"Section 22, the teachers' union in Oaxaca, has historically been a bastion of the decades-old democratic movement to free the national union from the control of leaders whose interests are tied to the country's most powerful political figures and not the workers' well-being"
By LAURA CARLSEN
November 1 was the Day of the Dead. It's the day that Mexicans flock to the cemeteries to visit family members who have passed on. Or, if you believe the traditions, to welcome the dead who come back to visit them.
This year among the dead are 17 people killed in Oaxaca. They are dead because they dared to challenge a political and economic system that bound them to poverty and powerlessness. Most were assassinated by forces affiliated with the state governor, Ulises Ruiz. Some, whose blood has still not dried, were murdered by federal police sent in "to restore order" on Oct. 28.
The movement in Oaxaca began on May 15, national Teachers' Day, when state members of the education workers' union mobilized to protest against the latest imposition of a contract negotiated between corporatist leaders of their national union and the government. They asked for a pay raise and initiated a sit-in in Oaxaca City's central plaza.
There was nothing unusual in their action. Section 22, the teachers' union in Oaxaca, has historically been a bastion of the decades-old democratic movement to free the national union from the control of leaders whose interests are tied to the country's most powerful political figures and not the workers' well-being.
But their protest sparked a wildfire when Governor Ruiz sent in armed security forces to evict them on June 14. The deaths as a result of the repression enraged a society already angry at what many viewed a stolen gubernatorial election. Ulises Ruiz is an old-style politician from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled Mexico single-handedly for 71 years and still exercises control over parts of the Oaxacan countryside through violent party bosses.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |