Thousands of workers on strike in Brazil

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-workers-strike-brazil-143451435.html


SAO PAULO (AP) -- Tens of thousands of workers across Brazil walked off their jobs on Thursday in a peaceful nationwide strike demanding better working conditions and improved public services in Latin America's biggest nation.

Metalworkers, transportation and construction workers as well as teachers and civil servants adhered to the "Day of Struggle" organized by Brazil's biggest trade union federations.

Strikers either partially or completely blocked 40 interstate and intercity highways in 14 states.

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The strike follows mass nationwide protests that swept Brazil last month when demonstrators angered with corruption, poor public services and a heavy tax burden took to the streets. The protests also denounced the billions of dollars spent to host the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio, money they say should be going toward better hospitals, schools and transportation.

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1. Certainly don't have any problem with the U.S. keeping close tabs on countries like this

wether they like it or not.

[ocpagu]

2. Well, it's not up to you fortunately.

Brazilians are not subjected to the US Constitution, we have absolutely no reason to put up with US abuses. Wether the American citizens support or not their government's crimes is absolutely irrelevent to us.

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3. It would be ridiculous to assume that other countries don't have their own agendas

that could have ramifications on the nation you live in. I can't think of one country that doesn't put its sovereignty first above all other countries.

[ocpagu]

4. True. Countries put their sovereignty first above all other countries.

That's why Brazil reacted with indignation to NSA spying.

Your liberty ends where mine begins. I am a citizen, I have the universal right to privacy, I have the Constitutional right to privacy under my local laws. I don't recgonize any kind of "exceptionalism" in any citizens of this planet to claim they have greater rights than I do.

That's why I would never support my country spending my money to set a mass surveillence apparatus to spy on regular citizens of other countries. I would think of it as imoral.

[Bacchus4.0]

5. what about the strike though? n/t

s

[ocpagu]

6. Well...

...for a mass strike aiming to mobilize millions, it was pretty much a "fail"...

[Bacchus4.0]

7. ok n/t

s

[joshcryer]

10. Did you say the same about Occupy's 2012 May Day General Strike?

I doubt it. Gotta keep up the illusion that you care about progressive ideals.

For what it's worth I do not consider it a fail when any workers go on strike regardless. That is their right as free moving individuals. That is their right as workers.

[ocpagu]

12. Well, the union leaders were expecting more than 1 million people to adhere to the strikes.

But they were only able to mobilize a few thousands. And it's understandable. It's not easy to mobilize workers when you have almost full-employment, wages are rising and the purchasing power of the workers is growing.

That said, I did not say I oppose their right of organizing strikes. I'm simply pointing to the fact that most work categories did not adhere.

As for "progressive ideals": Josh, you're lost since the beginning of all this "social agitation" in Brazil. You're missing the context.

Union leaders are strong figures in Brazilian politics. And not all of them are progressive. Though the right of organizing strikes itself is progressive by nature, the act of organizing a strike doesn't mean they will always be used with progressive intentions. Anyone familiar with the history of Latin America knows that strikes were used as political tools against several progressist governments in Latin America - Salvador Allende and Goulart, for example - and served to "legitimate" coups d'état and right-wing dictatorships.

One of the leaders behind this strike in Brazil - congressman Paulinho da Força, president the Syndicate Force -is a fierce opponent of Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party. His intention is merely becoming a strong name for the presidential elections next year. He's exploring this moment of "social agitation" in an opportunistic way. I wouldn't care that much if Paulinho da Força was a progressive leader... but he's allied with the most conservative forces in the country, and he supports the neoliberal, right-wing opposition to Dilma's government.


Paulinho with Geraldo Alckmin, governor of São Paulo, from the Social Democracy (sic) Party (PSDB)




Paulinho with Gilberto Kassab, former mayor of São Paulo, from the "Democratas", former ARENA, the party of the military dictatorship



Some of the leaders of the strikes are as "progressives" as some DUers here cheering for the "progressive" candidate Capriles. From this kind of "progressives" I just want distance

[joshcryer]

15. Typically, you didn't answer the question.

Did you say the same about the Occupy May Day General Strike?

Yes or fucking no.

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9. I wouldn't call that immoral - rather, 'tactical'. No man is an island.

What's truly immoral is my country spending my money to pay the salaries of the GOP representatives in Congress right now, so they can use their offices and staffs - also paid for with my money - to viciously attack the Rights of millions of Americans.

[ocpagu]

8. What the strike leaders are saying:

Vagner Freitas, president of the Unified Workers' Central (CUT):

"The Brazilian workers had their lives improved, but inside their houses. Outside their houses, they continue to pay prohibitive prices for public transport, which is precarious, and working too many hours. We want the government to sit with us and negotiate."

"There is no point in having salaries increasing above inflation, like we had in the last years, if this money is sucked by rising prices of private health care that the worker has to contract since he can not count on the public system."

"The manifestation is non-partisan. We don't want to overthrow the president, we just want this government to perform the social changes it was elected to do."


Arthur Henrique former president of CUT:

"There is no manifestation against the government. It is in favor of the workers"


Ricardo Patah, president of the General Union of Workers

"The protest is not against Dilma, but against the way the government is managing the demands of the workers."

"The problem is that we have meetings with the government, but no solutions are presented. We are not satisfied."

"In another important opportunity, the government gave in. Therefore, there is no better moment for us to present our demands."


http://www.pbagora.com.br/conteudo.php?id=20130711084548&cat=politica&keys=centrais-sindicais-testam-dilma-paralisacao-nacional

[joshcryer]

11. Correct, if you say you're "against the government" you wind up in jail.

So this is the natural response to questions about motivations for a strike.

[ocpagu]

13. Really? Can you tell me about a single citizen that was arrested in Brazil...

... for voicing opposition to the government after the military dictatorship?

Because I've never heard about it. Free speech is granted by our laws, and anyone familiar with Brazilian media knows quite well that conspiring against the government is pretty much the rule here... actually, yesterday, I saw a presentator of a sports program on TV openly calling for the deposition of Dilma... I've also shown pics of right-wingers holding signs saying absurds such as "we want the military back to power" and "Dilma is a terrorist". Nothing has happened to these people, as far as I know.

But nice try to portray the Brazilian government as a "dictatorship" that doesn't allow criticism. Think about it, Dilma is probably setting a mass surveillence system to spy on us, regular Brazilians... oh, wait...

[joshcryer]

14. I didn't say that.

No mass protests "against a government" are allowed by said governments.

The 2013 protests in Brazil were decidedly not anti-government for that reason.

Next thing you'll be supporting Capriles protesters...