HomeStreet Vendors confront military police in Sao Paulo
Street vendors in Sao Paulo, Brazil, confronted the city’s Metro Guarda Civil (MGC) - military police - in a running battle that lasted three and half hours on Friday 20th of May. The confrontation was triggered by confiscation of 300 street vendors’ goods in the city centre by inspectors at around 19h00 hours.
The MGC, called in to reinforce police, used tear gas and stun grenades, eventually themselves calling for political leaders to defuse the situation. Four military police were reported injured and three street vendors were arrested in the battle. The MGC was called on to withdraw from the square because their presence there was a provocation to vendors.
Twenty-nine year-old vendor Sidnei, told media that the trouble was provoked by the inspectors’ seizure of vendor’s goods. "Friday team is the worst. They confiscate goods and do not give receipts so that they can be reclaimed. They say that the goods are 'falsificada' - assuming that they are fake brand names."
This was the second confrontation between street vendors and the city’s police and military in May. On May 6th, six people were reported injured.
StreetNet affiliate SINTEIN- SP, the union of the informal workers of Sao Paulo, affiliated to the trade union centre CUT- is the only central union of workers with its headquarters in Sao Paulo where there is an exponential growth of the informal sector. Following the confrontation between street vendors and police and military, the focus of public attention has fallen on Brazil’s informal economy workers and the need for legislation to provide economic justice and proper regulation instead of repression, arrest and assault.
Rapid growth of the informal economy is understandable because Sao Paulo is one the most industrialised cities in Latin America. It is also Sao Paulo, where after 12 twelve years of neo-liberal policies, coupled with the negative effects of globalisation, that economic recession has led to the unemployment of thousands of workers. Unemployed workers have found themselves with no alternative but to seek work in the informal sector so as to be able to sustain their families.
Since 2002, after the electoral victory of PT – Workers’ Party in Brazil, investment in economic growth is beginning to show results. The economic growth has created three million new formal economy jobs, which although much welcomed, is far short of the number needed to solve joblessness and poverty. The informal economy can therefore not be ignored. A recent study has estimated that it contributes 6% of Brazil’s GDP. This is not an insignificant contribution as Brazil is ranked among the ten largest economies of the world.
The informal sector includes a very diverse group of economic activities. Micro and small businesses have been created for various economic activities, many being street and market vending which takes place in the city centre and in the peripheral region of the city. The informal economy is also home for professionals who are unable to find a place in the formal job market, such as teachers, information technology training, building companies, public phone operators, taxi drivers, accountants and many others. Legislation needs to be created for each segment of the informal economy. The sector’s contribution is likely to continue to grow in view of the difficulty of halting the harmful effects of economic globalisation.
In July, the president of the national trade union centre CUT, Mr. Luiz Marinho, was appointed as a Minister of Labour by the President of the Republic. He knows the problems and the difficulties of Brazil’s workers in the informal economy and can assist SINTEIN hopes he will ensure that just and inclusive legislation is passed. Such legislation should allow all the segments of the informal sector to undertake their commercial activities with dignity and respect. Furthermore, this legislation should also allow the participants to generate income that meets their daily needs and overcome poverty and so contribute to a fairer distribution of resources among all Brazil’s people and the growth of the nation.
(Source: SINTEIN, Yara, Sampaio E Ricardo Moreno, and media reports)
STOP PRESS
In another attack in the Brás district of Sao Paulo on Monday 15th August, street vendors were again forced to close their businesses and to flee following a new confrontation with the city’s Metro Guarda Civil (MGC). Brazil CUT office is located in the district.