Wrathful Protest

Fed up with soaring food prices, shrinking pay and government corruption, the people of Sao Paulo, Brazil's No. 2 city (pop. 2,500,000), rose in wrath last week and repudiated their political bosses. In a municipal election that was supposed to be a rubber-stamping of the government's choice for mayor, they voted 2-to-1 for a rank outsider. Then they launched a wave of sudden strikes that threatened to paralyze the whole metropolis.

What most roused the dull anger of Sao Paulo's clerks and factory workers was the racking pressure of ten years of rising prices. Despite all the government's promises, food costs were 27% more than a year ago; within the week, the price of rice had nearly doubled because the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Sul had suddenly embargoed shipments to avert a shortage of its own. Electric-power rationing caused by drought had shortened factory hours and thus cut take-home pay.

Francisco Cardoso, the official candidate, had the backing of President Getulio Vargas and Adhemar de Barros, the state's political boss. But that turned out to be no help at all. "Shall we throw the robbers out?" croaked his long-shot opponent, a gaunt, unshaven ex-schoolmaster named Janio Quadros. Quadros whipped the wave of Paulista protest still higher by pointing out that the government had paved streets in new real-estate developments for its speculator friends at a cost of $4,480,000 a mile, of which $4,000,000 was straight graft. "The people wanted a change . . . A lamppost could have been elected," admitted Big Boss Adhemar afterwards.

Before the returns were all in, the groundswell of unrest that had lifted Janio into the mayor's job showed signs of rising even higher. Goaded by spiraling living costs, 200,000 textile workers walked out on strike, shutting down 40 major factories. Their demand: 60% more pay. Following them went some 35,000 metal workers, carpenters and cabinetmakers, demanding a flat $40 monthly increase. Communist agitators turned some of the strike meetings into demonstrations for an immediate 46% rollback of the price of rice and beans. As factory streets filled with pickets, rumors spread that a big quebra-quebra (literally, "break-break"), all-night looting outbreak, was in the offing. With the danger that the unrest might boil up into a full-scale general strike, President Vargas summoned Mayor-elect Janio to an urgent conference. As a first result of this session, Janio, a lone-hander who had won without making commitments, took office at once instead of waiting as scheduled until April 29.

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