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Olympisch goud voor KWRU
henk - 25.02.2002 20:06
de olympics en de marches, cheri Honkala speaks
Below is an article written by the MST representative who will be in the
US for 4 months strengthening the MST´s ties in the US. This article
will be printed in the MST´s an upcoming edition of the Jornal Sem Terra
(Landless Newspaper).
The March for Our Lives
By Wanusa Pereira Dos Santos
Around 600 demonstrators took part in the March for Lives on February
8th in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The demonstration took place at the
same time as the Winter Olympic Games of 2002. The protest was aimed
against the U.S. government, which had invested 3 billion dollars in the
games while they continue to reduce social spending. According to Cheri
Honkala, director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, "the march is
for our lives and the strength to overcome the invisibility of poor
people in the United States as well as in the entire world. Each day
they deny the economic human rights of millions of Americans. These are
the rights to health care, food, housing and a dignified job. The
struggle to ensure these rights must be our priority."
The March for Our Lives was an activity of the Poor People´s Economic
Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), which involves various social movements
in the U.S. at a national level and counts on the participation of
representatives of the MST/Brasil and of the Association of Rural
Communities for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES). The moment was
opportune because the Utah state assembly is trying to approve a law
that any non-violent activities of civil disobedience undertaken by
citizens, are considered terrorist acts and that the people involved are
considered lawbreakers and can be sentenced to one year in prison.
Such legislation would be a strong blow to the movement of poor people.
In the name of the fight against terrorism, the U.S. government is
taking away rights of individual and collective free expression that are
assured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This march shows that only the people organized will be able to stop the
U.S. government from utilizing the terrorist attacks to consolidate its
power. It will be with marches, protests, and the carrying out of
organized movements that we will build a better world.
Let´s globalize the struggle! Let´s globalize hope!
For more information on this and other activities of the PPEHRC, please
check out www.kwru.org.
 Website: http://anaisnin.cjb.net
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