Mexican Labor News & Analysis: January , 2007

Mexico experienced one of the greatest social and political upheavals in its post-revolutionary history during 2006. The combination of working class strikes, community protest movements and political campaigns resulted in powerful organized dissent on a massive scale, an upheaval that rivaled the tumultuous periods of Mexico’s past from 1929-1936, from 1968-1971, and during 1988-89. The struggles of several different organization coincided during the last years, most important those of the Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union, Local 22 of the Mexican Teachers Union and the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, the community movement in Atenco, in the State of Mexico and the political campaign of the Party of the Democratic Revolution headed by its presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador’s campaign brought more Mexicans into the streets than any event in Mexican history since the period of Lázaro Cárdenas, an enormous showing of popular support for a candidate who promised to “put the poor first.”

These upheavals in Mexico constituted a labor movement in search of a politics. The unions, the community groups and the base of the political campaign for López Obrador were made up of working people: industrial and service workers, public employees and workers in the informal economy, the self-employed and the unemployed. These working people continued the long search begun in the 1960s to find the organizational structure, methods of struggle, political program, and the ethos that could unite them. At the center of each of these struggles was the same issue: democracy. Union members, communities, and citizens fought for their right to elect their own leaders, to control their own institutions, to decide their own future.

Democracy was the common issue and the desire for democracy had a common purpose: to find a better way to organize Mexican society. Working people wanted the right to vote on their leaders and to control their institutions in order to reorganize the society to take care of the needs of the majority. López Obrador’s campaign’s great appeal was its promise to put first the needs of the poor who make up almost half of Mexico’s population. At the same time, people fought against the corruption and the injustice of Mexican society, against the government’s lack of respect for law and decency. The struggle for one’s daily tortilla and the fight for dignity gave rise to the struggle for democracy.

Still, unlike what has been taking place in South America, particularly in Venezuela, few talked about altering the fundamental institutions of capitalist society to create a more just order. Only Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and their “Other Campaign,” a non-electoral mobilization, raised the idea of socialism. But the Other Campaign, an alliance of the EZLN with poor peoples’ movements and leftist sects, adopting a sectarian position, refused to participate in the broad movement for a fair election, and consequently its position had little influence.
The Mexican election, marred by illegal presidential and business intervention, by media manipulation and illegal advertisements, and probably by actual fraud in the election count, resulted in even larger demonstrations and protests than during the election campaign itself, as millions came out to defend their vote. Nevertheless, the combination of President Vicente Fox’s use of the state on behalf of his National Action Party and its candidate, media misinformation during the campaign and afterwards, violent repression of social movements in several cities, and the complicity of the Federal Electoral Institute and the Federal Election Tribunal ultimately delivered the election to Felipe Calderón and the PAN. Despite a year of spectacular social upheaval the left was defeated on every front—in the Miners union, in Oaxaca, and in the national election—and a conservative president took power with the possibility of pushing his program forward through an alliance of the PAN with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the former ruling party of Mexico. The social upheaval of 2006 and the ultimate victory of conservative forces have their sources in the economy and society of Mexico as well as in the strategies of politicians and parties.

Now, after a year of tremendous social upheaval and with a president who has adopted a iron fisted approach, Mexico’s working people are looking for ways to keep the movement alive and to move forward.

Mexican Economy and Society in 2006: The Wealthy
Mexico remains as it has been for the past two centuries a nation of striking economic and social inequalities. At the top of Mexican society a hundred or so wealthy families control all of the major industries. Carlos Slim Helu, with personal wealth estimated at over USD$30 billion making him the third richest man in the world, derives his wealth from telecommunications and a half dozen other enterprises. Mexico’s billionaires dominate its chambers of commerce and industry which form the core of the National Action Party (PAN) which has won the presidency in the 2000 and 2006 elections. The PAN also controls about one third of the Mexican congress. Mexico’s rich have shaped a political system that serves them well. For example, Mexican corporations pay only about 12 percent of their profits in taxes, while U.S. corporations pay about 25 percent and corporations in Europe pay much higher levels.

TOP 10 - Mexico's Richest People ... (9 March 2006) ... Wealth in USD$

Name Wealth Source Residence Personal
1. Carlos Slim Helu $30.0 billion Telecom Mexico City 66yo - Widowed, 6 children
2. Jeronimo Arango $4.6 billion retail (was a Wal-Mart partner) Mexico 80yo - n/a
3. Ricardo Salinas Pliego & family $3.1 billion retail/media Mexico City 50yo - Married, 3 children
4. Alberto Bailleres $2.8 billion mining silver Mexico City 73yo - n/a
5. Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala & family $2.0 billion beer (Corona) Mexico City 42yo - Married, 2 children
6. Roberto Hernandez Ramirez $2.0 billion Banamex (banking) Mexico City 64yo - n/a
7. Lorenzo Zambrano & family $1.8 billion cement Monterrey 62yo - Single
8. Emilio Azcárraga Jean $1.7 billion media Mexico City 38yo - Married, 1 child
9. Alfredo Harp Helu $1.4 billion Banamex (banking) Mexico City 62yo - Married, 4 children
10. Isaac Saba Raffoul & family $1.4 billion diversified (incl. Marriott hotels) Mexico City 82yo - n/a

Richest Mexicans

In 2006, Carlos Slim stepped forward as a political power broker, drafting the Chapultepec Accords, a pro-business, free market program for Mexico, but with a difference. The commission pulled together by Slim that drafted the document was made up of corporate leaders, union leaders from the National Union of Workers, and prominent intellectuals. “The pact was at once a statement that profitable private investment must necessarily be the driving force of economic growth, and a recognition that such growth had to be embedded in a legitimate social order, one in which a significant percentage of the population could eat dinner on a daily basis; one that was thought of as ‘just,’,” wrote analyst Fred Rosen. Rosen continues, it was “the expression of the need for the existence of a national business class as part of the broader Mexican community, with economic and political demands that ought to be supported and protected.” (To view entire article, click here)

The PAN and the PRI both immediately signed the agreement which seemed to represent a redressing of some of the imbalance between national and international capital. Mexican capitalists wanted to maintain some control over their own economy and government in the face of the foreign capital investment in Mexico. (Click here to view the accords in Spanish

Foreign Capital

Foreign capital, particularly U.S. capital, plays an enormous role in the Mexican economy and consequently has an important impact on politics. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which took effect in 1994 was intended to increase foreign investment in Mexico, and it has. In 2005, the latest figures available, Mexico received 17 billion U.S. dollars in direct investment, more than any other Latin American or Caribbean country, but down by a billion dollars from the previous year.

U.S. corporations dominate foreign investment in Mexico with General Motors, Walmart, Ford, and Hewlett-Packard among the largest firms. As of January 2007 Walmart in Mexico operated 118 Supercenters, 77 Sam’s Clubs, 218 Bodegas, 40 Mi Bodegas, 60 Superamas, 62 Suburbias, 311 VIPS Restaurants, and 2 Bodega Express stores, employing a total of 140,000 workers. In 2005, Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net sales of $164.3 billion pesos (US$15.4 billion), a 13.7% increase over the previous year, far ahead of its competitors. (Information from Walmart site ) Many other U.S. retail corporations also operate in Mexico such as Home Depot and now Lowe’s.

Mexico's top five automakers are General Motors, Ford Motor, DaimlerChrysler, Nissan and Volkswagen with plants spread across Mexico. In 2006 General Motors built a new plant in San Luis Potosi that will employ 1,800 workers who will build 160,000 compact cars each year. Delphi, which has just gone bankrupt eliminating plants and thousands of jobs in the United States, nevertheless remains the largest employer in Mexico with 70,000 workers mostly making autoparts along the U.S.-Mexico border. ( See the story in Crticial Moment at http://criticalmoment.org/issue14/david2 )

While some South American nations have nationalized foreign corporations to try to take control of their economies, newly elected president Calderón told foreign investors, “While other governments in the world and in Latin America are thinking of expropriating their investments, in Mexico we are thinking of how to give guarantees so that investment increases more and more in our country.” Calderón was speaking to the Executive Board of Global Businesses (CEEG) which represents 36 international companies including Wal-Mart, Nestle, Siemens, DaimlerChrysler and IBM. “You can be assured that every investment that leaves those regions of the world will be welcome in Mexico and guaranteed by the full weight of the law,” Calderón said.

Like Mexican corporations, U.S. corporations in Mexico support conservative politicians and political parties that will guarantee their investments, create conditions to increase their profits, and give them more power over workers. Mexican and U.S. corporations together constitute the economic elite which stands behind the National Action Party and president Calderón.

Social Conditions: The Poor

Mexico’s poverty rate decreased from 54 percent in 2000 to 47 percent of the population in 2005, according to the National Council on the Evaluation of Politics of Social Development. While we do not yet have figures for 2006, most authorities believe that Mexico’s poverty rate remains over 40 percent, with 20 percent of its population living in extreme poverty, that is, without adequate nutrition. A UNICEF study found that 47 million impoverished children live in the world’s 23 richest countries. The lowest rates of child poverty occur in northern European countries with policies of wealth redistribution. Sweden has the lowest rate with only 2.6 per cent of its children living in poverty, while Canada ranked behind France, Germany, Hungary and Japan, but ahead of Britain, Italy, the United States and Mexico, in last place with a 26.2-per-cent child poverty rate.

Poverty in Mexico results from the failure of government policy and private employers to create enough jobs. President Vicente Fox presided over an economy which failed to produce jobs, except in the final year. In 2006 the Mexican economy produced 950,000 new jobs. But between 2000 when Fox took office and 2005 Mexico added only about 1.5 million jobs, less than a quarter of the jobs needed. That is, rather than creating one million jobs a year to absorb new workers entering the job market, Mexico generally created only 250,000 per year. The other 750,000 workers who entered the job market have generally headed north to attempt to find work in the United States, with perhaps as many at 500,000 per year actually emigrating. Even if a worker found a job in Mexico, wages there are too low for workers’ needs, averaging less than USD$2.00 per hour, with millions earning less than $10.00 per day. Mexico’s minimum wage, which lays the basis for all other wages, which was recently increased to just under $5.00 a day.

Over the past year, Mexico’s low wages have become worth even less. In 2006 Mexico’s consumer-price index rose 4.1%, above the government’s 2 – 4% target. The rise in prices has pushed more families over the edge into poverty.

The failure of the Mexican economy to create jobs has led to the continued mass emigration of Mexicans to the United States. Mexicans emigrate at a rate that may be as high as 500,000 per year. Today about 10 percent of all Mexicans live in the United States. Mexicans living in the United States send remittances to Mexico that amount to more than twenty billion U.S. dollars. Together with oil production, manufacture, and tourism, remittances constitute one of Mexico’s major sources of income. The levels of emigration and remittances testify to the failure of Mexico’s government and economic system to provide for its people.

The discrepancy between the wealthy and the poor in Mexico, between those who control political power and those whose rights are denied laid the foundation for the political struggle that took place in 2006.

Human Rights

Another of the underlying causes of the great upheaval of 2006 was the continuing denial of basic civil and human rights to the Mexican people. As various international and Mexican human rights organizations have documented and decried over the last six years, practices such as torture of citizens and impunity of the authorities continue to exist. The Mexican authorities often fail to charge Mexico’s governmental leaders, political figures, police or businessmen with crimes which they have committed, while they use criminal charges against the innocent. Often police authorities trump up charges against union and social movement activists and jail them.

Any Mexican who has a run in with the law may still be intimidated into paying a bribe. Those who are unlucky enough to be taken to jail stand a very good chance of being beaten, sexually abused or tortured. Torture forms an ordinary part of Mexican police practice. Those who are charged may languish in jail for weeks, months or even years awaiting trials. Despite government promises to investigate past abuses and to correct the behavior of the police and other authorities, virtually nothing has been done to improve the situation.

In fact, in many ways the situation has deteriorated. In the last year local, state or federal police were used in violent attacks against steel workers in Lázaro Cárdenas, against residents of Atenco, and against the people of Oaxaca. Altogether there were at least 20 killed, many beaten, several women raped or otherwise sexually abused, and many other miscarriages of justice.

In addition, Mexico is a dangerous place for journalists. Of the 28 murdered and 5 disappeared in Latin America in 2006, Mexico held the dubious honor of ranking first, with ten deaths, according to the Comisión Investigadora de Atentados a Periodistas, C.I.A.P., affiliated with the Federación Latinoamericana de Periodistas, F.E.L.A.P.

Politics

Vicente Fox’s six-year presidency which ended in 2006 was judged by virtually all to have been a failure. Fox was voted into office by voters who wanted to end the 70-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and bring democracy to Mexico. Many voted for Fox hoping that with a clean election, he would open up a transition to real democracy and social justice.

