Protesters alert the judges of the Supreme Court that their decisions may result in the salvation or death not only of the strikers, but of thousands of Brazilians.
The country is in a decisive moment and organized workers have undertaken a series of offensive to influence the political agenda.
In addition of the Free Lula National March, that starts on august 10 and will reach Brasilia on the 15th, ecumenical acts, youth mobilizations, and the Stop Day of the trade unions (also on 10); a group of militants of La Via Campesina together with urban movements has launched an extreme action: a hunger strike which on Monday 6th, reaches its first week.
The militants Zonália Santos, Jaime Amorim, Vilmar Pacifico (from Landless Rural Workers Movement – MST), Rafaela Alves y Fray Sergio Görgen (from Small Farmers Movement – MPA) and Luiz Gonzaga, also known as Gegê (from Central of Peoples Movements – CMP), completed one week without taking any food, just water and serum. This Monday, another militant joins the strike: Leonardo Armando, from Levante Popular da Juventude.
‘‘The hunger strike that we are doing here in Brasilia is against hunger. Is for others not to have to suffer from hunger’’, announced Fray Sergio. For them, the project installed with the 2016 coup, affects the poorest sectors of society, with increased hunger and violence, loss of rights in health and education, and total disregard for national sovereignty.
To reverse this, they point out that people have already chosen their path: that Lula be free, and he is elected president, he is the symbol of the project to combat poverty and hunger.
‘‘Therefore, this hunger strike is also for Lula’s freedom and his right to be a candidate. He is there, condemned and imprisoned in Curitiba because he represents the idea that the privileges of the elite cannot be sustained at the expense of people’s hunger’’, explains Gorgën.
In a manifesto filed to the Supreme Court (STF) on the first day of strike (7/31), strikers denounced the return of hunger, the increase of violence, mainly against youth, women, black people and LGBT people, the situation of sick people with the attack on public health, the lack of perspective of youth with the attack on education, the increase of prices of food, oil, gas, and the loss of national sovereignty.
We appeal to the Supreme Court as a whole, but in particular to the judges Luis Edson Fachin, Carmen Lúcia, Rosa Weber, Luis Roberto Barroso, Luiz Fux and Alexandre de Moraes, to decide in favor of the presumption of innocence guaranteed in the Constitution, until the final decision on the trial; this will give Lula freedom, so he can run as the candidate of the people in the presidential elections.
Demonstrators say that the hunger strike was a free and conscious option to prevent the Brazilian population from suffering from this social hardship by imposition. “Hunger represents here the contempt for human beings, as if the poor do not need to live. This is very strong and painful! “, concludes Zonália Santos.
Mobilization Activities.
As the strike moves forward, weakness of the strikers increases and the visits of authorities to the Cultural Center of Brasilia (CCB), where the militants rest, have intensified. During the last weekend, they received visits from Manuela D’Ávila, candidate of the Communist Party of Brazil to the Presidency, and Gilberto Carvalho, former minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency in the Lula and Dilma governments.
On Monday, at 4:00 pm, the hunger strike will receive the visit of the Caravan of the Semi-arid against Hunger, which covers about 6,000 kilometers from Lula’s hometown of Lula, Caetés, in the state of Pernambuco, in the northeast of the country, to Brasilia, in dialogue with the population about the dangers of Brazil’s return to the United Nations Hunger Map. The Caravan also passed through Feira de Santana, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and São Paulo, before arriving in Brasilia.
Also, on Monday, in Corumbá de Goiás, in the state of Goiás in the center of the country, the National Youth Camp takes place, bringing together young people from the countryside and the city, in preparation for the great Free Lula March, which begins on August 10.
Further information
61 99996 4391
49 99160-5897
Adilvane Spézia
MPA
11 94196 7747
Rafael Soriano
MST
