Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Mexico and the Fight Against FTAA and Privatization
1) Introductory Note
2)
Excerpts from the Call for the Ninth National Convention Against the FTAA
and for Labor Rights for All (Oaxaca, Oax., November 16, 2002)
3) Sign-On Coupon to
the Greetings Sent by the OWC to the Ninth National Convention in
Oaxaca
4)
Building the Fightback Against the Privatization of Electricity in Mexico
-- statement of the Movement for an Independent and Democratic Workers
Party in Mexico
5) In Defense
of Mexico's Public, Secular Schools, by Professor Gemma Lopez Limon
********************
1) Introductory Note:
Dear Friends and Supporters of the OWC:
We are reprinting below a dossier on the current struggle waged by a
significant wing of the trade union movement in Mexico against "free
trade" and privatization, and for labor rights for all.
The first document contains major excerpts from the call issued by a broad
coalition of unions and labor activists across Mexico for a Ninth National
Convention Against the FTAA and For Labor Rights For All, to be held
November 16, 2002, in the city of Oaxaca. The unions involved in building
this conference sent delegates to the Western Hemisphere Workers
Conference in November 1997 and the Open World Conference in February 2000
-- both held in San Francisco.
[We urge all unionists and activists in the United States and Canada to
add their names and that of their organizations to the greetings that will
be sent by the OWC to this gathering. See the text of the brief greetings
below and the coupon, which we ask that you fill out and return to us as
soon as possible.]
The following two documents in this message present an account of the
current struggle in Mexico against the privatization of electricity and
education. Both are reprinted from El Trabajo, the newspaper of the
Movement for an Independent and Democratic Workers Party in Mexico.
In solidarity,
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin
OWC Continuations Committee
********************
2)
CALL FOR THE Ninth National Convention Against the FTAA and for Labor
Rights for All (Oaxaca, Oax., November 16, 2002)
- excerpts -
* For the defense of public education, electricity and petroleum
* For the defense of Public Health and Social Security
* Against the "Puebla-Panama Plan"
* For national unity and sovereignty
As part of a series on national gatherings that began in July 1999 in the
city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, with the First National Convention of
South East Mexico Against Privatizations, on November 16, 2002, in the
city of Oaxaca will be convened the Ninth National Convention, this time
under the title of National Convention Against FTAA and For Labor
Rights for All.
Among the first sponsors of this convention are Local 22 of the SNTE-CNTE
[teachers' union] of Oaxaca, the Federation of Retirees and Pensioners of
the state of Yucatan, the unions for the university workers of Chiapas,
the United Front of Union Organizations of Oaxaca, the Movement for an
Independent and Democratic Workers Party, and several other organizations.
Below we present excerpts from the call for the Convention in Oaxaca.
CONSIDERING:
1. THAT grave threats exist to the Mexican nation and to all of the
countries of the continent: The institutions derived from NAFTA, Mercosur
and now the FTAA and the Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) intend to impose a
dictatorship of the multinationals, principally the North American
multinationals, over the entire American continent. In particular, the
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is slated to take effect in
2005, constitutes an instrument for the North American multinationals to
impose a protectorate and to destroy the unity of our nations, to destroy
labor rights and to take control of our natural resources. From Alaska to
Patagonia they intend to destroy our benefits and collective bargaining
agreements. The governments act on their account, without having any
mandate from the populations. ...
2. THAT to pave the way for the implementation of the FTAA, the Fox
government intends to modify the basic articles of the Federal Labor Law:
...
3. THAT national petroleum and electricity are material and fundamental
elements of national sovereignty. Nevertheless, the government of Vicente
Fox, in order to satisfy the appetites of the North American companies in
the sector -- companies accused in their own country of fraud and price
manipulation -- has launched a new initiative in order to advance in the
total privatization of electrical energy and to dismantle national
companies. ...
4. THAT as part of the negotiations of the so-called Accord on Commercial
Services of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Fox government
announced the imposition of the "Social Commitment to the Quality of
Education" by means of which he would promote the entry of businesses
and the church into the public schools, and that he has announced the
creation of an Institute to "assess education" in which
businessmen and members of NGOs participate. ...
