{"id":24185,"date":"2015-09-04T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=24185"},"modified":"2015-12-14T10:15:57","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T13:15:57","slug":"street-vendors-protest-against-violence-and-repression-as-rio-clears-the-way-for-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=24185","title":{"rendered":"Street Vendors Protest Against Violence and Repression as Rio Clears the Way for the Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday, August 24, a rally organized by the United Movement of Street Vendors<\/a> (MUCA) was held in the center of Rio to protest against systematic State violence against street vendors. The rally comes barely one week after the intensification of clashes<\/a> between the Municipal Guard and informal workers, which are particularly common\u00a0surrounding Rio’s Central Station (Central do Brasil). Violence peaked on August 18, when the Municipal Guard attacked street vendors with pepper spray and rubber bullets, while\u00a0vendors threw\u00a0stones and attempted to\u00a0resist the confiscation of their goods.<\/p>\n

\"Protestors<\/a><\/p>\n

Being a\u00a0camel\u00f4<\/em>\u2013what Brazilians call street vendors\u2013is one of the only\u00a0professional options for a large portion of Rio\u2019s socio-economically disadvantaged population. According to data released by the municipality<\/a> in 2009, 35,000 camel\u00f4s<\/em> were registered, but only 18,440 licenses had been issued. Due to the informal nature of the profession, the real number of camel\u00f4s<\/em> is likely much higher.<\/p>\n

The recent trend of mega sporting events held in countries with high rates of informal employment (such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa<\/a>), has drawn more attention to the impact of such events on street vendors. Currently, the 2016 Olympic Games<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0being used\u00a0as a contextual and discursive tool to frame a long-running struggle between vendors and the city. Speakers at last week’s rally view the current “city project<\/a>” being implemented\u00a0by Mayor Eduardo Paes as an attack on the rights and livelihoods of the poor. According to MUCA coordinator Maria de Lourdes, the model represents a broad consensus among different political parties and factions: \u201cNothing ever changes, or only the party changes, but the repression is still the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vendors suspect that the fire which burned the informal market space<\/a>\u2013the\u00a0<\/em>camel\u00f3dromo\u2013<\/em>next to Central do Brasil to the ground in 2010 was a premeditated arson intended to facilitate the remodeling of the area. The fire led to\u00a0the removal of street vendors who sold\u00a0at the market, clearing the space for the construction of the Provid\u00eancia cable car<\/a> as part of the Porto Maravilha<\/a> regeneration project. Camel\u00f4s<\/em> have also been forced out of Pra\u00e7a Mau\u00e1<\/a>, a main square in the port area which has been completely redeveloped and is now home to the Rio Museum of Art<\/a>.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MUCA<\/a><\/p>\n

Under the slogan of \u201cstreet vendors are not thieves, street vendors are workers,\u201d protesters put forward their demands: an end to the violence against informal traders by security forces and the militarization of the city; an end to the confiscation of street vendors\u2019 belongings; and the legalization and issuing of trading licenses for informal workers. MUCA activists were\u00a0supported by\u00a0other marginalized\u00a0groups, such as members of the\u00a0Aldeia Maracan\u00e3<\/a>\u00a0urban indigenous village next to the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium which has sustained a lengthy resistance campaign. Marco, an indigenous activist, made an emotional speech during the rally: \u201cWhat is happening here is a rally organized by workers, honest people who earn their bread day to day.\u201d United with the camel\u00f4s<\/em>, indigenous activists also view the current transformation of Rio as exclusionary, following a global-city project in which minorities and low-income\u00a0citizens are marginalized.<\/p>\n

Organizing on behalf of street vendors since 2003, MUCA declared its\u00a0commitment to challenging the ongoing repression of camel\u00f4s. <\/em>However the nature of the profession makes organizing difficult: street vendors are individual traders who work\u00a0day-to-day making it hard to\u00a0mobilize workers and supporters to attend rallies. But demonstrators in attendence last week expressed hope for political change. As Raimonte, a MUCA activist, observed: \u201cThe Olympic Games are\u00a0next year, but so are\u00a0the municipal elections.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday, August 24, a rally organized by the United Movement of Street Vendors (MUCA) was held in the center of Rio to protest against systematic State violence against street vendors. The rally comes barely […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":24219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1288,1290,1333,335,336,1329],"tags":[9,150,1261,168,1163,272,445,359,878,1259,1170,5,17,148,1899,18,144,402,957],"writer":[1786],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-policies","12":"category-violations","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-9","15":"tag-cable-car","16":"tag-central-rio","17":"tag-centro","18":"tag-civil-society","19":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","20":"tag-entrepreneurship","21":"tag-informality","22":"tag-international-comparison","23":"tag-mega-events","24":"tag-municipal-guard","25":"tag-olympics","26":"tag-police-brutality","27":"tag-port-region","28":"tag-praca-maua","29":"tag-protest","30":"tag-morro-da-providencia","31":"tag-south-africa-2010","32":"tag-street-vendors","33":"writer-marta-ill-raga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24185"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=24185"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=24185"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=24185"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=24185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}