In reality, the hope was an illusion. Fox came out of the most conservative business groups who formed the core of his National Action Party, and it was to them that he was loyal. At the same time, rather than promoting democracy within unions, he reached out a hand to the bureaucratic, corrupt and violent leadership of the labor bureaucracy of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), and promoted labor law “reform”which would have further stifled democracy in the labor movement.

Yet Fox, whose party controlled only about a third of the congress, proved unable to broker a deal with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Consequently, his conservative economic program, calling for the privatization of the electric power generation industry and for labor law reform to give employers more power over workers, died in the congress.

The Mexican Legislature reflects the relative power of the political parties. While the PAN’s president could not pass his program, the Institutional Revolutionary Party continued to decline since losing the presidency in 2000, the power eroding dramatically in the period between 2003 and 2006. In 2003 the PRI held 45% of the seats in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies and the same percentage in the Senate. At that time the Pan held 30% in the Chamber and 37% in the Senate, while the PRD held only 19% in the Chamber and 12 percent in the Senate. After the 2006 election, in the Chamber of Deputies the PAN holds 33% of the seats while PRI and the PRD each hold 28%. At the same time, in the Senate the PAN holds 33 percent of the seats, the PRD 22 percent of the seats and the PRI 27 percent. (These figures are for the coalitions, that is the principal party and smaller allied parties.) Clearly during the recent period, the PAN and the PRD both grew at the expense of the PRI. Mexican politics became more polarized between a party of the right and a party of the center-left.

López Obrador’s Campaign

The most important development in Mexican politics in 2006 was the spectacular campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador who, running on a populist platform promising to “put the poor first,” turned our millions in massive demonstrations at every stage of the campaign. While López Obrador’s program was not radical, and might be characterized as “social liberalism” – that is accepting the framework of neoliberalism while calling for programs of social betterment – it won a massive following.

Hundreds of thousands demonstrated for his right to run for office when, in April 2005, Fox attempted to keep him off the ballot. Millions demonstrated during the campaign and millions more in the post election period to protest fraud. More than a million attended the swearing in of López Obrador as the “legitimate president” of Mexico and his naming of a shadow cabinet. While López Obrador’s campaign attracted support from all sector of Mexican society, it was working people and the poor who formed the base of his political movement. His campaign did not win the support of labor union organizations such as the National Union of Workers (UNT) and the Mexican Union Front (FSM), largely because of López Obrador’s initial unwillingness to include union leaders in the leadership of his campaign. Without a doubt, however, many union members and workers voted for López Obrador who had put himself forward as a candidate of working people and the poor.

López Obrador and his political organization ran the campaign, the post-electoral protests and the creation of the “legitimate government” of Mexico as a top-down operation. López Obrador hesitated to create a broad political social front that would have required him to negotiate the creation of a political bloc that included the labor and social movements. Only after his supporters such as those in the unions insisted on inclusion was there some movement in that direction. The failure to build a political front or bloc beyond the party organization meant that the political movement faces greater difficulty in making the transition to the permanent national campaign of civil disobedience against what he called the illegitimate government of Felipe Calderón.

Marcos, the EZLN and the Other Campaign

While the national electoral contest for control of the legislature and the presidency developed in 2005 and 2006, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation launched “the Other Campaign.” After calling together various poor peoples movements and small left-wing parties, Marcos announced that the Other would put forward an anti-capitalist program as it attempted to rally people throughout Mexico.

During the first months of 2006, Marcos and his entourage toured Mexico holding public meetings where the Zapatista spokesman laid out his critique of Mexico’s corrupt government and political parties. Marcos concentrated his critique on López Obrador and the PRD. The Other campaign’s meetings of a few hundred here and there and on occasions a few thousand while large for the far left remained far smaller than the hundreds of thousands mobilized the López Obrador campaign. Marcos’ call for a revolution against Mexican capitalism had far less resonance with the public than López Obrador’s call for reforms to help the poor. Moreover, as it became clear that millions supported the López Obrador campaign, Marcos’s attitude appeared to be sour grapes, especially as the margin narrowed. When the post-electoral protests against electoral fraud began, Marcos and the Other Campaign even remained aloof from the protest, bringing charges of sectarianism from others on the left.

The Labor and Social Movements

Simultaneous with the presidential and legislative elections, Mexico saw the development of two powerful labor and social movements. Mexican miners throughout the country, but particularly in the North and West, fought for the right to control their labor union, and Mexican teachers in Oaxaca in the South fought for their contract and against the repression by their state governor. While both of these movements demonstrated power and stamina, and while the teachers even won a much improved contract, the broader movement still suffered a defeat.

The Miners

On Feb. 28, 2006 the Mexican Secretary of Labor removed Napoleón Gómez Urrutia as general secretary of the Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMRM) and replaced him with Elías Morales Hernández, a man close to the mining companies. The Mexican government justified its action by accusing Gómez Urrutia of malfeasance and embezzlement of money belonging to the union. Nevertheless, Gómez Urrutia had the support of the great majority of the local union leaders who began to engage in various job actions and local strikes. The movement culminated between March 1 and 3 in a national wildcat strike by more than a quarter of a million miners and steelworkers at 70 companies in at least eight states from central to northern Mexico, virtually paralyzing the mining industry.

Other unions supported the miners’ right to have a leader of their own choosing, even if they had their doubts about Gómez Urrutia. He had inherited leadership of the union from his father, Napoleón Gómez Sada, a typical charro, that is a violent, corrupt union bureaucrat who had become rich while heading the union. While Gómez Urrutia had taken progressive political positions and led militant actions to improve the miners’ lot, and had spoken out on the “industrial homicide” in the Pasta de Conchos mine accident, still many hesitated to support him personally. The independent unions did, however, strongly support the miners’ right to have him as their elected president, rather than a man appointed by the government.

While miners received a strong show of solidarity for their strike from some other labor unions, the miners union was not able to continue the strike until victory, nor did it have the capacity to call another strike of the same significance. The government and the employers supported local leaders loyal to Hernández Morales and refused to deal with the local leaderships loyal to Gómez Urrutia, who meanwhile had gone into exile in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The government carried out a publicity campaign against Gómez Urrutia and seized his property while other union leaders loyal to him were arrested.

On April 20 Mexican state and federal police attacked steel workers striking in support of the miners in Lázaro Cárdenas, killing three. Despite the repression, Gómez Urrutia continued to coordinate the movement from Canada, while local unions continued to engage in slowdowns, strikes, and other protests. Gradually worn down, the movement declined and virtually disappeared from sight by the time of the national elections.

Probably only a mass mobilization of Mexico’s independent labor unions reaching the level of a general strike could have brought victory to the miners. That level of labor union consciousness and organization did not exist.

The Teachers in Oaxaca

Teachers in Oaxaca, members of Local 22 of the Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE) struck on May 15 to win wage gains and improvements in conditions in their state contract. The strike brought the teachers into conflict with governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Ruiz used the police to harass and attack strikers. On June 14 state police using tear gas attacked teachers, their families and supporters camped and sleeping out in the capital plaza. Many individuals and organizations rallied to the defense of the teachers, retaking the Zócolo. Soon after, together with Local 22 they organized the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), with a common demand that Ruiz step down, and begin holding mega-marches, at times exceeding 100,000 participants.

Throughout the period from June to October, Local 22 and APPO continued to strike and protest and the police continued to engage in repression and violent attacks, resulting in several deaths. Throughout October and November the struggle between APPO and the governor intensified. In late October, as Local 22 debated the conditions under which it would return to work, state police were sent in, and on October 28, in the most violent act in all five months of social conflict, 4 people were killed, including journalist Bradley Roland Will and a teacher, Emilio Alsonso Fabian. That same day, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza issued a statement of regret for the death of Will and calling for restoration of law and order and President Fox authorized dispatch of Federal Preventive Police (PFP) to Oaxaca.

Also at the end of October, Local 22 reached agreement with the government on a new and much improved contract. Most teachers returned to work, although many continued to rally to APPO

Repression continued, and on November 25the movement held its 7th mega-march. Federal police aggressively rounded up marchers together with many who were simply out shopping or in the town center for other reasons, taking control of the city. They arrested 149, subsequently transferred most of them to Nayarit, with serious charges. Others were held in federal high security prison and Oaxaca state prisons.

On December 18, the National Commission for Human Rights issues its preliminary report in which it concluded that 20 people had been killed, 370 injured and 349
imprisoned. With massive Federal police presence the movement subsided. As soon as he took office on Dec. 1, 2007, President Calderón ordered the arrest of Flavio Sosa, the leader of APPO. While APPO and Local 22 have both pledged to continue the fight, the repression has resulted in a significant decrease in the size of demonstrations and the momentum of the movement.
While the Miners strike in March and the teachers strike from Feb. through Oct. 2006 were among the largest and most militant labor movements in recent Mexican history, they proved unable to win the decisive victories that they sought. Elías Hernández Morales, the leader imposed by the government, remains the head of the miners union. Governor Ulises Ruiz remains in the governor’s mansion in Oaxaca. Both the miners union and the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca suffered defeats with their top leaders imprisoned, activists murdered, many beaten and brutalized, and the struggle continuing but now with a reduced number of supporters.

Movement Suffered Defeats

Workers struggles in all forms that they took—the miners strike, the teachers strike, the APPO movement, and the López Obrador campaign—suffered defeats. The Mexican ruling class used the state as an effective instrument against its opponents. Police repression of the labor and social movements was massive, violent, and effective. The ruling class domination of the mass media permitted it to use the media to portray a nation falling victim to violence and chaos, and to suggest that López Obrador’s victory could only make the situation worse. The ruling class’ control of the government, and influence within the Federal Electoral Institute and the Federal Electoral Tribunal allowed it to over-ride the popular will, handing the election to the candidate of its choice: Felipe Calderón of the PAN.

Yet such a broad and powerful social movement cannot be vanquished in a day, a week or even months. Mexico has not seen such a mass movement of social protest since the student and labor protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, since the presidential campaign of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and its aftermath in 1988-89 and perhaps not since the 1930s during the tumultuous six-year presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas. Not in decades has there been such a nation-wide debate about Mexican politics and society, nor such a mobilization of millions of citizens demonstrating in support of a more just alternative.

Working people showed in 2006 an enormous capacity for mobilization, a willingness to struggle not seen in decades, and tremendous courage in the face of repression. Throughout Mexico new networks of activists were created, new social and political projects elaborated. Such a development will not be easily repressed nor quickly disposed of through some political maneuver. As long as Mexico’s deep economic and social problems and its lack of human rights and political power continue, the movement will smolder and eventually break into flames again. The Mexican workers’ movement has yet to construct a unified social movement and the political party needed to transform the country.

Mexico – Chronology of Major Social and Political Struggles of 2006

Note that the Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Struggle that began in February and that the Oaxaca teachers’ and popular movement struggle that began in May continued throughout the entire year.

Feb. 19, 2006 – Pasta de Conchos mine explosion

March 1 -3, 2006 – Miners’ national wildcat strike

April 20, 2006 – Police attack striking steel workers in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán,
killing three.

May 1, 2006 – May Day March against Fox Government

May 3, 2006 – Police attack flower vendors and supporters in Atenco, State of Mexico;
massive police repression and human rights violations follow.

May 15, 2006 – Teachers strike begins in Oaxaca.

June 2006 – Final phase of presidential election contest and of the Other Campaign

June 14, 2006 – Police attack striking teachers in Oaxaca.

June 2006 – present Teachers’ Local 22 and Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) fight to remove governor Ulises Ruiz in Oaxaca.

July 2, 2006 – Mexican Election – charges of fraud.

July 8, 2006 - Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution
rallies half a million in the Zócalo to protest fraud.

July 16, 2006 - Andrés Manuel López Obrador rallies one million in Zócalo to protest
fraud.

July 30, 2006 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador rallies two million in Zocalo to protest
fraud; Declares permanent sit-in in Zócalo and on Reforma Avenue and calls for national campaign of civil disobedience.

August 5, 2006 – Mexican Electoral Tribunal orders limited recount based on charges brought by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

August 28, 2006 – Mexican Electoral Tribunal recognizes that violations have occurred, but deems them insufficient to affect outcome.

September 5, 2006 – Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN) declared
winner of presidential election.

November 20, 2006 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes oath as “legitimate president
of Mexico” before massive assembly of a million in the Zócalo.

December 1, 2006 – Felipe Calderón takes oath and begins presidential term, to serve until Nov. 30, 2012.

Background to our Organizing of the Coalition

Those of us who started the Coalition were probably like many of you. During the late 1980s we were fighting the neo-liberal attack on public education commencing, in the United States at least, with the Nation at Risk report. We were fighting efforts to de-fund public education and change its purpose. By the late 1980s we became involved in the fight against the Canadian-US Free Trade Agreement, and then NAFTA during the early 1990s. Many of us, in fact, met at forums and rallies in Vancouver, Canada and Zacatecas, Mexico against the implementation of NAFTA.

