Law 910. The Land Grabbers Licence

In Brazil a tiny far-right minority owns nearly all the arable land, due to the history of slavery and colonization. . Now with neo fascist Bolsonaro in power a law is going through to let them usurp vast areas of publicly owned forest and indigenous land they have already seized, giving them legal rights to ‘develop’ a world heritage, an ecological miracle and a key to saving the planet. But the legalization needs to be voted through before May 19th 2020 or they will have to start again.

By Caroline Oliveira at BrasilDemocracia representativa via Kaos en La Red.

translation by TheFreeOnline, illustrations added.

‘Provisional Measure 910’, known as the land appropriation or land regularization measure, which seeks to regulate around 600,000 rural properties until the year 2022, can be voted on in the Brazilian National Congress this week, after the sponsor of the Bill, the deputy Zé Silva reached an agreement with the leader of the Congress, Rodrigo Maia.

The measure faces reaction from environmentalists, the opposition, the National Conference of Bishops (CNBB) and even the Federal Public Ministry. If the bill is not approved by both houses of the legislature (Congress and Senate) by May 19, it will expire.

According to the organization for the defense of land rights, T5550erra de Direito, as well as other experts who spoke with Brazil about Fato, the temporary measure dictated by Jair Bolsonaro in December last year, supposedly promotes the regularization of state-owned rural areas. But “it is a clear attempt to regularize public lands that have already been illegally appropriated.”

In reality, the Public Ministry (MPF) published several studies highlighting the irregularities and constitutional issues contained in the draft land regularization law.

Continue reading “Brazilian oligarchy set to get area 7 times greater than Portugal”

El Raval enters collapse phase

Barcelona has crashed. Now its ground zero in the collapse of the Dream. This is an example of what’s happening all around the world.
Hundreds of people who lived in a submerged or very precarious economy linked to tourism have found themselves with absolutely nothing overnight.
The strong neighbourhood mutual aid networks are overwhelmed by the sudden fall of all those who remained invisible, already on the threshold of destitution

by Helena López.. ..translated from elperiodico.com with thanks. Illustrations added..

Behind every unknown phone number that lights up the screen, dozens a day, there lies a story. One of the latest, that of a Filipino girl who lives in a rented room with her four-year-old daughter. A small room with chipped walls that she hasn’t been able to pay for for two months. She worked in the kitchen of a restaurant without a contract.

With the decree of the Spanish ‘State of Alarm’, she lost her income and, by working irregularly, cannot access any aid. “The man who rents the room wanted to kick us out. He has agreed to let us stay until the end of the month because I told him that if he kicked us out in full ‘Confinement Lockdown’ I would report him to the police. But what will happen to us tomorrow?”

Elena’s case is a typical example of the consequences of this crisis in the old city neighborhood. Living in the Lockdown confinement in a rented room with a child was already hard. Losing even that is what is happening these weeks in Raval, a neighborhood where the Covid-19 has caused a multiple collapse.

Continue reading “Mass Destitution and Mutual Aid in Barcelona’s Raval”

A federal court granted a protective order (amparo) to Chiapas indigenous people by means of which it orders that work on the Palenque stretch of the Maya Train is suspended, for the purpose of safeguarding the health of the Ch’ol people, […]

from — Chiapas Support Committee, shared with thanks

By: Elio Henríquez .. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

In a statement, the judge pointed out that when deciding admission of the protective order, the court “determined that it was appropriate to grant the suspension because at this moment it must give preponderant value to the right to health of the complainants as members of the Ch’ol Maya community and inhabitants of the localities, since the work involved in such infrastructure requires the deployment of various activities” that numerous people must carry out who will require essential and non-essential services in the community, thereby increasing activities in their public areas.

The grouping, based in Yucatán, indicated that indigenous Chiapanecos of Palenque, Ocosingo and Salto de Agua presented the request for an amparo on May 7.

They presented the lawsuit against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, and the director general of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, for issuance of the April 6 agreement and the April 23 decree, “through which the continuation of the Maya Train, among other administration projects, was determined, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.”

