{"id":6050,"date":"2014-08-21T11:21:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T17:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=6050"},"modified":"2014-08-21T11:21:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T17:21:31","slug":"brazil-ze-maria-political-campaign-in-the-working-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2014\/08\/21\/brazil-ze-maria-political-campaign-in-the-working-class\/","title":{"rendered":"[Brazil] Z\u00e9 Maria: political campaign in the working class"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRAZIL<\/em>
\nWritten by J. Figueira, PSTU (Brazil) <\/em>
\nSunday, 17 August 2014 20:11<\/em>
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

Expressing the nature of his candidacy and the choice to prioritize the most exploited and oppressed sectors of the working class, Z\u00e9 Maria began his campaign at the Fair of Alcantara in S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo, Rio de Janeiro\u2019s metropolitan area; a neighborhood known by its working-class character.<\/p>\n

From there, on July 6, the presidential candidate of PSTU officially kicked off his political campaign.<\/p>\n

A Brazil for workers will be achieved in the struggles and factories<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the same day, Z\u00e9 Maria went to the Complexo da Mar\u00e9, a region that concentrates diverse communities and which today is occupied by the Armed Forces. There he spoke with residents and supporters about the need of building a socialist and working class alternative to change the country.<\/p>\n

The vice-presidential candidate Claudia Durans, on her turn, devoted her first day of campaigning to talk to the residents of the neighborhood of Liberdade, in S\u00e3o Lu\u00eds (capital of Maranh\u00e3o, North of Brazil), where she was born and her family lives. Liberdade is a black community and quilombola region.<\/p>\n

In other states, the PSTU began the campaign of Z\u00e9 Maria and the state candidates also in the working class regions, in open fairs and popular neighborhoods. These activities started the campaign which will focus on the most exploited and oppressed sectors of the working class, because only workers can, through their power and mobilization, change the country. This will only be possible by a workers\u2019 government, without bosses, to break with the economic policy that benefits bankers, contractors and multinationals.<\/p>\n

The construction sites in Fortaleza<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 16, the PSTU held a national day of campaigning. Z\u00e9 Maria visited construction sites in Fortaleza, whose workers recently ended a successful strike. Z\u00e9 Maria presented to them the reasons for his candidacy.<\/p>\n

“The choice of making our campaign next to workers states what are our goals in this election. We make the country, so we can and must rule the country too,” he argued.<\/p>\n

At night, the candidate spoke to workers and youth in the headquarters of the Construction Workers Union of Fortaleza (capital of Cear\u00e1, Northeast of Brazil): “We need a government of our class, to break with the contractors and employers to make in this country the transformations that we, workers, need for our lives,” defended the PSTU candidate, being applauded by the audience while they chanted:” I’m with Z\u00e9 in the fights and election, workers don\u2019t vote for bosses.”<\/p>\n

In Minas Gerais, with metalworkers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The history of the PSTU in Minas Gerais is mixed with the Democratic Trade Union Federation of Metalworkers of the state\u2019s one. The union organization was born after the huge strikes of the 1980s, especially the occupation of the industries Mannesmann and Belgo-Mineira. Z\u00e9 Maria was the founder and one of the main leaders of this fighting process and of the Federation.<\/p>\n

On July 25, Z\u00e9 Maria attended the 14th Congress of the Federation and in the evening he was present in the ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of that organization, where he greeted the audience: “The entity has emerged as a need to unify the struggles of the workers in Minas Gerais against the employers and due to the refusal of the existing federation, run by scabs, to make room for rank and file unions. In these 25 years, it not only supported many struggles that led to concrete victories for the metalworkers throughout the state, as well as also being a point of support for the founding of the CSP Conlutas.”<\/p>\n

But, as the Minas Gerais composer says, “if it worths what has been done, it worths more what will be.” [1] Recent strikes in industries after 10, 15 and even 20 years of calm, as in IMBEL, Gerdau, Votorantim or Belgo (former Belgo-Mineira) show that the working class is coming back to the fight. It is in these struggles that the PSTU builds its candidates\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n

In the factories of S\u00e3o Paulo state<\/strong><\/p>\n

In S\u00e3o Paulo, Z\u00e9 Maria\u2019s campaign is made at the factory gates. Be in the South Zone or the West Zone of S\u00e3o Paulo there is a great receptivity to the proposals for changing the country. It could not be different, for there is a huge dissatisfaction due to the staples inflation and the exploitation to which the workers are subjected.<\/p>\n

There is a need to change all this situation. In the ABCD [2], the campaign will now step up the fight against layoffs and redundancy. On July 26 Z\u00e9 Maria participated in the launch campaign of the PSTU candidates in Vale do Para\u00edba (SP) [3], where he defended deep changes in society to put the wealth produced in the country at the service of the needs of workers and poor people . “For this, we must attack the profits and privileges of the powerful”, stressed the PSTU\u2019s candidate for the presidency.<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

[1] – Quoted from the song \u201cO que foi feito dever\u00e1\u201d by Milton Nascimento, who was born in Minas Gerais.<\/p>\n

[2] – ABC is the acronym for Santo Andr\u00e9, S\u00e3o Bernardo, S\u00e3o Caetano and Diadema, the cities of the most industrialized region of S\u00e3o Paulo state, in the metropolitan area of the capital.<\/p>\n

[3] – Vale do Para\u00edba (Eglish: Para\u00edba Valley) is located in the eastern part of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo along the Presidente Dutra Highway (BR-101) and the River Para\u00edba, formed by 9 cities. This region includes a highly developed industrial park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRAZIL Written by J. Figueira, PSTU (Brazil) Sunday, 17 August 2014 20:11     Expressing the nature of his candidacy and the choice to prioritize the most exploited and oppressed sectors of the working class, Z\u00e9 Maria began his campaign at the Fair of Alcantara in S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo, Rio de Janeiro\u2019s metropolitan area; a neighborhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":5353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27806],"tags":[27661,29149,28765,27962],"class_list":["post-6050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionalinternational","tag-brazil","tag-imbel","tag-minas-gerais","tag-pstu"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-1zA","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}