As we were watching NAFTA negotiations, we noticed a separate, yet parallel effort funded by the United States Information Agency (USIA) and US based foundations to coordinate the higher education institutions on a trinational level. The idea behind this effort was that NAFTA’s economic integration had to be reinforced through cultural integration facilitated by higher education institutions in all three countries. This cultural integration would be accomplished through an “educational common market” and the creation of a new “North American Identity.”

In January 1993, we decided to hold our own conference, sponsored by Evergreen’s Labor Education Center in Olympia, Washington and funded by educational unions in all three countries. The conference was called, “The Future of Public Education in North America.” We wanted to organize a “North American Public Schools Commission” that would parallel NAFTA’s Free Trade Commission and defend public education against NAFTA’s privatizing logic.

Over two hundred union delegates attended our four-day conference. Forty of these delegates were from Mexico, representing every level of public education. We also had delegates from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and even Latin America.

We developed an extensive, trinational work plan and issued the “Olympia Declaration” in favor of public education as a social right. This Declaration said in part:

“In order to protect the social fabric of our countries, we support an alternative education model that recognizes the right of self-determination with respect to culture, language, education and communication, that is based on social participation and subject to democratic processes, that promotes continental development which includes a plan to eliminate the Mexican debt, that guarantees a just distribution of wealth, recognizes the sovereign rights of states and sustains the dignity of all peoples, establishes a code of conduct for transnational corporations which protects basic labor and human rights such as the right to a just salary and defends and protects the environment.”

Forming the Coalition

Almost two years later we began to implement the work of the conference. In October, 1994, in Zacatecas, Mexico, the Labor Center called a follow-up conference with the intention of forming the “North American Public Schools Commission” as a free standing, union funded Commission to implement the work plan of the conference.

The Zacatecas conference was attended by the President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, representatives from OSSTF in Toronto and the BCTF in Vancouver, two representatives from the National Education Association in Washington, D.C.and leaders from Mexican university and K-12 unions.

The idea of a free standing, union-funded, tri-national Public Schools Commission was rejected. However, delegates from Canada and Mexico agreed to create a Tri-National Coalition to coordinate activities among unions to defend public education in all three countries. The idea was also to organize “sections” in each country made up of state or provincial unions from the three nations. The representatives from the NEA declined to participate in the Coalition saying they only wished to be observers.

Several months later, in February, 1995, we held a conference in Mexico City and organized the “Mexican Section” of our Coalition composed of the “democratic current” sections (or locals) of the National Union of Educational Workers (El SNTE). These “democratic current” sections of El SNTE are coordinated through LA CNTE which has affiliated sections in Mexico City, Michoacán, Oaxaca and other states. The Mexican section is also made up of state level, higher education unions from the universities in Zacatecas, Queretaro, Chapingo and Mexico City’s UNAM and UAM.

Organizational Form of the Coalition

The Coalition’s structure continues to evolve as interest and work grows. There are, however, some consistent features of our structure.

1. No Formal Membership. There is no formal organizational membership only a commitment by different unions at different times to work on and help fund various projects, conferences, forums or research projects organized by the Coalition.

2. Coordinators. The Coalition's work has been coordinated by three coordinators. Dan Leahy, a Professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Larry Kuehn Research Director for the British Columbia Teachers Federation in Vancouver, British Columbia and Maria de la Luz Arriaga, Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. When the Coalition needed a “trinational voice,” Dan has acted as the trinational spokesperson or organizer.

The work of the Mexican Section has been coordinated by a Collegial Commission, which is now formed by Arturo Ramos, a researcher and author a the University of Chapingo, Pedro Hernandez, representing Mexico City’s K-12 teachers in Section 9 and Gerardo Hernandez, representing the union at the Autonomous University of Mexico (UAM).

3. A Mexican Section. Sections have not been formed in either the United States or Canada, but the Mexican Section has remained active and organized since its inception in 1995. Besides participating in and organizing many of the Coalition’s projects, the Mexican section has also published the magazine/journal, “Coalition” which has been a forum for trinational articles on the relation of neoliberal policies to attacks on public education.

4. Canadian Educational Unions. The Canadian Teachers Federation has played a key role over the past several years in promoting the work of the Coalition among provincial educational unions and coordinating solidarity actions when necessary. On a provincial level the British Columbia Teachers Federation, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, the Manitoba Teachers Society and the FNEEQ and CSQ in Quebec have been active leaders in the Coalition and hosts of trinational events. More recently, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has joined the work of the Coalition beginning with hosting our sixth trinational conference in Toronto in May, 2003.

5. US Educational Unions We had strong participation from the National Education Association, its National Staff Organization and many NEA state affiliates in our initial conference in January 1993. However, for most of the Coalition’s organizational life, neither the AFT nor the NEA and their affiliates have participated in Coalition activities despite our best efforts to involve them.

There are several things that might explain this absence.

First, our Coalition was formed based on an implicit critique of NAFTA and its privatizing dynamic. As many of you know, even though US educational unions had opposed NAFTA, once it was passed by Congress and President Clinton promised health care reform, criticism of NAFTA was criticism of Clinton. Clinton is long gone now, so we’re hoping to overcome this objection.

Second, both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers say they already participate in international work through Education International (EI) and therefore there is no need to participate in the Coalition. The EI has regional groupings. The North American region, however, contains the US, Canada and the Caribbean, but not Mexico. We still think, however, that our trinational perspective can be valuable to the US educational unions.

Third, part of our Mexican section is composed of locals of the national union, which are controlled by the “democratic current.” Even though officers directly elected by their members control these locals, these locals are considered dissident locals. The official national union, El SNTE, does not participate in the Coalition. It is possible that the NEA and AFT might think participating in the Coalition might damage relations at the national level.

Finally, unlike Canada where some provincial level teacher unions have quite active international relations committees, here in the United States there is no tradition at the state affiliate level of engaging in international political activity. This probably stems from a fear instilled in union leaders during the McCarthy era that engaging in union solidarity outside the United States, except through the international union, will inevitably lead to association with “communists.”

Nevertheless, it appears as if we are beginning to overcome these difficulties.

The American Association of University Professors sent delegates to our trinational conference in Zacatecas in 2000 and to our trinational conference in May, 2003 in Toronto.

The Professional Staff Congress which represents community college teachers in New York City established an International Affairs Committee and sent delegates to the Morelia Women’s conference and to the 2002 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Coalition coordinators met PSC’s International Affairs Committee Chair, Renate Bridenthal in Porto Alegre. In October 2002, Renate organized a follow up forum in which Larry Kuehn, Dan Leahy and Maria de la Luz Arriaga were the guest speakers. The PSC has remained active in Coalition work since that time.

Due to the work of BCTF President Jinny Sims and Research Director Larry Kuehn in 2005 and 2006, representatives of the UTLA in Los Angeles have become active in the work of the Coalition and will host the Coalition’s 2008, 8th Trinational Conference.

Most recently, both the AFT, the NEA and many of their affiliates have been supportive of the teachers struggle in Oaxaca, Mexico, passing supportive resolutions and providing funding support. The Education International has also expressed concern about the fate of the Oaxaca teachers. Given this interest and the organizing of the Coalition’s Oaxaca Strategy Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, January 26-28, the Coalition hopes to bring more US teacher unions into its work.

6. Trinational Conferences and Planning Sessions A consistent feature of the Coalition has been the organization of biennium Trinational conferences, generally preceded several months earlier by a smaller planning conference. We have had trinational conferences in Olympia (93) Morelia (95), Vancouver (97), Queretaro (98), Zacatecas (2000), Toronto (03), and Oaxaca (06).

These Trinational conferences are where our decision-making takes place and where we decide to pursue new projects or continue old ones.

We have learned many things from these conferences, but one of the most important features has been the inclusion of a tour of local schools prior to the formal beginning of the conference. This has provided a common experience for all participants that can be referenced in our conference discussions.

7. Coalition Funding The funding for Coalition work has been solely from educational unions on a project by project basis. There is no trinational bank account, nor non-profit entity.

For Trinational conferences or other trinational meetings, the host union takes responsibility for site coordination and local logistics. We then ask other educational unions to send funds to that host union to help pay the costs for things like translation, guest and delegate travel, etc.

Our Accomplishments

Over the years we have learned a great deal about each other’s unions and public education systems. This understanding actually increases our strategic options and points of interference to inhibit and reverse neo-liberal policies.

We learned how to do multi-lingual conferences. We ensure simultaneous translators who know the politics of public education so that we can truly share the richness of our discussions.

We learned how to support each other’s national work. One of our Coalition’s first actions was to send letters in support of Mexico’s National Teachers Day, May 15th. More recently, the Mexican Section mobilized Mexican union support for the striking Ontario teachers and for the British Columbia teachers fighting the anti-union legislation of the provincial government.

We learned to hold forums on issues that affect us all. In August of 1997, we organized a forum at the Law School of Mexico’s national university on the subject of standardized tests. The Coalition brought down experts from the United States and Canada to help analyze the potential effects of a new standardized test called the Examen Unico. This
multiple choice test, designed and implemented by a private agency called CENEVAL, was to be utilized for telling university bound Mexican high school students, not only which university they must attend (if any), but what they must study!

We learned to facilitate “sister union” relations, such as the relationship between the Vancouver, BC teachers’ union and Mexico city’s Section 9 (Novena), which represents 60,000 primary school teachers.

In November, 1998, in Mexico City, we organized the forum which led to the creation of the Red SEPA or the Civil Society Network for Public Education in the Americas. Larry Kuehn from the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) and María de la Luz Arriaga Lemus from the Coalition’s Mexican Section serve on the Red SEPA’s Executive Committee.

The purpose of this network was to bring Latin American unions into the discussions created by the formal participation of Education Ministers in the negotiations around the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). While NAFTA was being negotiated, there was no formal participation of education ministers in the negotiations. In the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) negotiations, there is participation of “Human Resource Ministries” to facilitate job training, but education as such was not on the table.

However, with the FTAA, education ministers are creating an Education Plan for the Americas and they are formally asking for comment by civil society. The Red SEPA was set up to provide that comment, especially during the FTAA negotiations in Canada which turned out to be in April, 2001, in Quebec City.

We also learned that we could be quite effective in mobilizing trinational solidarity during emergencies. Just two months after our 1998 Trinational conference in Querétaro, Mexico, the Mexican government jailed the leadership of Mexico city’s Section Nine, the union local representing Mexico city’s primary school teachers. The teachers had protested in Mexico’s federal Senate and they were charged with mutiny and sedition, charges that did not allow bail and carried long jail sentences upon conviction.

The Trinational, with the President of the Canadian Teachers Federation in the lead, mobilized an international protest of letter writing, press releases, consulate visits and court presentations that within two months had freed all the jailed teachers and eliminated the charges and outstanding arrest warrants. One of the main reasons for the tremendous response by Canadian and US teachers was that just two months early, as part of our trinational conference, they had been given a tour of Mexico City’s schools by the very teachers who were now jailed for sedition!

Our Coalition was also instrumental in educating people in the United States and Canada about the incredible strike by students at the National University in Mexico City (UNAM). This is a university with over 300,000 students and 30,000 faculty. It even has its own city within Mexico City. The students struck for over one year, until April 2000, protesting a series of proposed policies that would in effect privatize the National University. Among other things, they were protesting a plan to charge tuition and to control entrance and exit by standardized examinations implemented by private agencies

We also promoted union participation at the Hemispheric Forum on Education, organized as part of the People’s Forum and the FTAA Summit in Quebec City in April, 2001. The participation of the Mexican section and the Latin American unions organized by the Red SEPA significantly improved the final statement of this forum.

In January, 2002, the Trinational Coalition together with the Red SEPA and the Continental Alliance organized in Porto Alegre, Brazil to place public education on the formal, plenary agenda of the World Social Forum. The World Social Forum was organized to counter the efforts of the World Economic Forum to establish global governance directed by transnational corporations.

In October, 2002, The Coalition also promoted the first Hemispheric Day in Defense of Public Education.

As a result of a directive from the May 2003 trinational conference, the Coalition has become more active on the issue of part time labor in post secondary institutions. In August 2004, we participated in COCAL VI, a conference organized by the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. Due to our work, this was the first time that a COCAL conference had significant participation from Mexican teacher unions.

From 2003 until the present time, the Coalition has been supportive of the work of filmmaker Jill Freidberg. Many of the people interviewed in Jill’s film Granito de Arena
about the Mexican teachers’ movement to democratize their unions and fight neoliberalism are Coalition organizers. The Coalition continues to be supportive of Jill’s work to film the Oaxacan teachers’ on-going struggle beginning in the summer of 2006.

Many Coalition members have been active in support of the Oaxaca teachers’ mobilization beginning in May 2006, just a few months after our 7th trinational conference in Oaxaca in March 2006. Our Oaxaca Strategy Conference in Vancouver, January 26-28, 2007 is our most recent project.

