Brazil: Editorial – It is urgent to mobilize the masses in Popular Solidarity Committees in RS
We publish an unofficial translation of aneditorial of A Nova Democracia.
It is urgent to immediately mobilize the popular masses of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) through neighbor, village and study and work centers committees into solidarity committees for mutual support and reconstruction.
The situation of total destruction that prevails in the south of the country is very sever and unprecedented, especially in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The information shows a war scenario. 417 municipalities were affected, three times as many municipalities than those affected by the last major catastrophe on September of 2023. More than 63.7 thousand people are sheltered, 163.7 thousand evicted, more than 1.4 millions affected, 374 injured, 130 missing and 100 officially dead according to the records from May 8 of the Civil Defense of RS. 418.2 thousand points in the State are out of energy, 1.06 millions of consumption units without water and tens of municipalities without telephone and internet. The essential infrastructure was destroyed or seriously damaged: there are 187 blockages in State or federal highways, 142 of those are total blockades, without any traffic, in addition to the Airport of Porto Alegre. The local production is destroyed. More than 12 dams are under high pressure, 5 of them in Attention level and 5 in Alert level, placing the workers of the region under permanent terror. More than 10 inland municipalities were evacuated by the partial break of the Usina 14 July dam in Bento Golçalves. More than 110 affected hospitals, 75 of which are now only partially working and 17 completely unused. More than 400 schools are damaged and 77 are being used as shelters. This are only numbers that, even though shocking, do not show the devastation and misery caused to the popular masses.
The harsh truth is that this scenario is not accidental and even less an unexpected and uncontrollable catastrophe. The main argument of the RS state government is that in a few days it rained as much as what was expected for three months. The governor, certainly, thinks that he talks with stupid people: even though he tries to fool everyone, the reality is that his government cut the Civil Defense and Project Management and Response to Natural Disasters’ budget, which amount was R$6.4 millions in 2022 – already little – and was R$5 millions in 2023. the floods that caused serious looses to the state in September 2023 were not enough for the illustrious governor to decide to strength the preventive measures. On the contrary, Leite continued to give full rein, supporting the approval of Law Projects on installations of big real estate companies in ecologically sensitive areas and keeping, for example, the Ecologic-Economic Zoning, that tries to prevent and regularize this companies, aside.
The government of Eduardo Leite, due to negligence, is fully responsible for the disgrace that hit the popular masses of Rio Grande do Sul! It is a premeditated crime!
But the list of responsible people does not stop. In 10 years – 2013 to 2023 – the federal budget to prevent natural disasters was blown away: it went from from R$9.4 billions to R$1.2 billions! And let’s point out: here we can see all the colors of the official politics, from the false left of the Dilma government to the traditional right of Michel Temer, Bolsonaro and, once again, the false left. All of them, successively, defend themselves: “there is no money, there is no budget”. There is no pardon, cowards: even without major changes, it would be enough with taxing the exports of agribusiness – which in 2019 barely payed R$16.3 thousand (!!!) in export taxes – and there would be money to prevent such foreseeable disasters. The problem is the priority: in all the projects, the priority is not the working masses, but the palace compromises.
It is urgent to immediately mobilize the popular masses of Rio Grande do Sul through neighbor, village and study and work centers committees into solidarity committees for the mutual support and reconstruction. It is an immediate question that these committees organize and demand the governments of every level, the immediate provision of the necessary tools for survival, such as aquatic transport for rescues, to provide basic food, free beds in military hospitals and provide the food portions of military troops to the popular masses. In the end, it is urgent that such committees mobilize the masses that will loose everything to reconstruct the State, unmasking the rotten and filthy demagoguery of the current government responsible of the disgrace of the people.
Mobilize the masses in the affected regions in Popular Solidarity Committees!
