Anti-World Cup Protests Planned In 36 Brazilian Cities

SAO PAULO (AFP) – Opponents of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil said they have scheduled protest demonstrations in 36 cities for Saturday.

Under the slogan “there won’t be a Cup”, the Rio Anonymous group called for the protests on its Facebook page Thursday, calling it “the first action this year to say no to the World Cup.”

Organizers are railing against police violence, inadequate social services and the billions of dollars being spent on staging the World Cup, which is to be held in 12 host cities from June 12 to July 13.

“The goal of the protests is to fight for the interests of the people and of any person who wants a country with more justice and less inequality,” they said.

“FIFA (world’s football governing body) go home” and “There won’t be a Cup,” they added in an appeal also carried on Twitter.

The call appears to be a bid to revive last June’s nationwide street demonstrations, which brought more than one million people onto the streets nationwide to press for similar demands.

Saturday’s demonstrations would take place across Brazil, including in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Brasilia, organizers said.

In Rio, scene of several protests since last June’s massive demonstrations against corruption and the cost of the World Cup, the highlight will be a rally outside the famed Copacabana Palace hotel on Copacabana beach.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic capital and most populous city, a protest is planned near the MASP art museum on the central Avenida Paulista.