We look forward to our continued work and to our 8th trinational conference in Los Angeles in 2008.

For more information

For more information on the Coalition, contact coordinator Dan Leahy at danleahy43@yahoo.com

By the Collegial Coordination of the Mexican Section of the Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education [Translated by Dan Leahy]

Background

As you all know, with regard to the mobilization of the Mexican teachers movement that takes place each year, and in particular with regard to Section 22 of the SNTE in Oaxaca which is a democratic section and part of La CNTE, due to the repression by the government of Ulises Ruiz against the teachers and other popular sectors, the teachers own demands expanded into a broader political perspective so that this political struggle and social movement developed into an entity at a new level of significance when added to other processes of great importance such as the political convergence with voting, electoral fraud and the National Democratic Convention.

This struggle initiated by Section 22 of Oaxaca reached levels of autonomous popular organization and political confrontation that transcended the state of Oaxaca and was projected onto the national and international level. The birth and development of APPO (The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) permitted the incorporation of multiple sectors of the population that were added to the teachers’ own movement, such as indigenous and community organizations and social and citizen movements and non-governmental organizations, and out of this derived political proposals for the removal of the governor and the revocation of his mandate by the people and, as a consequence, the presence of a dual power, which is to say, of an alternative power with democratic popular participation.

This movement agitated national and international solidarity and, in this, the Mexican section of the Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education took advantage of the networks created for more than a decade, such as the Trinational and the Red SEPA and other instances of inter-American coordination, and developed a strategy to concentrate political actions in support of the popular movement of Oaxaca and in particular the teachers’ movement of Section 22. In Canada, the United States and in certain Latin American countries we accomplished activities like meetings in embassies and consulates, publicity campaigns, local and national media campaigns, letters of solidarity and demands to the federal and state governments of Mexico, etc.

Origin and Objectives

As a natural consequence of this work in the Trinational and Red SEPA, an initiative within the Federation of Central American Teachers (FOMCA) developed to expand the solidarity with the people of Oaxaca as a result of a presentation by Martha Longoria Hernández, a Mexican delegate of the Trinational Coalition. This initiative began to take the shape of a concrete proposal to organize an observation and solidarity mission with this movement. This soon reached the perspective of extending it to Canadian education unions en Vancouver and Quebec, with which the Mexican section of the Trinational took the initial initiative.

With the support of Steve Stewart, Technical Secretary of the Red SEPA, the observation program of the international brigade was consolidated with a format of diverse activities that became the International Solidarity Forum with the People of Oaxaca.

With the initiative arising from FOMCA’s congress and from the perspective of the Mexican Section of the Trinational Coalition, the objective of the International Brigade was to achieve demonstrations of solidarity at a moment in which the political problem of Oaxaca had gotten worse due to increased repression and a violation of the politics and human rights of the Oaxacan people and in particular of the democratic teachers of Section 22. Added to this objective was a consideration of the political importance a visit of this nature could have when combined with a media campaign, an interview with the federal government with security measures for the brigade, Section 22 and for APPO in a context of political persecution.

In this manner, the program was designed in coordination with Central American and Canadian organizations and in spite of the haste, logistical difficulties and the political situation contemplated the following activities: a reception and hospitality for the international delegates, an interview with the Secretary of State, a press conference in the House of Representatives or other place, a tour and presentation by the International Brigade at the National Assembly of the Peoples of Mexico (ANPM), travel from Mexico city to Oaxaca, a press conference and a forum in that state, a meeting with representatives of Section 22 and APPO and a tour to the Autonomous Municipality of Zaachila and to the schools located there.

Participation and Activities

Due to diverse circumstances (programmed activities, visa problems), the participation of international delegates did not include some committed sectors such as those from Honduras, but a good level of representation was achieved with the following delegates; Jinny Sims President of the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) and Vice President of the Canadian Teachers Federation, Christiane Malet, National Federation of Quebec Teachers (FNEEQ), Sebastienne Bouchard from Quebec’s CSQ, Floribeth López, General Secretary and Edwin Porras, Executive Committee member of the Costa Rican Educators Union (SEC) and of FOMCA, as well as Iris Harmon, Mirka Gilbert and Kirsten Daub of Canada.

The brigade received the support of the Trinational’s Mexican Section and Section 22 of Oaxaca for the completion of programmed tasks. Previously it solicited in writing for an audience with the Secretary of State and to the National Human Rights Commission for its supports in accompanying the activities for the purpose of safeguarding the visitors. In an equal manner, the Mexican League for Human Rights (LIMEDDH) was contacted to solicit their collaboration, receiving their support to be available at all times during the course of the visit.

The arrival of foreign delegates between the 14th and 15th of December, the hospitality of the Costa Rican compañeros and some previous activities took place at different moments.

On Friday the 15th at 3:00 pm, the combined International Brigade and the Mexican section accompanied by Dr. Adrian Ramírez, President of LIMEDDH went to the Secretary of State’s office where they had an interview with the Director General for Human Rights of this department and before whom each in turn expressed their doubts, worries and concerns about the human and political rights of the people and teachers of Oaxaca and about the violations of the same by the state government, achieving some minimal agreements such as the transmission of these considerations and demands to higher levels of its own Secretariat and to the Presidency, and also of a security guarantee for the Brigade in the Mexican territory and in particular in the state of Oaxaca. At the same time, they introduced some documents that were based on the agreements of the FOMCA Congress and that were signed by the rest of the Brigade and additionally by others from Vancouver and Quebec.

During this tour, international delegates had interviews and submitted general information to some media outlets such as the newspaper La Jornada that were published the following day. In the evening of that same Friday the 15,th after we had situated all of the visitors, a complementary dinner was offered to the Brigade where they exchanged information with members of the Mexican Section.

On Saturday the 16th, a press conference in the House of Representatives did not happen and the Brigade went directly to the SME auditorium to present a greeting to the ANPM. Before this, the International Brigade took the opportunity to dialogue with some Mexican political leaders such as Deputy Antonio Almazán, the President of the National Council of the PRD Camilo Valenzuela and the Secretary of the Exterior of the SME Fernando Amezcua, in addition to viewing and admiring the historic mural at that location. At the beginning of the work with ANPM, the delegates of the International Brigade presented their greetings and were warmly received on the part of the participants in this event. After dinner, we undertook to transport the Brigade to the city of Oaxaca in a vehicle provided by STAUCH and in one provided by Pedro Hernández of Section 9 of La CNTE, arriving in that city Saturday night.

Sunday morning the 17th, a press conference was carried out for the local media with the presence of numerous and important print media, radio and television, in which messages from the Vancouver, Quebec and Costa Rican delegates were expressed and also an explanation of the visit by members of the Collegial Coordination of the Mexican Section of the Trinational and of Section 22 of Oaxaca. Afterwards, in the same place, the Institute of Social Research of the Benito Juárez Autonomous University, the International Forum of Solidarity with the People of Oaxaca took place with the participation of international delegates and representatives from Section 22, CEDES-22 (Center of Studies and Educational Development), APPO’s State Council, the Mexican Section and Yésica Sánchez, state president of LIMEDDH, and some other participants.

After a complementary meal by Section 22, a dialogue took place with the autonomous municipal government of Zaachila, receiving a broader explanation of the experience of popular government and of the resistance to the government of Ulises Ruiz. In the evening, the majority of the International Brigade returned to Mexico city in order to return Monday the 18 and Tuesday the 19th to their countries. Some of the compañeros from Quebec and the Mexican Section visited schools of the Zaachila municipality on Monday the 18th, where they had an exchange with students, teachers, parents who expressed the fear and worry that they live in due to the threats and aggression that their community has been subjected to by the government.

It is appropriate to mention that in addition to the established program, the International Brigade took the opportunity to dialogue with the compañeros from SME’s Union School and that they received documents and materials from this organization such as books, pamphlets and CDs of the Civil Association “Culture, Work and Democracy.” Some members of the Trinational’s Mexican Section form part of this organization. These materials were also shared with compañeros from Section 22, from APPO, from the Autonomous municipality of Zaachila and with the coordinators of the project for an independent community radio.

Conclusions and Results

For the collegial Coordination of the Trinational’s Mexican Section and for other compañeros in the Section and for other various foreign delegates, there was an agreement in their own words that there is no doubt of the success achieved with the visit of the International Brigade. The completion of the central objectives was followed through in full and we believe that the impact and political resonance in a precise context made the visit of the International Brigade a contributing factor in the achievement of some favorable government answers to the movement.

The presence of the brigade in the context of previous showings of international solidarity and the presence of other foreign observation commissions at the same time and place contributed, among other things, to the liberation of additional detained APPO compañeros from federal prisons and to some political gestures evident on the part of the Calderón government, that probably was translated into pressuring the state government of Ulises Ruiz to moderate the repression that had been taking place. To this should be added the greater projection achieved in the local, national and international media of the struggle of the people of Oaxaca and of the solidarity of international organizations such as those linked to the Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education.

But, from our point of view, the most valuable element resulting from this experience resides in the level achieved in solidarity and in the political coordination between the educational unions of the countries involved and its counterpart of the Mexican section, the teachers of Oaxaca and the social movement there. This visit not only highlighted APPO, Section 22 and some representatives of the Autonomous Municipality of Zaachila, a grand backing in difficult moments, which without a doubt led to a reorganization and recuperation of confidence of a popular movement of a great scope, but also achieved a high level of political significance in the coordination work of education workers beyond national frontiers and with an international and class perspective.

We are convinced and we will do what is necessary to continue along these lines. We believe that this experience will generate better conditions to advance the inter-American coordination of the trinational coalition, the Red SEPA and others. Now the political balance is more favorable and the gestures of economic solidarity that we have touched on in the past today have materialized in the support from Vancouver and Quebec and especially the honorable economic help from the compañeros de Costa Rica to Section 22 of Oaxaca.

Reserving the incorporation of all types of observations and critiques that will be raised at the next meeting of the Mexican section January 13th, as well as the evaluations that will be made by the international delegates with their own organizations, we believe that this experience will infuse new vigor into the Mexican section, the Trinational and the Red SEPA, vigor that we hope will also materialize in the meeting in Vancouver, as well as other places.

Collegial Coordination of the Mexican Section of the Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education.

Arturo Ramos, Research
Pedro Hernández, STAUCH Section 9
Gerardo Estrada, CNTESITUAM

Last weekend, 30 teacher union delegates from the three countries met in Vancouver to discuss Oaxaca strategy. This action plan resulted from that meeting.

Introduction

January 27, 2007
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation headquarters

The trinational was established to defend public education as the basis of a democratic society; to support strong democratic unions; and to stop the privatization of public education.

We believe that the Oaxacan teachers of Section 22 are under attack because they are a strong democratic union, that they have a long history of defending public education, and they fight against the privatization of public education.

Trinational Campaign

At this Trinational Oaxaca strategy session, we’ve agreed on a five-point campaign

1. We have agreed to continue pressuring the Mexican government to stop the repression of teachers, to free all political prisoners, to lift all arrest warrants against Oaxacan teachers, and punish those responsible for the disappearance and assassination of teachers and of the peoples of Oaxaca.

2. As members of the Trinational, we oppose any outside interference in the democratic processes of Section 22 or the creation of any illegitimate Section in Oaxaca. We also ask that the Executive Committee of the National Teachers’ Union, el SNTE, respect the democratic processes of Section 22.

3. As members of the Trinational, we support the demands of the people of Oaxaca to remove their governor.

4. We agreed to utilize the OECD-EI meeting (February 12th to 14th in Vancouver), the EI Board Meeting (March 27th to 29th in Berlin), and the EI’s global conference (the third week of July in Berlin) to do the following:
a) Raise the issue of Oaxaca
b) Invite EI president Thulas Nxesi to go to Oaxaca as soon as possible
c) Invite the EI to consider an action in solidarity with Oaxaca
d) To offer Oaxaca as the central theme for EI’s world teacher day, October 5th
e) To ask EI to request that the International Labour Organization investigate violations of ILO Conventions on the right to organize and the right to freedom of association in Oaxaca

Note: in all our correspondence regarding EI we should copy Alain Pélissier, EI Executive Board member, pelissier.alain@csq.qc.net
Note: We also ask other organizations such as the Canadian Labour Congress to join us in all of these efforts.

5. We agreed to organize a U.S.-Canada tour with a delegation from Oaxaca (with teacher, parent and student representatives) beginning in April in the United States and in Canada in order to refocus attention on Mexico and the situation in Oaxaca. The visit to numerous cities in the U.S. and in Canada, would culminate in the presentation at the United Nations in New York of a demand for intervention to bring about a resolution of the situation.

The action at the United Nations could take place on May Day or May 5th, or on Mexico’s National Teacher Day (May 15th), depending on circumstances.

