Thirty years after it emerged with the motto “Life First”, the Cry of the Excluded (Grito dos Excluídos in Portuguese), a series of mass mobilizations held annually on Brazil’s Independence Day, has much to pay homage to. The space for denouncing the country’s historic social inequalities brings together dozens of social movements. This year to mark the date, these organizations are preparing a massive mobilization in various regions of the country on September 7, under the motto “All life is worthy of care. But who cares?” The details were presented on Tuesday by the organizers.
Valdecir Santos Mendes, president of the Social Transformation Commission of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB, in Portuguese), highlighted the activity’s permanent and procedural nature, which involves the mobilization of dozens of communities across the country. “The Cry [of the Excluded] is a process and, therefore, it is permanent. It must happen every day at every moment of our lives, and especially where communities are being threatened.”
He talked about his expectations for this year’s mobilizations. “May this cry echo from the ground: of the traditional peoples, the Indigenous peoples, the ground of the outskirts of our cities, from the homeless people, from farmers, family farmers, from traditional fishermen. The cry is a commitment to life,” he said.
Alessandra Miranda, from the national coordination of the Cry of the Excluded, highlighted the process by which the mobilization is built, and the diversity of movements and organizations that join in its construction, united to overcome the system of exploitation that plagues society. According to her, this diversity poses challenges but also generates a wealth of good ideas and deep reflections on what to do.
“When we were discussing the theme of this year’s Cry, we really wanted to be able to ask ourselves this question first. All life is worthy of care. But who cares? So, it’s important for us, three decades later, to say: We care. And we mean it because that’s our commitment, our testimony. Everything we’ve experienced in these 30 years reaffirms that we care, but we need to provoke those who don’t care and who should care,” said Miranda.
The representative of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT, in Portuguese), Lenora Rodrigues, brought to the discussion the serious violations of rights committed against traditional populations and people fighting for the right to land. According to her, the CPT recorded 21 land conflicts in the so-called Matopiba region alone, which comprises the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, in 2023. She mentioned the fight against the Time Frame Law (Marco temporal, in Portuguese) to demarcate Indigenous lands in Brazil, which will also be on the agenda of the Cry of the Excluded mobilizations across the country. “The CPT continues to stand firm with the peoples living from the lands, waters and forests. No to the cut-off point! This is an ancestral struggle, and it’s a struggle for all of us,” she said.
