A series of activists with ties to life in popular neighborhoods in the Lisbon metropolitan area are leading a new protest movement that focuses on the effects of inflation on people’s lives.
The movement already has a name, “Vida Justa”, and has organized a demonstration in Lisbon for February 25, which according to the founding manifestowith “different local concentrations, for the defense of our neighborhoods and the dignity of life of those who work and who create the wealth of the country”.
“On February 25, we will take to the streets to demand that the government listen to us and adhere to these minimal measures we are proposing so that the crisis is met with justice,” the document reads. He adds that the movement was founded by “concerned people from the neighbourhoods, militants of different causes and social movements who want to take steps to build a network and multiply actions that empower people and succeed in policies to impose that defends the population and those who work”.
Between the dozens subscribers The founding manifesto includes personalities such as the musician Dino Santiago, the journalist Alexandra Lucas Coelho, the writer Joana Bértholo and the historian Manuel Loff, in addition to dozens of militants of political, social and cultural activism in neighborhoods such as Cova da Moura, Rego , Arrentela, Marvila or even in Barreiro and Almada. The spokespersons are the “rapper” Flávio “LBC” Almada, from Cova da Moura, and Joana Mouta, from the association Passa Sabi (near Rego).
The manifesto – in which activists are already trained in the “Que se lix a troika” (citizen movement that led to dozens of protests during the Passos Coelho government) defines the main priority of the movement: in a context of a rise in the cost of living as it has been for decades could not be seen, pressuring the government through protest to initiate policies that would help people “resist this crisis”.
“It can’t always be the people who pay for everything, while the richest get even richer.”
Because the war in Ukraine, with its “blind sanctions that don’t stop the carnage” or the “escalation of the fighting” in Ukraine, has turned into a “war against people who work, give even more money to the rich, while more , workers’ real wages”, the insurers demand “a crisis program that defends those who work”.
“In many of the neighborhoods, authorities are attacking and closing down the small businesses that serve the communities, confiscating goods and jeopardizing the sustainability of the neighborhoods and the preservation of the local economy.”
This program, they argue, should include fixed prices for energy and food products, frozen interest rates on home loans, the prevention of speculative house rents, prohibited evictions, as well as a “general wage increase above inflation” and even “measures to support small businesses.” and local jobs and economically and socially value the most invisible jobs, such as those who work in cleaning”.
The truth, they say, is that “in many of the neighborhoods, the authorities are attacking and closing down the small businesses that serve the communities, confiscating the goods and endangering the sustainability of the neighborhoods and the preservation of the local economy,” that is, “there is a war against the poorest populations that must stop”.
So “to reverse this situation, people must have the power to demand a fairer path that shares the costs of this crisis equally”. “It cannot always be the people who pay for everything, while the richest manage to get even richer,” the manifesto reads.
Source: DN
