Hunger Strike Continues Among Street Vendors in São Paulo

Folha de São Paulo, 4 December 1998

As talks are breaking down between city officials and street vendors, so are the health conditions of some 20 street vendors who began a hunger strike last week.

The strike began after city officials prevented the vendors from selling their goods on the public sidewalks in Bras, a neighborhood of São Paulo.

Most of the vendors are unemployed, and just doing whatever they can to make a living. The protesters are spending their days and nights on the sidewalk, sleeping on cardboard, and enduring 37C heat during the days.

Two of the women have already suffered heart problems and were taken to the hospital. Strikers also are feeling very vulnerable as the police are offering no protection, and at times harrassing the strikers. I don’t know what to expect. We are afraid of the night. We could be robbed. But we fear more the civil police, who already threw water on us the first night, commented one striker.