6. We agreed to ask our affiliated unions to determine the economic leverage they have in relation to Mexican corporations and the Oaxaca situation. In doing this, the affiliates would look both at the economic leverage that they have as organizations and that their members have as individuals. To the extent possible, the organizations will report back to the Trinational by the end of March.

7. Establish a Trinational Coalition website for the dissemination of the situation our unions are going through, at this moment Section 22, the actions we are planning, for accessing information, posters or documents, all in English, Spanish and French. Arturo Ramos, John Ehinger and Dan Leahy to coordinate

MEXICO CITY (Feb. 2nd) - Amidst the din of hundreds of housewives beating on pots and pans with a variety of kitchen utensils - a massive "Casarolazo" reminiscent of similar manifestations of discontent in Argentina 2002 (the "Argentinazo") - the popular classes filled the streets of the Mexican capital January 31st to express outrage at the drastic jump in the cost of household staples (eggs 50%, milk 30%, and tortillas 40%) during the first 50 days of the presidency of Felipe Calderon, the right-winger who was awarded high office in fraud-marred elections last July 2nd.

The steep rise in the price of tortillas cuts right to the quick of the popular economy, dramatically impacting 70,000,000 Mexicans who live in and around the poverty line, 22,000,000 of who barely survive in extreme poverty (less than $2 a day.) Although working class Mexicans eat tortillas at most meals, for 13,000,000 children living in extreme poverty, tortillas are the whole meal according to studies done by Dr. Hector Borgez of the National Nutrition Institute.

Only last November, the month before Calderón took office, tortillas were selling for six pesos a kilo most everywhere in the country. But since Calderón's chaotic December 1st swearing-in, the price has tripled to 18 and even 20 pesos, well beyond the budgets of the Mexican underclass.

The assault on the poor and the extremely poor is compounded by the Calderón regime's miserly annual increase in the daily minimum wage by 1.9%, about 17 cents USD, an increment which doesn't come close to matching the hike in tortillas - let alone milk, eggs, meat, and gasoline which are squeezing working people to a pulp.

With the buying power of its constituents shrinking dramatically (an 18% decline since January 1st), a usually quiescent Mexican labor movement is demanding an emergency boost in the daily minimum wage to match the spiraling cost of living. The National Union of Workers (UNT), a powerful federation of labor organizations independent of the political parties organized the January 31st "Casarolazo" which was heavily attended by supporters of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the leftist former mayor of Mexico City who millions avow beat Calderón in the July 2nd vote-taking but was deprived of victory by the ruling right-wing PAN Party's manipulation of the electoral machinery.

AMLO himself made a rare Mexico City appearance at the January 31st march. Although the organizers tried to deny López Obrador a place at the mic, the ex-candidate spoke by popular demand at the conclusion of the mammoth march in the great Zócalo plaza, invoking the militancy of the post-electoral struggle and seemingly signaling his return to the political spotlight.
The nation's business associations, which heavily financed Calderón's campaign, have unanimously rejected the demand for an emergency wage increase as being inflationary. But threatened with popular insurrection if the price of tortillas was not brought under control, the new president prevailed upon the nation's powerful transnational corn merchants - Cargill/Consolidated, Maseca/ADM, and Mimsa/Corn Products - to lock in the increase at 8.50 pesos the kilo, a 40% hike over November.

According to Fred Rosen, an economics writer with the Mexico City edition of the Miami Herald, low-income Mexican families eat three kilos of tortillas a day which. under the new price scheme, would cost a working head of family 42% of the minimum daily wage.

Felipe's first 50 days in office have brought palpable pain to a populous, at least a third of which does not accept him as the legitimate president of Mexico. Over 200,000 workers have lost their jobs in the seven weeks since Calderón pinned the presidential sash on his breast according to Labor secretariat and Social Security Institute numbers, and social benefits are threatened by the precipitous drop in world oil prices - petroleum exports account for up to 70% of the social benefits budget.

A morning run on public transportation around Mexico City brings home the impacts down below. Two well-dressed little girls, perhaps seven and four years old, navigate through the crowded subway cars handing out slips of paper upon which their parents have painstakingly hand lettered this message: "We are hungry. Our parents cannot afford to buy tortillas. Please help us. God Bless you."

A rural schoolteacher from the Totonaco sierra of Puebla state shakes a can at a teeming bus stop. "Calderón and the governor have cut our budgets and we can't feed the Indian children in our school" Arnulfo Prieto explains, "so we have to come here to beg for cooperation from the passengers."

Felipe Calderón does not travel on public transportation. He moves in a rose-colored bubble protected by elite military troops and seemingly governs another country than the one packed into the sardine can buses and subway cars down below. His goal now is to legitimize his governance and, impatient to impress his "achievements" upon a dubious public, Calderón could not even wait the customary 50 days to toot his own horn.

During a nationally televised address from Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, just 45 days into his six-year stint as president, Felipe Calderón proclaimed Mexico to be "in order and at peace." The nation was far more "secure and certain" than when he had taken office during a moment of widespread social upheaval just seven weeks previous.

Calderón seemed blissfully oblivious of the casarolazos in the street and the shocking repression of the popular movement in Oaxaca, which animated protests from international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch during Calderón's first European junket in January.
Among the accomplishments Calderón claims for his short-lived administration are subsidies to the poor to offset escalating electricity rates, a promise of universal health coverage for disadvantaged children, minimal pensions for impoverished senior citizens, and a 10% across the board cut in the salaries of the federal bureaucracy. All of these initiatives were lifted almost verbatim from the platform of the leftist López Obrador who Calderón never tired of labeling "a danger to Mexico" during one of the dirtiest campaigns in the nation's electoral history.
Another "achievement" of Calderón's nascent regime: handing out juicy jobs to those who backed his well-financed campaign, including Guillermo Valdez, chief pollster for the GEA political consulting firm, who called the Calderón victory when most polls had AMLO four points up on election day. With no other qualifications, Valdez was designated director of the Center for National Security Intelligence (CISEN), Mexico's super secret spy agency.

Felipe's first 50 days have also featured the most intense militarization of Mexico since the Zapatista Army of National Liberation rose up in 1994. 27,000 troops have been dispatched into drug-cropping states from Tijuana to Tapachula on the southern border with the mission of disrupting narco cartel operations. Nonetheless, no top "capos" were snared in the offensive - a huge manhunt in the "Golden Triangle" (Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua) failed to net the nation's most notorious drug lord, "El Chapo" Guzmán, CEO of the Sinaloa Cartel.
But if the dragnet for El Chapo proved a bust, "Fecal" (as his detractors diss him) warmed the hearts of his handlers in Washington by extraditing four imprisoned drug kingpins January 19th, along with 11 underlings (one of whom was wanted for a 1991 murder) to the U.S. justice system. Of the narcos, only Osiel Cárdenas, titular ringleader of the Gulf Cartel, appears still to have been active. Other capos, such as "El Guero" (Paleface) Palma had been on ice for years before Calderón shipped them north where U.S. taxpayers will shell out millions to warehouse them at state-of-the-art maximum security prisons for the rest of their lives.

The unprecedented extraditions came one week after George Bush's attorney general Alberto González visited the country of his parents' birth to encourage Felipe Calderón to jump through his boss's hoop, and occurred the same week as the U.S. ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security) detained and deported 761 undocumented workers without one word of protest from the new Mexican president.

The extraditions so delighted the lame duck Bush that he picked up the Oval Office phone and dialed Felipe for a 15-minute congratulatory chat. U.S. ambassador Tony Garza, a longtime Bush crony, was effusive in his praise of Calderón's "stupendous leadership" and proclaimed that the extraditions would usher in "a new era" of bi-lateral cooperation. Both Bush and Garza were among the first to congratulate Calderón last July for his severely questioned "victory."

Calderón also earned fat kudos from the U.S. corporate press, which shamelessly pumped up the right-winger throughout the hard-nosed battle with López Obrador and now exalts Felipe as "a man of action " (Miami Herald.) The Dallas Morning News even suggested that Calderón should become president of Iraq to put that unruly nation in order.

The new president is utilizing the Mexican military to further his own political ends, considers Jorge Camil, a prolific political writer who suspects the deployment of troops against the narcos is a smokescreen to promote the illusion of Calderón's legitimacy - Camil has long held that only the legalization of drugs can control drug violence. "This is a dangerous proposition - just who is going to rule Mexico? Calderón or the military?" Camil wondered during a recent telephone interview, implying that the freshman president could become a hostage of the generals' ambitions.

Calderón has put in an appearance at least 20 largely ceremonial events staged by the Mexican Armed Force since he took office, even donning an outsized military coat and campaign hat to address drug-fighting troops in Michoacán, the first Mexican president to appear in military dress since Máximo Avila Camacho in the 1940s - Camacho, however, was a real general.
"We will not tolerate anyone who defies the authority of the state," Calderón declared to a Naval base audience in mid-January in a verbal display of what he likes to call his "firm hand." The not-so-veiled warning was not just directed at fugitive narco barons but also at López Obrador who had mostly been missing in action before his re-emergence at the January 31st march in defense of the tortilla.

Camil and other politicalologists see disturbing parallels between the first days of George Bush and Felipe Calderón. Both have called in their militaries to legitimize mandates tarnished by accusations that they stole their presidencies. Bush's declaration of a "War on Terror" following the 9/11 attacks and Calderón's "War on Drugs" both serve these ends.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador's evaporation from the political spotlight has made it easier for Felipe Calderón to claim a mandate. Since the National Democratic Convention elected AMLO as the "legitimate" president of Mexico last September 16th, both AMLO and his shadow government have disappeared into the shadows. Barnstorming the backwaters of the country, López Obrador now speaks to dozens whereas just six months ago, he was leading millions in an historic outpouring of public indignation at the stealing of the election.

AMLO's silence in respect to the on-going repression in Oaxaca and his absence from that powder keg state since the uprising began last May have disillusioned some former die-hards who sense that the ex-candidate has abdicated his responsibilities to the popular movement, leaving a vacuum in leadership on the left.
"Where is AMLO?" asks Alejandro Peñaloza, a vender of left-wing newspapers in the old quarter of Mexico City who camped out in the Zócalo plaza during the "plantón" that tied up the capital for seven weeks after the July 2nd balloting. "AMLO should never have called the plantón off. He was right here in the center of power. It was a big mistake. Now he's hiding out with the Tarahumaras and no one hardly pays any attention to him anymore" sighs the veteran activist.

Whether or not López Obrador's return to the political stage January 31st signals a sustained campaign to challenge the Calderón regime could determine the shape of politics in Mexico in 2007.

Despite López Obrador's months of absence, Felipe Calderón is having a hard time making peace with the people who he is charged with governing. His first visit to popular colonies in Chalco in the misery belt just outside the capital and to Veracruz degenerated into shouting matches as furious housewives screamed and snarled and sobbed at the president about the skyrocketing cost of tortillas. "Thank you Mr. President for Helping Us To Starve" read banners posted along the road from the Veracruz airport. "We want tortillas - not PAN!" (Bread - but also the initials of Calderón's National Action Party) chanted housewives in that port city.

The new Mexican president received an equally hostile welcome on his first European junket. A meeting with the business community in Berlin had to be called off for "security" reasons and in Bonn, police scuffled with Mexican and German protestors demanding an end to the repression in Oaxaca. Similar welcoming parties awaited Calderón in London and Madrid.

If Felipe Calderón's second 50 days are anything like his first, the Mexican president may soon be asking his friend Bush for political asylum in Washington - but by then, Bush himself could be considering seeking sanctuary south of the border.

John Ross may be speaking in your city!

John Ross is on the road in the southwest (February), the south and mid-west (March), and the East Coast (April) with his latest opus "Zapatistas! Making Another World Possible - Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006." Write johnross@igc.org for possible venues.

The "Making Another World Possible" tour kicks off Friday, Feb. 9th at New College in San Francisco's Mission District when Ross presents a report back from the Mexican cataclysm, including a look inside Felipe Calderón's brain. These dispatches will continue at ten-day intervals while the Blindman is on the road.

1. Excerpts from January 17, 2007 Press Release of Mexican Farmers Organizations (CNPA, CONOC, EL BARZÓN-ANPAP)

We the rural organizations declare ourselves against the speculative rise in the prices of the tortillas, and we are in favor of a new policy for food sovereignty and safety. It would demand for the exclusion of the maize (corn) from NAFTA.
We the rural organizations signed below, declare ourselves against the speculative rise in the prices of the tortillas caused by the Felipe Calderón’s government that affects the majority of Mexicans, especially those from low-income populations, and it only benefits a few big food-processing Mexican and American companies.

What are the immediate reasons of the criminal and illegal rise in the prices of the tortillas?

