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| From the right: Gustavo Madero, president of PAN, Jesús Zambrano, president of PRD, César Camacho, president of PRI, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Secretary of Govenment Relations Photo: Mónica González, Milenio |
La Jornada: Fabiola Martínez, Laura Poy
On the eve of Teacher's Day [May 15], representatives of the eleven union sections that make up the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers met with members of the Governing Council of the Pact for Mexico--which is the conclave for political negotiation between parties and government officials for drafting legislation--to whom they delivered their alternative education plan.
The Secretary of Government Affairs [SEGOB], Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, believes that the dialogue with the CNTE lowers the temperature on the conflict in the teaching ranks by ''giving it a democratic direction". However, the negotiating committee for the dissident teachers warned that the meeting with officials and party leaders was
"only a first step for dialogue. It is not the solution to our demands.''For that reason, they announced that they will continue with the demonstrations:
''This is not about a cathartic meeting, but about concrete proposals.''With the warning that the constitutional education reform "has no reverse gear'', the Governing Council of the Pact for Mexico said it will deliver an "explanatory" document to the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) on the scope of the constitutional amendment.
César Camacho, President of Governing Council, Pact for Mexico
The current president of the Pact for Mexico, César Camacho Quiroz, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), stated that the secondary laws of the education reform are under construction, that is, they are neither completed nor ironed out, he replied in response to a reporter's question.
He clarified that the document that will be delivered next week to the CNTE is not an interpretation of the constitutional reform, because this power belongs only to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).
It's a question of the Pact for Mexico remaining open to hearing proposals from the dissident teachers and other people and groups interested in the issue. He noted that teachers did not bring up at the meeting--held in a hotel in the center of the city--their petition to abolish the changes to Articles 3 and 73 of the Constitution.
Secretary of Government Affairs Osorio Chong
When asked about the issue, the Secretary of Government Affairs said at the end of his message to the media--in which the teachers did not participate--that these meetings tend to ease the process, because they [dissidents] are being listened to by the government and by the main political forces.
When asked about the issue, the Secretary of Government Affairs said at the end of his message to the media--in which the teachers did not participate--that these meetings tend to ease the process, because they [dissidents] are being listened to by the government and by the main political forces.
''I think today the radicalized issues can be set aside,'' he said.[The Secretary] added that the conflicts prevailing in Michoacán and Guerrero, which resulted in arrest warrants against the teachers because of their seizure of facilities, were pressure tactics, which
''are taking another course. This is built step by step,'' he said in an interview after the meeting.
The secondary laws, explained Osorio, are going to be constructed with all the voices,
"but not retreating on the constitutional reform, that's very important. Certainly, we are insisting to them that there will be no privatization or layoffs.''For his part, Camacho said:
''We come to listen, but also that they listen to us.''
In this sense, he commented that although a draft of the secondary laws is not yet ready, it is desirable to work toward that goal and even to process these standards in an extraordinary session of Congress "as soon as possible''.
He emphasized that the reform preserves free public education and does not include any attempt to privatize education or to fire teachers. At the meeting, he said, he asked the teachers to hold their demonstrations without affecting students.
CNTE Dissident Teachers
CNTE Dissident Teachers
Meanwhile, CNTE teachers at the meeting claimed that
"it is not a question of one party convincing the other. Therefore, we insist that we want clarity in their proposal, above all, about the underlying issues of the free nature of [public] education, evaluation, hiring and promotion of teachers.''
The general secretaries of Section 9 of the Federal District, Francisco Bravo; Section 18 of Michoacán, Juan José Ortega Madrigal; Section 14 of Guerrero, Gonzalo Juárez Ocampo; and Section 7 of the state of Chiapas, Adelfo Alejandro Gómez, insisted that the Secretary of Government Affairs will be the agency of dialogue in order to
"open a path to dialogue, but this does not mean that we leave other forms of struggle behind. The demonstrations are ongoing, as well as the national encampment."
Teacher's Day