{"id":44567,"date":"2018-06-25T10:10:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T13:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=44567"},"modified":"2018-06-28T09:05:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T12:05:55","slug":"black-july-organizers-crowdfund-to-unite-movements-against-racism-and-militarization-in-latin-america-africa-and-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=44567","title":{"rendered":"‘Black July’ Organizers Unite Against Racism, Militarization in Latin America, Africa, Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It\u2019s 3pm on a cloudy Saturday and, as more people file through the entrance of Instituto Ra\u00edzes em Movimento<\/a>\u00a0(Roots in Movement Institute) in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, what initially seemed like a spacious room grows cozier by the second. Greetings are exchanged; questions about the well-being of someone’s daughter or uncle intermingle with invitations to cultural events\u00a0and debates\u00a0around the city. An excited, buzzing energy fills the air.<\/p>\n

The group gathered spans a wide cross section of Rio\u2019s favela-based human rights collectives\u2014from M\u00e3es de Manguinhos<\/a> to the Network of Communities and Movements Against Violence<\/a>, from the Campaign for Freedom for Rafael Braga<\/a> to Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a> from Alem\u00e3o\u2014all fighting to bring visibility to State abuses and racist violence in their communities. Although certainly not a lighthearted theme, what brings them here today is a more hopeful topic: they\u2019re coming together to organize Rio de Janeiro’s\u00a0third annual Black July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recent Years<\/h3>\n

For the past two years, Julho Negro<\/a> (Black July) has brought together activists and movements from around the world with the objective of denouncing state violence against black communities and exchanging strategies in the fight against racism and militarization.<\/p>\n

In 2016, a delegation of activists from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement spent four days in Rio<\/a>, learning about the struggles of Brazilian activists and trading notes on organizing around the fight to value black lives. The events included talks about police brutality and the war on drugs<\/a>, two issues that heavily impact favelas and black communities in the US and Brazil, and their relation to racism and state violence. Activists also emphasized the resilience of\u2014and the need to support\u2014black women<\/a>, who are the carriers of the movement, and the emotional trauma caused by state violence<\/a> in black communities.<\/p>\n

The week strengthened ties between black activists on the two continents, forging links that continue serving both communities. In the words of Daunasia Yancey, from BLM Boston, \u201cIt is important that we stand with each other because we know that this violence is connected. Anti-black violence is global and our resistance is global.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The following year, organizers widened the scope of conversation and connected the struggles in Haiti and Palestine to those in Brazil<\/a>. Soraya Misleh, a second-generation Palestinian refugee to Brazil and author of Al Nakba \u2013 A study about the Palestinian tragedy<\/a>, <\/em>talked about the similarities of the apartheid state in Israel and the militarization of Palestinians\u2019 everyday lives to the realities of those who live in favelas and deal with police violence and military presence on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Clarence Therry, a Haitian immigrant to Brazil and leader of the Haitian Immigrant Social Union<\/a> (USIH), spoke about<\/a> how one can draw inspiration from Haiti\u2019s revolution, a slave revolt that overthrew colonial powers, to reimagine Brazil.<\/p>\n

Another big theme was mass incarceration and the criminalization of favela residents<\/a>, especially black youth. Participants in the exchanges framed these phenomena as continuations of the same systems of domination, especially racism and white privilege, that constantly put black youth at the end of a gun barrel. In 2016, 62% of Brazil\u2019s prison population was black<\/a>\u00a0(compared to just over 50% of the country’s population); between 2005 and 2015, the number of homicides of black people increased by 18.2%<\/a>, while the homicides of non-blacks decreased by 12.2%. One of the intentions of the events was to build the webs of solidarity that will help communities fight the policies that perpetuate these realities.<\/p>\n

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

This Year’s Plans<\/h3>\n

This year, organizers are gearing up for a Julho Negro that promises to be more wide-reaching than before. Although plans and programming are not yet finalized, the events will range in style from talks and roundtable discussions, to film showings and debates, to public hearings and cultural celebrations. The theme, similar to that in past years, will be racism and militarization, and the state violence that disproportionately affects young black men in favela communities.<\/a><\/p>\n

The events will be distributed throughout the city, with each location relating, often intimately, to the subject broached. Some of the topics to be covered are religion and militarization, to be discussed at Terreiro Omijuaro, a place of worship and gathering for the Afro-Brazilian Candombl\u00e9 faith; militarization in the city and in rural areas, a conversation occurring in a\u00a0Landless Workers\u2019 Movement<\/a> (MST) occupation in Nova Igua\u00e7u<\/a>; and the criminalization of social movements and human rights defenders, at Museu da Mar\u00e9<\/a> in Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, home of city councillor and human rights defender Marielle Franco<\/a>\u00a0who was executed in March. One of the central events will be a panel discussion in\u00a0Complexo do Alem\u00e3o\u00a0on the Brazilian penal system<\/a> and the socio-educational system for minors, and on the genocide being waged<\/a> on Brazil’s poor, black, favela residents.<\/p>\n

The week will bring together movements from ten different countries across three continents\u2014from Honduras, Argentina, Colombia, India, and South Africa, among others. It will also be organized in conjunction with the Palestinian BDS National Committee<\/a>, and will lend its presence to the commemoration of the 25th<\/sup> anniversary of the Candel\u00e1ria Massacre<\/a>, when eight homeless youth were killed and many more injured by a group of men that included police officers.<\/p>\n

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

Frans\u00e9rgio Goulart, one of the Julho Negro organizers and a member of the Manguinhos Social Forum<\/a>, shares the terrifying lens through which he has grown to perceive this trend: \u201cToday, we need to think as if the world is building a global police force whose purpose is to control and wage genocide on the population.\u201d The trend toward militarization accompanying racialized violence is a global one, from the United States to Colombia and from Palestine to Brazil. For Julho Negro organizers, that is why the battle against it must also be waged on the global stage, and why events like this one, which bring together movements fighting many of the same forces, are not only important but necessary.<\/p>\n

Julho Negro will occur between July 23 and 27 this year, in locations throughout the city. Organizers are crowdfunding to cover travel and lodging costs of activists invited from around the world. Click here<\/a>\u00a0to donate. For more details and updates on the event, follow Julho Negro\u00a0on Facebook<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas It\u2019s 3pm on a cloudy Saturday and, as more people file through the entrance of Instituto Ra\u00edzes em Movimento\u00a0(Roots in Movement Institute) in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o, what initially seemed like a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":44583,"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":[1288,1290,1503,329,336,1329],"tags":[2467,1500,1606,756,32,1396,844,1734,878,2466,1342,2135,1926,1160,213,2471,2481,1053,124,1189,1539,270,520,268,1385,2444,259],"writer":[2762],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","10":"category-solutions","11":"category-violations","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-black-lives-matter","14":"tag-candomble","15":"tag-coletivo-papo-reto","16":"tag-community-organizing","17":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","18":"tag-criminalization-of-poverty","19":"tag-forum-de-manguinhos","20":"tag-haiti","21":"tag-international-comparison","22":"tag-julho-negro","23":"tag-latin-america","24":"tag-maes-de-manguinhos","25":"tag-mst","26":"tag-museu-da-mare","27":"tag-rede-contra-violencia","28":"tag-palestine","29":"tag-police-violence","30":"tag-prison","31":"tag-race","32":"tag-racism","33":"tag-raizes-em-movimento","34":"tag-resistance","35":"tag-solidarity","36":"tag-state-violence","37":"tag-violence","38":"tag-war-on-drugs","39":"tag-youth","40":"writer-paula-pena"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44567","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44567"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=44567"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=44567"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=44567"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=44567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}