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Sao Paulo. – Demonstrators occupied Brazil’s finance ministry, flooded the center of Sao Paulo and went on strike in a string of cities on Wednesday to protest reforms to the cash-strapped country’s pension system.

The biggest demonstration took place in the financial powerhouse Sao Paulo, where thousands of people filled a section of the main avenue.

Addressing a cheering crowd organisers said numbered up to 80 000 people, the fiery former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the government wants to “end the achievements of the working class over the past years.”

“The people will only stop when they choose a government democratically,” he said, alluding to the impeachment of his chosen successor Dilma Rousseff last year, which installed the current center-right President Michel Temer in office. Lula leads the polls ahead of elections next year.

In Sao Paulo, a strike by metro and bus workers in Sao Paulo earlier had paralysed the morning rush hour.

‘‘We’re on strike for the future of the country’’

During a dramatic protest in the capital Brasilia, hundreds of activists burst into the finance ministry before the start of the workday, occupying the building until late afternoon. Police said they vandalised the ministry and broke windows.

Staff at public schools in Rio de Janeiro also went on strike, trash collectors stopped work in Curitiba and the metro was shut down in Belo Horizonte, according to the news portal G1.

Rio’s protest ended in turmoil when some demonstrators clashed with the police, who threw tear gas and stun grenades, Globo TV reported.

The unrest in more than 20 cities marked the most serious challenge in the streets so far to Temer’s attempts to tame the budget and restore an economy mired in two straight years of recession.

“We’re on strike for the future of the country,” said Rio teacher Mirna Aragon at a protest with thousands of other people. “The rights of workers have been thrown in the gutter.”

Question of rights

A provision to set the retirement age at 65 is central to the pension reform – a shock to a country where many are able to draw pensions at 54.

That reform is needed to prevent the pension system’s “collapse,” the hugely unpopular Temer said in an address on Wednesday. – AFP.