Vicente Fox uses police to threaten Oaxacan schoolteachers on strike

Many of you learned of the struggle of Mexican Teachers last weekend
at the screening of Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand). Those teachers
urgently need our solidarity. Now.

http://www.corrugate.org/granito_de_arena/granito_de_arena

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. The Federal police are already on stand-by
outside the Oaxacan city limits and could take action as soon as
Monday, June 5th. Background info is below.

You can write directly to the governor of Oaxaca. Write in English or
Spanish. Just write. 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 where
teachers 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 of 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 support these teachers by emailing the Oaxacan state governor,
Ulises Ruiz.


--------------------------------------------------------------
The Zapatista Solidarity Coalition
Member, Campaign Against Unjust Immigration Laws
909 12th St. # 118 Sacramento, CA 95814
Telephone: (916) 443-3424 E-mail: zapa [at] zsc.org
---------------------------------------------------------------


more on Oaxacan schoolteachers @;
http://www.corrugate.org/granito_de_arena/solidarity