São Paulo registers protests against hunger in at least 15 neighborhoods

Fifteen simultaneous protests against hunger, unemployment and the rising cost of living were held in different parts of São Paulo this Tuesday afternoon (21).

The Marches Against Hunger, organized by entities such as the Central de Movimentos Populares (CMP), take place near supermarkets in the central region, in Butantã, in the slums of Heliópolis and Paraisópolis and in the regions of São Mateus, Grajaú, Capão Redondo, Jardim Caraguatá , Vila Prudente, Tucuruvi, Sapopemba, Cidade Ademar and Brasilândia.

A protest was also organized in the city of São José dos Campos (SP), at Praça Afonso Pena, in the central region.

The participants in the acts carried pots, bones and banners in protest against the hunger in the country. An open letter that warns of inequality in the country was delivered to traders in each region and read to the public at the end of the marches.

“It’s on the outskirts and slum communities where hunger weighs more and impacts people. The people can’t stand so much misery anymore, they can’t stand to see the number of billionaires increase while they’re hungry. There’s food, supermarkets are full, what’s missing. it’s money to buy and social justice,” the manifesto said.

In the center of the capital, the protest started around 15:00, in front of the Stock Exchange. In November, the site received the Golden Bull, a kind of replica of the statue found on Wall Street, in New York’s financial district. The sculpture was the target of a protest against hunger and was withdrawn after eight days. In early December, a lean cow, alluding to hunger and misery, was placed in the same spot.

“Between the fat ox and the lean cow, what is left for the families are the bones”, says Carmen Ferreira, one of the organizers of the act at the center. “Christmas is a time of consumption, but what we are seeing are people with an empty refrigerator, cutting down on meals and calling us for help to complete the basic food basket.”

Vanessa Serra, 26, a guide at a reception center, attended the event at the center to also protest against food inflation. “Even those who are working, when they arrive at the checkout at the market, they have to leave half the items, as everything is so expensive. We return home not knowing if we will have anything to eat.”

The acts were also organized in peripheral regions and in the late afternoon to facilitate the participation of workers in these regions, according to Raimundo Bonfim, coordinator of the CMP.

“Unfortunately during Christmas and New Year millions do not even have the basic food. People are ending 2021 with great difficulty, given the increase in the price of gas cylinders, energy tariffs, rice, beans and oil, in addition to unemployment and loss of income,” says Bonfim.

The protesters are also protesting against what they regard as a dismantling promoted by the Bolsonaro government of policies to combat hunger, such as the extinction of Consea (Council for Food and Nutritional Security), which ended on the first day of the mandate, in January 2019.

In November, the first Panela Vazia March was held in the Heliópolis favela, the largest in the city of São Paulo. This Tuesday, the community performed a new act. A strip of Estrada das Lágrimas, one of the main access routes to the community, was closed by protesters.

A teacher at a day care center in the region, Marta Ribeiro, 29, says that the parents of students have complained about the price of food. “They talk about the difficulty in buying rice and beans.”

The act was accompanied by representatives of the OAB’s human rights commission. According to Flavio Straus, representative of the commission that accompanied the protest in Heliópolis, the advance of hunger in the country violates fundamental rights, such as the food security provided for in Article 227 of the 1988 Constitution.

On December 17, protests against hunger also took place in supermarkets in at least nine capitals across the country.