The Mexican government, which had previously announced its plans to privatize the PEMEX petrochemical division, revealed on October 13 a new plan for the privatization of the petrochemical industry, but now calling for the state to retain 51 percent ownership. After constant criticism from the Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) and the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution, as well as Mexican business groups, the government now calls for mixed ownership as the model for PEMEX petrochemicals.
Secretary of Energy Jesus Reyes Heroles announced that the government will proceed with the controversial privatization of the petrochemical section of the Mexican Petroleum company (PEMEX), but with the understanding that the state will retain majority control of the stock. However the government will also create certain other new firms in which foreign investors will be allowed 100 percent ownership of the stock. Reyes Heroles said he was sending a proposal to the Mexican Congress to change Constitutional Article 27 in the area of petroleum.
Under the government's proposal, the basic chemical industry would have to have 51 percent government ownership. However, the non-basic chemical industry could have 100 percent foreign ownership. With this decision the government stopped the sale of the Cosoleacque plant which was to be sold this year.
Also present at the announcement of the new plan were Arsenio Farrell Cubillas, former Secretary of Labor and currently controller general; Adrian Lajous, the head of PEMEX; Carlos Romero Deschamps, the head of the Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM), and the deputies and senators of the energy commissions. Both Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan argued that the government's decision to maintain majority ownership would make investment in the Mexican petrochemical industry less attractive.
Union Support for new Plan
Carlos Romero Deschamps, head of the Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) supported the government's decision. "History in its supreme judgement will recognize in Ernesto Zedillo's decision to safe guard our sovereignty over any other interest, an extraordinary episode in the exercise of democracy and an authentic obedience to the people's will," said Romero Deschamps. The STPRM put full page advertisement's in the Mexico daily papers praising Zedillo.
Fidel Velazquez head of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) said he would support the decision of the petroleum workers. Fifty-one percent ownership, said Velazquez, represents a guarantee for the interests of the nation.
Both the conservative National
Action Party (PAN) which had supported full privatization, and the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) which has opposed any privatization were cautious in their
responses to the government's decision. The PAN called for clarification of the new
administrative and financial structure, while the PRD called for a national debate on
energy strategy. The PRD leadership called president Zedillo's new plan a "partial
rectification" of its policy's.Private investors are expected to begin purchasing stock
in PEMEX petrochemicals next year.
The Sole Union of Workers of the Secretary of Fisheries (SUTSP), an independent and democratic union, lost the representation election in the Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP) held on October 4. The representation election was won by the "official" National Union of Workers of the Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SNTSEMARNAP). The election represents a defeat for the democratic union movement in Mexico.
The democratic SUTSP represented workers in the Secretary of Fisheries until December 1994 when that government agency was absorbed by the larger Secretary of Environment. The government and the "official" or PRI-controlled Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE) decided to take advantage of the situation to rid themselves of the nuisance of the independent SUTSP. To do so, the FSTSE created a new union, the SNTSEMARNAP to represent all workers in the Secretary of Environment. The SUTSP went to the labor courts to protest this action which would effectively eliminate their union.
The Conciliation and Arbitration Board originally ruled in favor of the FSTSE and its new SNTSEMARNAP. But the democratic SUTSP took its case to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and won its support. The Conciliation and Arbitration Board then reversed its decision and called for a new election, held October 4, 22 months after the creation of the new agency.
Of the 27,969 workers in the Secretary of Environment, approximately 78.7 percent voted in 110 polling places. In the final count the "official" SNTSEMARNAP won 84 percent of the votes, while the democratic SUTSP won only 15 percent. One percent of the votes were declared null.
Roberto Tooms, head of the SUTSP, reported voting irregularities, including pressure from supervisors, casting of votes by confidential employees, and reporting of votes by retired and deceased workers. SUTSP also claimed that Mario Santos Gomez, head of the SNTSEMARNAP paid workers to vote for his slate. However, Pedro Ojeda Paullada of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board reported few if any irregularities. Human Rights Watch Americas played an indirect role in observing the election, maintaining constant contact with the SUTSP.
After the election Mario Santos Gomez, head of the victorious "official" SNTSEMARNAP told REFORMA newspaper that there would "absolutely be no reprisals" against his opponents. "We had no support from the authorities," said Santos Gomez. "Only from the workers, and that's what counts."
"To talk about collusion with the authorities" said Santos Gomez, "is to doubt the intelligence of our members."
