Brazil by Saad-Filho Alfredo; Morais Lecio;

Author:Saad-Filho, Alfredo; Morais, Lecio;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pluto Press

Overview

The economic, political and distributional shifts associated with the transitions to democracy and to neoliberalism have realigned Brazil’s class structure.1 In broad strokes, the country’s class structure includes the élite (the bourgeoisie and the traditional middle class) and the broad working class (the formal and informal proletariat, which, in turn, comprises the semi-proletariat and the lumpen-proletariat, not detailed in what follows).2 As a rough approximation, the 2010 Census suggests that less than 1 per cent of a population of 200 million are part of the bourgeoisie; 16 per cent are in the middle class; a little over 70 per cent are formal and informal workers; and 11 per cent are in the semi- and lumpen-proletariat.3

This chapter describes the Brazilian class structure and examines how it has changed in recent decades. These insights inform a class interpretation of the protests against the Rousseff administration, in 2013, and the disintegration of her administration. These were the largest mass demonstrations in Brazil since the campaign for democracy and the downfall of President Collor. The demonstrations had a shifting class character and strong political implications: for example, they broke the alliance of winners that had re-elected Lula and elected Dilma Rousseff.

The protests against the PT are significant for another reason: they are symptomatic of the forms of political contestation under neoliberalism. Class analysis can offer a rich vantage point for the examination of the relations between social structure, the expression of class interests and political protest in neoliberal societies. The concept of ‘lumpenisation of politics’ is introduced, in order to underpin the interpretation of the emerging forms of contestation in Brazil and elsewhere.

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