Help to avoid the eviction of two thousand families in Osasco, Brazil

Two thousand families are getting ready to resist

In the beginning of this month, the Justice of Osasco authorized the police to use the force against two thousand families who were just fighting for having a place to live in the camp named "Carlos Lamarca". Before the occupation organized by the Homeless Workers' Movement - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST), in the end of July, the area was a dump being used as a graveyard for wrecked cars and murdered bodies. In the last minutes, lawyers who support their cause were able to delay the eviction but time runs against them. If you want to help, please, send e-mails to the mayor of Osasco, Celso Giggio, in order to put pressure on him and on the authorities. The eviction could not happen.

The ghost of a confrontation with the police is threatening more than two thousand families in Carlos Lamarca camp, in Osasco, near the city of São Paulo, Brazil. In August 3th, a guerilla warfare was set off by the police force. More than 400 police officers encircled the camp early in the morning to execute an order of ownership reintegration to guarantee the private property against the right of living. But their effort to scare the homeless wasn't powerful enough. The families were ready to fight back, protect their children and give their own life to preserve a basic principle of life: having a place to live.

Fortunately, the confrontation didn't take place on that day. Lawyers who support the cause of Homeless Workers' Movement - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST) were able to delay the eviction but time runs against them. They can be evicted anytime.To garantee the stay of these homeless citizens in Osasco is a duty for those who search for social justice. That's why we ask you to interfere in this process against injustice. Click here to send e-mails to the mayor of Osasco, Celso Giggio, and to the governor og the State of São Paulo.

Area was an informal dump

Burried bones, wrecked cars and license plates. This was the informal dump used as a graveyard occupied by more than two thousand families organized by of Homeless Workers' Movement - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST) in 26th of July. That night, three hundred families arrived. Two days after, this number increased five times. And families come each day carrying all they have: pans, mattresses and some bags. They removed the garbage, cut brushes and woods, to build their tents and resist under black canvas as a real camp of refugees, trying to escape from misery.

These homeless are hoping to build there a urban settlement. They plan to divide the area in plots of land and set aside a part for an agriculture of subsistence. They want also places where to build a school for their children, pharmacy to take care of people and a house for cultural activities. But a judge of  Osasco, Analisia Soares, in the 2nd of August, authorized the police to execute an order of ownership reintegration to remove them. She simply ignored the right of living, the Brazilian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Fortunately, in the last minutes, lawyers who support their cause were able to delay the eviction but time runs against them. Everyone who is for social justice can't keep silence facing this injustice. Only the popular pressure can keep this seed of hope planted by these homeless. It's unacceptable to allow the others - led by their human ambition for property - to destroy it. It's mandatory for us!