Women's Movement
The Women’s Movement in Brazil Exhibiting courage and determination the women living in the Brazilian community of Gamboa de Baixo located in the city of Salvador, and in the state of Bahia, have accomplished significant changes in their fight for land ownership, clean water, gender and human rights. In the book Black Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil, Keisha-Khan Perry details the victories and sacrifices with passion and with a kindred spirit projecting her sisterhood connection with the residents. Using an ethnographic method of participant observation, Perry immerses herself into the daily struggle that confront the residents in the community. Participating in protests, and physically putting herself at
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risk, Perry is fully engaged in the struggle against land takeovers, and other government interventions in the Brazilian community. Although there were many instances of positive results from protests and organization, there are still significant issues that still need to be addressed and solved. In Chapter three of the book entitled “The Black Movement’s Foot Soldiers,” Perry moves right into detailing a protest by the women of Gamboa de Baixo propelled by the death of a young fourteen-old girl struck by a car travelling to school (p.
55). The date was March 20, 1997, and there had been other incidents earlier in the year with one fatality, and one victim left paralyzed, and community activists previously met with city officials to address the danger of women and children crossing the busy Contorno Avenue (p. 55). Expressing the need for traffic signals and a crosswalk to ensure safe passageway across the street, the mayor and his people never responded to their requests. (pgs. 55-56). Contorno Avenue is a main roadway in the city that ostensibly serves as a dividing marker between affluent residents and the working, and lower class neighborhoods below this street, and these incidents of pedestrians being hit by motorist exposed the disdain and minimization of the resident of Gamboa de Baixo (p. 56). Emboldened and outraged by the young girl’s death, women took to the streets and shut it down with a human barricade, which literally shut down the entire city’s traffic, which eventually had to be controlled by riot police as fires were erupted on the main street (p. 56). Perry documents this incident as an example of the beginnings of a movement within the community of Gamboa de Baixo, led by women, which gives a vivid picture of the determination and courage of these
activist.
Using the media through the media, combating the conditions that created a cholera eruption, the women demanded that the state start testing the water supply, which eventually led to an installation of a central water fountain, some assistance from the state and city, which after insistence from the activists determined that the supplied water from the city had caused the health crisis (pgs. 60-61). Protests such as the outrage against having clean water provided to residents connect to problems of government decisions in the United States with the Flint, Michigan water crisis that was publicized in 2016, but went back many years before.
Exacerbating the problems in Gamboa de Baixo, after the resolution of the water crisis, was the revelation that the Cortorno Avenue Revitalization Project had plans to relocate families to the outskirts of the city to live a new housing development area. (62). Plans were being executed, , without the input or concerns of residents affected (62). Engagement of the women’s community organizations was spurred by the events of the removal of poor black families, which led to grassroots organizing, which included disseminating the information to all of the residents to increase awareness of the issues of land displacement (pgs. 62-63). In many instances, the people who are directly affected by private or government interventions and gentrifications are not aware that is happening until it is too late. Detroit, Michigan, is presently experiencing the same land grabs that have happened in Brazil, where new residents who have lesser amounts of melaninated skin now occupy these areas. In the instances of displacement of seventy-five families living on Cortorno Avenue in 1995, and other historic buildings, women began to organize against the same plans proposed for Gamboa de Baixo in 1997 (p. 64). Amassing support from other groups including, nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s), and black grassroots activists, during their street protests against gentrification, which then became a source of information describing the planned expansion for displacement throughout the city. The outcry from the women’s group led to major changes in the development plans as community input and pressure drove the establishment of eighty new homes restriction from building a road in the neighborhood and a restoration plan for home already existing in the community.
