City, State and Federal Governments abandon victims of Paysandu fire and building collapse By Benedito Barbosa On May 1, a former federal police building that was occupied by squatters caught fire and collapsed on Paysandu square, killing an undetermined number of people and leaving 455 homeless. 34 days later, dozens of families are still sleeping […]
The increases in gasoline, cooking gas and diesel prices can not be treated merely as a tax issue. They are the result of a management problem in Petrobras, which has been operating exclusively to serve market demands. In October 2016, under endorsement from the Temer government, company president Pedro Parente adopted an international pricing policy […]
72-hour national warning strike started at 12:01 AM. Petroleum workers have been holding assemblies and protests for two months to halt Petrobras privatization and change its pricing policies. By Rosely Rocha “Everyone on the street on this May 30th to lower prices for fuel and cooking gas!” This is the rallying cry of the Petroleum workers’ […]
“The Brazilian people are anxious for reductions in gasoline, cooking gas and diesel prices,” says Petroleum workers union leader José Maria Rangel By Andre Accarini The warm up for the petroleum workers’ strike, scheduled to start on Wednesday, May 30th, is now underway with paralyzations, demonstrations and protests across the entire Petrobras system. Petroleum workers […]
By Larissa Jacheta Riberti* I have been writing for a truck driver’s trade newspaper for the past six years but would not risk making a thorough analysis of the current strike. However since many opinions (most notably by people on the “left”) circulating on the social media are beginning to make me feel uncomfortable, I would like to […]
Manifesto to the Brazilian People The Frente Brasil Popular* (Brazil Popular Front/FBP) denounces the persecution and injustice against Lula and defends his right as a candidate in free and democratic elections 1. A man is being unjustly persecuted because, together with the Brazilian people, he proved that it is possible to build a free, just, […]
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 […]
April 30, 2018. Hundreds of buses have already arrived in Curitiba and hundreds more are traveling in caravans on route to this Southern Brazilian city of 3 million, where ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been held as a political prisoner for three weeks, for what promises to be the largest May Day protest […]