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| Dissident teachers' encampment in front of the National Palace, prior to their eviction on Sept. 13. Photo: Alejandro Saldívar |
Proceso: John M. Ackerman
Translated by Stuart TaylorDespite the abuse from authorities and media in the capital, the CNTE [National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers] sit-in in Mexico City was a success. Its brave fight allowed millions of people to discover the huge lies of the education counter-reform imposed by Enrique Peña Nieto and the Pact for Mexico. The teachers managed to increase the political cost of the reform for the PRIANRD [three political parties: PRI, PAN, PRD] while also making the most of their stay to weave strategic links and alliances with other social sectors, such as the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) and university students. All of this paves the way for both popular resistance to privatization of the oil industry and the rise of new political leadership in the coming years.
The mobilization of the teachers came after certain congressmen revealed their true commitments and alliances with the national oligarchy by entrenching themselves in the Banamex (National Bank of Mexico) Center to approve the education reform. The teachers’ bravery stems from the revelation of the deeply authoritarian mindset of Miguel Ángel Mancera, who gave up the Zócalo [central plaza in Mexico City] to the Federal Police who violently evicted protesters this past September 13. The CNTE protests stem from the revival and strengthening of the national student movement and its fight for a humanist, democratic and quality education system.
As a mindful and progressive region, you would think that Mexico City would have welcomed the teachers with open arms. Both the authorities and the public should have celebrated the visit and treated the teachers with the same hospitality that they show to those of us who visit their warm, beautiful and noble towns in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas.
Indeed, many citizens of the capital rose to the occasion: they donated food, participated in marches and familiarized themselves with the education reform. But many others showed the typical arrogance towards those who come from the provinces seen all too often in citizens of Mexico City – something for which they are renowned and rejected across the length and breadth of the country. Beyond the legitimate debates regarding the CNTE’s methods of response and protest tactics, respect and consideration toward others should always be the starting point.
However, even with the terrible abuse, oversight and repression to which the teachers have been subjected, they are holding strong and decisive in their determination to keep fighting for their rights. They deserve society’s support because they represent the best that Mexico has to offer. They are professionals who have taken the generous decision to dedicate their lives to training and educating our children, and they deserve to be recognized for their work.
In decisive times such as these, however, social contradictions are abundant. A wide sector of the population, that once supported Javier Sicilia and the Movement for Peace in defense of the victims of Felipe Calderón’s “war”, is now tightfisted with its support of the victims of Peña Nieto’s counter-reforms. Many citizens that happily supply food for the victims of hurricanes Manuel and Ingrid refuse to be supportive of the teachers camped out in the open next to the Monument to the Revolution.
There are many people who bitterly complain about the so-called “apathy” of the Mexican people but who, today, belittle the important protests that are happening every day before their very eyes because they “disrupt” their personal lives. There are those who question the teachers’ ability to “get onboard” with “public opinion” and “the middle class”, doing everything in their power to ignore and disparage the legitimate demands of the teachers. Many applaud when the police close streets and randomly arrest innocent citizens, but they boo the peaceful Mexicans who, although they are occupying public spaces, are only preventing the free movement of cars – not people.
What scares an authoritarian government the most is the unification of different fights for common causes. Politicians would prefer each citizen group to be divided internally, separated from the rest and focused on specific or local demands. The union of the inhabitants of the capital and the countryside, the students and the teachers, the young and the old, the indigenous and those of mixed race, the victims of the “drugs trafficking war” and the victims of the neoliberal movement, would build a formidable social force that could slowly transform the country from a land where impunity and injustice triumphs, to one where peace and development are predominant.
Peña Nieto feels vulnerable, fenced in by a sea of young people, mindful and progressive men and women of the capital who surround the federal powers based in Mexico City. Driven by the witch-hunt on the CNTE, the citizens of the capital fall into the eternal power struggle, the “divide and conquer” strategy on which the authoritarian regime is wrongly placing all of its bets. Let us defend the capital from Peña Nieto’s dirty old trick, a man who is betting everything on the illusion of this false “capital city arrogance”. Let us join forces with decent citizens of the entire country and the world who dare to stand up and speak out against a system of domination based on abusing power and betraying one’s neighbor. Spanish Original