rebelworker
13th June 2006, 19:36
Hi everyone,
Some of you have worked directly with the public schoolteachers in Oaxaca.
Others of you have learned about their struggle through the documentary
film, Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand).
Those teachers urgently need your solidarity. Now.
Over 70,000 public schoolteachers, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, have been
on strike for 12 days, and are maintaining a massive encampment in the
streets of Oaxaca City. They have achieved a scale of mobilization and
popular support that they have not seen in over a decade. On Friday, June
2nd, thousands of students, parents, and members of civil society joined
them in a march that made front-page news around the country.
Now the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and Mexican president Vicente
Fox are threatening to unleash the Federal police on the striking teachers.
Below is some background on the strike. After that, I've included a letter
that I will be sending to several national and state newspapers in Mexico
City and Oaxaca, letting the state and national government know that the
Oaxacan teachers aren't alone. Essentially that "the whole world is
watching."
Please review the background and the letter, and then let me know if you are
willing to include your name on the letter. Reply to me directly (not "reply
to all"). And reply as soon as you possibly can. The Federal police are
already on stand-by outside the Oaxacan city limits and could take action as
soon as Monday, June 5th.
You can also write directly to the governor of Oaxaca. Write in English or
Spanish. Just write. His email is unreliable, but you can fill out a comment
form on his website at:
http://www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx/web/ind...ontact&Itemid=3 (http://www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx/web/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3)
Background:
Among the striking teachers' demands are: salary raise for all teachers in
the state; increased funding and infrastructure for the state's public
schools; and school breakfasts, school supplies, shoes and eyeglasses for
Oaxaca's most marginalized students. One of their principal demands this
year is a cost-of-living adjustment for those teachers living and working in
Oaxaca's tourist centers wher! e teache rs can no longer afford the
skyrocketing cost of living.
Oaxaca governor, Ulises Ruiz, has offered the teachers what they consider an
insufficient amount (approx. six million USD). Hoping to pressure the
governor into negotiations, the teachers have taken to the streets each day
of the strike, increasing the impact of their actions with each day that the
governor refuses to negotiate. Last Thursday, they blockaded the Oaxaca
airport for most of the day. In another action they removed and destroyed
political campaign posters. One afternoon they delivered the "remains" of
the city's new parking meters to the doorstep of the state capitol building.
The governor, together with the right-wing Parents Association (which does
NOT represent the majority of parents in the state), began a media campaign
discrediting the teachers, and blaming them for the state's educational
shortcomings. 300 municipal politicians who belong to the governor's
political party, the PRI, have come out against the strike, threatening to
take over the schools if the teachers don't return to work on Monday, June
5th.
Finally, the governor has threatened that teachers who do not return to work
on Monday will be fined and/or fired. And the state senate voted on Thursday
to approve the use of Federal police forces to break the strike and to
remove the teachers from their encampment. There are currently 1500 federal
police waiting on the outskirts of Oaxaca City.
Less than a month away from national elections, Mexico is currently
embroiled in a climate of extreme repression. In the past two months,
federal police forces have been used to brutally attack striking miners in
the state of Michoacan, and farmers in the community of San Salvador Atenco.
In both cases, people were arrested, beaten and killed for standing up for
their rights. And in the case of Atenco, numerous women were sexually
assaulted by police. Right-wing presidential candidates are provoking the
violence, and then using the conflicts as examples o! f their ability to
restore order and maintain the peace. In this context, the threats to use
federal police forces against the teachers should be taken VERY seriously.
Please read the following short letter and let me know ASAP if you are
willing to add your name to the list of people signing on to the letter. The
letter will be sent to national and state newspapers, and to President
Vicente Fox and Oaxacan state governor, Ulises Ruiz.
Letter:
To Mexican President, Vicente Fox:
To Governor of the State of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz.
To Local, State, and National Print Media:
The below-signed are schoolteachers, students, parents, and activists from
various parts of the United States of America. We are writing to express our
indignation over recent threats to use federal police forces to dislodge the
70,000 public schoolteachers on strike in the state of Oaxaca. Quite simply,
we wish to express our solidarity with the striking teachers in Oaxaca, and
to inform President Vicente Fox, as well as Oaxacan state governor, Ulises
Ruiz, that the teachers in Oaxaca are not alone; that we are paying
attention; and that any attack against them is an attack against us. Just as
communities around the world mobilized in response to the repression carried
out against the people of San Salvador Atenco,
any repression against the striking teachers in Oaxaca will also be met with
protests in distinct parts of the US.