Why did the democratic SUTSP lose the election? Fraud may have played a part, fear of the employers and the official union may have also played a role. But most important was the fact that the small SUTSP which had only 1,863 members found itself swallowed by the enormous Secretary of the Environment with its almost 28,000 employees. The democratic union activists had an enormous job to reach 26,000 other workers, and despite their efforts proved incapable of changing the mentality of government workers in 22 short months.
Corporativism or government control of unions and workers remains strong in both the public and the private sector. Workers often depend on their unions for subsidized workers' housing, subsidized grocery stores, or for educational scholarships. Workers fear being fired, they fear they will not be promoted, or that they will receive bad job assignments. Workers even fear physical attacks if they are dissident activists or leaders. All of these very real fears play a role in union representation elections such as that just held among the Secretary of Environment's workers.
The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), an independent labor federation, held the "First National Women's Meeting of the FAT" in Mexico City from September 21-22. Some 70 women members of FAT from the states of Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Morelos, the State of Mexico, Tlaxcala, and the Federal District came from the FAT's labor unions, cooperatives, and peasant organizations to discuss the issues facing working women.
"The purpose of
the meeting was to support the FAT's women activists," said Lucia Galan. The meeting
grew out of a resolution passed at the last FAT Congress. The organization of the
congress was coordinated by Matilde Arteaga and Bertha
Lujan.
The major labor unions of MERCOSUR, the Common Market of the South made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have put forward a program to fight unemployment, low wages in their region resulting from their regional free trade agreement, neoliberal economic policies and globalization.
The Coordinating Committee of Union Federations of the Southern Cone (Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur -- CCSCS), headed by Vicente Paulo Da Silva, known as "Vicentinho," has called for a general strike next year in all of the MERCOSUR countries. The CCSCS will also bring together representatives of workers from all four countries, perhaps in Foz de Iguazu.
Among the groups participating in the CCSCS meeting were the CUT and Fuerza Sindical of Brazil, the CGT of Argentina, the PIT y CNT of Uruguay, the ORIT and the CIOL.
Spanish labor unions contributed four and a half tons of basic grains worth twenty thousand U.S. dollars to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in La Realidad, Chiapas. Tabasco workers demand reinstatement Street sweepers and cleaning workers of the state of Tabasco came to Mexico City on October 15 to demand the reinstatement of 366 of their fellow workers. Workers protested at the National Commission for Human Rights, some also engaged in a hunger strike.
CAW Strike Affects Mexico
The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) strike at General Motors has led the GM plant in Chihuahua to temporarily suspend work. Employees have been offered temporary lay-off at half-pay, or they may continue to work at full pay in limited production or training. Other plants have also been closed in the United States and Canada.
CT Leader says no wage increases
Enrique Aguilar Borrego state on October 10 that there will be no increases in the minimum wage before the end of the year because the conditions for such an increase simply don't exist. The wages of many Mexican workers are tied to the national minimum wage.
In this special section "The Struggle for Democracy" we look at four important events in quite different sectors of society: a national assembly of women, a meeting of Christian base communities, an Indian convention, and a student protest.
Six hundred women from 27 organizations met in Mexico City in the first week of October in the National Assembly of Women in Transition to Democracy, one of the largest and most important women's meetings since the Mexican women's suffrage movement of the 1930s. The Mexican media call this one of the most important such meeting since women won the vote in 1958.
The women, representing all the major political parties, women's and feminist organizations, and women workers and peasants groups, adopted a "National Women's Agreement for the Transition to Democracy."
The convention was held with the understanding that feminist radicals would not raise the abortion issue, which would drive out the delegates of the National Action Party (PAN) and some other delegates as well. Lesbian issues were also on the taboo list.
The assembly's final document called for affirmative action for female representation in the political parties. The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) both recently adopted new statutes calling for 30 percent minimal representation of women in both party posts and for candidates for general elections.) The women's "National Agreement" also called for improvements in the social security system, the right to housing, and protection of the environment.
Women's Assembly
Demands Women's Workers Rights
Many of the women's demands deal with labor issues. Women called for recognition in the Gross National Product of the un- paid domestic work done by women, for adherence to the standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) regarding the protection of motherhood, and the suppression of the sex trade in women and children. The group demanded equality of rights for all people regardless of sex, and equal pay for men and women. The women's assembly asked the National Commission of Minimum Wages to create a committee to analyze the minimum wages of women, and raise them. The assembly also demanded an end to employers' requirements that women prove they are not pregnant in order to be hired, and for an end to the practice of firing women for pregnancy.
