Ten essential reads to understand the World Cup protests

1. "No, I'm not going to the World Cup" by Carla Dauden (independent, 17 June 2013)

The first clear statement in English of anti-WC protests, by a Brazilian. An excellent, concise, and well-researched video.

2. "Brazil's bread and circuses" by Emma Elliott Freire (The Moral Liberal, 7 May 2014)

An overview of the major issues that are being talked about recently. I do not support the blog on which this is published.

3. "The Brazil behind the cup" by Mateo Pimentel (Dissident Voice, 30 May 2014)

He thinks that the World Cup will give protesters a global forum. I've heard that before. When the sporting starts, the talk stops (South Africa, Sochi, etc). Doesn't have to be like that, though.

4. "'There will have been no World Cup'" by Rodrigo Nunes (Al Jazeera, 30 May 2014)

A philosopher discusses why "World Cup protests" is a misnomer: long-standing social unrest is only recently focusing on the WC as the (rightful) epitome of its frustration.

5. "Generation June" by Wright Thompson (ESPN Magazine, 3 December 2013)

A splendidly written feature story focusing less on the politics and more on the young populists that are engaged in constant protests against Brazil's government, from Lula to Rousseff. My personal favorite among all of these articles.

6. "Brazil's World Cup is an expensive, exploitative nightmare" by Vic Verikaitis (Daily Beast, 30 May 2014)

Vanishing money, slave work, and an all-present bureaucracy. Again, sounds like Russia. Or Italy. Or Greece. Or any one of these soon-to-be Third World economies.

7. "Labor protests ramp up as World Cup nears" by Vincent Bevins (Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2014)

Same as above, with an emphasis on union protests.

8. "Brazil's World Cup party can't hide the country's tensions" by David Goldblatt (The Observer, 24 May 2014)

Focusing on the role of football in Brazil's broader sociopolitical context, especially as concerns race.

9. "Beyond samba, sex, and soccer" by Khaled A. Beydoun (Al Jazeera, 28 May 2014)

A critical race theorist casts Brazil's perennial social unrest in terms of racial warfare and only secondarily as a set of economic grievances.

10. Pictures of protests by indigenous people (The Huffington Post, 28 May 2014)

It is hard to find extensive critical commentaries on this side of the protests, so pictures it is. Really good pictures, too.

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