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Speaker: Angela Alonso, Professor of Sociology, University of São Paulo, Visiting Fellow at ALARI
Moderated by: Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, PhD candidate in the Department of Government, Harvard University; Graduate Student Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
The 2013 protests marked a pivotal moment in Brazilian politics, standing as the largest demonstrations since the 1980s re-democratization. In this presentation, I will introduce my book "Treze: a política de ruas de Lula a Dilma" (2023), which draws upon a comprehensive dataset of protest events and interviews conducted with movement leaders and governmental officials. I will argue June 2013 was a protest cycle, with roots in 2003, when the Workers' Party took office and changed the relation between street politics and institutional politics. The government-led reforms sparked conflicts zone over redistribution, morality, and violence, opening political opportunities for social mobilization. Three distinct political activism fields emerged opposing the government in the streets, two on the left and one on the right of the government. Over the span of a decade, these fields independently organized minor demonstrations, gradually gathering strength before synchronously taking to the streets during Dilma Rousseff's presidency. The June 2013 demonstrations exhibited a mosaic of diverse and simultaneous protests, each led by distinct movements with their own objectives and engaging in competition for control over street politics. Despite their disputes, all directed their dissent towards a shared target – the Workers' Party government.
Angela Alonso is a professor of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP), and acts as the coordinator of the Social Movements and Political Institutions research team at Cebrap (Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning). Furthermore, she also serves on the Adjunct Panel for Humanities and Social Sciences, Architecture and Economy at The São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp). Currently, she is a visiting researcher at ALARI (Afro-Latin American Research Institute) at Harvard University. Alonso holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (2001) and pursued postdoc studies at Yale University (2009–10). She served as Cebrap's president (2015-2019) and authored a political column for Folha de São Paulo (2016-2023). She is the author of several books, including Ideias em Movimento: a geração 1870 na crise do Brasil-Império, 2001 (French edition: Idées en mouvement: La génération de 1870 dans la crise du Brésil-Empire, 2014); Joaquim Nabuco: os salões e as rua, 2007, a biography (Joaquim Nabuco - Les salons et les rues, 2017). Flores, votos e balas: o movimento abolicionista brasileiro (1868-1888) (2015); and The Last Abolition: the Brazilian abolitionist movement, 1868-1888 (Cambridge U.P, 2021). Aditionally, she co-edited Conflitos: fotografia e violência política no Brasil (1889-1964) (with Heloísa Espada, 2017) and co-authored two documentaries with Paulo Markun, about the 2013 Brazilian protests, titled Junho: o começo do avesso, 2020, and Ecos de Junho, 2022). Her latest publication, Treze: a política de rua de Lula a Dilma (2023), focuses on the protests during the governments of the Work Party in Brazil. Alonso's contributions have been recognized through the CNPq/Anpocs (National Social Sciences Association) award for best PhD in Social Sciences (2001), the John S. Guggenheim Foundation fellowship (2009), the Jabuti Prize for best book in Human Sciences in Brazil (2016) and the Brazilian Academy of Writers award for best book of the year (2016). Over the course of two decades, she has been studying social movements, and she is currently starting research on political assassinations.
Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government. His research examines contemporary challenges to democratic institutions in Latin America, with a focus on Central America and Mexico. His dissertation explores the causes and consequences of efforts by criminal organizations to influence elections. He is a 2022-23 USIP and Minerva Peace and Security Scholar and a graduate of the University of Oxford and Harvard College. Manuel was born and raised in El Salvador.
Presented in collaboration with Weatherhead Institute for International Affairs