Thursday 31 Jan 2002

Demanding affordable housing and real action to address issues of homelessness and substandard housing in Brazil a group of anarchists broke off of the official world social forum march and squatted a three story house. The squat was organized by a coalition of Brazilian anarchist groups who wanted to show that Porto Alegre isn't the social democratic paradise that the Workers Party (PT) makes it out to be.

The activists created inner tube shields and where encouraged by a radical drum ensemble which was a collaboration between musicians from the Infernal Noise Brigade in Seattle and Brazilian anarcho-drummers. Once the anarchist march split off of the official government sponsored protest they had no problem reaching the squat and breaking the door open. Inside the building activists found a wreck. The stairs had major portions missing and the floor threatened to give way. While the thousands of police in town for the 'anarchist terror' raced over to surround the block in their riot gear the activists hauled out scrap and built barricades in the street.

In Brazil a squatter needs to hold a building for 48 hours before the police are forced to go through the courts to evict. The squatters arranged to bring Naomi Klein and Michael Albert to give talks on globalization and participatory economics in the squat to hold the police back until after the critical 48 hours had past. Housing and access to land is a huge issue in Brazil. The Landless Peasants Movement, MST, has been squatting land and creating agricultural cooperatives for over 15 years. In that time they have reclaimed land and housing for over 2 million Brazilians. After the 48 hours the anarchist squatters were planning on turning the house over to a urban housing and unemployed group.

Unfortunately when they actually looked inside the building they found it to be in pretty bad shape. The second floor threatened to collapse in places and there was a four foot square section of the stairs missing. When faced with an overwhelming police force and a building that wasn't safe the squatters organized a quick meeting of the squatting affinity group and they decided to avoid a confrontation of defending a building they couldn't turn in to usable housing.

The action finished peacefully in a park where a general assembly was held to discuss the action and what future steps could be taken. In the protest there were anarchists from around the world including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, USA, Italy, Belgium, UK, Germany, and the former Yugoslavia among others.

An anticapitalist protest occurred this afternoon parallel to the Forum?s march,. It had an avant-garde carrying 20 shields and broke away from the official march , directing itself to an abandoned house in the centre of Porto Alegre. Envisioning the occupation of this house, the activists closed the street and entered the mansion. In a short while the police arrived, demanding the immediate opening of the street.
Negotiations were opened while some members of the act verified the conditions inside the house. It was found that the house did not have the conditions to house all the activitsts, and it was then decided that some people would stay there so that the street could be opened and the act terminated. A policeman then crossed a barrier of shields and almost ran over some activists. After moments of tension between activists and the police, all decided to free up the street and to continue the march.
All then directed themselves to a park nearby and there conducted an assembly where they deliberated on how to carry out a meeting involving all those who participated in this act. The meeting was scheduled for tomorrow *01/02? in front of the radio at the Youth Camp. It is clear that this is only one view of what happened, others may also relate the facts.

[there is another translation at the site; I didn?t think it was all that hot so I made my own]

There were three marches in the opening of the WSF in Porto Alegre

Yesterday in Porto Alegre the World Social Forum begun. The initial kick was the marches organized. The first march, the official forum one, was organised by political parties and by organizations participating in the forum. Following the same style of party marches it involved a gigantic dispute between flags of different parties, sound trucks and banners.
The second was a march organised by the Youth Camp. It begun after the mother of activist Carlo Giulliani (killed in the protests against the G8 at Genoa) spoke in one of the tents of the camp. They left the march behind a sound-car until meeting the official march of the forum and continued with that march to the shows and parties marking the opening of the WSF.

The third march was organised mostly by anarchists and non-party groups connected to the Global People?s Action (Ação Global dos Povos). It was a march independent of the WSF. It also left the Youth Camp and followed up to the main concentration of the official march. From there people in the ?Rebel?s March? (as it was called by the organizers) left the official march and walked to an abandoned house were they had the intention of creating a temporary autonomous zone. In this space there would be several events such as talks, workshops, debates, theatre, etc? It was a proposal for another forum. The activists of the ?Rebel?s March? are not against the World Social Forum , but against the way it is organised. For this reason they would organise an alternative to the WSF.

When the three marches met in the centre of Porto Alegre there were some tense moments. A sound truck which would lead the official forum march was blocked by the rebels march for some minutes. After this the activists decided to open the way. Soon afterwards some members of the PT begun pushing the activists from the rebel march, even bashing a girl who was in the frontal line of shields. After this incident the shields advanced, opening a path through the Petistas. For some minutes the tensions ran very high, but the protesters preferred not to begin a confrontation.