The capitalist society that relies on overexploitation of resources, overproduction and overconsumption is inexorably dragging the planet and its inhabitants towards a precipice.
The consequences of this destructive way of organizing society are visible for humanity and the territories. There are numerous examples of this: the multiplication of natural disasters, melting ice caps, seas that consume coastlines, epidemics that break out... not to mention the floods that follow one another everywhere: in Belgium, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil... So many cases of mass destruction...
We have no choice but to strengthen solidarity... Current and former generations of YCW activists are involved in these struggles, and are also showing their solidarity in this time of urgent need!
Writings from the South
By Antônio Souza Capurnan
"From the south (Porto Alegre) to the north (Acre) of the country, hunger only changes the accent."
The dawn is breaking over Porto Alegre. I don't know why the lyrics of a song by a Brazilian popular music performer (Ney Matogrosso) that begin this text came to my mind.
We arrived in Porto Alegre yesterday at 3.40am, after 30 hours in the van that took us here. We arrived in Porto Alegre, and I realized it when the girl next to me told me that we were crossing the humanitarian corridor, created to allow access to Porto Alegre, which had been flooded.
Nelsa, former YCW activist and member of the cooperative "Justa Trama" in solidarity campaign after the floods
More at the front of the van was Mrs. Terezinha, with whom I exchanged a few affectionate son-and-mother glances. I assumed Mrs. Terezinha was the oldest person. And Flora the youngest. Probably.
We arrived, some went to eat and shower. I went to sleep.
In the morning, we went to the Azenha kitchen, “the solidarity kitchen run by the MST (Brazilian Rural Workers' Movement)".
"If you have any questions or need information, talk to an identified MST activist.
Identify yourself at the entrance.
Lunch break is at 1 p.m.
Take your things with you. We can't keep them for you.
Don't eat or drink anything on the assembly line or in the pans.”
On the left, a graffiti on a wall:
PEOPLE ARE MEANT TO SHINE, NOT TO STARVE.
I watched out of the corner of my eye and saw that Mrs Terezinha was already on the production line gluing some stickers on lunch boxes. Her daughter was next to her. She lives in Montes Claros, in northern Minas Gerais, and her mother lives on a farm in the same area. They both drove six hours to the capital (Belo Horizonte) and 33 hours by bus from there to here.
The assembly line is really an assembly line: one team writes on the lids of the lunch boxes; another puts the food in; then another group prepares the stickers and places them on the boxes. And there are many other basic tasks.
The cooks get to work at four in the morning, already preparing the beans and rice, continuing the work of another team from the previous night.
The aim of this organization is to distribute meal boxes, if you can call them that, to various communities specified on another billboard. To serve them, yesterday's planned production was around 4,000 lunch boxes, plus another 1,000 for the line of people forming on the street where the Azenha solidarity kitchen is located: the homeless and local workers.
"Each person can take up to three lunch boxes" and some fruit.
Meanwhile, I noticed that Mrs. Terezinha had already left her stickers to attend to another task in the back kitchen.
At three o'clock, the coordinator asked me to help out at the second-hand store, which distributes donations from all over the country until five in the afternoon.
Everything was going well, even if I was having a hard time finding the items, helped by Maria and Mateus, who had more experience.
Everything was going well, until I approached a young man with a Portunhol accent who asked me for a pair of shoes because the ones he was wearing were hurting his toes.
I looked at him, he looked at me. I went to the bathroom, washed up and splashed some water on my face.
It's a crime! And it will always be a crime - reprehensible, despicable, indecent, immoral - to deprive someone of their right to a roof over their head. The fact that he's a foreigner makes it even more odious. And capitalism is indefensible in every way.
We went back to our accommodation.
Our bodies were broken. We were asked to go back to continue helping. I couldn’t feel my legs.
At almost nine o'clock in the evening, a truck arrived to unload. I wanted to die. I looked around and Mrs Terezinha was calmly and carefully folding clothes. I looked at her, prayed to God for strength and approached the truck.
At one point, my arm touched that of another person. It was Mateus, the young man who was at the second-hand store, very attentive to requests. He looked exhausted at this time of night. But there he was.
Then another truck arrived. And another. By the time the third truck arrived, my body and mind had stalled. I fell asleep, then woke up.
In due course: Mrs. Terezinha had held out until ten o'clock in the evening, when I saw her coming up the stairs, holding on to the banister. Next to her daughter. Two black women. In solidarity.
Mrs. Terezinha's age? 75.
Giorgio Casula, a symbol of solidarity
When we speak of solidarity, we must also mention Giorgio Casula, a true symbol of solidarity. A great activist forged in the struggles and actions of the IYCW. Giorgio Casula, originally from Sardinia, former leader of the Belgian YCW and the European YCW, member of the International YCW Team since October 1987 and militant leader of the CGTP trade union in Portugal. Married to Joaninha, a former president of the Portuguese YCW.
Giorgio's smile, his reflections, his hope and passion for social change, and the importance he gave to the IYCW in this process, are all hallmarks of his journey that will forever remain engraved in the history of the social and worker movement! He left us on June 23, but he will always be PRESENT. Our warmest sympathy to Joaninha, to his family and friends! All our solidarity! Here's to Giorgio's solidarity!
