TOWARDS DECEMBER 12: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STRUGGLE FOR THE PERSECUTED WORKER
International solidarity from Banhado,
São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
Renato, leader of the movement of struggle for housing of Banhado, Chiquinha of the MLTI of Manaus, Amazonas and David, leader of Banhado, send their support and solidarity with all the imprisoned and persecuted fighters in the world. This movement is part of the CSP-Conlutas. Banhado is the main homeless settlement of São José dos Campos, in the region of Vale do Paraíba in the interior of the State of São Paulo, where around 500 families are concentrated.
Renato from Banhado:
I am a leader of the Comunidade Nova Esperança do Banhado (New Hope Community of Banhado), a settlement almost a hundred years old in São José dos Campos, which struggles for housing.
On 12 December, the International Day of Struggle for the Persecuted Workers and the political prisoners, in several countries in various struggles they have been imprisoned, they were arrested and several are being persecuted, in various situations, like in Iran, Syria, Palestine, Ukraine, and even Russia, because the workers and the Russian soldiers are against what is happening.
So, this 12th Day is very important because it is about rescuing the struggle of the workers worldwide. The revolution is worldwide.
And the question of Ukraine, where there is a bourgeois sector that wants the invasion of Ukraine and another one that claims to "defend" Ukraine, but the truth is that on the front many workers are arming themselves for the first time and organizing their real self-defense in the country and it is thanks to them that Ukraine can triumph.
Not exactly because of the resources given, although they may have increased the chances, that actually generated in fact that the workers organized themselves as local self-defense, in moments when the local bourgeoisie had no one to turn to but resorted to that and many workers entered the fight and understood factually the need to defend their territory.
Chiquinha, MLTI, Manaus:
I am from the Movimento de Luta dos Trabalhadores Independentes (Movement for the Struggle of Independent Workers) in Amazonas. We have suffered because comrades with whom we fought for housing, were killed by the police. One of them was comrade Michelle, and it has been proved that the remains of a body that were found were hers, and it was proved that it was the police who killed her.
We are also in solidarity with the comrades all over the world who are facing and are part of this struggle, they can count on us.
David Moraes from Banhado:
I am also a leader in the Comunidade Jardim Nova Esperança (New Hope Garden Community), from Banhado, in São José dos Campos, Brazil.
Like us, we also suffer these persecutions, regardless of who is in government, because the oppression that we live and suffer as Brazilians of the poorest class, are threats, police attacking us, beating us up, and killing innocent people in our country.
That is why we are in solidarity with the comrades who are building this struggle. And here in São José dos Campos, in Banhado, we are suffering great persecution from our government and from the mayor of São José dos Campos who will be vice governor of the State of São Paulo; being the mayor of São José dos Campos, he was one of those who tried to evict us from our neighborhood, where we build our houses, so why do they want to evict us? We want the regularization of our neighborhood. We don't want any more threats from the police, or from the mayors.
We are also persecuted and discriminated against as "bandits", "traffickers", and "lazy people", though we are none of those things. I have lived here for 58 years; I have my family here in Banhado. And as I have already said here: there is so much appropriated land, idle land and the big landowners today are evicting people, taking them away to put cattle and raise them. That is not fair, although cattle are food, that is not progress for our country... as we see there are so many people living in the street, so many living under bridges, sleeping in the doors of shops, and when they want to fight for their houses the government takes them away and offers "improvements", when there is no improvement. Their improvement is what? Leaving people lying on the streets as homeless, as a vagrant.
So, we are in solidarity with all the countries that suffer as we suffer and we are in the struggle, we continue to struggle and we will always struggle.
Count on us!
Eviction attempt: The mayor and security forces when it comes to Banhado or any other fight for workers' rights
Michelle De Diaz Rachelle, from MLTI, murdered by the police in Manaos
