{"id":7423,"date":"2017-03-16T18:59:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T18:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=7423"},"modified":"2017-03-16T18:59:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T18:59:42","slug":"national-day-of-strike-and-struggles-puts-general-strike-on-the-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/national-day-of-strike-and-struggles-puts-general-strike-on-the-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"National Day of Strike and Struggles puts General Strike on the Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Day of Strike and Struggles against the Social Security reform is already the biggest day of strikes and demonstrations in the country. Massive stoppages of several categories \u2013specially the most pauperized working segments\u2013 and major demonstrations with radicalized actions, like pickets and occupations, show the disposal to struggle of the Brazilian working class against the reforms and against Temer\u2019s government.<\/em>
\nBy Opini\u00f3n Socialista<\/em> Editorial Team \u2013 PSTU Brazil.<\/strong>
\nIn S\u00e3o Paulo, the day opened with a general atmosphere of a real General Strike. The 24 hours stoppage, reaffirmed by Metro workers the night before, as well as the bus drivers\u2019 stoppage early in the morning affected transportation across the city, with only trains working.
\nPopulation, despite being recurrently instigated by a strong campaign of the press against the strike, showed support. \u201cBecause if the government wants to eliminate workers\u2019 conquests, I support the strike. I think we have to stop everything,<\/em>\u201d said a Metro customer stalled in Barra Funda <\/em>Station to the newspaper Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em>. Similar situations were seen during live transmissions on TV.
\nWorkers of a great number of factories in the city also adhered massively to the stoppage. In the South Region, workers rallied together with activists of the Movimento Luta Popular<\/em> [Popular Struggle Movement] and blocked the Ponte do Soccorro<\/em> [Socorro Bridge]. There were also stoppages in factories of the East and North regions.
\nTeachers and high-school students protested in Brasil\u00e2ndia, North region of the City of S\u00e3o Paulo. They also participated during the day closing the bridge of Freguesia de \u00d3<\/em>.
\nThe Dutra<\/em> [highway that links S\u00e3o Paulo with Rio de Janeiro and the cities between] was also closed during the morning.
\nAll of this besides several rallies along the Capital.
\nIn S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos, about 10,000 metal workers demonstrated early in the morning. Workers of TI Automotive [auto-industry] marched blocking the Dutra highway direction SP-RJ, and they walked 2 kilometers all the way to Petrobr\u00e1s Refinery Henrique Lage.
\nMetal workers of General Motors also marched nearly 2.5 km and blocked the Dutra, stalling the work-shift for 3 hours. In Chery [automotive], in Jacare\u00ed, workers decided to carry a 24 h. strike. There were also demonstrations by JC Hitachi [air conditioners] and Prolind [aluminium] workers.
\nAt the beginning of the afternoon, a concentration in the centre of S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos gathered about 2000 people, including metal workers, professors, teachers, drivers, oil workers, mail workers, chemical workers, food workers, public workers, landless activists, students, among others.
\nIn the ABC region [metal-industrial pole of S\u00e3o Paulo], metal workers from Volskwagen stopped, and an unexpected\u00a0event expanded the strike along the region: bus drivers responsible to take the workers to the factories refused to work, and factories like Mercedes Benz, which was not participating of the strike initially, ended up closed too.
\nIn Rio de Janeiro, there was a demonstration of the SOS Employment Movement that blocked Avenida Brasil<\/em> during most part of the morning.
\nPort Complex workers also refused to work protesting against the Social Security reform.
\nIn Salvador (Bahia), the day began with the blockade of avenues in the region of Iguatemi \u2013 Bus Terminal. Public and private schools also stopped, and bank workers carried a partial stoppage that lasted all morning.
\nIn Rio Grande do Sul, M15 began with stoppages and a \u201ctrancazo\u201d [regional figurative expression for stopping the flux of people<\/em>, T.N.] of the Carris bus company, in Porto Alegre.
\nThere were also demonstrations by the CEEE electric energy company\u2019s workers, and employees of the Mother-Child Hospital President Vargas [HMIPV].
\nIn Pernambuco, there were stoppages in several districts and also in the capital, Recife: municipal and state workers, bank workers, the cleaning sector, water and drainage workers, metro workers, bus drivers; and the health and education sectors protested and made a unified act organized by the Unions.
\nIn Aracaju, there were oil and cement workers and popular movement demonstrations.
\nBeyond the strong stoppage adhesion across the country by the most diverse categories, demonstrations were also significant: about 50,000 in Curitiba, 30,000 in Fortaleza, and about the same number in Belo Horizonte.
\nGeneral Strike<\/strong>
\nThe first hours of the national day of strike and struggles categorically evidenced workers\u2019 willingness to struggle. Metal workers in several parts of the country, like S\u00e3o Paulo, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos and Paran\u00e1, adhered massively.
\nOf the 36 Postal Unions, 30 adhered to the strike. Transportation sector was decisive, like in the case of S\u00e3o Paulo and Belo Horizonte metro workers, besides bus drivers in several cities of Brazil; as it was also decisive the participation of municipal, state and federal public workers.
\nThe popular support to the protests and demonstrations was massive. The rejection to the government and its measures can be seen from the bus stops to the supermarket lines. Outrage takes hold of the population. A General Strike is not only necessary as it is possible.
\nOriginally published @ www.pstu.org.br<\/a>
\nTranslation: Sofia Ballack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Day of Strike and Struggles against the Social Security reform is already the biggest day of strikes and demonstrations in the country. Massive stoppages of several categories \u2013specially the most pauperized working segments\u2013 and major demonstrations with radicalized actions, like pickets and occupations, show the disposal to struggle of the Brazilian working class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7424,"menu_order":1461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3508,3504],"tags":[4781,4231,3696,4656,4783,4658],"class_list":["post-7423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brazil","category-working-class","tag-outwithtemer","tag-brazilian-working-class","tag-general-strike","tag-michel-temer","tag-national-day-of-strike-and-struggles","tag-pstu-brazil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/sa%CC%83o-paulo-770x470-1.jpg?fit=770%2C470&ssl=1","fimg_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/sa%CC%83o-paulo-770x470-1.jpg?fit=770%2C470&ssl=1","categories_names":["Brazil","Working Class Struggles"],"author_info":{"name":"litci","pic":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5ccde5393ccb83747702c5ca92f55d8fdaf99be9432d0142571c6d437fbaadb?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"political_author":null,"tagline":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}