Cultural agents from Porto join in support of camping

Uma letter signed today by cultural agents of Porto manifests support to the Campadas, repudiates the “police repression” and criticizes “as the executive of the House of Porto, the government and the President of the Republic have positioned themselves and acted”.

“ We deeply repudiate the repeated police violence on protesters, the way the executive of the City Hall of Porto, the Government and the President of the Republic have positioned themselves and acted in this context, as well as the absence of a political response that protects fundamental rights and recognizes the seriousness of the housing crisis ", can be read in the open letter, published today.

The document has more than 400 signatures at 5:15 today and is addressed to the three bodies it criticizes, as well as to the Assembly of the Republic.

It is in the open letter that demand “a clear, unequivocal and responsible position on the part of political power”, so that they can “recognize the civic and democratic legitimacy of the Campadas, their demands and their form of action”.

These cultural agents who sign the document want “to publicly demonstrate solidarity with the Camped by the Right to Housing”, from Porto to Lisbon, and “to recognize the importance of their critical, political, social and cultural action”.

In these movements they find “an exemplary form of peaceful behavior, democratic participation, construction and collective care”, making them “visible structural problems”, and signatories recognize themselves “in the demands of this movement”, also having direct consequences in artistic activity.

In Porto, they also say, “there cannot be a public and inclusive cultural policy” if this city has made “the permanence of those who produce it impossible”.

Among the demands is “the immediate end of all forms of violence, intimidation and police repression against demonstrators, whether physical or psychological”, and the “guarantee of security and protection conditions for all people who participate in the Camps”.

They also call for “the end of practices of persecution, discrimination and intimidation, particularly those that have been directed against migrants or vulnerable people”, as well as for the fulfilment of the fundamental rights of the Constitution, “in particular the right to freedom of expression and information, to demonstration, resistance and personal integrity”.

Among the names that appear as first signatories are Rita Senra, Miguel Januário, Paulo Moreira, Marta Freitas Almendra, Pedro Almendra, Raquel S, Rebecca Moradalizadeh, the company Teatro do Frio, Amarante Abramovici, Regina Guimarães, Francisco Quemardela, Marta Pais Oliveira, Paulo Calatré and André Gil Mata, among other names.

The current protests against the housing crisis began in Porto on October 10 and have expanded to Lisbon, but have also motivated concentrations in other cities.

The PSP's action to disperse the campgrounds and remove the tents in Rossio, in Lisbon, and in Praça D. João I, in Porto, led to dozens of arrests and caused dozens of wounded, motivating criticism from various quadrants.

The Public Prosecutor has meanwhile asked the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the 1974 rule which states that a demonstration has the time limit at 00:30.

The six initial proposals for national housing policies have now come to nine demands, after contributions from Housing Today and Ground of Struggles have been approved.

Thus, the first proposal is the reversal of the rental law, the second proposal “would become the end of evictions and demolitions without alternative housing”, the third one remains as the “travão to the acquisition of real estate by real estate funds”, the fourth one becomes “the increase of the public housing park in supported income”, rather than accessible, the fifth is the “public recovery of returned real estate”.

The sixth proposal is the implementation of a “home to real income”, the seventh the “imposition of pressure mechanisms to rent empty houses”, the eighth the “end of tax benefits to real estate speculation” and the ninth “prohibit and revoke local housing permits in housing properties”.