We forward to the newspaper A Nova Democracia a brief account of the delegates from the Union of the Workers of the Building Industry of BH and Region (Marreta), the Working League and the Revolutionary People’s Student Movement (MEPR) who have been to Brumadinho after the criminal Vale’s Feijão dam disruption.
Márcio Fernandes de Oliveira, Estadão
We visited the affected area, the houses of the local residents, we talked to the workers and local people in Brumadinho, near the Vale’s facilities and the village at Córrego do Feijão.
Through Brumadinho’s streets, far beyond the pain and destruction caused by Vale and accomplices from the government, we could meet sad and apprehensive people trying to have news from relatives or acquaintances. What one saw was that those affected by the dam disruption could not count on a civil authority to present a solution to their demands. There were many militaries, policemen and plain-clothes officers besides those persons clearly identified as Vale’s.
The firemen, with their ceaseless rescueing work, count on the support and esteem of the population.
Vale, besides trying to monopolize the medical attendance and psycho-social assistance to the ones affected, was registering the families with the promise of “extrajudical compensation”. The Movement for the Affected People in Dams (MAB) has exposed the fact that the mining company contracted Sinergia – the same enterprise who was responsible for the register of the families in Fundão, Mariana, Minas Gerais – to accomplish the work in Brumadinho. On request of the Public Defenders of the Union and Minas Gerais, the Public Prosecution has prevented that it kept on doing so.
At the Córrego do Feijão village we covered every house and issued Marreta and the Working League newsletter. We listened to the complaints and poignant reports, as for instance, from a man who is welcoming at home his two daughters who lost their husbands, buried in the mud. He told us that everything they have now – food and clothes – is from donations. The solidarity spontaneous actions from the masses were so many that the public bodies started issuing communications dismissing donations and volunteers. As a matter of fact, the immediate mass mobilization for food, fresh water, clothes and essential goods – besides the volunteers who headed to Brumadinho to assist the needy – is much larger than the old State actions.
Local residents and workers we have listened to have reported us that since April last year there has been denouncements on the insecurity of the dam.In November there was a simulation in the village of Córrego do Feijão and a lady informed that, at the moment of the distruption, the persons who followed the previous instructions died; the ones that decided to follow their instincts, seeking higher places, survived. An old aged couple was in front of their house and they repeated what they had already told the Vale’s agents: “We will not abandon our place.This is everything we have and now they want to get us out of here. Where are we supposed to go? Vale has to provide us of another house”.
“Concealing” Operation
When the first pictures of the dam disruption were released, the first reaction of the monopolies was of shock and indignation. When the details of the images have been published, showing people swallowed by the mud tsunami and the rescue of the first victms, the charges for clarification and measures for not happening again have grown. Just a few days after, what one can see from the monopoly’s side is a real “concealing” operation to free Vale and its direction of the criminal responsibility. Besides the multi-million advertising campaigns “regretting” what had occurred, the news programme TV anchors started considering the “great importance of Vale for the national economy” and the hard recovery of daily routine for the affected people.
The revolt feeling against the predatory mineral exploration and the crime it produces have taken the protest shape all over the country’s regions. In Minas Gerais only, till now, eight Vale’s mineral explorations had their activities interrupted by judicial determination.
People claim for justice. A lady who lost many friends and acquaintances in the dam disruption has told us: “There should not be dams like those. This is a crime, it was not an accident. They knew it would happen! Vale wants money only. It does not care for the workers, the poor people, and Brumadinho. Many workers from the village used to work there and it was a great loss for everybody. Vale has to disappear, it has to end up!”
Our country’s history has been marked by the robbery of our natural resources and the most barbaric crimes perpetrated by the ruling classes against the people. It has also been the history of a continuous mass struggle and uprising. All the pain and suffering of our people must be transformed into organization and revolt against exploitation, oppression and plundering of our homeland.