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Curitiba: beyond the myth of the perfect city
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...
Bolsonaro and the death of social housing
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...
Brasília: Homeless Workers Occupy Federal Cities Ministry
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...
The Paysandu Fire and the Right to the City
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...
A Tragedy Foretold: FLM leader Osmar Silva Borges on the Paysandu Fire
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...
When Living is a Privilege, Occupying is a Right
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...
MTST Occupies Notorious “Lava Jato” Penthouse Apartment
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...
URGENT: A call for solidarity against forced evictions of MST camps in northern Brazil
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...
Inside the MNLM Squatters Movement
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...
Guardian Criminalizes the Urban Poor in Rockefeller-Sponsored Series on São Paulo
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...
Radical Reform and the Right to the Brazilian City
The Rise, Success and Decline of the PT Party's Virtuous Cycle Model of Urban Governance.
By Brian Mier.
In 1964, the US helped overthrow democratically elected, center-left president Jango Goulart and install a...
São Paulo: Rebel City
During illegitimate, corrupt president Michel Temer's attempt to implement an unnecessary extreme austerity regime that plunged millions of people below the poverty line and caused the UN to warn that Brazil...
Urban Reformer: An interview with Erminia Maricato
Original version of article at COHA. Reproduced with permission.
This interview was originally conducted in Portuguese, and translated by the author.
Erminia Maricato is one of Brazil’s most renowned urban planners. In addition...
Urban Policy & Public Participation in Brasil
Brasil has had some of the world's most progressive city governments over the past 3 decades. For all the news on corruption spread by the international media leading up to last...
The Golpista Everyman & the “Clean” City
In October São Paulo voters went to the polls and threw out one of the World's most progressive big city governments in favor of João Doria, from the conservative PSDB party....
Against Austerity: World Habitat Day
We are not against Dilma, but we are against this methodology she is using to throw her government into the service of savage capitalism. - Luis Gonzaga “Gegê” da Silva.
Yesterday, on October...
Fighting Speculation and Gentrification, one Building at a Time
The centre of São Paulo is mainly comprised of commercial, office and abandoned buildings. Most of those who work there cannot afford the rent of the flats downtown, so they must...
A Brief Look at Brazilian Social Movements
Brazil currently has its most conservative Congress in decades. As violence against social movements increases and the criminalization of Brazilian social movements in the media and judiciary intensifies, it is a...