[Marxism] Fw: [SESWwest] Fw: Mexican teachers need your solidarity TODAY

["John A Imani" <johnaimani2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mexican teachers need your solidarity TODAY
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jill Irene Freidberg 
  To: rosemarylee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:11 PM
  Subject: Mexican teachers need your solidarity TODAY




  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/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.











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