The housing situation in the suburbs of São Paulo today is not different to the situation of so many other big cities. The regime of exclusion, misery and carelessness of the State drives millions of families to live in a dreadful way: in the street, in precarious situation of housing, in favelas, risk areas, in houses of friends or relatives, as well as the people that can not pay the rent any more because they are unemployed or because it snatches their minimum life conditions. If they pay the rent, they don’t eat; if they eat, they don’t pay the rent.
Some members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (Movement of homeless workers), tired for being quiet before this condition, occupied the night of Friday, 16th of March, a land with more than one million of square meters in the municipality of Itapecerica da Serra. The area, that is empty and idle, was another land that was used just for property speculation, without following the social function that the federal Constitution determines. The occupation, that consist of more than one thousand of families, is still increasing with the incessant arrival of new people that are determined to place their tends. It means a shout to dignity and to the reclaim of a fundamental right: the access to a decent home in conditions of justice.
The movement of homeless workers has got a history of more than eight years, and it already obtained several victories. The last one was an agreement with the federal govern to include in a housing program, all the 860 families of suburbs that last year kept during eight months another occupation in the metropolitan region, “the Chico Mendes Community”. They achieved with their struggle that their right to a decent home became reality. In a similar movement to the one that was already made with rural property, by the undressing of the concentration of land, the homeless as the landless, present the agrarian reform and the urban reform as two sides of the same coin; Different moments of a common struggle, solved in the taking of unproductive earth, and buildings and lands with no use.
Where there is necessity, there is a forgotten right. There are human’s rights that might be respected. Those rights are materialised in the Brazilian Constitution in this order of importance: life, freedom, equality, security, propriety. If the rights are in that order it is not casual; it means that the right to life precedes the right to propriety. As the housing right figures as a human right, it also precedes the right to private propriety of the large state, being rural or urban.
We believe that humanity can and must, day after day, polish the frame of its sovereignty, the lived word of the struggle of people, instead of the dead word of the private propriety. For these reasons, the signatories below, in solidarity with the rebel dignity of the combative suburbs of São Paulo, linked this time to the fighters of the Movement of homeless workers, demand:
- The respect of the right of life in front of private propriety; This supposes a immediate cancellation of the evacuation threat.
- The acceptance of a negotiation of the mayor of the locality, and the all public power: federal, stated, and municipal. The negotiation will have to find a solution for the following of the right to housing of all the camped people. It will be able to be by the buying of the land, or by the inclusion of them en a hosing program.
- In the context of gravity and urgency of the housing problem in Brazil, that is a consequence of the negligence of authorities, we demand that authorities undertake to carry out an urban reform that guarantees to all citizens the right to city and the right to a decent home.
Organization and hard work are the marks of the first moments of the new ocuppation of MTST, in Itapecerica da Serra. We cannot accept that the eviction threats destroy the dream - and the right - of thounsand of families of giving their children a dignified home. The right to life is more important than the right to property. Support the João Cândido Ocupattion.
SIGN IT:
* Organization signature form
* Individual signature form
SEE WHO'S SUPPORTING US:
Organizations
Individuals
* Letter model
* Adresses of authorities to send support letters to João Candido
Dear Sir/Madam Secretary,
I learned about a urban area in Itapecerica da Serra (SP) squatted by more than one thousand families, demanding dignify housing condictions in an area which is one of the regions with bigger habitacional deficit of Brazil.
We believe that the demands presented by the people camping in the area - for the constitutional right of access to housing - are fair and belong to the basic human rights.
Thus, I write to you Sir/Mandam as an act of support those
families and to ask that their demands are answered:
- a meeting with the Federal, State and Municipal Governments, represented by the qualified people and empowered to make decisions, and for that, be able to resolve the prolem effectively;
- the desapropriation of the area squatted and the construction of popular houses for the over one thousand families from the Joao Candido Community.
We are following the facts and we have our eyes on any human rights violation attempts. The City, the State and the Federal councils, together with the City hall, Federal and State Government are responsible for the guarantee of these rights, and responsible for the consequencies of their acts or omission.
Sincerely,
Open Letter in Defense of the “Chico Mendes Occupation”
www.mtst.info
We teachers, artists, intellectuals, citizens concerned with the misery and the absence of fundamental rights which characterizes the situation in which lives a large part of the Brazilian population, we hereby manifest our support and solidarity to the 800 families residents in the “Chico Mendes Occupation – MTST (Homeless Workers Movement)”. About 2 months ago, this group of strugglers occupied a terrain in Taboão da Serra, São Paulo. It was an unproductive urban site that didn’t pay taxes for 25 years, serving as stage to several crimes, and object of real estate speculation. After the occupation, it turned into a center of popular organization, an example of the sociability which resists the misery and exclusion imposed by capitalism. However, state power and its judiciary arm, in the owner’s best interest, have ordered the eviction of the settlement, in spite of all the efforts and means mobilized for the families. As it usually happens, Brazilian state favors once more the right to private property over the right to life. Such an inversion of the constitution’s articles testifies once again that the exception has been made the rule. In face of the absurd of this final decision taken by the judiciary power, militants, settled families and students have decided to begin a hunger strike: a radical measure, the last alternative left to mobilize society and the three powers of the nation.
HUNGER STRIKE!
MTST Manifest:
Hungry at Christmas, pro popular housing!
Today we begin an extreme act so that, in the future, extreme acts needn’t be longer taken. In this exact moment, over 800 homeless workers’ families are anguished at not knowing whether they’ll wake up to live one more day of their suffered lives in their humble tents, or else will be evicted, due to the insensibility of those who can do everything but do nothing really. The Chico Mendes community is an example of dignity and hope; the eviction of these dreams is criminal. During the 80 days that lasted the occupation in Taboão da Serra, these militants have organized themselves to demand the fundamental right to housing – which has always been denied to the poor people of this country –, and have thereby built a new social horizon for themselves and their kids. In our battle rests the hope of over 6 million Brazilian families that live in underprivileged conditions. We hereby appeal to the president Luís Inácio Lula da Silva – and not only to him, for we understand that all spheres of government have the power needed to hinder this tragedy.
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MTST Press
S. O. S. - G E N E R A L A L E R T
F O R A L L B R O T H E R S A N D S I S T E R S ! ! !
- A STATE THAT SPREAD MISERY, COLLECTS VIOLENCE!
- URBAN REFORM, NOW! ! !
- ORGANIZATION AND STRUGGLE
Comrades from all around the world,
Tired of beeing quiet infront of a social exclusion regime of misery and
irresponsability that the brazillian State left us, we, fighters of the
Movement of the organized homeless workers of the favela's, have invaded
about 16 days ago an abandoned real-state in Taboão da Serra - São Paulo.
The area's owner has many debts with the town hall - the amount of
R$500.000.
The land didn't filled any social function and beside served as a stage
for drug-trafic, rapes and other criminal actions, like serving as
abductions hideouts, this area is now occupied by something like 1.500