Money for housing, not for war!

The Philippines & Brazil are not the only countries facing urbanization into slums & shanty towns by rural people displaced in predatory land-grabs & by IMF economic policies. But they are surely among the countries where people have mounted the most fierce resistance when they are also forcibly removed from those urban slums so cities & landlords can build joint venture high-priced condos & shopping malls. Without provision for public housing to relocate, residents have fought legal battles against evictions along with street protests against demolition bull dozers & police brutality, including the use of water cannons & other assaultive weapons. On Monday, at the Silverio Compound in Parañaque City (part of metropolitan Manila), one resident was killed & 36 were injured by riot police. Here residents confront cops protecting the demolition squad sent to evict them. More evictions are slated soon in Quezon City (another part of Manila). Most of these housing battles are not won by the residents--either in the courts or on the street & extreme violence is used against them. What they make clear beyond a shadow of a doubt is that massive homelessness is caused by economic predation, that housing is a primary human need denied millions of human beings in every country, & that it must become a primary demand in all political agitation. Money for housing, not for war! (Photo by ABS-CBNnews)