Background: Three Waves of Mexican Feminism
Mexican feminism has had three waves. The first wave came with the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1920. During the Mexican Revolution, the socialist governors of the Yucatan, Salvador Alvarado and Felipe Carrillo Puerto, organized feminist conventions and pushed women's rights. Working with feminists such as Hermila Galindo, Salvador Alvarado convened the first Feminist Congress in Mexico in 1916. Alvarado and Carrillo Puerto organized Feminist Leagues and reproduced Margaret Sanger's birth control pamphlets. They supported divorce, contraception, abortion, women's right to vote and hold public office. The first wave ended with the suppression of the revolution's left wing in the mid-1920s.
The second wave of feminism came in the 1930s. Radical women, nationalists and communists organized peasants and workers. But the communists opposed the organization of an independent women's movement to fight for women's suffrage, so in 1934 Maria del Refugio Garcia established the Sole Front for Women's Rights to fight for women's suffrage. When Lazaro Cardenas was elected president, he encouraged the suffrage movement and even pushed a women's suffrage amendment to the Constitution which passed the Senate and was ratified by all 28 states.
However, when conservative general Juan Andreu Almazan announced he was running in 1940 for president against the ruling party, and created a "Feminine Idealist Party" to support his campaign, Cardenas and the leaders of the ruling party decided to kill the women's vote. Not until nearly 20 years later, in 1958, did women win the vote.
The third wave of Mexican feminism came in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Tlatelolco massacre of 1968, President Luis Echeverria's call for a democratic opening, and the example of the U.S. feminist movement led Mexican women to organize. Mexican feminist organizations grew among university students and professional women and middle class women. In the 1970s the Mexican feminist movement took up the issues of the right to contraception and abortion, and the controversial question of lesbianism.
Separate from the three waves of Mexican feminism have been the Mexican women's organizations, which did not identify with and often rejected the feminist movement. Women in Mexico have often organized in the neighborhoods to get basic services such as running water, sewer systems, and electricity. Many of these women were the activists of the Urban Popular Movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The First National Meeting of Women of the Urban Popular Movement was held in 1983.
In 1982 Rosario Ibarra de Piedra became the first woman candidate for president in Mexico as candidate of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT). She ran as both a socialist and a feminist candidate. Today she is a congresswoman for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and closely associated with Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Since January 1, 1994 and the EZLN-led uprising in Chiapas, many women throughout Mexico have organized in support of the EZLN or of women or communities in Chiapas.
The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), an independent assembly of Mexico's Indian peoples, met in Mexico City in the second week of October, with 680 delegates from 45 ethnic groups in 23 states participating. The highlight of the event was the arrival of Comandante Ramona, a Tzotzil woman from Chiapas, who came as the official representative of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
The CNI served two purposes. First, the Congress was an event convened by the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), the political arm of the EZLN, in order to try to break the military encirclement and political isolation of the EZLN. Second, the CNI was a major convention of indigenous peoples to put forward solutions to the problems of Mexico's Indian peoples.
After days of negotiation, the government allowed EZLN Comandante Ramona to leave Chiapas and attend the convention, and even provided air and ground transportation for her. But her presence, while something of a victory for the EZLN, did not really break the military and political siege of the Zapatistas. Neither Marcos nor other EZLN leaders such as Tacho were able to attend the meeting in Mexico City. The Indigenous Congress opposed the militarization taking place throughout Mexico, and called for reform of 14 articles of the Mexican Constitution. The CNI adopted a final resolution titled "Never Again a Mexico Without Us." Among the most important points raised by the final resolution are the following:
1) The Mexican Army should leave the indigenous communities which it occupies in several states and release political and indigenous prisoners.
2) The Mexican government should fulfill the agreements it made with the EZLN regarding Chiapas.
3) The Mexican government should give legal and constitutional recognition to the existence of the indigenous communities, and should grant them the right of self- determination in the form of autonomy.
4) The Mexican government should recognize the indigenous peoples' customary practices and create a pluralistic legal system.
5) The Mexican government should guarantee the social, political and cultural rights so that indigenous communities will flourish.
