Brazil’s science march and the role of nationalism and the military
By
Miguel Andrade
3 May 2017
[/keywords]Brazil, science, military, PT, dictatorship[/keywords]
Dozens of Brazilian cities saw marches and demonstrations on April 22 in solidarity with the US March for Science. The largest demonstration was held in São Paulo, where about 500 scientists, students and supporters braved an atypical autumn rain to listen to speeches by workers on some of the most challenging issues facing tropical diseases sciences in the country and prominent figures such as the president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), biochemist Helena Nader, and IPCC member Paulo Artaxo. Brazilian Science Academy (ABC) president, physicist Luiz Davidovich, addressed the demonstration in Rio.
Genuine concern over the international and democratic issues facing scientific endeavor and solidarity with the worldwide movement against the far-right assault on scientific reasoning that animated the international movement was expressed by many speakers as well as those demonstrators interviewed by the WSWS. Nonetheless, the Brazilian demonstrations, and São Paulo’s in particular, were held under the shadow of national, economic and military interests that has been cast for almost a century over the country’s scientific community.
Brazilian science is facing a deep crisis, with budget cuts initiated in the last years of the Workers Party (PT) rule in 2014 ending up in the slashing slashing of the Science Ministry budget for 2017 by 50 percent under former vice president Michel Temer’s administration. Meanwhile, the Science Ministry has been merged with the Communications department, which is responsible for, among other things, many transport-related activities.
Against such…