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| Photo: Claudia Guadarrama |
Milenio: Humberto Ríos
Mexico City • A little more than 10 hours. It was a long road to finally settle on six points of an agreement, never mind the trek down to the central square. An accompaniment of shouts and moving feet. An agitated circle of people that keeps getting bigger. The same old slogans, the same old demands… the same old song. Between the stuffy heat and the occasional errant driver, the anger creeps up, the agonizing wait during negotiations, the periodic updates from inside and then finally the answer & the supposed “victory,” even though something like “But the fight continues” will be the next slogan.
And the throng gets bigger still.
Winding back the clock, the teachers of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) were preparing to abandon the Plaza Tolsá at 10 AM after an invasion of sorts where they set up camp with tents, makeshift beds, and big tops that reached all the way to the exterior terrace of Xiconténcatl, the federal home of numerous legislatures over the years. And today’s protestors would carry on the long-standing tradition here of camping outside.
There, with 12 porta potties and their stench that wafted up the unassuming nasal cavities of their victims and elicited the appropriate frown in response, dozens of teachers took care of their physiological business while still others elected to drop a few pesos on the creature comforts of nearby public bathrooms instead. Meanwhile, a certain pestilence floated throughout the air and permeated its way beyond the surrounding blocks.
“Marce! Marce!” some campers called. And sure enough, teacher Marce came running.It’s nine o’clock in the morning. In one camp people are preparing ham sandwiches and a bevy of salsas to please almost any palate while little plastic cups of coffee are poured from earthen pots. The Palacio de Minería sidewalk manages to accommodate tents as well, with blue canopies hanging from the adjacent building’s walls.
“Hey! Hey!” she responded in kind. “In Sanborn’s, the toilets cost $4.50 [pesos, about USD 40 cents]." And she runs there.
The antigovernment speeches start. A bus representing the Independent Proletarian Movement, as usual, leads the protestors’ march. The myriad speakers take turns with both the microphone and their preferred rhetoric:
“You see… you know… CNTE will not go!”The protest heads toward Hidalgo and spills out into Reforma Avenue, then turning left onto Bucareli. But on Ayuntamiento they run up against a thick metallic screen, put on the brakes, and continue repeating the same chants.
“More than 250 public companies have been privatized.”
“This country’s teachers, the parents of our families, and our hard-working students,” they cry out, “oppose this criminal educational reform.”
A delegation of teachers agrees to meet with the Secretariat of Government Relations, but later those that stayed outside elect to pay a visit to the new Senate located on Reforma Avenue. The complex is now surrounded by the masses who have also blocked the entrances & exits.
“The oligarchy wants to privatize education!” shouts the next orator, who then adds, “If we manage to overturn this reform, Enrique Peña Nieto will tremble in fear. On to victory, brothers!”About 6 hours later they reach the Senate and surround it. They demand dialogue. They block the entrances.
“We’re going to stage a rally until these crooks in suits let us in. Those people in there are a waste of space.”Teachers seat themselves on the ground. Some yawn while others snooze. Others laugh. One particular “delegation” hands over a paper to a representative of the Permanent Commission inside. More talks ensue.
The throng later returns to the offices of the Secretariat of Government Relations where their comrades are still negotiating. The more vocal ones pick up the microphone again, and one from Guerrero reminds them that the community police are with them as well as the “ayotzinapos” [students of the Ayotzinapa Normal School, a teachers college] due to the fact that “we just started the revolution.”
At 8 PM the teacher’s delegates came out of the building and announce the agreements they had reached with representatives of the federal government, “but in no way” they warned, “was negotiation of the national struggle on the table.” And they headed back to the central square where others were waiting. Even more will show up today.