6) The indigenous peoples want to participate in the creation of a new social pact.
7) The indigenous peoples want to promote a new constitution which includes their demands.
8) Reform the Constitution, the laws, and the existing institutions so as to create spaces which guarantee the transition to democracy.
9) Modify Constitutional Article 27 to guarantee respect for the land and territory of the Indians.
10) Struggle peacefully to bring about a just peace with fairness.
11) Dialogue with civil society to find the way to the democratic transformation of Mexico.
The Christ Base Communities (CEBs) celebrated their 25th anniversary in Mexico in the second week of October with a congress in Tehuantepec called "Way of Life, Resistance and Hope, Toward a Society of Justice, Fraternity and Solidarity." The 2,500 religious and lay delegates from about 50 dioceses of Mexico called for a church that "takes the side of the poor."
Led by Arturo Lona Reyes, the Bishop of Tehuantepec, the delegates called for a rejection of economic neoliberalism, "the way of death." Lona Reyes has been Bishop of Tehuantepec for 25 years during which time he has been accused of being a Marxist, of organizing guerrilla movements, and of joining the left-wing Worker, Peasant, Student Coalition of the Isthmus. (Coalicion Obrero, Campesino, Estudiantial del Istmo - COCEI). There have been several attempts on his life. The Bishop criticized the Catholic Church for its "authoritarianism" and lack of democracy.
The Christian base communities have been committed to work in poor urban communities, among poor farmers, and among Mexico's 10 million Indians. The Christian Base Communities in Mexico also organize groups to defend human rights, raise political consciousness, and take up workers' rights and labor union issues.
Tens of thousands of high school and college students, perhaps as many as 100,000 assembled in Tlatelolco (the Plaza of the Three Cultures) and then marched to the Zocalo, the national plaza, to remember the hundreds of students murdered by the Mexican Army on October 2, 1968. In traditional student fashion the protestors painted slogans on every building they passed, chanted slogans, rolled at least one automobile, and burned a U.S. flag.
Rosario Ibarra de Piedra,
human rights activist, congresswoman, and supporter of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN) called upon the students to support the Zapatista's desire to come to
Mexico City to attend the National Indigenous Congress. Many students carried posters
or banners in support of the EZLN and a few held high their signs in support of the
People's Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo - EPR).
The police arrested 45 young people on a variety of charges. The demonstration which had begun solemnly ended with rock music, slam dancing, and general revelry. Other demonstrations were held in several cities throughout Mexico.
Mexico had a trade surplus with the rest of the world in the first 9 months of 1996 of 505 million dollars, a 1.8 percent increase over last year, according to the Secretary of Finance (SHCP). (Roberto Aviles, "Crece l.8% superavit comercial a septiembre," REFORMA 14 October 1996.)
Foreign Investment
Total foreign investment in September fell by 1.78 percent in comparison with the previous month. (Maria de Jesus Osterroth L., "Baja inversion extranjera total 1.78 por ciento," REFORMA, 9 October 1996.)
In 1997 Germany will invest three billion dollars in Mexico. At present there are 500 German firms in Mexico, according to German Ambassador Horst Palenberg. (David Aponte, "En 97 los alemanes invertiran 3 mil mdd en Mexico," LA JORNADA, 4 October 1996.)
Exchange Rate
The peso is undergoing a gradual devaluation. In mid- October, one U.S. dollar now buys $7.80 pesos.
Industrial
Production
Mexico's industrial production rose 8.6 percent between January and July of this year, compared with 1995, according to the Secretary of Finance (SHCP). ("Crece actividad industrial," REFORMA 15 october 1996.) Auto Sales in National Market Up Automobile sales in the first nine month of 1996 reached 207,713 units in the national market, a 75.6 percent increase over last year, according to the Mexican Association of the Automobile Industry (AMIA). But this is still half the sales of 1994. (Roberto Aviles, "Aumentan 75.6% ventas vehiculares," REFORMA 16 October 1996.)
Maquiladoras
In the first six months of 1996 285 new maquiladoras were established in Mexico, an average of 47 per month, for a new total of 3,188 altogether, according to the Secretary of Commerce (SECOFI). The industry generated incomes of 591 million dollars.
The maquiladoras by products: 818, textile; 653, electrical and electronic; 370, furniture; 224, chemical; 217, auto parts, 102, food.
