{"id":26157,"date":"2015-12-21T12:31:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T15:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=26157"},"modified":"2016-06-02T14:37:15","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T17:37:15","slug":"activists-explain-low-favela-participation-in-fight-against-the-coup-as-dilmas-impeachment-is-widely-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=26157","title":{"rendered":"Activists Explain Low Favela Participation in Fight against Dilma Impeachment “Coup”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For the original in Portuguese published by Brasil\u00a0247 click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The demonstration against the impeachment of President Dilma Rouseff<\/a> and in favor of the fall of Brazil’s congressional president, Eduardo Cunha<\/a> (a Rio de Janeiro politician elected to Congress via the PMDB party), on December 16\u00a0saw ten thousand people take to the streets of Cinel\u00e2ndia<\/a>\u00a0in downtown\u00a0Rio de Janeiro, and over the last month\u00a0has gained great momentum on social networks. However, it doesn\u2019t seem to have mobilized\u00a0social movements<\/a> or activists from the favelas. Reporters from Favela 247<\/em> spoke to favela leaders who explained the motives behind joining or staying away from the protests and analyze the reasons why this movement against the coup has failed to ignite the interests of favela residents. \u201cI think that the left-leaning favela movement is more concerned about combating the genocide of black people<\/a>\u201d says poet Deley\u00a0do Acari<\/a>.\u00a0Read their opinions below:<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Constantine, 39, Favela N\u00e3o se Cala<\/a><\/h3>\n

We, black favela residents, have other fights to be won. Among them, the most important is to stay alive, survive this structural and institutional genocide that is being committed by the State against the black favela population. I recognize the importance of taking to the streets to have our voices counted against this impeachment movement<\/a>, but we are dying. A two year old child just got killed. Dilma goes, Cunha<\/a> comes in, and the black population continues to die. We just want to live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Fernandes, 44, Ag\u00eancia de Not\u00edcias da Favela<\/a> (ANF – Favela News Agency)<\/h3>\n

ANF’s collaborators were present en masse<\/em> during the demonstration. ANF was there more\u00a0to\u00a0cover the event. As an organization we are against the impeachment and we are\u00a0demonstrating to demand that Eduardo Cunha leave his position as Congressional president. Any citizens who want to maintain the democratic state and who can’t stand Cunha’s ideas<\/a> should have gone to the protest!<\/p>\n

Davison Coutinho, 24, Rocinha<\/a>, Vidigal<\/a>, and Ch\u00e1cara do C\u00e9u<\/a>\u00a0Residents’ Commission<\/h3>\n

I believe the low allegiance to the (anti impeachment) movement from the favelas has its reasons. First, it is good to clarify that the reason why favelas are not getting involved with the movements is not because they want Dilma to go; everyone knows if the coup\u00a0happens everything will get worse (for favela residents). In fact, besides this low participation, there are very few comments and conversations on\u00a0the coup. The favela resident is living a dog’s life. The problems in the favela are routine–today in Rocinha there are some areas without electricity<\/a>, some without water<\/a>. Everything is very expensive. Christmas is coming and there are families without\u00a0food on their tables. There are many Christmas commercials\u00a0tormenting the lives of children and parents who can’t even pay their rent and have to explain to their children why they can’t have presents. We turn on the TV and see the large deviations of public money, people wearing fox fur and sporting gold with money swindled<\/a> from the health<\/a> budget while children die in public hospitals. These are just some of the many reasons why residents do not go to the demonstrations. Our problems, unfortunately, do not allow us to.<\/p>\n

Deley do Acari, 77, poet and community leader from Acari<\/a><\/h3>\n

I’ve noticed\u00a0this issue hasn’t\u00a0resonated with the favela movement, in spite of the fact that the majority of favela residents are against the impeachment, as they value the social projects the Workers Party, Lula and Dilma have created, and certainly most of the favela population is against Cunha and Renan<\/a>\u00a0[president of Brazil’s Senate]. Favela organizations like AfroReggae<\/a> who are in favor of A\u00e9cio<\/a>\u00a0[president of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party who lost the presidential election to Dilma in 2014] are certainly against Dilma. I believe that the more left-leaning favela movement is prioritizing the fight against black genocide<\/a>, and those more to the right are seeing the beast that will give them the chance to position themselves opportunistically.<\/p>\n

Fransergio Goulart, 43, Manguinhos Social Forum<\/a> and Rio de Janeiro Youth Forum<\/a><\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t participate because we will not defend the government and party that supports the militarization<\/a> of favelas and are also responsible for the daily execution of young, poor, black favela residents<\/a>. We want to make it clear that other political forces also historically did and do the same things with us. Our struggle is against this political and economic system and racism<\/a>,\u00a0so we will continue with the movement “In 2016: Don\u2019t Vote, Fight.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Gabriel Siqueira, 26, Youth Council of the Federation of Favela Residents’ Associations of Rio de Janeiro (FAFERJ)<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Federation of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro was present at the demonstration against the impeachment of President Dilma on December 16. However, this was a decision made by the leader\u00a0of the Federation, president Rossino Diniz. Participation in the movement has been relatively low from the favelas for two reasons: 1) There\u2019s a great absence\u00a0of left leaning parties in the daily struggles in the favelas of Rio, and 2) There is widespread dissatisfaction with the current government, which has been felt mainly due to the large increases in the costs of basic necessities such as food and cleaning and hygiene products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original in Portuguese published by Brasil\u00a0247 click here. The demonstration against the impeachment of President Dilma Rouseff and in favor of the fall of Brazil’s congressional president, Eduardo Cunha […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26158,"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":[1668,1290,335,1330],"tags":[555,1154,475,140,479,2009,622,783,844,107,485,637,618,152,374,671,18,1189,12,130,268,363,370],"writer":[1908],"translator":[1344],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-participationwatch","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-policies","10":"category-translation","11":"tag-acari","12":"tag-agencia-redes-para-juventude","13":"tag-chacara-do-ceu","14":"tag-corruption","15":"tag-democracy","16":"tag-eduardo-cunha","17":"tag-faferj","18":"tag-favela-nao-se-cala","19":"tag-forum-de-manguinhos","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-light-electricity","22":"tag-manguinhos","23":"tag-neighborhood-association","24":"tag-participation","25":"tag-politics","26":"tag-president-dilma-rousseff","27":"tag-protest","28":"tag-racism","29":"tag-rocinha","30":"tag-social-movements","31":"tag-state-violence","32":"tag-vidigal","33":"tag-water","34":"writer-favela-247","35":"translator-cara-pears"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26157","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26157"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=26157"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=26157"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=26157"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=26157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}