Mudanças urbanas e fragilidades da política de memória (A destruição do Monumento ao Trabalhador em Goiânia)^*

Abstract

The article deals with the suppression of memory in contemporary urban formations, through research on the destruction of the Monumento ao Trabalhador (Workers Monument) in Goiânia (state of Goiás, Brazil) between 1969 and1986. The socialist explicit content impregnated in the monument since its origin draw attention that resulted in its material disappearance along with its disposal in the memory of the people of Goiânia. In 1969, the Comando de Caça aos Comunistas - CCC (Communist Fighter Command) - pour boiled petroleum pitch in two panels of the monument whose images evoked the struggles of workers and the world of work. The absent defense of the monument and urban interventions in the square of the space in which it was located brought to an end the CCC task. We guided the research route with the notion of institutional or compulsory forgetting, by Paul Ricœur, and also the notion of political legitimacy according to the holding power versions that operate on the symbolic level (Pierre Bourdieu). The analysis was based on threefold categories: political repression, technocratic insensitivity and omission concerned to the memory and symbolism of workers' struggles.

Keywords:
ideological suppression; urban images; Memory policy; Goiânia