With less than a month until the first ball kick, Brazil continues to see protests against the biggest sporting event of the year. Preparations for the World Cup have been followed by a specter of popular discontent, and as the games near. more people hit the streets to voice their displeasure with the government and the Cup.

Brazil could very well have the world's most avid soccer fans: So many rejoiced when it was announced that Brazil would host the world's largest soccer event. Soon after preparations began, however, the nation began to experience mass dissent from lower classes and students in response to the government's actions. Workers have died in construction sites, corruption is rampant, and none of the lower classes are benefiting.

Protests broke out on Thursday, bringing around 5,000 people to the streets in various cities around the country, according to The Guardian. Twelve cities, including Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Recife saw coordinated protests that coincided with various strikes all over the country, worsening the situation for World Cup organizers and law enforcement.

Teachers, public transport workers and museum employers marched alongside anti-World Cup protestors in many of these cities, revealing the deeper issue at hand: The money used in preparation for the World Cup could have been used to better Brazil. Protestors claim the money spent refurbishing Maracana stadium, for example, could pay for 200 schools. The Guardian reports protestors in Rio carried banners saying things like "The Cup will have protests."

Rio's protests saw 1,200 people hit the streets, and they showed their discontent in very creative ways. According to Vice News, demonstrators paraded with a giant skeleton dressed in Brazil's soccer jersey while other performed skits and played music. On Paulista Avenue, protestors used a projector on the side of a building to beam some statistics. One read, "Only 0.4 percent of the resources going to the World Cup is private investment"; another said, "R$2 billion [about $900 million] spent on repressive operations."

The peaceful march soon turned violent.

Police threw stun grenades at protestors after they heckled guarding officers. Both sides blame the other, Vice News reported. Protestors scattered, businesses closed and black bloc members vandalized a local Hyundai dealership. The Korean carmaker is a sponsor of the games.

In Sao Paolo, the protests did not fare well. The Associated Press reported that the protests by more than 1,500 people neared violence as anti-World Cup demonstrators and striking workers blocked roads while carrying banners and flags. Tire barricades were set alight by protestors.

"Our goal is symbolic. We don't want to destroy or damage the stadium," said Guilherme Boulos, head of the Homeless Workers Movement, whose activists gathered at Itaquerao Stadium. "What we want is more rights for workers to have access to housing and to show the effects the Cup has brought to the poor."

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