On March 7, around 1,500 women from urban occupations, occupations by the indigenous movement and the MST marched for Land, Roof and Work, carrying the flag against forced evictions.
Alongside the general and national flags of International Women’s Day, and the fight against evictions in the communities, the act in Paraná included the collective construction of a program describing the main problems and demands in the territories. The popular program was raised by women from each area of occupation. The document registers the complaints and lists the actions of workers who are already fighting for the improvement of their communities.
After yesterday’s march and act (7), popular movements and communities negotiated this agenda with public bodies, such as the Court of Justice, General Superintendence of Dialogue and Social Interaction of the state government (Sudis); Incra/PR; State Public Ministry (MP/PR), as well as parliamentarians and mayors.
The same list of demands is part of the sequence of the International Women’s Day struggles, and is present in the demands of the March 8 act, during the Women in Resistance March.
What are the fights?
As a context, the agenda built by the women, all of them organized in the Zero Eviction campaign, points to the direct relationship between the absence of housing policies in Brazil and the impact on women, workers and mothers of families.
“The João Pinheiro Foundation recognizes that the Brazilian housing deficit is a gender issue, which mainly affects women. Data from 2021 show that 15 million informal homes are occupied by women, a number that represents 60% of all these homes in Brazil” , informs the document.
This situation has consequences in the capital of Paraná, where there are at least 12 recent occupations from the pandemic period, which are part of the Zero Eviction joint. The lack of investment in the sector is glaring. Cohab and other tools are inactive: “It doesn’t even reach 1% (of the municipal budget), making evident the lack of commitment to face the housing crisis in the capital, marked by more than 350 spaces and occupations of irregular or inadequate housing”, states the text.
Claims
Among the numerous problems that the population experiences in urban occupations – and women, in particular, as community and family leaders -, the list of issues is extensive.
One of the guidelines sets the requirement for “Access to electricity equivalent to the demand of communities and occupations, with reference to the recommendation of the technical note of MP 01/2019 for rural communities. Taking into account the material loss of families with the instability of the network and women’s safety”.
The other axes of the document include housing, education, combating violence against women, work and income. In terms of housing, there is a clear need to resume programs for the area, such as Minha Casa, Minha Vida. Unlike previous periods and the first two Lula governments, popular movements are now asking for more participation in the construction of projects:
“Popular participation in the preparation of plans for housing units and complexes, so that they meet practical and cultural demands (number of rooms, adequate space for carrying out domestic activities, safe leisure space for children, etc.) instead of being a unique type aimed only at the economy and profit of construction companies”.
everyday problems
Among the issues that can be called everyday in relation to public services are: “Permanence of the school system, access to material, access to quality SUS care, with the right to register at the Basic Health Unit closest to the community; follow-up by Community Health Agents within the community”.
The educational element and conditions for family planning are also listed, through an “educational campaign on pregnancy prevention, family planning; incentives for vaccination are other issues that anyone who lives and follows the occupation areas knows that they are the people’s daily struggles “.
In the countryside, more than 80 properties demand rights and 20,000 people
The women of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) of Paraná also present, in the same document, a list of demands that involves, in particular, the demand for the regularization and settlement of areas that, after years of occupation, are still experiencing days of insecurity and risk of evictions.
The movement included in the agenda the demand for 80 properties, all of them with already rooted communities. “All already with consolidated and structured communities. The occupations have an average of 10 to 15 years, some with more than 20 and even 30 years. There are about 7 thousand families, more than 20 thousand people, including women, men, elderly , children, adolescents and people with disabilities”.
In order to break the prejudice that still exists with family farming, the popular program still holds: “That campaigns be thought of to combat violence in the countryside and the stigmatization of members of popular movements that fight for land and housing, including within the scope of the justice system and the executive and legislative powers”.
Source: BdF Paraná
Editing: Lucas Botelho
