Brazilian People Mobilize against Michel Temer Reforms

The objective of this and other actions of protest is to stop the reform of social security and avoid a serious setback, said union leader

Brazil staged today a National Day of Mobilization and Paralysis against the proposed labor and social security reforms by which popular movements and central trade unions describe as Michel Temer”s ”illegitimate government.”

Throughout the country, demonstrations of protest are planned from the early hours of the morning, culminating in the event that will take place in the afternoon on the crowded Paulista Avenue and which former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will attend.

The mobilizations, convened by the Brasil Popular and Pueblo Sin Miedo fronts and backed by the main Brazilian trade union centers, will coincide with the beginning of a general strike of public education workers.

The strike will extend to all the states of the country and we hope to count with the participation of more than one million members, anticipated the head of the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE), Heleno Araújo.

According to the union leader, the 48 affiliates of the CNTE approved the call for a general strike, initially scheduled for 10 days, but it could be extended.

The objective of this and other actions of protest – he remarked – is to stop the reform of social security and avoid a serious setback.

The proposal of Constitutional Amendment (PEC) 287/2016 sent by Temer to Congress last December establishes, among other aspects, that both men and women and urban or rural workers may retire only after reaching the age of 65 and having worked for 25 years.

The implementation of this inhumane reform, will make 68 percent of the Brazilian localities unfeasible, in which social security revenues are even higher than the financial transfers of the Union obtained through the Municipal Participation Fund, PhD in Economy and professor of the State University of Campinas Guilherme Delgado said.