One of the key foci of my research is understanding how the movement in June was so successful. In my opinion, one of the key group was the Fórum de Lutas contra o aumento da passagem (abbreviated here as Forum). It was born the second half of 2012, it was fundamental in organizing the first protest against the increase of the ticket price at the beginning of June and it later maintained a key organisational role in the subsequent months, till late August when it self-imploded. At the beginning of its existence, the focus of the group was the public transport system and the increment of the ticket prize. However, it eventually expanded its focus, embracing the issues of the entire city of Rio de Janeiro as its theme and changed its name to Forum de Lutas (with the idea of a further change to Forum de Lutas da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro).
For my research it is also very important to understand why an important project that achieved a lot, organizing marches with millions in the streets, was not able to survive for a longer time. Preliminary consideration points to the fundamental cause being the political manoeuvring of the various political parties participating in elections. However, this is not the argument of this post. In this period I am participating in various meetings and informal chats and the topic of many is always the same: the necessity of organisation.
It is also clear that we are in a period that is not of oceanic march, as was in June/July and October, many are speaking of reflux. I believe that people cannot be on the streets every day, there is an alternation of periods with more marching and other periods with different activities. Furthermore, since the end of the teachers strike every day there is something: a small demo, a flyering, a meeting; it is impossible to be involved in every activity, sometimes I feel I should be split in two because there many overlaps. I think that people are overwhelmed by the number of activities, while a hard-core militant (especially students or the unemployed and resident near the centre) can be involved on a daily basis, a “normal” person attends 2-3 event a week (sacrificing time for leisure, family, etc.). It is not a reflux, the movement has just changed and it is a different phase, I have a feeling that at any moment they can fill the streets again if there is a common cause.
For this reason coordination is very important: there are so many assemblies and activities that it is not possible to account for everything and people have started to discuss this. From my point of view there are two big problems:
1. lack of internal communication (e.g. people do not know what other people are doing), 2. Coordination inside the movement.
The Forum was the perfect space for this: information could circulate and various groups could plan together where/when do an activity. This is something that is that is clearly lacking now and, learning from the errors of the past, there are some attempts to overcome this situation.
Personally, since the beginning I was a big fan of the Forum: despite all its shortcomings it was the best and biggest example of coordination of groups with a different perspectives and independents. Moreover, after it was clear that the size was becoming too big, its attempt to decentralize was a clear reference to the organization of Paris Commune in 1871 and the Libertarian Municipalism theorized by Bookchin. I was very sad when I discovered that it was dead and I was looking at this event as a shame. However, thanks to some discussion and interviews, the end of the Forum was not only negative: it led to the explosion of the movement. Various assemblies were born in different neighbourhoods, various collective were born, the occupation in Leblon and that of Câmara started, etc. Now people are speaking about politics in spaces that were unthinkable just few months ago.
I believe that now is time to re-create a space (or spaces) for coordination, without ingenuousness, the desire neither to make the same mistakes of the past nor be attached to the past. Maintaining coordination over a long period of time was always a challenge in all the popular movements around the world and often the incapacity of the movement to articulate on a major scale leads to the implosion of the movement itself. The direction seems clear but the ‘how’ is the hardest part: sometimes people are asking examples from outside, from other part of the world to take inspiration. I always said that there are many useful examples but the movement here is so advanced that it has to find its unique way.
The Forum is dead. Long live the Forum!
Ps: for all those who ask, I have not received any answer from Antonio Negri
