Brazil protesters, police clash in first general strike in decades

Brazilian protesters torched buses, clashed with police in several cities and marched on President Michel Temer's Sao Paulo residence on Friday amid the nation's first general strike in more than two decades, Reuters reported. Brazilian unions called nationwide strikes on Friday to protest President Michel Temer’s efforts to reduce social security benefits and weaken labor laws, with disruption expected to road and rail transport, factories and schools. Vagner Freitas, the national president of the Central Workers Union (CUT), Brazil’s biggest labor confederation, said the government’s reforms “leave no room to negotiate.”

“Temer does not even want to negotiate, he just wants to meet the demands of the businessmen who financed the ‘coup’ precisely to end social security and legalize the exploitation of workers,” Freitas said in a statement. Both have started campaigns on social media calling on people to cross picket lines and go to work, while the Free Brazil Movement, which generally favors more aggressive rhetoric, has branded protestors “terrorists.”

Police have dispersed some crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets, leaving other large demonstration groups untouched. Temer has proposed a minimum age for retirement, which would compel many employees to work longer to receive a pension and reduce payouts in a country were many workers retire with full benefits in their 50s. Over the past two years, Brazil has suffered through its worst economic recession on record, which has slashed tax revenue and made the proposed changes even more urgent, some economists say.
A general strike is held in Brazil, the first one in twenty years.