MST Participates in the National Day of Struggle 1

8/22/2019 MST Participates in the National Day of Struggle 1

1/6

MST PARTICIPATES IN THE NATIONALDAY OF STRUGGLE I

On Thursday, July 11, 2013, Brazil erupted inmobilizations, strikes, work stoppages,

occupations and road blockades in a National

Day of Struggle

Brazils Landless

Workers Movement

is a mass social

movement formed

by rural workers

and by all those

who want to fight

for land reform an dagainst injustice

and social

inequality in rural

areas


2/6

1

MST Participates in the National Day of Struggle I

On Thursday, July 11, 2013, Brazil erupted in mobilizations, strikes, work stoppages,occupations and road blockades in a National Day of Struggle. Called for by CUT(Central Workers Union), an assortment of labor unions and a vast array of social

movements, including the MST, the National Day of Struggle put forth specificdemands for the working class and social movements, including a call for agrarianreform. The MST participated and helped lead this mobilization throughout thecountry

Stedile: Structural Reform on the agenda for the 11th July

mobilizations

Original Publish Date:Jul 10 2013

We have not had such vigorous street mobilizations since the campaign for RightsNow in the '80s. The protests which exploded with the youth indignation were justthe tip of the iceberg of the profound social and economic problems that persist in oursociety. On the one hand, the big cities have become a living hell, where workers payhigh costs for low quality public transport. Besides that, they spend two or threehours a day travelling, a pure waste of time.

Those who managed to buy an automobile, financed by international finance capital,are realizing that they paid dearly for the ability not to be able to move. The auto

assembly companies and the associated banks have never before sent so much moneyabroad.


3/6

2

Another thing, the political life of the country is a disgrace. The congressmen onlyrepresent their campaign financiers. The judiciary is an oligarchic power, the last ofthe state powers not yet republican.

Every day there is news about their corruption, which goes unpunished. Even the

President of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Joaquim Barbosa, used public moneyto go to a national soccer team match .... the Globo network did not denounce the factand, coincidentally, has just hired the son of the illustrious judge. Some coincidence!

Globo was fined by the Federal Treasury for evading millions in taxes, for thepurchase of the transmission rights for the 2002 World Cup: according to theTreasury, the company owes R$ 650 million ($320 million US) to the public

purse. The broadcaster also received from the state and municipal governments ofRio de Janeiro the small sum of R$ 20 million (nearly 10 million USD) to promote,with public money, the show of only two hours for the Confederations Cup draw, heldin the Rio Center last year. The Globo network thinks it is the voice of the

people. Stupid fraud. It barely manages to fool the viewers of the televisionsoaps. One of the most common slogans of the youth on the streets was: Globonetwork out! Thus, young people suddenly began to act against the monopoly of the

broadcaster, and for democratization of the mass media in the whole country.

During the protests, Dilma's government had to get off its pedestal to talk to thestreets, and proposed a political reform, a constituent assembly and a popular

plebiscite. In the end the president had to meet with the organized people, which shehad not done in the two and a half years of her mandate.

The elites are trying to control the streets and impose a right-wing agenda. However,they are failing. They surpassed themselves in stirring up an unprepared police force,and infiltrating fascist groups and police intelligence services, to provoke violenceand misrepresent the movement. They failed. The more they repress, the more the

people rebels.

Trade Union and popular movement on the streets

The time has come for the people organized in popular movements, in the tradeunions and in the pastorals they have mobilized. There has not been such broad

popular unity since the defeat in the 1989 elections.

Various assemblies have united left-wing parties, trade union confederations andorganized social movements around a common political platform, starting from thefight for free, good quality public transport, and moving on to structural reforms thatthe working class needs and has fought for, for a long time.

The first day of struggle is set for the 11th July. There will be stoppages, strikes andmarches across the country, to confront the conservative sectors and push thegovernment to the left.

One of the points of this common platform is political reform. The rules of Brazilian

politics have to be wiped clean to democratize them and create mechanisms foreffective popular participation. Among the items that need to be changed are:


4/6

3

exclusively public financing of electoral campaigns, the right of the people to callpopular plebiscites on the basis of petitions, and recall of elected representatives whodo not fulfill their campaign promises.

There is only one way to make these changes: call an Exclusive Constituent

Assembly. The majority of the politicians in Congress, elected from campaigns thatcost millions, paid for by big corporations, will not accept a change in the politicalsystem. So the only way to get a constituent assembly is to call a popular plebisciteimmediately.

