Public forms of anti-authoritarian protest in Brazil in 1968. Student leadership and social complicity

Abstract

The worldwide student rebellion in the so-called ‘long 68’ affected practically every country in Latin America: especially Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil. In Brazil, students emerged as a social, political and academic group with an especially strong commitment to democratising and modernising the university system, a movement at the vanguard of non-violent resistance to the civil-military dictatorship established in 1964, and a public actor capable of mobilising and attracting other sectors of the community to their cause, the latter having a specific clout and capacity to influence. In this article, we delve into the manifestations of these aspects in the ‘public sphere’ (Arendt). In concrete terms, we look at what is known as the Passeata dos Cem Mil (March of the Hundred Thousand), and the events leading up to it. This was the largest civil mobilisation ever to take place in Brazil – up until that point. It was led by the most progressive sectors of university students, bringing together a wide range of social actors – the Catholic Church, the mothers of young people suffering repression, artists, politicians, workers and university professors. Very quickly, it entered the ‘collective memory’ (Halbwachs) and ‘social imaginaries’ (Taylor) as a physical and symbolic point of reference for resistance to the dictatorship. For this investigation, we have critically and ideologically analysed (Van Dijk) the news articles, newspaper columns, reports and editorials on the subject which appeared in Brazil’s main newspapers.

Keywords

• Brazil; 1968; university students; social imaginaries; public sphere; daily press.