5. THAT today, to make matters worse, the Fox government has committed
itself to offer "labor power that is cheap and docile" with the
so-called "Puebla Panama Plan" -- meaning Fox is offering to
reduce wages, benefits and labor conditions to below those that prevail in
China! ...
6. THAT in the face of these processes there exists the will of the
workers to struggle and to resist, as has been demonstrated with the
teachers, the electrical workers, the farm workers, and the university
students. In particular, the victory of the farm workers from Atenco and
other counties affected by the decree of expropriation to construct an
airport outside Mexico City demonstrated the great will to struggle that
exists in the people and the Mexican workers. Today, the electrical
workers who raise their fists up high and shout with vigor "the
country is not for sale!" [see article below] are the same ones who
in 1999 defeated the first attempt by the Zedillo government to privatize
electricity. We must support them so that they can win! ...
7. THAT this resistance has risen in Argentina, in Peru and in Uruguay; in
Brazil they have been able to collect one million signatures against the
FTAA; in the United States, the AFL-CIO union federation has strongly
opposed giving Bush "Fast Track" authority to ram through
passage of the FTAA.
8. THAT the Eighth National Convention held in Merida, Yucatan, voted to
gather in a brief period of time an initial 12,000 signatures in support
of the demand, "President Vicente Fox, withdraw from the FTAA
negotiations of the FTAA because you have no mandate to participate in
them!" ...
9. THAT the Ninth Convention will be the moment to advance in the
preparation of the International Conference in Defense of Public Education
(Paris, June 2003) and of the International Conference for the Defense of
the International Labor Conventions of the ILO (Geneva, June 2003),
sponsored by, among others, the International Liaison Committee for a
Workers' International (ILC).
[The appeal continues further on with an account of the broader context in
which this conference in Oaxaca is taking place:]
Actions Across the Continent Against the FTAA
In Brazil, Mexico and other countries in Latin America, plebiscites
are being prepared against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the
trade agreement promoted by the government and the multinationals of the
United States. FTAA will mean the privatization of electricity and
petroleum, the deregulation of social and labor rights and the dismantling
of the nation state.
The plebiscites will be held in the middle of events that frame the
situation of the American continent.
On the one hand, George W. Bush, president of the United States, has
obtained from Congress what his predecessor, Clinton, could not achieve;
that is, the prerogative called "Trade Promotion Authority"
(what was previously called "Fast Track"). This power permits
the President to negotiate trade agreements without the intervention of
Congress, which only participates to say yes or no -- without amendments.
On the other hand, these plebiscites are being prepared at a time in which
the economies of the Southern Cone are sinking one after the other
(Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay ...).
In Peru ... President Alejandro Toledo was obligated to suspend the
privatization of the electricity companies in the south of the country.
Tanks were sent out to the streets and one person was killed. Toledo had
to impose a state of siege, make changes in the government and abandon the
privatization program, for which he had hoped to receive around 700
million Euros.
In Bolivia, the attempts to privatize the Water Company of Tumari was
suspended after the mobilization of several unions and mass organizations.
In Ecuador, president Gustavo Noboa has not been able to override popular
opposition to the privatization of 17 electricity companies. ....
The political panorama is uncertain. "Out with all of them!":
This slogan, which was shouted in Argentina for months, has found an echo
in the region" (Le Monde, August 6). It is in this situation
that the plebiscites against FTAA will be held.
In Brazil, the plebiscite will be held September 2-7 (national
Independence Day) and the CUT (Central Única de Trabalhadores), the
largest trade union federation in Brazil, has taken part in this effort. [Note:
More than 10 million people participate in this referendum, with 98
percent voting that the Brazilian government should withdraw from FTAA
negotiations--OWC.]
The questions on the plebiscite are the following:
1. Should Brazil accept the construction of a North American military base
in the Amazons?