President Dilma was encouraged by the voice of the streets to promote thisdebate. However, her political and parliamentary base began to boycott it by placingobstacles. Therefore this dispute has to be resolved on the streets. The reaction to theidea of a plebiscite and the constituent assembly shows the resistance to change andreinforces the need to carry out these proposals.

Necessary Changes

Apart from the political reform, there is a set of historical demands of the trade unionand popular movements that are stuck in the throat of the people and in the drawers ofthe palaces of government. Here are six points of the platform of the working classorganizations:

1. Passing the bill for reduction of the working week to 40 hours, with noreduction in wages. In Europe, capitalism in crisis already has a 36 hourweek.

2. Forget the constitutional amendment which implements subcontracting inlabor relations, and buries the CLT that guarantees workers' rights.

3. A progressive tax reform, so that taxes bear more heavily on the rich, with awealth tax, and reduces tax for poor workers.

4. Priority in the use of public resources for health, education and quality publictransport, instead of paying the national debt and the primary budget surplus.

5. Suspension of the auctions of the oil deposits and mineral exploitation rights,which only benefit transnational corporations.

6. Implement Zero Fares for public transport for the whole population. Thisproposal is technically viable with the investment of existing public resources,without the need to raise taxes. Just compare the Sao Paulo municipal subsidy

on transport, around R$ 1 billion, with the money spent on the Morumbitunnel, R$ 2.4 billion to attend to the needs of the Sao Paulo elite. Fortunatelythe bidding process begun by the Kassab regime has been suspended, after theoutcry from the streets.

Growing Mobilization

In several cities in Brazil, sections of workers and social sectors have continued withmassive actions. Oil, bank, metal workers and teachers have intensified theirmobilizations.


5/6

4

In Sao Paulo, the civilian police and prison guard trade unions have been inaction. There have also been popular revolts in several cities against abusive toll road

prices and actions by truck drivers.

Rural workers across the country, organized in dozens of social movements, such as

the National Federation of Agricultural workers (Confederao Nacional dosTrabalhadores na Agricultura - Contag), the Federation of Family Farming Workers(Federao dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Familiar - Fetraf), the Small Farmers'Movement (Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores - MPA), fishermen, descendantsof escaped African slaves, indigenous poor, rural women, the rural pastorals, as wellas the MST, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement have joined the mobilizations.

The rural movements have drawn up a common platform that they will deliver toPresident Dilma at a meeting, with the following points:

1. Recover national sovereignty over Brazilian land. We propose that thegovernment annuls land purchases already made, and expropriate all landcontrolled by foreign companies.

2. Accelerate the Agrarian Reform, and immediately give settlement rights to thethousands of families camped on roadsides outside the farms awaitingexpropriation.

3. Public policies to support, encourage and give loans for the production ofcheap, healthy food, without poisons, and to strengthen rural workers. Theadoption of structural programs for rural youth and women.

4. Guarantees for the rights of rural people, with the immediate recognition anddelimiting of indigenous lands, and the lands of descendants of escapedAfrican slaves, and rights for those affected by dam, fishing territories andothers.

5. Immediate prohibition of agrochemicals already banned in other countries, theprohibition of spraying by air, and policies for the reduction of agrochemicaluse. A profound review of the policy of GMO use, with social control.

6. Implementation by the government of a policy to control deforestation in thewhole country and support for the recuperation of degraded areas, andreforestation by family and peasant agriculture.

7. Reversal of the privatization of natural resources like water, energy, mining,forests, rivers and seas. We propose the withdrawal of the 'regime of urgency'in the national congress for the Mining Code bill (Cdigo de Minerao),

and that the government/congress promotes a broad national debate withBrazilian workers, to produce a new Code in line with the interests of theBrazilian people.

8. Immediate implementation of programs to eradicate illiteracy and guaranteeschools for all rural communities.

9. Suspension of all the privatization auctions of irrigated areas in the Northeast,and their immediate assignation, by the INCRA, to settlements for family andsmall farming agriculture. The adoption of structural policies to democratizeaccess to water, and to provide help for families to deal with droughts.

10. End of the Kandir law, which exempts from tax the big companies that exportagricultural, energy and mining raw materials.


6/6

5

Thus 11th July will be a day of great national mobilization, with millions of workerson the streets across the country, demanding real, deep and structural changes, like the

political reform which depends on a popular plebiscite being held.

MST Participates in the National Day of Struggle 1

Documents

Transcript of MST Participates in the National Day of Struggle 1