“The attack on the working class in Brazil is similar to that in the US”

After nearly one month in Brazilian land, the activists from the United States, Robert Robinson and Joelle Robinson, went back to their country taking with them the commitment to echo the voice of Brazilian social movements and continue to strengthen the ties of solidarity. Robert and Joelle are members of the group “US Friends of MAB” a committee of solidarity to the struggle of people affected by dams. They participated in an exchange which consisted of four steps: The first was focused on the study of the Brazilian situation, political training and in connection with housing movements and trade unions in São Paulo. Then the group left to Minas Gerais, where they met the organization of MAB in the regions of Itueta and Resplendor, and organizations of Belo Horizonte. Afterwards they have been five days in the region affected by the Belo Monte dam, having the opportunity to know the impacts of the largest dam under construction in Brazil and the struggle of those affected.

Check out the following interview with Robert and Joelle:

What are the impressions on the reality of the working class in Brazil? What are the similarities and differences with the US?
Joelle: My impression of the Brazilian working class is that there is part which are very committed and aware of what forces hinder a better quality life for themselves and as a result is very involved in social movements. I believe that, similar to the United States, there is a part of the working class which does not consider themselves part of the class and therefore are not engaged in social or political struggles that are happening. I think that in Brazil there is a larger presence of political education, which is not as present as in the US, and as a result we do not have many coordinated social movements organized in the US.

Rob: I think the attack on the working class in Brazil is similar to that in the US: low wages, attack on workers in general, withdraw of benefits. I think these are similar realities. However, I think there are some differences in the organizing that happen in the ground. In the US people are more individualized, and I think that comes from a narrative spun by the US government and large corporations and push people into a certain direction. In Brazil we could see that people in the ground have a political understanding and see the forces that they are up against, which has a global nature, and they see that the resistance have to have a global nature. That is why the political training, which in Brazil call “formação” is an important piece.

In this visit, you have had the opportunity to know different regions of Brazil,where the impacts of the building of hydropower-dams are in different stages. What has been possible to learn from the Brazilian energy model?

Rob: There are areas we have visited where dams are already build and the affected people continues to organize, to claim the commitments made by the company, which haven’t hold upon. We have seen this in areas as Itueta and Resplendor, in the state of Minas Gerais. And you see these effects in people’s lives. Communities basically destroyed and recreated in another area, to me that’s bizarre. What was Itueta does not exists anymore. Cleide, for example, took us to the old Itueta and pointed to a tree and said: “this where my house once was”. And people have to live with such memories. This makes me a connexion to the post-Catrina in New Orleans, where houses were destroyed, people died in these houses, there were a big exodus from these houses, and this still remains today, ten years afterwards. We have also seen the situation of people affected by Belo Monte, where the work is not yet complete, again the company did not comply with their commitments; while a group of people receive the right to a new home, there are other people affected out of the list for this right, and that’s problematic. So I think that the organizing is also important during construction and post-construction and joining these forces, exchanging these experiences.

I come from a movement that fight for land and housing. Land means life, home, food production, community. And it is understood that here too. The land also means water. For example, the case of riverside people, is the same thing, their lives depend on fish and with the impacts they lose their livelihood. So the struggle for land must also unite the international struggle for a fair society, a society we want to live in, not that created by corporations.

Joelle: I think that the exchange also highlighted “Energy for what and for who?” Dams are build with the promise of prosperity or development, but we have seen that’s not the case. That speaks to the questioning which MAB and allied movements articulate,that, this model is actually not benefitting the people, but benefitting corporation interests.

 Joelle and Rob in front of the Belo Monte dam, which is being build on the Xingu river (Pará state)

What are the learnings that you will take to the US?

Joelle: Some of them are the organizing, the strategy, the political education that’s key. Two, is making the connection of the things happening in Brazil and US; which may on surface not seem that they are related. For example in Altamira, one of the people we spoke with, talked about how they were mooved, but they have growed up in Altamira their whole life, but that nothing is the same, they don’t recognize the streets they grown on, this place was here and now it’s here, everything is mooved. And that reminded me of some of the gentrification that happens in the US, people are displaced, pushed out their communities for capital interest. On the surface that may not seem like it, but I think that it is.

Rob: There are two big take-aways for me in this exchange, the first one is the political education, the critical analysis. It definitely make organizing stronger. I also think on the independency on ground organizing. In the US philanthropic organizations will almost dictate the work which is being done. The way social movements work here they give the voice to the communities and the workers, and the decisions is made amongst them. Then the second for me, is the resilience of the people, after all people gone through they are still fighting.

And which learnings you would like to register here in Brazil?

Joelle: I assume that people knew that there are problems in the US. But apparently, many people buy the american narrative, that everything is great there in the US, that everyone can succeed, you just need to work hard – which is not necessarily the case. I hope that through this exchange we can see the connexions and the similarities of the challenges of the people, understand why and that we can unite forces to make the changes.

Rob: The same challenges the people face here, we are facing in the US. No matter what the narrative is that comes from the mainstream media and the US government. The challenges are the same, there is a direct attack on working class, racism… What happens people in the US self-absolve themselves and say “I’m a failure because I didn’t meet the guidelines of the american narrative”. And they don’t take into fact that it’s a system set up to fail. So how can you win if the system is working against you. So that the people here can take into account, that the big gorilla in the world, the US, there are many people suffering of the same problems as people are suffering here in Brazil.

I appreciate the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) hosting us and the different families we met on our way and shared their experiences, welcomed in their homes, the hospitality of the Brazilian people was incredible. The people that had the least treated us the best, and I think that is incredible, which I will take back to the US.

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Joelle Robinson is member of the organization EcoHermanas, her work has a focus on the struggle to access healthy food in communities of color in Washington DC. They promote community gardens and local food markets near to these communities and to debate with the communities the issues involved regarding society.

Robert Robinson is member of “Take Back the Land”, organization that have been founded in the context of the economic crisis of 2008. The movement blocks evictions of families of their homes and rehouses homeless people in foreclosed houses. According to Robert, land is a central dispute, because it permits housing, food production and the creation of a community, why, land should not be considered a commodity.