2. Should Brazil pay the foreign debt?
3. Should Brazil remain in the FTAA negotiations?
In the case of Mexico, the plebiscite will take place from October 12,
2002, to March 18, 2003 and will contain the following questions:
1. Do you agree with Mexico continuing under NAFTA with the US and Canada?
2. Have you been informed or consulted by the government about the
negotiations to create the FTAA?
3. Do you agree with the government signing on to NAFTA?
4. Do you agree with the government proceeding with the Puebla-Panama
Plan?
We are participating in these actions to say no to the FTAA!
[The call concludes by urging all unionists and activists in the Southern
Region of Mexico to participate in, and build support for, for the Ninth
National Convention Against the FTAA and For Labor Rights For All, to be
held November 16, 2002, in the city of Oaxaca.]
********************
3) SIGN-ON GREETINGS
TO THE 9TH NATIONAL CONVENTION IN OAXACA
[Note: Please add your name -- and that of your organization if
possible -- to the greetings below. These will be sent to the Ninth
National Convention Against the FTAA and For Labor Rights For All on
November 10th, to allow time for translation into Spanish. If you are
signing in your individual capacity, please list your union or
organization for id. only. Thanks.]
Greetings:
To: The Organizers and Participants in the Ninth National Convention
Against the FTAA and For Labor Rights For All
Oaxaca, Mexico -- November 16, 2002
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
We the undersigned unionists and activists from the United States and
Canada salute your efforts in hosting this conference so as to organize
the fightback in defense of labor rights for all and against the Free
Trade Area of the Americas, the Plan Puebla-Panama, and
privatization/deregulation.
We are at your side in this vital struggle. The extension of NAFTA to the
rest of the Western Hemisphere in the form of the FTAA will not only
represent an expansion to the rest of the continent of the devastation to
working people wrought by NAFTA, it will also represent an intensification
of the attacks on working people, their unions and their communities in
the three original NAFTA countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
We reach out across borders in solidarity with your valiant efforts to
halt the privatization assault on your public services and enterprises, to
defeat the Plan Puebla Panama, and to compel Mexico to withdraw from FTAA
negotiations.
In Solidarity,
[Open World Conference Continuations Committee, followed by list of
additional signatories]
---
[ ] PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THESE GREETINGS
NAME
UNION/ORG & TITLE (list if for id. only)
CITY
STATE
COUNTRY
EMAIL
(fill out coupon and return asap to owc at ilcinfo@earthlink.net
)
********************
4)
Building the Fightback Against the Privatization of Electricity in
Mexico
[Note: Following is a statement published by the Movement for
an Independent and Democratic Workers Party in Mexico. It is reprinted
from El Trabajo newspaper.]
* No to the privatization of electricity! In any of its forms!
* All out for the March on September 27th!
* Break with the FTAA Negotiations!
Thirty thousand workers from the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME),
with the cry of "Our nation is not for sale!," hit the streets
on Friday, August 30, to reject the "reform" that the Fox
government intends to impose on Articles 27 and 28 of the Mexican
Constitution. The objective of these changes is to deliver the public
system of electricity into the hands of foreign multinational companies.
The demonstration and the meeting in the Zócalo [Mexico city's main
plaza], are indications of the willingness of the electrical workers to
mobilize; at the same time it demonstrates the problems that are raised
for the workers and the nation in order to defend their national
interests.
One of the speakers in the meeting noted the necessity of gearing the
entire nation into action to stop the plans that Mexican President Vicente
Fox has prepared: the privatization of electricity, first, and then the
privatization of gas and petroleum, the counter-reform of the Federal
Labor Law, the creation of an "Institute for the Evaluation of
Education" (read the privatization of public education), the
dismantling of the system of public health, and the list goes on. All
these measures are part of the new accord which the U.S. government wants
to impose -- namely, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The leadership of the SME (as part of the plan agreed to in its general
assembly of August 26), is calling for a "national
demonstration" on the 27th of September -- the 42nd anniversary of
the nationalization of the central Light and Power Company. This
demonstration must be promoted and supported unconditionally, just as
workers must support the petition campaign against privatization proposed
by the SME.
