoliberal adjustments are deepening, mowing down jobs, weakening […]

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DEMOCRACY EDUCATION UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Race, Politics and Education in Brasil

In the new Brazilian movie, “Que Horas ela Volta?” Regina Casé plays a North-Eastern kitchen maid for a rich woman in São Paulo. The narrative is based on the tension created when her employer discovers that her maid’s daughter has been accepted to a prestigious public university. Although neither Casé nor her daughter are black […]

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ACADEMIC DEMOCRACY POLITICS

The Future of Brazil’s Left Turn

President Dilma Rousseff appears to have weathered calls for her impeachment, but the ruling Workers’ Party is in tatters, and a resurgent right is threatening the social progress of the last 12 years. Yet despite recent setbacks the left is showing signs of regeneration. Sunday, August 16, witnessed a third round of protests against Brazil’s […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL HISTORY OPINION POLITICS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Forever in the Future?

Brasil’s streets have been filled with protests in the last few weeks, evoking similar events taking place earlier in the year. Most of the demonstrators are supporters of the defeated presidential candidate Aécio Neves who have collectively paraded across several parts of the country chanting for the removal of Dilma Rousseff, the sitting president who […]

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DEMOCRACY ECONOMY POLITICS SÃO PAULO SOCIAL MOVEMENTS UNDERSTANDING BRASIL VIDEO

Report: National day of Democracy / Anti-Austerity Demonstration

Não vai ter golpe! (You won’t have a Coup!). Brasil’s ‘Silent Left’ did indeed show themselves, across 25 cities. Did the international media show them showing themselves? For the most part, no. U.S. & U.K. newspapers, which have received criticism for their coverage of political demonstrations across Latin America, were conspicuous by their absence. Going against narrative […]

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DEMOCRACY ECONOMY FOREIGN POLICY LAWFARE PETROBRAS RESOURCES UNITED STATES

Leaks: The United States and Brasil’s Oil

In mid-2013, just before large street demonstrations rattled São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, news broke of Edward Snowden’s leak of secret internal documents from the NSA, GCHQ and allied FVEY surveillance services. Early observers in Brazil paid particular attention to a map which measured the intensity of surveillance in the ‘Boundless Informant‘ programme. On this map, […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL OPINION POLITICS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The Silent Left

Back in October 2014,  a thirty-something, upper-middle class couple carry a large red flag towards a demonstration a few kilometres away, having walked the length of São Paulo’s leafy Rua Oscar Freire – an affluent area lined with boutiques & international chains. By the time the pair reach main artery Avenida Reboucas they are visibly shaken from what […]

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DEMOCRACY OPINION POLITICS

Anti-government protests fizzle: Could this be the end of a cycle?

During a year in which the Brazilian Military Police claimed that the São Paulo gay parade somehow shrunk from its regular crowd of 2.5 million people to 20,000 with no discernible difference in size  it’s hard to treat crowd estimates seriously, especially coming from traditional anti-PT media oligarchies who own Veja Magazine, O Globo and […]