Homeless movement occupies stock market building

Homeless workers' protest at B3. Photo: Twitter/@mtst

Members of São Paulo’s Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) occupied the headquarters of B3, which operates the São Paulo stock exchange. They are protesting against the increased cost of living in the country, as a result of the economic downturn. The number of protesters has not been confirmed.

“We can’t accept that almost 100 million Brazilians are suffering from hunger or food insecurity while billionaires trade BRL 35 billion [USD 6.6 billion] here in the stock market on any given day,” said Debora Pereira, one of the protest’s leaders, in a statement.

Consumer prices are rising close to the 10-percent mark over the last 12 months, and basic items such as food products and electricity bills are set to get even more expensive. Yesterday, in another attempt to contain inflationary pressure, the Central Bank raised the Selic benchmark interest rate to 6.25 percent.

Guilherme Boulos, who plans to fight in the São Paulo gubernatorial race for the far-left Socialism and Freedom Party (Psol), praised the initiative on Twitter: “The profits of some can’t mean the hunger of others. Congratulations to the MTST for their protest at the stock market!”

This post has been updated.

Janaína Camelo

Janaína Camelo has been a political reporter for ten years, working for multiple media outlets. More recently, she worked for the presidency's press service and is now specializing in data journalism.