Curitiba is known around the world for innovative urban planning and European heritage. During a speech at the World Social Forum, however, Carol Dartora accused the city government of hiding its black population and pushing the poor to neighboring dormitory cities. The following is an edited transcript of the speech, which was made in a […]
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 […]
Thousands march against increase in violence, mass evictions and criminalization of social movement leaders On June 5, bus caravans arrived in Brasilia from across the country, carrying members of the nation’s largest urban social movements, representing over 1 million organized homeless workers. For four days, they camped out and marched on the nations capital, holding […]
By Brian Mier. In the early morning of May 1, a 24 story building on Paysandu square in central São Paulo caught fire and collapsed. There are three confirmed deaths and 36 people are still missing. The building was a squat which was home to 140 families. The fire department was quick to the scene […]
Although squatters are frequently treated as criminals in the national and international media, according to article 5 of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, any citizen who does not own property has the right to occupy any abandoned tax-scofflaw building and pressure the government to convert it to ownership-based social housing. In São Paulo, a dozen buildings […]
According to the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, land banking is a crime. Unlike in, for example, the United States, it is illegal for a landlord to hold a building empty for years, without paying real estate taxes or maintaining the property, waiting for real estate values to rise so that he can flip it. If […]
Guaruja, São Paulo. This morning a group of activists from the Homeless Workers Movement (Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto/MTST) and People Without Fear (Povo Sem Medo) the popular front to which they belong, occupied the penthouse apartment that Operation Car Wash prosecutors claim belongs to ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The claim, based entirely […]
Dear Comrades An aggressive attack is being waged against MST landless peasants in the northern state of Pará, Brazil. Large-scale landowners along with local judicial authorities, mainstrain media and the Brazilian military police are targeting MST camps throughout the country. 2.000 peasant families living in 20 camps located in the northern State of Pará are […]
By Brian Mier. When the Brazilian Military Dictatorship ended in 1985, citizens began a nation wide campaign to petition for people’s amendments to the new constitution, which was ratified in 1988. One of the most important victories, from a popular participation standpoint, were people’s amendments 182 and 183, which guarantee the right for anyone who […]
The Guardian kicked off a week of coverage about São Paulo today, as part of its Rockefeller Foundation sponsored “Cities” Series. Although part of this content appears to be generated with support from local news non-profit Agência Publica and respectable local journalists like Leonardo Sakamoto, the series opens with erroneous information. Today’s headline says, reads […]