International solidarity against racist violence and murders in Brazil

On the night of November 19, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, two security guards at a Carrefour supermarket in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, beat Alberto Silveira Freitas, Nego Beto, a 40-year-old Black man, to death. The security cameras recorded the cowardly attack, clearly showing the use of disproportionate violence and an undeniable homicidal intent. As with the murder of George Floyd in the United States, here too, the victim called for help and said he was suffocating, as the knees of a security guard pressed against his back and compressed his lungs. As a result, he suffered a respiratory arrest that caused his death at the very entrance of the Carrefour supermarket.

November 20 is the National Black Consciousness Day in Brazil. With our statement, we intend to express our sorrow and dismay at this new victim of the racial genocide that is going on in our country. But not only that. We also call on activists in Brazil and around the world to protest this racist and cowardly murder through direct action and international solidarity. If our fellow workers are being cowardly murdered at the doors of the supermarkets, that is where we must go.

Shops linked to the Carrefour Group were already the scene of racist crimes in 2009 and 2018. More recently, in August 2020, the manager of a supermarket covered the body of an employee who had died in a labour accident with boxes so as not to interrupt shopping. On the other hand, as is well known, this is a company that does not respect labour legislation, despite generating huge profits.

On the night of November 19, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, two security guards at a Carrefour supermarket in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, beat Alberto Silveira Freitas, Nego Beto, a 40-year-old Black man, to death. The security cameras recorded the cowardly attack, clearly showing the use of disproportionate violence and an undeniable homicidal intent. As with the murder of George Floyd in the United States, here too, the victim called for help and said he was suffocating, as the knees of a security guard pressed against his back and compressed his lungs. As a result, he suffered a respiratory arrest that caused his death at the very entrance of the Carrefour supermarket.

November 20 is the National Black Consciousness Day in Brazil. With our statement, we intend to express our sorrow and dismay at this new victim of the racial genocide that is going on in our country. But not only that. We also call on activists in Brazil and around the world to protest this racist and cowardly murder through direct action and international solidarity. If our fellow workers are being cowardly murdered at the doors of the supermarkets, that is where we must go.

Shops linked to the Carrefour Group were already the scene of racist crimes in 2009 and 2018. More recently, in August 2020, the manager of a supermarket covered the body of an employee who had died in a labour accident with boxes so as not to interrupt shopping. On the other hand, as is well known, this is a company that does not respect labour legislation, despite generating huge profits.

An overwhelming majority of the Brazilian people are suffering from worsening living conditions and increasing poverty, with rising unemployment, inflation, repression, state violence and police brutality. That’s on top of a minimum of 170,000 deaths recorded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many more being unreported. The Black majority in the country and the favela dwellers are the main victims of these evils. Now, we also have this brutal murder on the eve of November 20, the date on which the resistance of the Black people is celebrated and the suffering that the European colonization unleashed on the territory is remembered. Let’s make November 20 a day of rebellion! Let us celebrate the memory of Zumbi dos Palmares, the fugitive slave who turned pain and sorrow into resistance and organized struggle. Let him be an example, encouraging us to confront this capitalist and racist, inhuman and murderous system, to organize our anger and to oppose this genocide that capitalists and governments are carrying out.

Organize acts and/or protest actions during November in front of stores of companies of the Carrefour group and send your photos and messages to FOB, lutafob@protonmail.com.

https://lutafob.org/8275/

FOB – Federación de Organizaciones Sindicales Revolucionarias de Brasil

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