On April 4, 1983, the south zone of São Paulo experienced a day of fury. A protest against unemployment in Largo 13 de Maio, in Santo Amaro, gave way to a popular explosion, with stores and supermarkets looted. More than 100 people were injured, and around 70 were detained.
“The dose should not be repeated,” said the head of policing in the capital of São Paulo. But the next day was even worse. Around a thousand protesters tried to invade the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, headquarters of the state government. They were unable to occupy the space, but they knocked down part of the guardrails.
Depredations took place in other regions besides the south zone, and a man died, shot, during a looting in Jardim São Luis. The increase in unrest led to more than 300 arrests.
Franco Montoro, then governor of São Paulonegotiated with the protest leaders and, little by little, the situation calmed down.
Those days of anger were accompanied by the report of the Sheetbut not only. Popular outrage was discussed from the most diverse angles in Trends / Debates sectionlaunched by the newspaper almost seven years ago.
Born June 22, 1976the space was consolidated amidst the fervor as an arena open to disagreements, an unusual initiative in the Brazilian press.
In the editions following the 1983 protests, Tendências/Debates published articles by the then vice-governor, Orestes Quercia, from the president of the São Paulo Commercial Association, Guilherme Afif Domingosand the priest Paul-Eugène Charbonneau. And also the doctor from the Metalworkers Union and former federal deputy David Lererand USP professors José Pastore and Reginaldo Prandibetween others.
Each reader could draw their conclusions based on the arguments put forward by political and economic leaders, as well as representatives of civil society. The pluralism exposed at that time in Trends / Debates would be at the heart of Folha Project, matured throughout the 1980s.
The paragraph that opens the section is practically the same half a century later: “Articles published with a byline do not reflect the newspaper’s opinion. Their publication has the purpose of stimulating debate on Brazilian and global problems and reflecting the different trends in contemporary thought.”
This introduction was written by Cláudio Abramo, editorial director at that time.
“The section was born in the mid-1970s, during the dictatorship. Today, the coexistence of free, divergent and even contradictory opinions seems natural. In that context, however, it was bold. The principle of listening to different voices and exposing more than one side of each issue ended up spreading throughout the Brazilian press, making it less engaged, more plural and, consequently, more independent”, says Luiz Frias, publisher of Sheet.
In these five decades of existence, Tendências / Debates has published articles by all those who were at the head of the Presidency of the Republic during the period of redemocratization.
In early October 1992, in the midst of the impeachment process, Fernando Collor was removed from his duties at Planalto. At the end of that year, he resigned.
A year after leaving, he left Sheet the text “Well, what for?”, in which Collor concluded: “With a clear conscience and the certainty of my duty fulfilled, I await the justice of men.”
In April 2019, when he was arrested in Curitiba, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote an article titled “Why are they so afraid of free Lula?” for Trends / Debates. “All I want is for them to point out even one piece of evidence against me,” he said.
In November 2024, two weeks before being indicted by the Federal Police for crimes such as an attempted coup d’état, Jair Bolsonaro signed a text in the section whose title was “Accept democracy.” It generated more than 500 comments on the Sheetthe absolute majority was against publication.
These and other Trends/Debates articles were collected in the book “Word and Power – a Critical Journey through 40 Years of Brazilian Democracy”, launched last year by the publisher Civilização Brasileira.
The space has also highlighted the views of leaders in the Legislature and Judiciary. At the end of his two-year period as president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF)the then minister Luís Roberto Barroso presented the review of its initiatives in the section.
“I consider Trends/Debates, from Sheetone of the most important spaces in the Brazilian press, in terms of content and repercussion. Publishing there is a qualified form of participation in the public debate, open to both members of civil society and political agents”, says Barroso, who left the STF in October last year and returned to law.
“I myself, whenever there is a relevant topic to which I can make a contribution, I am a collaborator”, he adds.
Among the names of civil society that Barroso refers to is José Vicente, lawyer and rector of the Zumbi dos Palmares University.
“I am one of the black men who published the most in Trends / Debates and I saw black people emerge from invisibility and become the cover story on Sheet. Plural, diverse, independent and disruptive, it is a privileged space for debate and a powerful instrument of transformation”, says José Vicente.
Among the intellectuals who have already published in the section are Abdias Nascimento, Celso Furtado, Florestan Fernandes, Rose Marie Muraro and Sueli Carneiro –the articles by these five authors are also in the book “A Palavra e o Poder”.
“In times of polarization, a space like Trends / Debates is extremely important for exchanging ideas in a plural, diverse and respectful way, something fundamental for our democracy”, he states Patricia Blanco, president of Palavra Aberta, an institute dedicated to press freedom and media education.
According to her, a contributor to the section, “it’s been 50 years of promoting the most important discussions for Brazil, where respect for contradictions and divergent opinions stimulate dialogue, critical thinking and freedom of expression”.
Frei Betto is another name that regularly contributes to the section. “I praise Tendências / Debates for being a democratic space, with different and divergent opinions, including in relation to the newspaper’s editorial line”, says the writer.
Controversies
Trends / Debates has also become notable as a space open to controversies. The exchanges of criticism – sometimes harsh, but respectful – are constant.
On October 1, 2007, the presenter Luciano Huck wrote a text considered by him as a “venting” in relation to insecurity in the city of São Paulo.
“I spent a day in the city this week — I live in Rio for professional reasons — and three robberies passed by me. My brother, an employee and I. Gone was a watch that I had just received from my wife to celebrate my birthday. All in Jardins, with armed robbers, with motorcycles and guns”, he stated.
A week later, the newspaper published in the same space an article by writer Ferréz in response to Huck. He wrote a text in the first person, as if he were the motorcycle courier who stole the presenter’s watch. “The time was approaching, there was an arm there that was wavering. I was wondering how someone could wear something on their arm that could buy several houses in their neighborhood,” he wrote.
Further on, journalist Reinaldo Azevedo disagreed with Ferréz vehemently and, days later, singer and composer Zeca Baleiro criticized Huck and Azevedo.
That month, the topic dominated the Reader’s Panel. The authors of the four articles received “boos and applause” from readers, as he says Sérgio Dávila, Editorial Director at Sheet.
“If the newspaper is the open public square that contrasts with the closed condominium of social networks, an initiative like Tendências/Debates is the square’s bandstand, where ideas are presented to their audience, to boos and applause. The longevity of the section shows how successful it is”, says the journalist.
Almost a decade later, in March 2016, the year in which Dilma Rousseff was removed from the Presidency, Wagner Moura wrote the article “For legality” in the section. The actor considered the impeachment process a “classic coup”.
Two days later, journalist André Barcinski responded to the actor with the text “Coisa de Cinema”. It said that, “like the best filmmakers and screenwriters, Moura created a fantastic narrative that fully serves the taste of his target audience.”
As had happened many times before this episode and would happen many times after, “boos and applause” came to the Trends/Debates texts. Built half a century ago, with more than 36 thousand articles published, the “square bandstand” continues to be busy.