It added that: “complainants pointed out that the continuation of the project, in the context of the pandemic, violated their right to health due to the risk of contagion because of Covid-19, placing the human right to life at risk.

“The inhabitants of those communities argued that maintaining work on the Maya Train during a pandemic prevented them from participating in the environmental and social impact statements to which, as communities, they have a right in the face of any megaproject.

It specified that the court not only prioritized the right to health of the inhabitants of the Ch’ol communities of Ocosingo, Palenque and Salto del Agua, but it also recognized that continuing work on the train in this context could affect other rights of that Native people, like the right to water, environment and natural resources.

It explained that while the suspension decreed is provisional (the definitive suspension will be resolved in a hearing on May 14) it permits making visible the potential damages that the project will cause.

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Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2020/05/09/politica/017n1pol

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee

However, the residents can’t celebrate fully yet: another hearing will be held on May 14 at which a judge will decide whether to upgrade the provisional suspension order to a definitive one, which would provide an even stronger guarantee that work on the railroad in the three municipalities won’t start while Covid-19 remains a health threat.

The Maya Ch’ol residents ultimately want to stop the train project altogether, arguing that it will cause irreparable damage to the environment, including natural resources such as water.

The suspension order comes two months after a judge in Campeche granted a definitive suspension order against the Maya Train to a group of indigenous people in the municipality of Calakmul.

May 8, 20

original HERE.. PLEASE DONATE to IGD .. shared with thanks https://itsgoingdown.org/breakout-dispatches-on-resistance-to-the-pandemic-inside-prison-walls- 3,048 views

As we enter week 14 of the pandemic, attitudes are starting to shift; the shock is wearing off and many of us are hunkering down for the long-haul. Prisoner resistance to the pandemic has not slowed, nor has the commitment of those outside the walls – but the tone has shifted. While our first two updates heralded calls to #FreeThemAll before it was too late – for many, that time has passed. Our updates and timelines are filling with homages to fallen comrades; obituaries for the bodies contained and the spirits now free.

Some states have begun the process of “re-opening” their economies, with disastrous results as the US as a whole is careening towards a death toll of unimaginable numbers. The health care system is taxed, the unemployment system is a bloated mess; ready to burst at any moment, and the insurgent far-Right has begun clamoring for a return to a new normal that will ensure a continued wave of COVID-19 related deaths.

Entire units are put on quarantine isolation for weeks at a time while testing inside remains virtually non-existent. And many have been thrown into isolation as punishment for speaking to the media, or sending information out about conditions inside.

With this reality in mind, it’s no surprise that so many Department of Corrections bureaucrats have completely ignored the pleas from families and prisoners themselves – or even public policy recommendations. The level of depravity that the State has shown in an effort to keep those locked up behind bars has been shocking. Moreover, in the face of possible coronavirus outbreaks, isolation has become a main weapon in the DOC arsenal. Many people inside have been faced with the unthinkable reality of being thrown into prolonged isolation, without access to the outside world or their belongings, simply if they dare to report possible symptoms to DOC staff. In this way, entire units are put on quarantine isolation for weeks at a time while testing inside remains virtually non-existent. And many have been thrown into isolation as punishment for speaking to the media, or sending information out about conditions inside.

In California, the Bureau of Prisons went so far as to take away email and phone access to nearly 4,000 people in an effort to ‘stop the spread of COVID-19.’ This obviously sloppy measure was done at the expense of people having access to basic communication with their loved ones and supporters outside. These facility wide gag orders will become commonplace as both the resistance inside and outside ratchets up along with the infection rates.

“People Shouldn’t Have to Die Like This”

On April 1^st, Andrea Circle Bear gave birth via C-section while on a ventilator in a local hospital in Texas. On April 28^th she became the 29^th person in federal custody to die of COVID-19, her baby survived – but out of “respect for the family” the BOP refuses to release information on the baby’s condition or whereabouts. The news of her death shocked and saddened not only the US abolitionist movement, but the world. Even with documented pre-exisiting conditions and several months into her pregnancy, Circle Bear was not eligible for one of the few slots allocated by the BOP for “priority release.”

Continue reading “BreakOut: Dispatches on Resistance to Pandemic In Prison”