Fri Mar 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

A28: Brazil Stopped! Now, let’s occupy Brasilia and prepare a 48 h General Strike!

The General Strike on A28 stopped Brazil form North to South. It was the biggest general strike of our history. The working class adhered strongly: metal workers, chemical, textile, footwear, food, glass, construction and rural workers… basically, the machinery stopped! On April 28, from the pins to the planes, production stopped!

By PSTU National Leadership.
 
Another highlight are transportation workers (buses, trains and metro), who paralyzed 100% in almost the entire country, with some particular exceptions. And this time the media could not find people crowding in metro stations or bus stops trying to get to work nor it could take advantage of any claim by the society. The population stayed home, as it was part of or supported the strike.
Teachers of the public and private network; health and bank workers; public employees of the three levels (municipal, states and federal) also paralyzed. Commerces were part of the strikes in many places, too. Popular movements adhered heavily and participated in an organized way, constructing an active strike, blocking bridges and highways, organizing rallies and pickets. Not to mention the unemployed, the poor people of the periphery, Blacks, LGBTs, indigenous peoples, retirees, women’s movements, homeless’ movements, landless’ movements, quilombolas [shelters for slaves that ran away, currently residences for slaves’ progeny]… the entire working class was part of the strike.
This corrupt government and Congress, bankers and big businessman, with the support of only 4% of the population, felt the strike. We showed them the strength of the working class and people united. Without us, nothing works.
Yet, this government of thieves and capitalists is saying it will not stop with the reforms. Shameless, it says the strike was a failure, trying to laugh at our face and believing it will demoralize the working class by doing that. The media, on its side, headed by the Globo network, after trying to hide that there was a strike, was forced to cover it anyway on the 28. Shame on them: the next day, unlike the international media (TVs and newspapers) that were here and informed all over the world about the importance of our strike, the national businessmen’s media put their entire machinery of lies at service of diminishing the weight and implications of the strike.
The truth is this government is now weaker, and the workers are stronger. So if they do not retreat, we will have to stop them and take them all down. Thus, we should not accept any negotiation of the reforms in our name, and we need to show them that if they do not retreat we will strengthen the struggle.
Now, the next step is to occupy Brasilia [headquarters of the Federal Government] and to prepare a new general strike, this time for 48 h.
Let’s continue the meetings and organization, expanding and rooting the committees in every workplace, place of study and neighborhood, in the city and the countryside. Let’s demand from the unions assemblies and organization through the rank and file. Let’s collect money to organize convoys from all over Brazil, from each category, city, neighborhood and school, to occupy Brasilia. And let’s prepare the new General Strike, of 48 h. this time.
Out with Temer! Out with all of them! Workers and poor people to the power!
**
Translation: Sofia Ballack.

Check out our other content

Check out other tags:

Most Popular Articles