Bolsonaristas call strike for Monday and truck drivers say they do not organize acts

Bolsonaristas who are in the anti-democratic demonstrations that started on Sunday (30) began to call for Monday (7) a possible “general strike”, in which they ask for the adhesion of businessmen.

An invitation to the movement with an air of lockout (company strike, now prohibited by law) began to circulate on social networks and in the WhatsApp and Telegram groups of people involved with the demonstrations.

On Sunday night (6), however, a balance sheet by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) points out that anti-democratic acts are practically reaching the end on the roads, with only two partial blocking points on the country’s highways. The state of Rondônia again registered a ban on federal highways by protesters this Sunday. The bans occur in Vilhena (RO) and Altamira (PA). The PRF has already ended more than a thousand blocks since last Sunday (30).

In these groups, the lie has been widely disseminated that there is evidence or strong indications that the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was obtained through electoral fraud.

Initially spread over highways in several states, the demonstrations began to focus in front of the army commands in the cities, where bolsonaristas dissatisfied with the results of the polls ask for “federal intervention” and “military intervention”. This Sunday (6), protesters who were in front of the Army Headquarters, in Brasília, spoke about the possibility of a general strike. There were only a hundred attendees at the venue.

According to the messages, the organization was being carried out by the MNRC (National Civil Resistance Movement), a group that calls for the impeachment of the elections and the dismissal of ministers of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

“Close your company, industry, factory and commerce and let’s fight against the installation of communism”, reads the invitation distributed this Friday.

Representatives of truck drivers say they do not organize acts

Carlos Alberto Litti Dahmer, director of the CNTTL (National Confederation of Transport and Logistics Workers), said that old videos about the September 7 demonstrations were circulated again to purposely confuse people about a new demonstration this Monday (7) and , due to the large circulation among the groups of truck drivers of this material, he expects stoppages in all the states of the South region. “These are old videos, but any reason is enough to inflame a minority that did not accept the election result,” he said.

Wallace Landim, the Cry, also claims that old videos, from the 7th of September, are being reused to ignite demonstrations that do not have any organization of groups linked to truck drivers. He says that what you “see are organized acts with companies in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso” and that “90% of the trucks of companies that appear in the videos are linked to agriculture”.

He said he was sad to see that businessmen, politicians and other Bolsonaro supporters are using “the name of the truckers’ movement, because of the strength we have, to promote undemocratic acts”, he commented. “What we’re seeing is a lockout risk.”

ABTTC (Brazilian Association of Retroport Terminals and Container Carriers) reported not having received notifications about possible stoppages this Monday (7th) and is planning for a normal working day.

Daniel Reis de Paula, or Queixada, president of the truck drivers association in Oliveira-MG, says that there is no organized participation of truck drivers in any protest scheduled for tomorrow. “It has nothing to do with truckers this,” he says.

Chorão, Queixada and Dahmer mentioned that, in some way, the strikes are being promoted or supported by businessmen and farmers, who provide food for protesters, stop trucks from their fleets on the roads and even dump rubble and earth in some stretches.

Business entities see localized movements

Business entities and employers’ unions heard by the Sheet said they were not aware of joining the call. It is not ruled out, however, that individual shop and factory owners decide to stop, but, until Friday, the perception was that there was no climate for a lockout.

In the last week, dozens of companies in Sinop (MT) announced, on Tuesday (1st), that they would close their doors early to join the demonstrations against the election result.

On Thursday (3), the CDL (Câmara de Dirigentes Lojistas) of Canoinhas, in Santa Catarina –a state that, along with Mato Grosso, concentrated the number of road and highway blocks– released a communiqué in which it summons traders “who share the same ideal” to participate in what they called a “democratic movement”.

In the statement, signed by the entity’s president, Cirineu Novak, the CDL recommends that “if they don’t want to close their shops”, they ask employees if they want to participate in the movement and that they rotate their personnel.

The Federation of Chambers of Shopkeepers of Santa Catarina also released a position on a social network, in which it only said that it recognizes the right of people to express their discontent, as long as this does not violate the right to come and go or affect economic development.

According to the regional labor prosecutor Adriane Reis de Araújo, from Coordigualdade (coordination for the promotion of equality at work), complaints about companies sending workers to protests are already beginning to reach the MPT (Prosecutor’s Office for Labour).

If the company wants to close its doors and dismiss its employees on the day of an act, for example, it can, but cannot force them to participate in any actions.

National entities, such as the CNI (National Confederation of Industry) expressed their opposition to the protests.

The CNI stated that it is “vehemently opposed to any anti-democratic demonstration that harms the country and its population.”