Teachers Struggle for Justice in Oaxaca

Mexico's Classroom Wars

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/06/mexico-teachers-union-cnte-snte-oaxaca-nieto-zapatistas-strike/

Author: 

A.S. Dillingham and René González Pizarro

   

Friday, June 24, 2016

Jacobin

Ten years ago, as a group of striking teachers slept in their encampment during the early hours of June 14 in the state capital of Oaxaca, Mexico, government forces launched an attack to remove them from thezócalo, or town square. Riot police cleared the plaza while helicopters dropped tear gas from above.

The striking teachers were beaten, arrested, and pushed out of the city center. But not for long; the teachers and their supporters quickly regrouped, fighting back, block by block, and took the plaza back by midday.

The violent repression of striking teachers in 2006, ordered by the state governor, launched a social movement — called the “Oaxaca Commune” by supporters — that grew to encompass much more than the local teachers’ union.

The movement [1] mobilized large swathes of Oaxacan society against the repressive governor. Aggressive federal intervention hobbled the movement, but failed to wipe it out. Today the dissident teachers’ movement is in the streets again, this time in opposition to the federal government’s “education reform” program.

The teacher’s movement is also more widespread than in 2006. Militarized attacks on striking teachers have occurred in Mexico City and throughout the country’s southern states. In the last month, the state of Chiapas has seen pitched battles between teachers and police forces, and the Zapatistas [2] have spoken out in favor of the striking teachers.

Last week the Mexican attorney general’s office arrested two of the leaders [3] of the Oaxacan section of the teachers’ union, Local 22, on corruption charges. Then on June 19, federal and state police attacked protesters [4] in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca, a town on the highway between the state capital and Mexico City, resulting in the death of at least eight protesters.

The blatant attack on outspoken government opponents unleashed a wave of protests in the state capital in response.

2006-2016. Street graffiti in Oaxaca City, commemorating the ongoing teachers' struggle.

Shane Dillingham / Jacobin

It’s become somewhat of a cliché to describe the situation in Mexico as a “crisis.” Indeed, la crisis is frequently satirized in Mexican film[5] and popular culture [6], with Mexicans unsure when the last crisis ended and the next began.

Mexico is Getting Poorer

Emilio Godoy
August 5, 2015
Inter Press Service

While most of Latin America has been reducing poverty, Mexico is moving in the other direction: new official figures reflect an increase in the number of poor in the last two years. The negative impact of the 2014 fiscal austerity program, poorly-designed and mismanaged public policies, sluggish economic growth, and frozen family incomes are all factors underlying the rise in the number of people living in poverty in the region’s second-most populous country.



A mother eats lunch with her children in a rural Mexican school, part of the Crusade Against Hunger. , Government of Mexico,


While most of Latin America has been reducing poverty, Mexico is moving in the other direction: new official figures reflect an increase in the number of poor in the last two years, despite the billions of dollars channeled into a broad range of programmes aimed at combating the problem.

The negative impact of the 2014 fiscal reform, poorly-designed and mismanaged public policies, sluggish economic growth, and family incomes that have been frozen are all factors underlying the rise in the number of people living in poverty in the region’s second-most populous country, according to experts consulted by IPS.

“We have some well-designed social programmes, but many others have got off track,” said Edna Jaime, the head of México Evalúa, a think tank on public policies. “They claim to fight poverty and foment employment, but they have no effect. Many are captive; they serve political clientele instead of the public,” she told IPS.

#NoSomosUnNumero #AyotzinapaSomosTodos

Mexicans demand justice of their government

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Mexico to ‘Reform’ Education, Too | Labor Notes

Mexico to ‘Reform’ Education, Too | Labor Notes

A new student movement emerges in Mexico

 Abigail Thorton

A nascent student group calling itself Yo Soy 132 (or I Am 132) held its second national march June 10, in protest of Mexican presidential candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. Estimates had the crowd numbers in Mexico City alone at over 90,000–almost double the estimated 46,000 that were present for the first march against the candidate in mid-May.

Much of the recent organizing in the country has been explicitly against the possible victory of Peña Nieto, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI by its Spanish initials, that is positioned to potentially return to power after 12 years out of the presidency and before that over 70 years in power. The PRI is considered by many to have been an authoritarian regime, and some Mexicans fear the possibility that with the return of the PRI, there could also be a rollback of freedoms in this still fledgling democracy.

Recent momentum and interest in what many had considered to be a lackluster presidential campaign has been credited to the development of this new student movement. At a campus visit by Peña Nieto to the Universidad Iberoamericana (known as the Ibero) on May 11, students at this private university surprised many by surrounding the conference and shouting accusations, questions and demands that the candidate leave the campus. Amidst this unexpected protest, Peña Nieto left abruptly, with students in pursuit. Videos of the scene were quickly uploaded to various social media networks, and images of the candidate fleeing the campus immediately went viral.

Read the entire piece. http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7160

The Americas Program