Public education is a universal right. It is the State's responsibility to
provide the necessary funding and infrastructure for public education. And
it is the right of teachers around the world, as educators and as workers,
to take action when the State does not fulfill this responsibility. The
Oaxacan teachers' demands are just and necessary.
We demand the following:
1) Immediate withdrawal of the federal police forces waiting on the
outskirts of Oaxaca City.
2) Immediate withdrawal of all threats to use force to end the teachers'
strike and/or to dislodge their encampment.
3) That the state government of Oaxaca return to the negotiating table with
the striking teachers.
4) That the state government, the national and state electronic media,
and the Parents Association, cease its media campaign to publicly discredit
the teachers.
========================================== Support the Struggle in Oaxaca, and
the Consejo Indigena Popular de
Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon speaking tour:
Call to Endorse the Speaking Tour of the Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca
Ricardo Flores Magon / Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca Ricardo Flores
Magon
Were calling for organizations and individuals to sponsor the speaking tour
of the CIPO-RFM by giving 20 dollars, and your name will go on the flyer for
the event as well as mentioned in the program for the speaking tour.
Through the tour we want to:
-Connect the struggles in Mexico to our struggles here (The struggles will
spill over the borders and influence each other)
-Tie it into the anti HR 4437 movement, anti-minutemen movement, and
immigrant rights movement
- Raise consciousness for people from Mexico and create dialogues in these
communities
-Our responsibility is fight on this side of the border in solidarity with
the people of Mexico and around the world
-Organize and connect to other Anarchists from other countries, learn from
their struggle and adapt it to our own struggle here
-Build solidarity
-To gain inspiration, and to strengthen our own movements
-Seeing the interconnectedness of building autonomy in communities
Wherever people struggle, we should be there, and speak to it to whatever
capacity we can
Speaking tour organized and sponsored by the Si Se Puede Los Angeles Labor
Collective
To endorse the Speaking Tour email [email protected]
************************************************** **************************
Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette Street-Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel. (212) 979-8353
www.workersolidarity.org
Some of you have worked directly with the public schoolteachers in Oaxaca.
Others of you have learned about their struggle through the documentary
film, Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand).
Those teachers urgently need your solidarity. Now.
Over 70,000 public schoolteachers, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, have been
on strike for 12 days, and are maintaining a massive encampment in the
streets of Oaxaca City. They have achieved a scale of mobilization and
popular support that they have not seen in over a decade. On Friday, June
2nd, thousands of students, parents, and members of civil society joined
them in a march that made front-page news around the country.
Now the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and Mexican president Vicente
Fox are threatening to unleash the Federal police on the striking teachers.
Below is some background on the strike. After that, I've included a letter
that I will be sending to several national and state newspapers in Mexico
City and Oaxaca, letting the state and national government know that the
Oaxacan teachers aren't alone. Essentially that "the whole world is
watching."
Please review the background and the letter, and then let me know if you are
willing to include your name on the letter. Reply to me directly (not "reply
to all"). And reply as soon as you possibly can. The Federal police are
already on stand-by outside the Oaxacan city limits and could take action as
soon as Monday, June 5th.
You can also write directly to the governor of Oaxaca. Write in English or
Spanish. Just write. His email is unreliable, but you can fill out a comment
form on his website at:
http://www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx/web/ind...ontact&Itemid=3 (http://www.gobiernodeoaxaca.gob.mx/web/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3)
Background:
Among the striking teachers' demands are: salary raise for all teachers in
the state; increased funding and infrastructure for the state's public
schools; and school breakfasts, school supplies, shoes and eyeglasses for
Oaxaca's most marginalized students. One of their principal demands this
year is a cost-of-living adjustment for those teachers living and working in
Oaxaca's tourist centers wher! e teache rs can no longer afford the
skyrocketing cost of living.
Oaxaca governor, Ulises Ruiz, has offered the teachers what they consider an
insufficient amount (approx. six million USD). Hoping to pressure the
governor into negotiations, the teachers have taken to the streets each day
of the strike, increasing the impact of their actions with each day that the
governor refuses to negotiate. Last Thursday, they blockaded the Oaxaca
airport for most of the day. In another action they removed and destroyed
political campaign posters. One afternoon they delivered the "remains" of
the city's new parking meters to the doorstep of the state capitol building.