Notwithstanding, the progress made in achieving some success with the development plans, other problems arisen as new homes were flawed by inferior construction and the government’s continued insistence that blacks would be happier living in other areas of the city (p.66). Internal conflicts came about within the fishing community of Gamboa de Baixo, as longtime residents resisted the immigration of other families that began to share their unique community on the shore of the city’s waterfront (pgs. 67-75). Activism took on increased levels of dissent as the women activist used radical approaches to obtain services in relation to the fight of water, and the infrastructure to deliver it (p. 78). Occupying an office of the state water department and having demonstrators block the entrance led to an emergency meeting, which settled with the people getting new water pipes and the inspection of the water system to ensure safe conditions (p. 77).. The importance of the women’s movement in Brazil highlighted the need for not only, land housing and water rights, but also the need for education, child care, lesbians, gays, and women’s rights that further hardened the commitment of these great activists to fight for justice (p. 84).
risk, Perry is fully engaged in the struggle against land takeovers, and other government interventions in the Brazilian community. Although there were many instances of positive results from protests and organization, there are still significant issues that still need to be addressed and solved. In Chapter three of the book entitled “The Black Movement’s Foot Soldiers,” Perry moves right into detailing a protest by the women of Gamboa de Baixo propelled by the death of a young fourteen-old girl struck by a car travelling to school (p.
55). The date was March 20, 1997, and there had been other incidents earlier in the year with one fatality, and one victim left paralyzed, and community activists previously met with city officials to address the danger of women and children crossing the busy Contorno Avenue (p. 55). Expressing the need for traffic signals and a crosswalk to ensure safe passageway across the street, the mayor and his people never responded to their requests. (pgs. 55-56). Contorno Avenue is a main roadway in the city that ostensibly serves as a dividing marker between affluent residents and the working, and lower class neighborhoods below this street, and these incidents of pedestrians being hit by motorist exposed the disdain and minimization of the resident of Gamboa de Baixo (p. 56). Emboldened and outraged by the young girl’s death, women took to the streets and shut it down with a human barricade, which literally shut down the entire city’s traffic, which eventually had to be controlled by riot police as fires were erupted on the main street (p. 56). Perry documents this incident as an example of the beginnings of a movement within the community of Gamboa de Baixo, led by women, which gives a vivid picture of the determination and courage of these
activist.
Using the media through the media, combating the conditions that created a cholera eruption, the women demanded that the state start testing the water supply, which eventually led to an installation of a central water fountain, some assistance from the state and city, which after insistence from the activists determined that the supplied water from the city had caused the health crisis (pgs. 60-61). Protests such as the outrage against having clean water provided to residents connect to problems of government decisions in the United States with the Flint, Michigan water crisis that was publicized in 2016, but went back many years before.
Exacerbating the problems in Gamboa de Baixo, after the resolution of the water crisis, was the revelation that the Cortorno Avenue Revitalization Project had plans to relocate families to the outskirts of the city to live a new housing development area. (62). Plans were being executed, , without the input or concerns of residents affected (62). Engagement of the women’s community organizations was spurred by the events of the removal of poor black families, which led to grassroots organizing, which included disseminating the information to all of the residents to increase awareness of the issues of land displacement (pgs. 62-63). In many instances, the people who are directly affected by private or government interventions and gentrifications are not aware that is happening until it is too late. Detroit, Michigan, is presently experiencing the same land grabs that have happened in Brazil, where new residents who have lesser amounts of melaninated skin now occupy these areas. In the instances of displacement of seventy-five families living on Cortorno Avenue in 1995, and other historic buildings, women began to organize against the same plans proposed for Gamboa de Baixo in 1997 (p. 64). Amassing support from other groups including, nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s), and black grassroots activists, during their street protests against gentrification, which then became a source of information describing the planned expansion for displacement throughout the city. The outcry from the women’s group led to major changes in the development plans as community input and pressure drove the establishment of eighty new homes restriction from building a road in the neighborhood and a restoration plan for home already existing in the community.
Notwithstanding, the progress made in achieving some success with the development plans, other problems arisen as new homes were flawed by inferior construction and the government’s continued insistence that blacks would be happier living in other areas of the city (p.66). Internal conflicts came about within the fishing community of Gamboa de Baixo, as longtime residents resisted the immigration of other families that began to share their unique community on the shore of the city’s waterfront (pgs. 67-75). Activism took on increased levels of dissent as the women activist used radical approaches to obtain services in relation to the fight of water, and the infrastructure to deliver it (p. 78). Occupying an office of the state water department and having demonstrators block the entrance led to an emergency meeting, which settled with the people getting new water pipes and the inspection of the water system to ensure safe conditions (p. 77).. The importance of the women’s movement in Brazil highlighted the need for not only, land housing and water rights, but also the need for education, child care, lesbians, gays, and women’s rights that further hardened the commitment of these great activists to fight for justice (p. 84).