Popular movements and workers trade unions held general blockade in Brazil

Last Friday, May 29, the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), Movement of Landless workers (MST), Levante Popular da Juventude with other social movements and centrals workers’ trade unions went to the streets against the outsourcing of work and measures that reduces worker’s rights. Workers held protests and strikes in 20 states of Brazil.

This fight is against the law project 4.330 of work outsourcing, approved by the the Deputy Chamber which is now in debate at the Senate as PLC 30. It’s also against the Provisory measures 664 and 665, that restricts access to salary bonuses, illness and unemployment insurance and against the fiscal adjustment.

The mobilization is a preparation for a general strike in the country, something that social movements and various worker’s centrals trade unions have been moving towards if the government and other political forces, such as the National Congress, do not give signs of change in the direction.

In Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state about 800 people members of MAB and MST marched denouncing the crunch against workers and demanding the advance in the agenda of agrarian reform and the rights of populations affected by dams. They occupied the Ministry of Finance building.

In Fortaleza, Ceará more than 200 people affected by dams took the streets to denounce at the front of the Coelce /Endesa building the abuse of the household electricity fares. In the afternoon they summed with the protests against the law project of outsourcing and against the measures 664 and 665 and fiscal adjustment. People affected by dams also summed with other social movements and trade unions in these protests in several cities, as in Porto Alegre, Registro, São Paulo and Vale do São Francisco.