Of these 71 percent are on the border. In terms of ownership and investment: 37.8 percent are U..S. owned; 13.4 percent are Mexican-U.S. joint venture; 43.2 percent are Mexican capital. Two percent are Japanese owned. (Patricia Munoz R., "De enero a junio se establecieron otras 285 maquiladoras," LA JORNADA 16 October 1996.)
Employment in the maquiladoras located along the U.S.- Mexican border increased by 14.6 percent in the first half of this year compared with 1995, according to the Reynosa city Department of Industrial Development and the Mexican National Institute of Statistics (INEGI). The total reached 750,869 workers, of whom 81.6 percent are laborers, 11 percent are production technicians, and 7.4 percent administrative personnel. In geographical terms, 29 percent of the workers were located in Chihuahua, 20.9 percent in Baja California; 16.6 percent in Tamaulipas; 8.2 percent in Coahuila, and 7.8 percent in Sonora. ("Se incrementa en 14.6% el empleo en maquiladoras," REFORMA 7 October 1996.)
Employment
The Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) reports that in the first nine months of this year the number of affiliated insured permanent workers rose by 5.19 percent to reach 440,958. IMSS is one indicator of employment in Mexico. (Laura Gomez Flores, "Ha aumentado 5.19% el numero de afiliados al IMSS en este ano," LA JORNADA 11 October 1996.)
Inflation
The cost of basic good rose between 30 and 110% in September according to the Mexican Association of Studies in Defense of the Consumer (AMEDEC). (Patricia Munoz Rios, "Se elevaron los precios de basicos entre 30 y 110%, en septiembre," LA JORNADA.) The consumption of basic food such as fruits and vegetables fell by 29 percent as a result of a rise in food prices between 70 and 305 percent according to the National Association of Firms which Sell Agricultural Products (ANEC). (Laura Gomez Flores, "Cayo 29% el consumo de alimentos en 18 meses," LA JORNADA.
The annual accumulated inflation rate reached 20.39 percent in September, according to the Banco de Mexico. ("Acumula la inflacion 29.39% a septiembre," REFORMA 10 October 1996.) Poverty Mexico has 12,941 indigent or homeless people, of whom 7,835 eat, sleep and otherwise live in the streets. The others have some institutional care or assistance. (Victor Ballinas, "424 puntos de indigencia en el DF," LA JORNADA 6 October 1996.)
Indians
Indians make up five percent of the population of the Federal District, according to the Mexican Institute of Statistics (INEGI). The largest group are Nahuas which represent 28.15 of the total. (Francisco J. Almaraz, Daniel Pastrana, Cynthia Rodriguez and Manuel Duran, "El 5% de la poblacion del DF es indigena," REFORMA 9 October 1996.)
Health
Health problems in Mexico tend to be worse in "marginal zones," that is among the urban and rural poor, according to the Secretary of Health, Jorge Tamayo. In the marginal zones: of every 100,000 people, 25,000 have acute respiratory problems; 5,000 have diarrhea. The cost of medicine rose 70 percent because of inflation. The Secretary of Health's budget was cut 12.3 percent in real terms in 1995. The ISSTE budget (public workers social security system) was cut 18 percent. The IMSS budget (for industrial workers social security) was cut 10.4 percent. The Ssa budget (Secretary of Health) was cut 9.6 percent. (Dulce Ruiz de Chavez, "Prevalecen entre 'marginados' las enfermedades infecciosas," REFORMA 1 October 1996.)
In the first nine months of this year 3,488 new cases of AIDS were detected in Mexico, and in 80 percent of the cases the disease was contracted through sexual contact, according to the Secretary of Health. From 1981 to 1996, 29,1945 cases have been reported in Mexico, with 64.6 percent in the Federal District, the State of Mexico, Jalisco, Puebla and Veracruz. Those most likely to be affected are men between 25 and 34, although AIDS among women is increasing. This information from the Mexican Secretary of Health. ("Tres mil 488 casos de sida en los primeros nueve meses del ano: Ssa.)
Hunger
The National Politechnic Institute reports that in the Yucatan 80 percent of children less than five years old suffer from endemic malnutrition. This contrasts with the state authorities who claim that malnutrition has fallen from 26 to 18 percent in the last five years. (Luis A Boffil Gomez, "en Yucatan, 80% de los ninos padece denutricion endemica," LA JORNADA 15 October 1996.)