Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil – 7/18/2018 – 7:30 PM
1. Ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva released a message today on Nelson Mandela’s posthumous 100th Birthday. Mandela, a lawyer, guerrilla, President of South African and one of the world’s greatest leaders, died in 2013. “Today marks 100 years since the birth of Nelson Mandela. We met a few times, but unfortunately we were not presidents during the same period. His lesson of struggle, perseverance and that forgiveness can cure hatred in a nation divided are important for Brazil today, where racism is still very strong and were they want to rebuild the social apartheid that we fought so hard to diminish. The human being is not born hating, he is taught this. So let’s teach people to be more fair, to have more solidarity and to not harbor any type of prejudice,” said Lula, who was a friend of Mandiba’s.
2. Nelson Mandela, the leader who dared to fight racism, fight against apartheid and fight for the rights of South Africans, was persecuted and imprisoned without having committed a crime, but returned to become the president of his people. The similarities with his case and that of Lula, who has been imprisoned 103 days in Curitiba, condemned without any proof that he committed a crime, are not lost on the activists who are in the #LulaLivre Vigil. He is a political prisoner, due to a fraudulent process made by people who don’t want him to return to the presidency of the Republic.
3. The activities on Olga Benário square started today with the “good morning” shout to the ex-President, with the participation of a group of petroleum workers connected to the FUP (Unified Petroleum Workers Federation) labor union and activists who had just arrived from Santa Catarina. The activists started the morning greeting celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 100th Birthday, “Mandela Lives!” and “Free Lula!” were the words of order. The same ritual repeated itself afterwords, during the “good afternoon” shout to Lula, led by Marley Fernandes, the Vice President of the National Education Workers Confederation (CNTE).
4. Later that afternoon, Marley Fernandes and Vanda Santana, the General Secretary of the APP (Paraná State and Municipal Public School Teachers Union), participated in the Democracy Network program, produced by the Casa da Democracia, a group of media activists in the Lula Livre Vigil. The program debated workers’ union organizing and the Coup government’s attacks on public education in Brazil.
5. Another activity which took place this afternoon at the Vigil was a photography workshop called “A Beautiful Woman is One who Fights”, facilitated by Denise Viega, photo-journalist from the CUT labor union federation. An exposition will made based on the workshop in the near future.
6. Union leaders from Brazil and across Latin America, who have been meeting since July 13th in Japan with Japanese union leaders, showed their solidarity for ex-President Lula, who has been a political prisoner since April 7th in Curitiba. Shouts of “Free Lula” were made in all of the international exchange activities, organized by the Japan International Labor Federation (Jilaf), a foundation connected to Rengo, the Japanese Labor Union Confederation. Read more here: http://www.pt.org.br/no-japao-cut-denuncia-prisao-politica-de-lula
Bulletin 150 – People’s Committee in Defense of Lula and Democracy
Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil – 7/18/2018 – 7:30 PM
