Strongly supported by the agro-industrial sector, Law #490/2007 provides for several changes in the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples as guaranteed by Brazil’s Constitution.
The law applies the “time limit thesis” (marco temporal) to the question of demarcating Indigenous territories.
This fringe racist legal theory holds that Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples have the right only to lands they happened to occupy at the time of the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution (October 1988), and not any that were stolen from them before that date.
If adopted, the marco temporalstandard would likely prevent the demarcation of any additional Indigenous territories (237 territories are currently in legal limbo), while also placing at risk the 441 fully demarcated and registered Indigenous territories.
Furthermore, Law #490/2007 would open Indigenous territories to predatory activities, including mining, ranching, commercial agribusiness, and dam construction.
It goes so far as to allow the State to “retake” lands if there are significant “alterations of cultural traits” within Indigenous communities.
More and more people are realizing that irreversible Climate change is happening now. This coincides with the far right takeover of the Brazilian State, hitching it to the insane policies of greed and destruction of the US Regime. But the militarist and misogynist Brazilian right is not yet all powerful. We can still exert pressure in many ways, perhaps in Europe by supporting threats to cancel the upcoming EU/Mercosur trade agreement if the Brazilian regime continues its policies and its campaign to destroy the Amazon Rainforest, which belongs to nobody and us all.
Amazon burning: Brazil reports record surge in forest fires
Brazilian Amazon beset by 9,500 new forest fires since Thursday, prompting fresh scrutiny of President Bolsonaro’s environmental stewardship.
Fires raging in Brazil‘s Amazon rainforest have hit a record high number this year, according to new data from the country’s space research agency, as concerns grow over President Jair Bolsonaro‘s management of the environment.
People are deliberately starting fires in the #AmazonRainforest to illegally deforest indigenous land for cattle ranching
Pataxó woman: “These assholes came in and burned down [our reservation]… I want all of the media here to see this” pic.twitter.com/uGFp7RItHK
Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in all of 2018, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Monday. The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period last year and is the highest since INPE records began in 2013.
Satellite images spotted more than 9,500 new forest fires since Thursday alone, mostly in the Amazon basin, home to the world’s largest tropical forest and seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming.
From August 9 to 13, the First March of Indigenous Women of Brazil was carried out, with the slogan “Territory: our body, our spirit”. This march then joined the 6th country women’s March of the Margaridas, and the Tsunami of Education in defense of the education system. The Indigenous Women’s March joined the mobilization in Brasília
Maria Anecy Martins arrived in Brasília this week with glowing eyes to join the 2019 ‘Daisies’ (=Margaridas) March. The 45-year-old small farmer is one of the 100,000 peasant women who joined the 2-day event .
The sixth edition of the ‘Daisies’ March took place in Brasília on Aug. 13 and 14. The name of the event, originally Marcha das Margaridas, pays tribute to Margarida Maria Alves, a union leader in the northeastern state of Paraíba who fought for rural workers’ rights and was murdered by contract killers hired by big landowners in 1983.
Brazilian Indigenous Nations celebrate Supreme Court decision AGAINST a legal precedent from the far right usurpers in power which would have decimated their heritage.
The ‘Marco Temporal’ refers to an arbitrary cutoff date, Oct 5th in 1988. Under the proposed new legal policy if the lands were not occupied by the indigenous people on that date their right to the lands would be abolished. Hence the campaign ‘Our History Didn’t Begin in 1988’.
Indigenous activists and human rights campaigners around the world yesterday celebrated Brazil’s Supreme Court ruling unanimously in favor of indigenous land rights.
Thousands of Indigenous peoples marched to Congress in the capital of Brazil in April 2015 to protest the destruction of their land and human rights by the far right usurper government headed by Temer. they were received with tear gas and bombs by shock troops
Brazilian Indians have been protesting in Brasilia against the government’s anti-indigenous proposals.
Indigenous people occupied highways, to protest and later (above) to celebrate the Court victory
From territory under domain of Brazilian government – An urgent call for solidarity!
an earlier antifascist demo
ALERTA ANTIFASCISTA! FROM THE TERRITORY UNDER DOMAIN OF BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT! AN URGENT CALL FOR SOLIDARITY!
On May 2, at eight o’clock, local antifa and members of the Palestinian refugee community from São Paulo, called a protest against an anti-migrant demonstration organized by fascists. We arrived on Paulista Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Sao Paulo with a small group of 15-20 people to shut the demonstration down.
Nationwide strikes, led by Brazilian unions protesting against President Michel Temer’s austerity measures, crippled public transport in major cities across the country, while factories, businesses and schools remained closed.
Cities were successfully closed down despite floods of Tear Gas
Unions and leftwing organisations called for the general strike on Friday to oppose Temer’s plan to slash pension benefits and other austerity reforms.The strike appeared to be having greatest effect in heavily unionised parts of the economy, including transportation, schools, the post office and some hospital staff.
The CUT union estimated that at least 35 million workers went on strike. On the other hand the establishment GLOBO TV channel incredibly failed to mention the strike on its mid day news.
On the streets, police clashed with demonstrators in several cities, blocking protesters from entering airports and firing tear gas in efforts to free roadways.
