WORLD WORLDWIDE BRAZIL News Journal Update - (en) Brazil, OSL: Braskem, socio-environmental terror in Maceió[machine translation]

 

Last Sunday, part of a Braskem mine ruptured in Lagoa Mundaú, in Maceió.
The episode happened just a few days after the city hall of the capital
of Alagoas declared an emergency in the region, due to the risk of
collapse in the mine. This socio-environmental catastrophe did not begin
this year, but is the result of decades of negligence by petrochemical
companies and state bodies. ---- The possibility of the mine collapsing
had been confirmed in 2018. Around 60,000 people were expropriated from
their homes - entire neighborhoods were emptied. The reason is the
extraction of rock salt since the 1970s, used in the manufacture of
products such as PVC and caustic soda. Even in the context of a military
dictatorship, technical reports at the time were against the exploration
of the area, which combined a location with a geological fault, dense
occupation and proximity to Lagoa Mundaú.

Extraction occurs by removing ore from the ground, requiring filling
with sand to maintain the infrastructure. The space is also filled with
liquid or pond water. The dissolution of the salt present in the soil
causes landslides: a hole the size of the Maracanã stadium is projected
to open in the region.

Since 2019, Braskem has interrupted the extraction of rock salt in the
city, and works to contain and close the mines. But, of the 35 mines
opened in Maceió, only five were filled by the company. After more than
four decades of destructive exploitation, it is too late for any
reparations.

Braskem is a petrochemical giant, the largest company in the sector in
the Americas, and one of the largest in the world; It has industries in
Germany, the United States, Mexico and Brazil. While Alagoas is one of
the poorest states in the country, with around 13% of the working class
in extreme poverty, Braskem has net revenue of more than R$70 billion.
Many companies are favored by establishing themselves in poorer regions,
with less supervision over their predatory extractivism, and fewer
demands for socio-environmental compensation.

The State also has its responsibility in this crime, from the operating
license, during the Military Dictatorship, to the lack of attitude
towards warnings during all these decades, until more recently, with the
agreement that the city of Maceió made with the company, in which it
received R$1.7 billion to exempt Braskem from future damages, counting
on the support of the legislature to shield the petrochemical company.

The removal of people who live in this region is yet another absurdity.
In situations of socio-environmental crimes, we only talk about
financial compensation, which happens extremely slowly, and with meager
values. Where will people settle? What will the work or lack thereof be
like? Schools for children and teenagers? The basic infrastructure?
Stories of entire lives left in the cracks and craters.

In the capitalist-statist regime, there is no economic calculation that
will minimally compensate families affected by the environmental,
social, economic and cultural impact. Furthermore, there is another
enemy to consider: real estate speculation, which results in increased
rental prices, which could directly harm evicted families, and the
population as a whole.

Mobilization is needed to further denounce this socio-environmental
crime, so that this episode does not happen again! We defend
Self-Managed Popular Power, with the participation of the working people
in the recovery of the affected area as opposed to the policy that
places interested parties only as spectators waiting for the decision of
the dominant classes.

It is necessary to fight for the revocation of the cabinet agreements,
for the immediate accountability and expropriation of Braskem to
reimburse every penny exploited from the region's working class and the
ecosystem of the affected territory!

Libertarian Socialist Organization OSL, December 14, 2023

https://socialismolibertario.net/2023/12/14/braskem-terror-socioambiental-em-maceio/
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