Free public transport and popular mobilization

On June 27, 2013, at the invitation of the Free Fare Movement (Movimento Passe Livre – MPL), Paulo Arantes participated in an open class in front of the São Paulo City Hall (then under the administration of his former student, Fernando Haddad). Arantes set out to answer two questions. Firstly: “How do we explain that, in one week, a million people took the streets?”. And the second question was related to the motto of that huge mobilization, a metaphor based on the national anthem: “The sleeping giant on splendid cradle. If the giant has awoken, we should ask what dreams it had in these twenty years of deep sleep?”.

Besides watching the class, we recommend reading the ebook After June, peace will take over on this platform, which analyzes the meaning of the so-called “June Journeys”.

Keywords: June Journeys; MPL; activism; mobilization; civil rights; sit-in; black movement; public opinion; Brazilian people; public transport; popular power.