Nevertheless, the former is not sufficient. In the meeting on August 30,
not only were the leaders of the Union Nacional de Trabajadores (National
Union of Workers) and the SUTERM [the other main electrical workers' union
in Mexico] absent, but there was also no clear and explicit call for them
to be incorporated into the fight against privatization.
To be able to move tens of thousands of workers on a march to Mexico City,
from all of the states and corners of the country, it is necessary to
struggle for the unity of the workers' organizations. In this sense, the
ideal would be for the leadership of the SME to call for a dialogue with
the leadership, sections and workers of the SUTERM to discuss the defense
of the nationalized electrical industry and the necessity of rejecting
Fox's plan.
Remember the experience of three years ago (August of 1999), when
then-President Ernesto Zedillo tried to "reform" Articles 27 and
28 of the Constitution, and the sections of the SUTERM from the state of
Chiapas, together with professors and various worker organizations, called
for the holding of a Convention of Workers of the South East of Mexico,
which was attended by the leadership of the SME. The participating
delegates rejected the "Zedillo reform" and called for a march
of the whole nation, a march on Mexico City that some called the
"march of a million."
This march was not carried out in the form in which it was approved;
nonetheless, a national demonstration was organized on August 28, 1999,
which contributed at the time to Zedillo's desisting in his intent to
privatize.
Nevertheless, a major crisis has hit the multinational power companies
severely (see the case of Enron), which leads them to pressure even harder
to take control of the electrical systems like Mexico's, with which they
hope to regain some of their profits. Fox expresses the interests of the
multinational companies, and for this he is prepared to go to the end.
"The country is not for sale!" shout the workers. To defend the
nation is to defend the collective bargaining agreements and the unions.
This struggle demands the unity of the workers and their unions.
If the "Fox electrical reform" plan succeeds in being passed, it
will accelerate all of the initiatives that they have planned, among
others the "total deregulation of the telecommunications
industry", which has in its sights, for example, the collective
bargaining agreement and the basic rights of the telephone workers. A blow
to the electrical workers would be a blow to the telephone operators and
to all workers.
The Movement for an Independent and Democratic Workers Party calls for the
unconditional support for the petition campaign and the march on September
27th against the electrical privatization. The Movement echoes the voices
which in the meeting of August 30th raised the necessity of mobilizing the
entire nation in a march to Mexico City from all the states and corners of
the country.
We must struggle for the unity of the workers and their organizations -- a
necessary point of support for the movement of all of the working class
and oppressed peoples.
"The country is not for sale!"
********************
5) In Defense
of Mexico's Public, Secular Schools
By GEMMA LOPEZ LIMON *
"Education will be secular and, therefore, be maintained
completely separate from any religious doctrine."
In the great struggles to consolidate the nation in the 19th century, the
Mexican people had to confront a church which occupied the space that
corresponded to the state in the economic, political and social life of
the country.
The formation of a secular state came to be considered indispensable
through the conviction that secularity was an indispensable condition for
the free development of society. As a result of this, the clear separation
of church and state was established, which implies the necessary defining
of the civil and religious spaces. Today, in the framework of the
decomposition of global capitalism, we again see a belligerent church with
great influence on political power, which occupies space in the civil
terrain with which it intends to destroy the principle and practice of
secularity.
This attack from the darkest forces represented by the Catholic Church is
being raised with more force than ever on the educational terrain.
Fox and Religious Education
The Catholic Church has played an undeniable role in the political
trajectory of Fox; this is an issue that could be seen with great clarity
during the presidential campaign, when he made a series of political
commitments to the Catholic Church to gain support in the 2000 elections.
Fox, after a meeting with Archbishop Rivera Carrera, declared that
"public schools should open up to religious values." (Pablo
Latapi Sarre "Secularity in Schools As a Problem", Processo
No. 1224, April 18th, 2002)
When he was governor of the state of Guanajuato, he distributed a
controversial pamphlet titled "How to Educate Guanajuato" in
which he advised applying corporal punishment to students and imparting
religious values.
Now there is a "Parent's Guide" distributed by the foundation
"Viva Mexico", the country's largest non-governmental
organization (NGO), which is run by Martha Sahagun de Fox and which has
been denounced on repeated occasions as a beneficiary of public funds.
