A strike by subway workers snarling Brazil’s biggest city threatened yesterday to disrupt the FIFA World Cup even after Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff denounced a “systematic campaign” against the tournament and her political party.
The work stoppage over wage demands by staff has caused massive traffic jams for the past four days in Sao Paulo as the city prepares to host the opening game.
With four days to go, authorities are hard-pressed to resolve the dispute before more than 60,000 fans descend on the Corinthians Arena for Thursday’s scheduled game between Brazil and Croatia.
The arena itself has been plagued by delays. Construction workers were racing to finish it before the opening whistle, wiping seats, checking beams and installing wiring in two temporary stands.
The city’s subway strike is the latest social upheaval to hit Brazil, where protesters angry at the World Cup’s US$11 billion bill have staged demonstrations.
Rousseff said the protests were orchestrated to derail her Workers Party (PT) before Oct. 5 elections.
“Today, there is a systematic campaign against the World Cup — or rather, it is not against the World Cup, but rather a systematic campaign against us,” Rousseff said late on Friday in the southern city of Porto Alegre.
Rousseff, a leftist political prisoner during the 1964-to-1985 military dictatorship, said that even when the likes of Pele led Brazil to glory, “[the nation] did not confuse the World Cup with politics.”
The president insists the money spent on the tournament will leave a legacy of modernized airports and transport infrastructure that will benefit Brazil for years to come.
However, much of the other promised infrastructure has been shelved, while five of the 12 stadiums have yet to be finished.
Rousseff’s popularity has taken a hit, with an opinion poll showing that her support for the October election dropped from 37 percent in April to 34 percent this month.
However, she still led the pack of candidates, with her main rival, social democrat Aecio Neves, falling by one point to 19 percent.
In Sao Paulo, a court was to rule yesterday on the subway strike’s legality, but the union said it could continue the work stoppage even if it lost the legal battle.
Workers have reduced a claim for a 16.5 percent wage hike to 12.2, but employers are offering just 8.7 percent.
The subway standoff led to a clash on Friday between picketing strikers and police inside a metro station, with authorities swinging truncheons and firing tear gas.
Last year’s Confederations Cup saw more than 1 million people take to the streets.
Although this year’s marches have been smaller, Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning captain Cafu said he anticipated more unrest.
“The political situation is boiling over — and I wish the talk could be of soccer. But that’s currently not possible given all the political arguments,” he said.
In Sao Paulo, people standing in a long bus line railed against politicians and striking workers alike.
“They should stop the strike. It’s hurting workers,” said Ademar Francisco do Santo, 31, a doorman wearing Brazil’s yellow team jersey whose commute was two hours longer than usual.
Carlos Alberto Torres, 63, a retired administrator of Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain, said the strike was political. He blamed corrupt politicians for Brazil’s problems.
“It’s not the Cup that’s messing up the country. It’s been like this since Don Pedro arrived,” he said, referring to Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, who discovered Brazil in 1500. “Someone is always robbing the country.”
Three of the five subway lines were partially operating, while trains were not arriving at the Corinthians Arena.
Subway union official Rogerio Malaquias told reporters that up to 95 percent of employees support the strike.
“As long as there is momentum, the movement will continue and could continue until the World Cup,” Malaquias said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in