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city and financial powerhouse, was worst hit by the strikes.
Police used tear gas to clear highways of protesters but bus services, the metro and trains all stopped working, bringing the city temporarily to a standstill.
Demonstrators are protesting President Temer’s austerity measures [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]
“It is going to be the biggest strike in the history of Brazil,” said Paulo Pereira da Silva, president of trade union group Forca Sindical.
In Rio de Janeiro, protesters lit fires on a major bridge, disrupting commuter traffic, while police used tear gas to force a small crowd of protesters from outside the main bus station.
Buses burn in the Rio de Janeiro Demo
However, the city appeared to be less affected, with private businesses such as restaurants, cafes and shops opening normally.
In the capital Brasilia and in Belo Horizonte, another major city, the metro systems were completely closed down. Curitiba, the city where Brazil’s huge “Operation Car Wash” anti-corruption investigation is based, was left without bus services.
Temer has said that without severe fiscal discipline and belt tightening, Latin America’s biggest economy will not be able to exit a two-year recession.
The most controversial measure is to raise the retirement age to 65 for men and 62 for women, up from 60 and 55 at present.
The government is also pushing for a liberalisation of labour laws and has succeeded in getting Congress to pass a 20-year spending freeze.
The struggle over austerity comes against a backdrop of worsening conditions for ordinary Brazilians.
The country’s economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is expected to have contracted a further 3.5 percent in 2016, the most painful recession in a century.
The struggle over austerity comes against a backdrop of worsening conditions for ordinary Brazilians [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]
The miserable economic scenario is dovetailing with the country’s worst corruption crisis in history. The “Car Wash” probe has uncovered a massive network of embezzlement and bribery at the heart of Brazil’s economic and political elite.
Eight of Temer’s ministers are under investigation and the president himself has been accused of chairing a meeting where his PMDB party negotiated a $40m bribe from the Odebrecht engineering conglomerate. Temer and his allies deny any wrongdoing.
“Temer does not even want to negotiate,” said Vagner Freitas, national president of the Central Workers Union (CUT), Brazil’s biggest labour confederation, said in a statement.
“He just wants to meet the demands of the businessmen who financed the coup precisely to end social security and legalise the exploitation of workers.”
Temer’s spokesperson Marcio de Freitas rejected the union’s criticism, saying the government was working to undo the economic damage wrought under the Workers Party government, which had the backing of the CUT.
“The inheritance of that was 13 million unemployed,” he said. “The government is carrying out reforms to change this situation, to create jobs and economic growth.”
Brazil’s Congress voted by 400 to 1 to reject an anti corruption bill signed by 2.5 million citizens, and gave themselves more immunity. Now they vote through massive cuts and sell off public assets to foreign corporations at bargain prices.
Amid massive protests, neoliberal government installed after coup aims to lock 20-year spending freeze into constitution
by Nadia Prupis, 12 Comments Brazil’s new neoliberal government has pushed through the most socially retrogressive austerity package in the world, as a United Nations official had warned on Friday, calling the proposed 20-year freeze on social spending a “radical measure, lacking in all nuance and compassion.”
Under President Michel Temer, who seized power after a coup ousted the democratically elected Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, the spending freeze will be locked into the country’s constitution.
The senate held a final vote on the measure Tuesday 13th and it was passed by the servile corrupt politicians.
In response to the news, Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, decried the bill known as PEC55.
“This is a radical measure, lacking in all nuance and compassion,” he said in a statement, calling the package an attack on the poor. “It is completely inappropriate to freeze only social expenditure and to tie the hands of all future governments for another two decades. This amendment will place Brazil in a socially retrogressive category all of its own.”
update 12th Dec. VICTORY!. The ‘school decimation’ has been suspended for a year and the Education Minister Voorwald has resigned. Many occupied schools have decided in assembly to CONTINUE OCCUPYING, calling for total cancellation of government plans and solutions for many other issues.
update thurs 10 Dec.. 136 schools are still occupied!!!
BY ERIN GALLAGHERREVOLUTION NEWSStudents and teachers in São Paulo continue to protest against conservative Governor Alckmin’s attempts to “reorganize” the educational system in São Paulo which will involve closing almost 100 schools.
The student movement is fully autonomous and self-organized with protesters mostly between the ages of 13 to 18 occupying high schools around the city.
As of the time of this publication, the website keeping track listed a total of 219 occupied schools. Plans for the reorganization have been temporarily suspended so occupation numbers may be dropping. The student movement has gained such support that some students in Italy have now occupied a school in Rome inspired by the student occupations in Brazil.
At 4 am on Friday, 1,500 BOPE killer cops took under siege a building, in northern Rio, which had been occupied by homeless working people, teargasing and attacking people in their sleep. Another person was executed during protests against the military occupation of Mare, on Saturday.
Residents believe that 2 kids and an old man have been suffocated to death in the military assault. Dozens have been injured, some lost their eyes.
Residents believe that two children and an old man have been killed – it is not known who are their names, or if they were killed due to the teargas or the smoke from the building set on fire during the forced eviction. 27 people had been arrested when they defended against the police attack.
One of the Palestinians being arrested 
The Free 