The dismantlement of the rural production of corn coupled with the increased dependency of corn imports are caused by the neoliberal governments from 1994, with the NAFTA into force, to the present. This has totally exposed our country to the volatility and uncertainty of the agricultural international markets, highly dominated by the developed countries and by their gigantic food-processing corporations, whose unique intentions are to maximize their earnings. In this context, the international price of corn has doubled in the last year, passing from 80 US dollars to 160 a ton for corn in the United States, due to a growth in demand for ethanol production and the increasing imports of China. Likewise, the goods in the United States and in the world rose up to record levels. Despite these well-known facts, the federal government did not recognize the potential danger for our food safety not even its impact on domestic prices and, therefore, it took neither any precautions nor any measures.

On the contrary, the federal government through the Secretary of Economy, Agriculture, and the Marketing governmental Agency (ASERCA), provoked an artificial shortage of white corn for human consumption by authorizing and subsidizing 1.5 million tons of white corn put aside from the autumn - winter crop (June – July-August, 2006) in Sinaloa. This reserve was for export to the United States, Central and South America and its use as forage for animals belonging to big cattle companies of Sonora, Sinaloa and Jalisco States. With this very serious measure, it further accentuated the international climbing of prices of corn and it fed the speculation in Mexico. The federal government chose to attend to Maseca´s and Cargill´s interests and authorize the exportation with public subsidies to face the shortage and high prices of white corn in the corn flour plants in the United States, Central and South America. Additionally, the government preferred to accept the request of big cattle businesspersons of Sonora State (Bachoco and Mason Groups), Sinaloa (Group Viz) and Jalisco to face the high prices of importing yellow corn and sorghum and to be able to buy white corn with public subsidies. Cargill bought and stored 600 thousand tons of Sinaloa's corn obtained at 1,650 pesos a ton, they intended to increase its price, thanks to the determination of the federal government "to "dry" the domestic market of white corn, allowing it to sell its inventories some months later at 3,500 pesos a ton in the Valley of Mexico. The increase in the prices of petroleum, diesel, gas, and electricity decreed by Felipe Calderón in last December also affected the costs of transportation of corn and production of dough and tortillas.

The federal government has stimulated an anti-competitive concentration in the food-processing markets. This is a result of the elimination of the former State Marketing Company Conasupo, which ended price controls allowed commercial opening, and the privatization of the economy. Now, the Maseca group controls 85 % of the market of corn flour, Cargill controls the marketing of corn and other grains and an oligopoly has control of the principal port of entry of grains imports in the Veracruz port, and also control of the railway transport Ferromex and Kansa City Southern. In this situation, Cargill is allowed to fix prices and impose anti-competitive conditions on the rest of the food-processing chains, further raising prices to the final consumers and favoring extraordinary earnings for the big oligopoly companies. In spite of this fact, neither the federal government nor the Federal Commission of Competition have done anything. The owners of the above mentioned companies are indirectly complicit for mutual help and privileges and they even possess former-presidents' and former secretary services.

2. Note N°. 0802 – Mexican Congress’ Point of Agreement, adopted unanimously by all parties.

“The Permanent Commission of the Mexican Congress exhorted today (17-01-2007) the holders of the secretaries of Economy and Agriculture (Eduardo Sojo, and Alberto Cárdenas respectively), to present before the National General Attorney's office a formal denunciation in opposition to hoarders and speculators of maize (corn) and, in his case, put into perspective the corresponding sanctions. In addition there was an approval for a Point of Agreement presented by the senator Carlos Lozano (PRI) to request an appearance before the plenary session to the following; heads of Agriculture, Alberto Cárdenas; of Social Development, Beatriz Zavala; of Economy, Eduardo Sojo; and of the Federal Attorney's office of the Consumer, Antonio Morales; and the president of the Federal Commission of Competition, Eduardo Perez Mota.

The federal civil servants will have to explain the possibility of adapting the agricultural paragraph of the NAFTA and report on the public policy on exports and imports of basic grains, adopted by the federal government in the last six years. (Added emphasis A.V.)

The secretaries will have to present the actions that the federal government will carry out, in order to guarantee stable prices in products of basic food basket and to stop the deterioration of the buying power as a result of the increase in the cost of egg, milk, meat and chicken. After presenting the Point of Agreement of urgent and obvious resolution, addressed by his political party, the senator Ricardo Monreal (PRD) indicated that the excessive increase in price of corn has affected the cost of products of basic consumption, without action from the federal government to stop the situation. He said the latter is a consequence of the erroneous economic policy and lack of attention to the farms, as well as the impunity of the competent authorities, such as the Federal Commission of Economic Competition and the General Attorney's office of the Republic (PGR) which he said, "they have turned into accomplices of the big capitals ". " We believe that this is the opportunity for this Permanent Commission to demand that the General Attorney's office of the Republic initiate previous corresponding inquiries and could define responsibilities to stop and sue the alleged persons in charge, the monopolizes, who have provoked this increase in the prices, " he stressed. In his opportunity, the deputy Juan José Rodríguez Prats (PAN) thought with the corn problem, one cannot ignore the alternate use that corn gives to the grain to generate ethanol, which represents an opportunity to capitalize on the Mexican field in zones most isolated of the country, but that harms the consumers. He commented that it is necessary to orchestrate policy that stimulates the corn sowing, which fixes competitive prices and which propitiates the competition and the respect to the law. "For this reasons, the National Action Party is in favor of this Point of agreement," he stated. To view note: Note N°. 0802

3. Argentina, Guatemala and Brazil join Canadian WTO complaint against the United States

On January 8, Canada filed a complaint against the U.S., claiming that nine billion dollars it had paid in export credits and other subsidies unfairly lowered corn and other agricultural prices. Support from the three Latin American countries at a time when the U.S. is facing stagnation in trade talks over the question of agricultural subsidies and its Congress is debating a new farm bill. A prior case brought by Brazil resulted in a ruling that some cotton subsidies were illegal. According to the U.S. Grains Council, the U.S. is the world’s largest corn producer, with The United States is the world's largest producer and exporter of corn, accounting for more than 40 percent of global production and nearly 60 percent of all exports in 2004-2005. Source: The information for this story was taken from an article by BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer

4. Calderón, businesses agree to curb tortilla prices

On January 17, the Mexican government raised quotas for duty-free corn imports to 750,000 metric tons (826,733 U.S. tons), and limited tortilla prices to 8.50 pesos ($0.78) per kilogram. Tortilla prices rose by 14 percent in 2006, more than three times the inflation rate, and they have continued to surge in the first weeks of 2007. The rise is partly due to increased demand by U.S. ethanol plants, pushing prices as high as $3.40 a bushel, the highest in more than a decade. The agreement was signed by Mexico's major supermarket chains and bakers, including the world's largest tortilla maker, Monterrey, Mexico-based Gruma SA., and by associations for thousands of independent tortilla sellers. Source: The information for this story was taken from an article by IOAN GRILLO, Associated Press Writer

[Mexican document signed by many leaders of labor, social movements and political parties, translator unknown. – ed.]

Open Forum for a National Dialogue to Unite Our Resistance against Rightwing Neoliberalism – February 3 – 5, 2007

To the Mexican people:
To all social and civil organizations:

This year of 2007 presents us with threats and challenges directed at the Mexican people. The politicians, militaries, “magistrates”, and big entrepreneurs that through corruption imposed on us Felipe Calderón, are now ready to take advantage of their usurpation of power. They are ready to inaugurate a new and more vicious stage of neo-liberal politics that includes: privatization, budgets that violate public interests and social needs (like the one recently approved), of concentration of wealth for a few and deepening poverty for the majority. In addition, the surrender of sovereignty, and indiscriminate openness to subordinate integration to the United States, as in the case of corn and beans as a consequence of FTA’s. They are ready to regress and close doors to any new process of democratic transformation and elimination of despotism, electoral fraud and corruption that were characteristic of the old “priistas” (from the PRI) regime and are now part of this “new” political system.

The neoliberal right wing enthroned in power, even before the “transition”, and now headed by a new and even more dangerous government “Panista” (from the PAN), has not vacillated in violating fundamental laws of the Republic and universal human rights respected by our country. This past year was the epitome in this respect as demonstrated by the industrial crime in Pasta de Conchos that left 65 dead and continues in impunity; the repression of striking workers at Lazaro Cardenas; the blatant violations to union freedom and autonomy. And by the brutal repression of the people of Atenco and against the popular movement of Oaxaca, that left a trail of dozens of assassination, hundreds of arrests and countless cases of torture, aggression, and sexual violations that until this day have not ceased; the pretense of an investigation of the ’68 and ’71 genocides that remain in impunity.

The worst thing is that this seems to be just a glimpse of what lies ahead from a regime with an iron fist that criminalizes social protest, does not hesitate to use repressive forces and imposes the sinister and infamous torturer ex-governor of Jalisco as head of the Ministry of the Interior. This regime also puts CISEN elements in charge of national “security”- that actually utilizes the supposed war against drug trafficking to increase the militarization of the country. There is no doubt that this regime is ever more distant from a democratic transition and ever closer to a dictatorship, with the goal of imposing its policies and subjugating the democratic will of the people of Mexico.

But that is not all, the neoliberal right wing has made explicit their intention of maintaining power by any means for a long and ominous time, as it is recorded in the 2030 plan elaborated by the World Bank which is publicly accepted by the current governing team that promises 25 years of application for this project.

However, the Mexican people will not conform, they will not allow another dark day of democratic suppression, suppression of the human rights of indigenous people, peasants, workers, youth, and womyn, and of a worsening of their working and living conditions, nor of selling off of the country. Much less now, when in the South of the continent we see new winds of hope that demonstrate that another path is possible. Despite the use of economic power, fraud, and repression to maintain power, that these big entrepreneurs and their politicians have used and their dismissal of social discontent; neoliberalism is increasingly unpopular and there is growing rejection of their policies.

This is demonstrated by the rebellion of the Zapatista community and the dignified indigenous resistance; the resistance against privatization of energy, water, social security, and public education; the persistent resistance of communities like that of Atenco; the exemplary fight and resistance of the people of Oaxaca; and the enormous democratic movement against the electoral fraud and imposition. These struggles all demonstrate that resisting, and confronting are possible means to defeating the intentions of the right wing neoliberals to maintain power.

For this to happen however, it is indispensable to unite the resistance movements and popular alternatives. Fraud and repression should not sow doubt, disintegration, or isolation of these struggles. Before the shadow of violence and the illegality represented by the current federal government, we must raise a united national resistance, constitute a coordinated front where all of the people can take part and strengthen trust in their struggles and in their victories.

In the previous period, a series of initiatives and unifying forces that were developing (which were part of National Dialogue’s past three versions) got caught in the middle of an electoral dispute and the subsequent fraud and imposition of the new right wing government. Meanwhile, initiatives like La Otra Campaña (The Other Campaign) and the persistence of the APPO movement continue to expand their influence, hundreds of thousands of people await the next step in the noted resistance in the National Democratic Convention, and all types of local and national social organizations discuss and process the new challenges and strategies.

The new vision is clearly outlined and overtly determined by the new offensive of the right wing neoliberals placing at risk the survival of any democratic and popular hope demands a new encounter of the diverse movements and resistance. A new force of convergence and unity is required, even if it is over basic issues, without weakening the forces and projects from each sector. As a step towards this path, we propose to all the movements and social actors, the need for a new National Dialogue, which we see not as a simple continuation or an end to previous ones, but as a new opportunity to come together and redefine some common strategies for this new context.
We firmly and humbly believe that in this new phase of struggle against neo-liberalism enough consensus and agreement exists between the political, civic, and social movements that are determined to assure that Mexico transition into democracy, justice, and liberty through a National Political Pact to confront and defeat the common enemy. An agreement that, with out ignoring differences, can be shared with no reserve and where the consensus over basic points can be the basis for unity, and where the autonomy of each one will not undermine the common platform and united action. A probable route would be to sign an initial agreement based on a political declaration, a minimal platform for struggle, and a plan for immediate action.

It is with these aspirations that we call for a new National Dialogue, taking place from February 3rd to the 5th in the headquarters of the Mexican Electricians Union located in Antonio Caso 45, Col. Tabacalera in the city of Mexico, that can be used as a stepping-stone in this direction.

The National Dialogue Program, that starts February 3rd at 13hrs, will include the following themes:

1.- Evaluation of the diverse movement and unitary forces, and discussion of strategies for new perspectives.

2.- Wages, Employment, Social Security, Retirement and Pension Systems, and Migration.

3.- Electricity, Water, Petroleum, Biodiversity, Cultural Heritage, Internal and External Debt, FTA’s, PPP (Pan Puebla Panama) and ASPAN (Alianza para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad de America del Norte)

4.- Education, Research, Technology, Science, and Culture.

