Geen
Oorlog - No a la Guerra
Protests against war
Brazil 12 october
In Rio de Janeiro on October, 12, there was a huge demonstration for
world peace summoned by the Roman Catholic Church --an entity that in
Brazil has been for the most part openly against capitalism-- and
leftist parties. It was also attended by representatives of several
other rites, including Moslems and Jews. It assembled about 600,000
people, which was second only to that that happened in La Habana, Cuba,
for the same purpose, with 1 million people. There also were other
smaller demonstrations all over the country.
The demonstration was helped by the date, since October 12 is a holiday
for being the day of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil
and also a lot of other commemorations: day of America, day of the
crowning of the first Brazilian emperor, dom Pedro I, day of the
separation of Portugal from Spain, day of the children etc. The
religious feature of the demonstration, however, was the only one
informed by the mainstream bourgeois midia, which is openly favoring the
war. It was omitted the great number of people and the chorus and
placards against imperialism and war, not to mention the many red flags.
When one of the speakers mentioned that the war is mainly affecting the
children and women of Afghanistan, who have been suffering a lot with
the permanent warfare in that country, the crowd spontaneously began to
sing "Maria, Maria" (Mary, Mary), a beautiful and vigorous song by the
communist composer M. Nascimento to pay hommage to the working women of
the world and to peace. As you know, women in Afghanistan are
non-beings and forbidden to work, but it didn't matter for that moment.
Maria is the most common name for women in the Iberian countries, for
Christian reasons.
In solidarity,
Roberto.
Brazilie, Sao Paulo
Brazilie, Sao Paulo
The protest took place in a one of the main avenues of this huge city of 20
million people. One way (four lanes) of the avenue was closed by the
activists. There was anarquist people, socialist, ecologist groups and some
afinity groups About a thousand people took part in a protest against war,
for the people of Afghanistan, US and Arab world, against the economic,
political and religious fundamentalism. We wanted to show the people of
Brazil (where 80% are against this war) how this war has nothing to do with
Justice. Another objective was to shoe our goverment that most people here
doesn't agree with the automatic align of brazilian govermnt with the
american war efforts. The protest was pacific and at the end almost
everybody in the protest took part ind a street theater apresentation whith
the crowd splitted in two sides. After a singnal, the two sides attacked
each other and then everybody died (800 people laid down on the ground).
After that the drums set started to play some samba and we stay doing our
"carnaval" (mardy grass?) for ours. Everything runned well,
without the usual clashs with the cops. Manifestations againts war happened
in another brazilian cities too: Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba,
Rio Grande... All made up by people that are influenced by the PGA (People's
Global Action) principles.
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