A-Infos (en) FAG/Brazil: News on the social struggles (pt,it)

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MARCH FOR LAND, WORK AND HOUSING
>From 22nd to 25th June there was a march from Gravataí
(Metropolitan area) to Porto Alegre, in defence of the
Emergency Fronts for Work and Housing for about 2,510
unemployed families. This march was organized and carried out
by the Committees of Popular Resistance (CRPs), the National
Movement of Garbage Reclaimers (MNCR) and the Movement of
Unemployed Workers (MTD).
The current governor of the State, Germano Rigotto (PMDB) and
his government had cancelled the project of the "Frentes
Emergenciais de Trabalho" which had been won in 2000 by these
movements, and which were organized in workgroups
(cooperatives, associations) during 2001 and 2002 to give
support to hundreds of families. The demands were and are,
basically:

- minimum wage for 1 year for each unemployed family;
- food subsidy of 80 Reais;
- availability of microcredit for work projects.

Organized in these movements, in which the FAG directly
participates in the CRPs and in the MNCR, workers and
unemployed workers are setting up bakeries, clothing groups,
community mess halls, recycling exchanges, and have been
strengthening their recycling associations, etc. Once
financing is obtained, we will guarantee the support and the
viability of these projects, that are, in the opinion of the
FAG, rearguards for the popular struggle. Yes, because as we
all know, "an empty bag will not stand up", and the people
need to win work and income to have more and more vitality in
order to move forward in the struggle. We don't want economic
structures simply to win a few pennies and then we will all
be happy. We have never believed in this for a moment.
Economic structures are needed to feed and to give a minimum
of dignity to those families who struggle in the social
movements, and starting from that to go on struggling.

At the end of this march, the governor endorsed our list of
demands. However, so far the only thing that has arrived was
a miserable basket of basic goods that didn't last even two
weeks.

Therefore, our fight goes on, pressing the government through
marches, occupations, etc, while at the same time the CRPs
have been growing reasonably well in the peripheral areas of
Porto Alegre and the metropolitan area. The struggle for work
is without a doubt central axis to mobilize this social
movement, the residents of the city outskirts.


THE COMMITTEES OF POPULAR RESISTANCE

The CRPs are organizations of the residents of the urban
periphery where the FAG contributes directly through direct
social insertion, in other words, residents that belong to
FAG and live the same dramas as their neighbours. The CRPs,
besides accomplishing the direct struggle for immediate
conquests through the direct participation of the people in
all decisions, carries out day by day those values that we
want to build: solidarity, mutual respect, active and direct
participation, direct democracy, direct action, and an end to
gossip, apathy and disunity. How? Through what we call
"regular activities": the residents participate directly in
everyday activities, and from there, they carry out in
practice the new values. The regular activities vary in
accordance with the situation: child recreation, educational
support, adult literacy, community food halls, community
radio, popular festivals and parties, etc. The important
thing is to create in the CRP a regular group, that exercises
solidarity and struggle and that little by little can
influence others.


THE MOVEMENT OF GARBAGE RECLAIMERS (MNCR)

This Movement exists at a national level, and here in the
Metropolitan Area the bases of the mobilized "catadores" (the
garbage reclaimers) are under our influence. Both in the
State and throughout Brazil itself there exist several other
forces active in this movement, with the greatest influence
being that of the Articulação de Esquerda (PT). The Movement
is organized through nuclei. Each recycling hangar or
warehouse of materials can form a nucleus of the movement.
Today, there is also a state organization that articulates
the movement in RS, and a federal organization, that
articulates it on a national level. This movement has been
growing day by day, together with poverty and the
casualization of labour. We have been active in this area
since 1995, and the MNCR today is also the fruit of our
efforts. One of the fights that we took part in was the one
to obtain public resources to sustain the work structures of
the "catadores", who were not subsidized by the State or by
local government, that left the workers "to decide" to do a
service that is, in effect, a public service and that helps
to save the budgets of the municipal district for recycling,
since the "catadores" do it practically for free. Therefore,
we struggle to obtain subsidies for this work from the State
and the municipal authorities, to be administered directly by
the "catadores".

Both the CRPs and the MNCR look to strengthen from below 4
basic principles: class solidarity, class independence,
grassroots democracy and direct action.

Our policy is to try to connect these movements to each other
and to all the other struggle movements, like the MTD, the
unions, neighbourhood associations, schools, etc. The whole
organized spectrum of the oppressed classes that are
connected even remotely with the question of direct struggle
is looking for relations and united work. Our objective is,
in the long term, to form a FRONT OF THE OPPRESSED, where
several movements converge for only one objective: the direct
struggle for their needs.

Therefore, amid many difficulties, conflicts and small
victories, we continue to build our strategy in practice.


SAÚDE E ANARQUIA!

Luciana - sec. relações - Federação Anarquista Gaúcha
tel. (51) 3211 2476 / 91484391
http://www.fag.rg3.net
fag.internac@terra.com.br
cx postal 5036 CEP 90040-970
Porto Alegre/RS/Brasil

[from "News from FAG", translation nmcn/ainfos]


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