5.- Democratic Liberty, Human Rights, Militarization

6.- Gender Discrimination and Equality

7.- Agricultural Crisis, Indigenous Rights and Culture

IN SOLIDARITY

End the price hikes for products of basic consumption!
No to the militarization of the Country! For an alternative National project!
The country is not for sale, sovereignty will be defended!
NATIONAL DIALOGUE

Document signed by the following organizations and individuals:

Frente Sindical Mexicano (FSM), Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC), Asociación Latinoamericana de Medianos y Pequeños Empresarios (ALAMPYME), Asociación Nacional de Industriales de la Transformación (ANIT), Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoría Sindical (CILAS), Red Nacional Género y Economía (REDGE), Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz (SERAPAZ), Movimiento Nacional Organizado “Aquí Estamos” (MONAE), Movimiento “La Esperanza se Respeta” (MER), Organización Nacional del Poder Popular (ONPP), Frente Amplio Progresista (FAP), Promotora de la Unidad Nacional Contra el Neoliberalismo (PUNCN), Paz con Democracia, Cultura, Trabajo y Democracia, Frente Nacional de Resistencia Contra la Privatización de la Industria Eléctrica (FNRCPIE), Frente Socialista, Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Minero-Metalúrgicos y Similares de la Republica Mexicana, Alianza de Tranviarios de México (ATM), Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Industria Nuclear (SUTIN), Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (SITUAM), Sindicato de Trabajadores de Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (STUNAM), Sindicato de Trabajadores de Transporte de Pasajeros del Distrito Federal (STTP), Confederación de Jubilados, Pensionados y Adultos Mayores de la Republica Mexicana A.C., Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), Frente Popular Revolucionario (FPR), Sindicato de Trabajadores al Servicio de los Poderes del Estado de Querétaro, Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado de Michoacán (ATEM), Confederación de Ferrocarrileros de la Republica Mexicana A.C., Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME).

Sindicato de Trabajadores del H. Ayuntamiento de Patzcuaro Michoacán, Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores del Colegio de Bachilleres del Estado de Michoacán, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Académicos del CONALEP, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Colegio de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos del Estado de Michoacán, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Tacambaro, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto Tecnológico Superior Purhepecha, Sindicato de Maestros y Empleados del Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Uruapan, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto Tecnológico Superior de los Reyes, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Apatzingan Michoacán, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Icatmi, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Organismo Público Descentralizado Servicios de Salud de Michoacán, Instituto de la Probidad A.C., Asociación de Médicos y Enfermeras Suplentes del ISSSTE, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Universidad Tecnológica de Morelia, Sindicato Independiente de los Trabajadores al Servicio del Ayuntamiento del Municipio de Ario Michoacán, Cooperativa, Asociación Nacional de Jubilados y Pensionados de la Secretaria de Salud A.C., Sindicato de Empleados de la Junta de Caminos del Estado de Michoacán.

Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Comercio del Campo, Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminación de los pueblos, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres (COM), Coalición de Organizaciones Mexicanas en Defensa del Agua (COMDA), Coordinadora de Trabajadores en Defensa del Carácter Público del Agua (CTDCPA), Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por las Presas y en Defensa de los Ríos (MAPDER), Red de Genero y Medio Ambiente (REGEMA), Red de Mujeres Indígenas, Red Nacional de Promotores Rurales (RNAPROR), Asociación Nacional de Trabajadores del INVI (ASTINVI), Casa de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos Indios, Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Victoria, Comisión Episcopal de la Pastoral Social, Comité Ollín Mexica, Consejo Campesino Urbano Popular Obrero (CCUPO), Coordinadora por la Unidad de los Trabajadores del GDF, Coordinadora de Unidades Habitacionales INFONAVIT (CUHI), Estudiantes Fac. Ciencias UNAM, Estudiantes Fac. Arquitectura, Estudiantes CCH-Sur, Estudiantes CIECO-UNAM, Estudiantes UAM-I, Estudiantes y Profesores UACM, Estudiantes y Profesores UAM-X, Investigadores de la IIS-UNAM, Investigadores de FLACSO, Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui DF (MULT-DF), Unión de Trabajadores de la Educación, Unión Popular Revolucionaria Emiliano Zapata (UPREZ), Comunidad del Pueblo de Tulpetlac, Guardianes de los Volcanes A.C., Movimiento Mazahua por la Defensa y Cuidado del Agua (MOVMAZDA), Unión de Pueblos del Oriente de Chalco y Cocotitlán (UPOCHCO) Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositores a la Presa La Parota (CECOP), Estudiantes Normalistas "El Mexe", Pobladores de Guadalajara Opositores a la Presa el Arcediano, Asociación de Colonos de Manantiales de Cuautla, Pastoral de la Tierra, Sistema de Agua Potable Xoxocotla, CIPO-REM, Movimiento Ciudadano Unido de Puebla (MCUP), Consejo Indígena Popoloca (CIP), Unión Campesina Emiliano Zapata vive (UCEV), UPD- Quintana Roo, Ciudadanos Unidos al Rescate de la Laguna de Acuitlapilco (CURLA), UCIVER – Pobladores, Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas (CIEPAC), AC, Alianza Arco, Alianza Braceraproa, Oaxaca, Alianza Ciudadana, Asamblea de Trabajadores de Michoacán (ATM), Asamblea Nacional de Trabajadores Democráticos del Seguro Social, Asamblea Nacional en Defensa del Agua y de la Tierra y contra su Privatización, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Chiapas, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Michoacán (APPMich), Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO), Asociación de Jubilados y Pensionados “17 de marzo”, Central Unitaria de Trabajadores-ONPP, Centro de Apoyo al Movimiento Popular Oaxaqueño A.C., CAMPO., Centro de Derechos Humanos Tepeyac del Istmo de Tehuantepec (CDHTT), Coalición Nacional de Trabajadores del INEGI, Consejo Nacional Obrero y Campesino, Convergencia Sindical y Social de Morelos, Coordinadora del Movimiento Urbano Popular de Jalisco, Coordinadora Nacional de Electricistas CFE-SUTERM, DECA Equipo Pueblo, Escuela Normal Rural de Mactumacza-Chiapas, Frente Sindical de Organizaciones Democráticas de Oaxaca (FSODO), Federación de Trabajadores del Liberalismo Sindical (FTLS), Federación Sindical Revolucionaria (FSR), Frente Campesino Popular de Chiapas, Frente Cívico Huamantleco Tlaxcala, Frente Estatal Magisterial Obrero Sindical y Popular-Zac. (FEMOSP), Frente Nacional de Defensa del Patrimonio Cultural, Frente Patriótico de Puebla, Frente Popoluca del Sur de Veracruz (FREPOSEV), Frente Popular Francisco Villa (FPFV), Frente Revolucionario de Acción Patriótica A.C., Coalición Trinacional en Defensa de la Educación, Movimiento Agrario Indígena Zapatista (MAIZ-Nal), Movimiento Nacional Petrolero, Movimiento Proletario Independiente (MPI), Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos (ANAD), Sindicato de Trabajadores de Casa de Moneda, Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores del Colegio de Bachilleres, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Uniroyal, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Productores de Semilla, Sindicato Nacional Revolucionario de Trabajadores de Euzkadi, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México, Sociedad Cooperativa de Trabajadores Pascual S.C.L., Unidad Ciudadana de Tlaxcala, Unidad Sindical del SNTSS, Unión Campesina Democrática, Unión de Campesinos Pobres (UCP), Unión de Empresas Sociales Cooperativas del Distrito Federal, Unión de Juristas de México, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores de Confianza de la Industria Petrolera, A.C. , Unión Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes “28de octubre” (UPVA “28 de octubre”), Universidad Mexicana de los Trabajadores “Ricardo Flores Magón”.

Alberto Guerrero Flores, Alfredo López Austin, Alicia Castellanos, Ana Esther Ceceña, Armando Bartra, Arturo Huerta, Benito Mirón Lince, Carlos Payán, Consuelo Sánchez, Cristina Barros, Dip. Alejandro Chanona Burguette. Coordinador del Grupo Parlamentario de Convergencia, Dip. Javier González Garza. Coordinador del Grupo Parlamentario del PRD, Dip. José Antonio Almazán González. Secretario de la Comisión de Trabajo, Dip. Ramón Pacheco Llanes. Secretario de la Comisión de Energía, Dip. Ricardo Cantu Garza. Coordinador Parlamentario del PT, Dolores González, Eduardo Miranda Esquivel, Elvira Concheiro, Epigmenio Ibarra, Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, Gabriel Vargas Lozano, Gerardo de la Fuente, Gilberto López y Rivas, Guillermo Almeyra, Guillermo Briseño, Guillermo R. García Romero, Héctor Díaz-Polanco, Jesús Trapaga Reyes, John Saxe-Fernández, José Antonio Rueda Martínez, José Enrique González Ruiz, José Luis Vega Núñez, Juan José Calixto Rodríguez, Lucio Oliver, Magdalena Gómez, Massimo Modonesi, Oscar González, Pablo González Casanova, Raúl Álvarez Garín. Comité del 68, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Senadora Rosario Ibarra, Víctor Flores Olea, Miguel Álvarez, Marco Buenrostro, Javier Flores.

Responsible for publication: Fernando Amezcua Castillo
Exterior Secretary for the SME

MEXICO CITY (Jan. 23rd) - It was as startling an about-face as veteran Latin American political observers could recall. Here was Felipe Calderón, the iconic right-winger and George Bush's latest Latino poodle dog who was awarded the Mexican presidency in fraud-marred elections last July, pumping the flesh with Latin American boogeymen Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales at the January 10th inauguration of Daniel Ortega, once Washington's Public Enemy Numero Uno, as president of Nicaragua.

Indeed, the Bush administration had done its damndest to keep Ortega and the Sandanista Front from returning to power after 17 years, threatening to revoke visas of Nicaraguans living in the U.S. and a cut-off of aid to what has become the poorest country in Central America under post-Sandanista neo-liberal regimes. Having labeled Ortega "dangerous" to U.S. interests, the Bush White House dispatched a minimalist delegation headed by a low-level cabinet member to his inauguration. But for the resurgent Latin left, Daniel's ascension to power was a cause for celebration.

Although the pachanga [celebration] in Managua loomed as the most notable conclave of the continent's left leaders since Morales's inauguration in January 2006, the right-wing Calderón chose the occasion to debut upon the stage of inter-American diplomacy, his first foray outside of Mexico since his chaotic December 1st swearing in, and the Mexican president's strange encounter of a left kind, had knuckles cracking in Washington so loud that you could hear them all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

Incredulity reigned in the Calderón camp. His predecessor, Vincent Fox, had systematically squabbled with Latin America's left leadership one by one - Nestor Kirschner, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro (who he kicked out of Mexico and with whom he broke off diplomatic relations), and most obstreperously, Hugo Chávez, with whom Fox also broke diplomatic relations after the Comandante called him "a puppy dog of Imperialism."
Even the setting of Ortega's ascendancy invoked Calderón's estrangement from the party guests—his right wing, oligarchical National Action Party or PAN, had supported the U.S.-backed Contras who terrorized Nicaragua in the 1980s. Yet here was the new Mexican president in Managua, slapping backs and seemingly desperate to mend fences with the continent's new left leaders.

Although this was his inauguration, Daniel's star was eclipsed by that of the brightest astro in the Latin Left firmament, Venezuela's recently re-elected (with 63% of the vote) president Chavez who was, in fact, being sworn in that very morning across the Caribbean in Caracas, delaying his arrival in Managua and Ortega's inauguration for several embarrassing hours during which Felipe Calderón was forced to make small talk with leftists.

Meanwhile, in Caracas, Chávez was pledging to bring "21st Century Socialism" to Venezuela and nationalizing previously privatized industries—the electricity and telephone sectors, oil exploration along the Orinoco, and Caracas Radio Televisión, a mouthpiece for the opposition, all of them properties that had once been publicly-owned. "That which has been privatized will be re-nationalized" the Comandante thundered, a declaration that had much resonance up and down the continent.

Among the enterprises threatened with re-nationalization is CANTV, the Venezuelan telephone company, in which Mexican communications tycoon Carlos Slim, the richest man in Latin America and the third wealthiest in the world, had sunk a bundle when he picked up 28% of the conglomerate from the U.S. transnational Verizon. The just-announced expropriation of Carlos Slim's grab for CANTV made the handshake between Calderón and Chávez, when at last he touched down in Managua, even more tenuous.

During the bruising Mexican electoral campaign, Felipe Calderón had repeatedly used Chávez's image in hit pieces aimed at his left-wing presidential rival Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and when the Venezuelan president complained, Calderón's PAN charged he was interfering in Mexican domestic politics which put further stress on an already strained relationship. Nonetheless, the PAN's allegations that Chávez was financing López Obrador's campaign ultimately proved to be a hoax—but was embraced by the Bush regime and the fake news was spread by right-wing commentators, notably Fox News's Dick Morris, north of the border.

