Hugo Fanton

Hugo Fanton is the State Coordinator of the Central de Movimentos Populares (Popular Movements Central) in São Paulo. CMP is an organization that was formed through a historic process of resistance by popular movements, especially the social struggles of the 1980s in Brazil for democracy, the defense of urban reform, and the right to the city. The CMP was created to articulate the urban popular movements in their common and general struggles, with the objective of overcoming the fragmentation of these struggles. Different urban movements are involved with CMP, such as those representing or advocating for housing, health, women, the black movement, youth, and grassroots associations, among others. The main flags of the struggle are self-management, the right to housing and to the city, popular participation in public policies, the fight to end evictions, and against the criminalization of social movements. 
He holds a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Campinas (Unicamp), focusing his research on the historical resistance of the population of Heliópolis, the largest slum in São Paulo. All of his academic efforts were directly related to the struggles in which he was involved. Since 2017, he has served as a postdoctoral researcher in Political Science at the University of São Paulo (USP). His work relates to social classes, social movements, democracy, public policies and urban development.
 
 The crisis of democracy, urban political disputes, and authoritarian neoliberalism in Brazil
 
 In the context of a global economic crisis and deep crises of representative democracies in different countries, this research aims to discuss the “Brazilian case” through reflecting on urban development in the 21st century. Focusing on political, economic, and social relations and disputes between businesspersons and popular movements, the objective at hand is to analyze the shaping of new hegemony relations in Brazil in 2010, and to contribute with the definition of the period beginning after the judicial-parliamentary coup that deposed President Dilma Rousseff (PT). My hypothesis is that Brazilian urban policy was part of the political, economic, and ideological dispute that involved dominant and subordinate classes in the period, and the analysis of the actions of the different social forces that comprise the urban struggle – such as businessmen, business associations, employers’ unions, social movements, community-based associations, drug traffickers and militia, among others – will provide elements for the discussion of the general dynamics of hegemony relations. Through dialogues between the Brazilian case and the empirical and theoretical production on the reality of different countries, it is also intended to contribute to reflections on the crisis of democracy, the “multi-scalar aspects of authoritarian neoliberalism”, the advance of authoritarianism on a global scale, and their relation to austerity programmes and urban policies. To achieve these objectives, qualitative research is conducted, with the production of empirical material that combines documentary research and interviews with businesspersons, business associations,and leaders of urban social movements.

Publications

1. O capitalismo, a política e as cidades no Brasil 

Hugo Fanton Ribeiro da Silva. O capitalismo, a política e as cidades no Brasil. 1. ed. São Paulo: UNMP, 2019. v.1. 60p. Link: http://www.unmp.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/livro_fim.pdf

2. Deslocamento político do empresariado industrial nos anos 2010 e a crise do lulismo

SILVA, Hugo Fanton Ribeiro da; OLIVEIRA, Gabriel Nunes. Deslocamento político do empresariado industrial nos anos 2010 e a crise do lulismo. In: ANPOCS, 2019, Caxambu. Anais da ANPOCS, 2019. Link: http://anpocs.com/index.php/encontros/papers/43-encontro-anual-da-anpocs/st-11/st12-8/11698-deslocamento-politico-do-empresariado-industrial-nos-anos-2010-e-a-crise-do-lulismo?path=43-encontro-anual-da-anpocs/st-11/st12-8

3. The “Heliópolis Case” and the political urban dispute in Brazil 

Silva, Hugo Fanton Ribeiro da. The “Heliópolis Case” and the political urban dispute in Brazil.RAP Revista Brasileira de Administração Pública, v. 52, p. 1073-1089, 2018. Link: http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/rap/article/view/77388/pdf_235

4 – Contradictions and disputes in the policy of agreements between the state and popular movements in the 2000s: the Heliopolis Case

Silva, Hugo Fanton Ribeiro da. Contradictions and disputes in the policy of agreements between the state and popular movements in the 2000s: the Heliopolis Case. Lua Nova (Impresso), p. 149-180, 2018. Link: https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-64452018000300006

5 – Querem que o SUS seja complementar ao setor privado

Fanton, Hugo. Querem que o SUS seja complementar ao setor privado. Revista ADUSP, v. 62, p. 86-93, 2018. Link: https://www.adusp.org.br/files/revistas/62/08.pdf

All Publications from Hugo Fanton:

  • Covid-19 and the Intensification of Urban Conflicts in Brazil

    More than 6,400 families have been evicted from their homes and another 19,000 remain threatened with eviction in Brazil since March 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak started in the country. In the state of São Paulo, 1,681 evictions were carried out and up to 5,000 families can be evicted from their homes at any one time. This startling data relates to informal settlements—evictions for non-payment of rent are not included—and numbers may be even higher, as this reflects only the cases identified by popular movements and the organizations participating in the “Zero Eviction” campaign.

  • Milton Santos: space, technique, and globalization

    The relationships between the local and the global in the shaping of space comprise a set of fundamental categories of Milton Almeida dos Santos, one of the greatest Brazilian thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century. He was a geographer who produced a critical and totalizing theory that permeates different areas of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology, and political economy. In this text, I will present some of his main concepts, due to their relevance and accuracy. His notions of space, technique, place, and territory are fundamental for the understanding of contemporary political, social, and economic dynamics in the Global South and North.

  • The Struggles against Authoritarianism in Brazil: An Interview with Raimundo Bonfim of the National Campaign “Out Bolsonaro!”

    Raimundo Bonfim, national coordinator of the Centre of People’s Movements (CMP), talks about the current political situation in Brazil and gives perspectives on the struggle against Bolsonaro and the challenges currently posed to the Brazilian left.