Writer, geographer and former development professional who has lived in Brazil for 26 years. Former directorate member of the Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana (National Urban Reform Forum). Has lived in São Luis, Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Author of “Os Megaeventos Esportivos na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro e o Direito á Cidade” (CEPR: Porto Alegre. 2016). Editor of "Voices of the Brazilian Left" (Sumare: São Paulo. 2018). Editor of "Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil" ((Sumare: São Paulo. 2019) Irregular correspondent for the Chicago radio show This is Hell.
The Bolsonaro government freezes funding for self-managed social housing construction, destroys the Ministry of Cities and tries to declare the housing movements as terrorists by Brian Mier* Approximately 7 million Brazilian families live in substandard housing, in shacks or simple brick houses that are often built in areas at risk of flooding or landslides that […]
The Unions and Social movements successfully blocked Michel Temer’s neoliberal pension reforms but new proposals by the Bolsonaro administration are even worse by Brian Mier In a period marked by destruction of most of Brazil’s labor rights and the first ever lowering of the minimum wage, one of the only glimmers of hope was the […]
Charges so flimsy that they could only be upheld in a State of Exception. by Brian Mier On February 6, interim judge Gabriela Hardt, who recently replaced Sergio Moro in the Operation Car Wash investigation, convicted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption charges related to alleged illegal reforms on a vacation property in Atibaia, […]
Indigenous people and their supporters protest in 51 cities around the World against the neo-fascist Bolsonaro administration’s dismantling of reservations, cultural and land rights and his supporters’ genocidal threats. by Brian Mier January 31 was marked by protests for Brazilian Indigenous rights in cities across Brazil as people took to the streets to protest a […]
Right wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister violates article 120 of the Brazilian Criminal Code and denies Lula a right that was respected even during the repressive Military Dictatorship. by Brian Mier On January 29, Genival Inácio “Vavá” da Silva died of cancer at the age of 79. Vavá was former President Lula’s older brother and […]
“All of this talk about democracy in Venezuela, about Maduro being a dictator, in reality, masks very strong commercial interests in accessing the petroleum. It’s the same thing that happened in Iraq. Nobody discusses whether Iraq has democracy or whether the Iraqi people are doing well these days, they have simply forgotten.” Gleisi Hoffmann grew […]
We are particularly concerned about a number of Bolsonaro’s policy proposals that, if implemented, can be expected to inflict far-reaching and lasting damage on Brazilian communities and on the environment The following Manifesto published on December 27 and signed by 47 US organizations, including the 12 million strong AFL-CIO, warns of risks to Democracy, the […]
In an interview on the WNUR Chicago radio show This is Hell, which aired on Saturday, December 22, 2018, Brasil Wire co-editor Brian Mier explained what Jacobin and the Western / Northern left media at large got wrong about politics in pre-coup Brazil – focusing attacks on the country’s leading left PT party and ignoring […]
In a letter written to an international crowd of union and social movement activists and political leaders gathered in a São Bernardo do Campo union hall, Lula evokes the memory of Gandhi, Mandela and King, and says that despite setbacks happening around the world, the fight for human rights will continue. On December 10, the […]
With Bolsonaro’s new Justice Minister Sergio Moro claiming he was on vacation, Lula testified to a substitute judge in Curitiba on charges involving an allegedly illegal kitchen remodeling which took place after he left public office in a house that the courts do not claim he ever owned, located in a state outside of their jurisdiction. […]