Chávez put down in Managua with a head of steam, having just declared Venezuela a socialist state ("Socialism or Death!") He had also lashed out at Organization of American States secretary general Juan Carlos Insulza, a blue-ribbon Chilean diplomat, who he called a "pendejo" (fool) for having critiqued his expropriation of an opposition radio station. The exchange stirred bad vibes from Chile's "socialist" Prime Minister Michelle Bachelet who did not fly into Managua for Daniel Ortega's investiture.

Seated at the head table at Daniel's side during the post-inaugural banquet—Evo occupied the other flank with Ecuador's leftist president-elect Raphael Correa next to him—Chávez welcomed Nicaragua into his "Bolivarian" trade pact (Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia), the ALBA as opposed to Bush's ALCA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and repeatedly embraced the one-time revolutionary new president. According to published reports, Ortega hedged his bet on the ALBA by accepting a congratulatory phone call from George Bush earlier in the day. Nicaragua remains part of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement with Washington.

But despite the dealings behind the scene, Managua this past January 10th was once again the capital of the "lucha" (struggle) against Yanqui imperialism - although the lamentable absence of Fidel (too ill to attend) or Raul Castro (rumored to be on his way) weighed heavily on the party. Banished to the far end of the banquet table and sandwiched between the Saharan delegation and a wall, Felipe Calderón and his wife Margarita Zavala were so inconspicuous that when colorfully garbed senoritas passed out diplomatic souvenirs of Daniel's installation - the Latin American Merit Medal - the Mexican president was overlooked. The Calderóns exited the state dinner hurriedly to avoid a delegation of AMLO's supporters from the pseudo-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) who were special invitees at Ortega's gala.

Felipe Calderón had taken pains to assure George Bush that Mexico and the U.S. are "inseparable allies and amigos." While still president-elect, Calderón utilized his first and last meeting with Bush November 8th to reaffirm the partnership. It was not a good moment to talk turkey with the U.S. president, however, coming as it did one day after George Bush had lost control of the Congress to the Democrats.

Since then, there has been a sense of separation between the Mexican president and the lame duck Bush who is sinking deeper in the quagmire of Iraq each day with an opposition congress snapping at his heels. Calderón's appearance in Managua—the Mexican president who has taken to wearing military uniforms came in civil dress—was a sign of a widening breech between Washington and Los Pinos, the Mexican White House.

President Calderón found a less disinterested reception next door January 16th when he flew into El Salvador to mark the 15th anniversary of the Salvadoran peace accords signed in 1992 at Mexico City's Chapultepec castle. Although Mexican diplomats mediated the accord, Calderon's PAN party played no role in brokering the agreement.
Embraced by his right-wing counterpart Tony Saca, a stalwart of the ARENA party which emerged victorious from the U.S.-sponsored bloodletting in Salvador, Calderón had to transit a tense capital as tens of thousands of supporters of the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) which led the Salvadoran resistance, took to the city's streets to protest the incompletion of the peace accords.

With no Chávez to steal the cameras, Calderón seized the opportunity to push a revised Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), the moribund Fox development strategy that promotes integration of southern Mexico with Central America and the opening of the region to transnational resource exploitation. Both Calderón and Saca, whose political ancestors in ARENA ran one of Latin America's most notorious death squads, extended an olive branch to the social democratic parties that are sweeping elections all over the continent and sought to blur ideological distinctions. What was more important, the Mexican president insisted, was a "commitment to democracy" and warned against a return to the dictatorships of the past, "whether right or left".

Although Calderón inveighed at length against what he termed "authoritarianism", he presides over perhaps the most egregious and systematic violation of human rights on the continent today, the continuing repression of the popular movement in Oaxaca.

Despite his diplomatic walkabout, Calderón decided to eschew the Correa inauguration in Quito - in just a few short months, Rafael Correa has become Washington/s newest bete noir as he threatens to shut down the U.S. "anti-terror" base at Manta and expropriate U.S.-owned petroleum holdings.

Instead, the Mexican president is headed to Davos for the annual get-together of bankers, heads of states, and other masters of the universe on an ice mountain in Switzerland where Calderón will most probably get his first glimpse of an anti-globalization demonstration. Ex-Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, now the director of the Yale University Center for Globalization Studies, coined the phrase "globalphobe" to describe demonstrations here a decade ago. In addition to Calderón, leaders of the new Latin American left will be on hand - Lula and Kirshner are regular devotees of the Davos séance.

Although Felipe Calderón presses the flesh of the luminaries of the Latin American left, he is doing his best to ignore the left back home. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who probably beat the right-winger in the much-questioned July 2nd election, has disappeared from the public repertoire of "Fecal" (as his detractors dub him.) Calderón's backers in the electronic media are also dedicated to making AMLO disappear from the nation's screens. The Interior Secretary refused to permit the airing of López Obrador's acceptance speech last November 20th as the "legitimate" president of Mexico. A half hour program, "The Truth Must Be Told", which features a sort of fireside chat with AMLO and Comedy Central-like news, is being transmitted in a 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning time slot to insure a minimum number of viewers. The show's debut installment failed to air in 12 states due to what the Secretary of the Interior, which controls radio and TV transmissions, called a "technical problem", and the sound quality on the second edition was so poor that López Obrador was inaudible.

For the Bush regime, the Mexican election was not one it could afford to lose. The Latin dominos have been falling left in alarming succession and the line had to be drawn when the wave reached the U.S, border. Despite the tainted vote count, Bush crowned Calderón president of Mexico in a phone call from Air force One not 24 hours after the ballots were cast. Outside of Calderón, Colombia's Uribe is the only head of a leading Latin American economy that still stands up for U.S. interests in the region.
The front page photos that ran throughout Latin America of Iran's outspoken president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hugging and mugging with Chávez in Caracas must have sent chills up Bush's prostate. With U.S. warships sailing into the Persian Gulf and Bush's troops rounding up Iranian diplomats in Iraq, war seems right over the horizon. Now here was Ahmadinejad invading what used to be called "an American lake" in flagrant violation of the Monroe Doctrine.

The tête-a-tête between the heads of state of the second and fifth biggest oil producers on the planet, both OPEC members, in a time of falling prices sent a flutter through the markets. Ahmadinejad then winged over to Managua for an "abrazo" with Daniel and promised aid to that desperately poor country stripped to the bone by a president who called himself "El Gordo" and a successor who took his orders from the World Bank.

But despite the induction of Daniel Ortega and Rafael Correa into the ranks of Latin America's left leaders, 2007 could be a bumpy year for that side of the political spectrum. Correa himself faces a congress in which his party does not occupy one seat in a nation that has had eight presidents in the past 10 years. Like Evo Morales, he has called for the writing of a new constitution.

In Bolivia, Evo is under fire from an "autonomy" movement created by the once-ruling, all-white dominant classes to restore the privileges they enjoyed when an Indian was not their president. Nestor Kirschner who will run for a second term in Argentina this year has unemployment riots on his hands and across the Andes, his "Socialist" neighbor Bachelet is confronted with rioting students and the umbrage of offended Pinochet cultists. Uruguay's Tabere Vázquez wants to negotiate a bi-lateral free trade pact with Washington (much as Peru has done) before Bush's fast track authority runs out. Lula, who pledges that his second term will be one of social change in Brazil, won the run-off election with the backing of the banking elite.

Even Hugo Chávez faces problems with establishing "21st Century Socialism" in Venezuela. "You can’t impose socialism over the radio" writes Argentinean-born Marxist Guillermo Almeyra in his Sunday La Jornada column, "in fact, trying to do that would be anti-socialist."

John Ross may be speaking at a location near you....

*John Ross is on the road with his latest opus "Zapatistas! Making Another World Possible - Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006" and will be traveling in the southwest (February), the south and the Midwest (March), and the East Coast (April). For bookings and suggested venues write johnross@igc.org (dates are vanishing fast.) These dispatches will continue at ten-day intervals while he is on the road.

The attorney for Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, announced that "the Attorney general has admitted that there are no federal crimes which may be prosecuted against señor Gómez Urrutia,” the former General Secretary of the Mexican Mine Workers Union, SNTMMSRM, who was replaced by the Mexican government last year. The matter now is in the hands of the Attorney General in Mexico City.

On December 11th, more than sixty affiliates of the International Metalworkers Federation led demonstrations in 37 countries in support of union autonomy and the reinstatement of Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.

Over the past months, various stories have appeared regarding a new attempt at “reforming” the Federal labor Law. Among these the Mexican Employers’ federation COPARMEX announced that it was meeting with congress members regarding a proposal containing more than 280 changes. Meanwhile, the new Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano Alarcón, said he would work with both employers and unions to reach “The possible reform” and not the perfect one.

Judith Rosales Partida denounced the discharge of eight union activists, including herself by Nien Hsing Internacional Victoria SA de CV, for attempting to organize an independent union. The company employs 450 workers who manufacture cloth for jeans in Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas. According to the women, turnover is extremely high (16,000 workers have been hired by the company during its nine years of operation), pay is low and conditions poor. They noted particular problems with health and safety.

1. SECOND EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN DELEGATION TO OAXACA

WHEN: February 10-16, 2007

VICTIMS OF ONGOING REPRESSION IN OAXACA ASK FOR CONTINUED
INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE & ATTENTION

IF INTERESTED, CONTACT: info@oaxacasolidarity.org.

COST: US$540 ($90/day), covers room & board, travel, trip planning and hosting, translations, etc. Delegates are responsible for their own travel arrangements and costs to and from Oaxaca.

WHAT: The RODH (Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos/ Oaxacan Human Rights Network) has again invited the Oaxaca Solidarity Network and Rights Action to continue with their work increasing the international presence and awareness about the situation in Oaxaca, by organizing educational delegations to Oaxaca to learn about development, environment and human rights issues in Oaxaca, and to develop and build on international solidarity and activism efforts.

This 2nd delegation follows on the December 16-22, 2006 human rights educational delegation organized by the Oaxacan Solidarity Network (sponsored by Rights Action). 20 delegates — including human rights lawyers, journalists, authors, investigators, graduate students and activists — met with Oaxacan human rights organizations, victims of repression, leaders of grassroots non-governmental organizations and government officials. Reports, articles, documentaries, testimonies, photographs, etc, produced by members of the 1st delegation will soon be available at www.oaxacasolidarity.org. (Contact info@rightsaction.org for articles and testimonies, as well)

ITINERARY: During the 6 days in Oaxaca, delegates will meet with families of the murdered, tortured, detained and disappeared, leaders of the popular movement, human rights activists, journalists, indigenous rights organizations … and possibly with government and judicial authorities. The itinerary includes a day-long trip to Tlaxiaco, in the Mixteca Alta region, where delegates will meet with the human rights organization Nu'u Ji Kaandi, and people who recently were arbitrarily detained because of their
participation in the non-violent social movement.

WHO: We invite ANY person or organization to join our delegation, including concerned citizens, activists, journalists, lawyers, professors, students and others, who, upon return to the U.S. or Canada, will work to put the current abuses into the international spotlight.

The goals of the educational delegation are twofold: to provide an in-depth understanding of the Oaxacan popular movement and the situation of government repression, and to spread that awareness widely upon the delegates' return to North America. The pressure of global solidarity and activism can help curb the violence, arbitrary detentions and murders of Oaxacans involved in the movement for true democracy and a politics based on hope, respect and justice.

The OAXACA SOLIDARITY NETWORK is a collective of concerned U.S. and Mexican citizens working to raise international awareness of the non-violent popular
social movement here, and create international pressure to end the widespread human rights violations throughout the city and state of Oaxaca. For information about RIGHTS ACTION: www.rightsaction.org.

CONTACT: Oaxaca Solidarity Network, info@oaxacasolidarity.org

2. Human Rights Report and Recommendations from CCIODH

The Comisión Civil Internacional de Observación por los Derechos Humanos has issued its preliminary report and recommendations based on its investigation of the human rights situation in Oaxaca. See: http://cciodh.pangea.org) Click here to view report

3. Comité Fronterizo de Obrer@s (CFO) announces improvements to its web page

We have redesigned the pages of CFOmaquiladoras.org -– both the look and the content. Our information is original and comes from the maquiladora workers themselves. Many of them are taking a big risk by reporting what is happening inside their maquiladora factories and disseminating the articles from CFOmaquiladoras among their co-workers. For the new website we created a section titled Workers and the Maquiladoras, in which we include profiles of corporations that own maquiladoras in Mexico’s northern border, as well as articles about conditions for workers in those maquiladoras. The global corporations featured are Alcoa, Delphi, Emerson, Black & Decker, Lear and Maytag. We also made changes to and updated the pages Cost of Living and What is the CFO, and created a new page for How to communicate with the CFO.

Mexican Labor News & Analysis

January , 2007, Vol. 12, No. 1

Contents for this issue:

Mexico Labor Year in Review 2006