The governor, together with the right-wing Parents Association (which does
NOT represent the majority of parents in the state), began a media campaign
discrediting the teachers, and blaming them for the state's educational
shortcomings. 300 municipal politicians who belong to the governor's
political party, the PRI, have come out against the strike, threatening to
take over the schools if the teachers don't return to work on Monday, June
5th.
Finally, the governor has threatened that teachers who do not return to work
on Monday will be fined and/or fired. And the state senate voted on Thursday
to approve the use of Federal police forces to break the strike and to
remove the teachers from their encampment. There are currently 1500 federal
police waiting on the outskirts of Oaxaca City.
Less than a month away from national elections, Mexico is currently
embroiled in a climate of extreme repression. In the past two months,
federal police forces have been used to brutally attack striking miners in
the state of Michoacan, and farmers in the community of San Salvador Atenco.
In both cases, people were arrested, beaten and killed for standing up for
their rights. And in the case of Atenco, numerous women were sexually
assaulted by police. Right-wing presidential candidates are provoking the
violence, and then using the conflicts as examples o! f their ability to
restore order and maintain the peace. In this context, the threats to use
federal police forces against the teachers should be taken VERY seriously.
Please read the following short letter and let me know ASAP if you are
willing to add your name to the list of people signing on to the letter. The
letter will be sent to national and state newspapers, and to President
Vicente Fox and Oaxacan state governor, Ulises Ruiz.
Letter:
To Mexican President, Vicente Fox:
To Governor of the State of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz.
To Local, State, and National Print Media:
The below-signed are schoolteachers, students, parents, and activists from
various parts of the United States of America. We are writing to express our
indignation over recent threats to use federal police forces to dislodge the
70,000 public schoolteachers on strike in the state of Oaxaca. Quite simply,
we wish to express our solidarity with the striking teachers in Oaxaca, and
to inform President Vicente Fox, as well as Oaxacan state governor, Ulises
Ruiz, that the teachers in Oaxaca are not alone; that we are paying
attention; and that any attack against them is an attack against us. Just as
communities around the world mobilized in response to the repression carried
out against the people of San Salvador Atenco,
any repression against the striking teachers in Oaxaca will also be met with
protests in distinct parts of the US.
Public education is a universal right. It is the State's responsibility to
provide the necessary funding and infrastructure for public education. And
it is the right of teachers around the world, as educators and as workers,
to take action when the State does not fulfill this responsibility. The
Oaxacan teachers' demands are just and necessary.
We demand the following:
1) Immediate withdrawal of the federal police forces waiting on the
outskirts of Oaxaca City.
2) Immediate withdrawal of all threats to use force to end the teachers'
strike and/or to dislodge their encampment.
3) That the state government of Oaxaca return to the negotiating table with
the striking teachers.
4) That the state government, the national and state electronic media,
and the Parents Association, cease its media campaign to publicly discredit
the teachers.
========================================== Support the Struggle in Oaxaca, and
the Consejo Indigena Popular de
Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon speaking tour:
Call to Endorse the Speaking Tour of the Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca
Ricardo Flores Magon / Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca Ricardo Flores
Magon
Were calling for organizations and individuals to sponsor the speaking tour
of the CIPO-RFM by giving 20 dollars, and your name will go on the flyer for
the event as well as mentioned in the program for the speaking tour.
Through the tour we want to:
-Connect the struggles in Mexico to our struggles here (The struggles will
spill over the borders and influence each other)
-Tie it into the anti HR 4437 movement, anti-minutemen movement, and
immigrant rights movement
- Raise consciousness for people from Mexico and create dialogues in these
communities
-Our responsibility is fight on this side of the border in solidarity with
the people of Mexico and around the world
-Organize and connect to other Anarchists from other countries, learn from
their struggle and adapt it to our own struggle here
-Build solidarity
-To gain inspiration, and to strengthen our own movements
-Seeing the interconnectedness of building autonomy in communities
Wherever people struggle, we should be there, and speak to it to whatever
capacity we can
Speaking tour organized and sponsored by the Si Se Puede Los Angeles Labor
Collective
To endorse the Speaking Tour email [email protected]
************************************************** **************************
Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette Street-Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel. (212) 979-8353
www.workersolidarity.org