According to a leader of the SNTE, the guide has a "strong penchant
toward conservatism", especially in dealing with themes of sexuality
and the instruction of values (La Jornada, August 16, 2002).
Constitutional Article 3 and Secularity
As a fruit of the great struggles of the Mexican people for a secular
state, Article 3 of the Mexican Constitution defines clearly the
secularity of education while indicating "Guaranteed by article 24,
freedom of belief, this education will be secular and, therefore, will be
maintained completely separate from any religious doctrine", and in
another section confirms: "The criteria that orients this education
will be based on the results of scientific progress, will fight against
ignorance and its effects -- servitude, fanaticism and prejudice",
impossible tasks to achieve when religious instruction is given.
To understand what would happen with religious instruction, one need only
to remember the position of the Catholic Church in demanding that the
government prohibit the film "The Crime of Father Amaro", with
the pretext that the movie contained attacks on religion and was
sacrilegious, when the hundreds of thousands of us who saw it understood
that in reality, what worried the ecclesiastic hierarchy was the exposure
of the corruption that corrodes it from its foundations, its hypocrisy and
its preference for the powerful.
The Church and the "Social Commitment to the Quality of
Education"
The Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy placed its signature on Fox's
Social Commitment to the Quality of Education, and its presence will be
felt on the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEE), at least
with its inclusion on the Board of Directors of two letterhead
organizations of the parents of ultraconservative families: the National
Federation of Associations of Parents of Families and the National Union
of Parents of Families, together with a representative of the Commission
on Education in the business sector.
As the analyst Jose Blanco said, [I]in the internal discussions of the
decision-making meetings, time and time again the secular character of
Mexican education will be called into question" (La Jornada,
August 13,2002). The NGO Mexican Transparency and Citizen Observer of
Education will play a role as well.
"There will be an opening up to religious instruction: the Diocese
of Tijuana"
In the weekly Presencia, edited by the Diocese of Tijuana, it
is stated that "there will be an opening up to religious
instruction" (La Jornada, August 25, 2002).
For his part, the priest, a member of the Secretariat of Education and
Culture which edits that magazine, declared that the opening up would be
the fruit of the "Social Commitment to the Quality of
Education".
This priest calls for the establishment of a dialogue with the educational
authorities, at the same time that he questions the parents of the
families because they allow the state to "impose the way in which
their children should be educated", and adds that it is they who
should choose the type of education the children should receive.
The new education, he adds, will be "family, school and parish",
an education which, according to him, demands the experience of values,
among which "love of God", "respect for life starting from
conception (Š)", "religious freedom and the instruction of
it", are emphasized.
It praises the "social commitment" of Vicente Fox.
The pastoral letter from the Diocese of Tijuana proposes to "foment
and promote the progress of the pastoral in the Catholic institutions and
in formal and informal education, as well as the unity of Catholic
educative thought, in addition to establishing contacts with official
education and its institutions.
This pastoral runs through everything, establishing as imperative to
"organize activities in which teachers of all levels are integrated;
unify and integrate the Catholic schools of the Diocese: have an apostolic
presence of teachers and lay people in official schools, as well as to
organize conferences, events and activities for college students,
teacher's assistants and professors."
For his part, "Ramon Godinez, president of the Commission of Mexican
Episcopal Education, declared that he trusted that the current government
would fulfill one of the greatest yearnings of the Catholic hierarchy:
include religious values within the educational system". (Guadalupe
Loaeza, La Jornada, August 15, 2002)
But the destined commitment goes beyond breaking with secularity, it goes
to the destruction of the unions and their conquests, to the privatization
of the public education system, to turning education into a commodity.
Nevertheless, these intentions will confront an obstacle -- the resistance
of the population and the men and women professors.
The failure of the Catholic Church to prevent the showing of the film
"The Crime of Father Amaro", demonstrates that resistance
exists, what is necessary is to organize it. The leadership of the SNTE
and the sectoral leadership have a serious responsibility before these
facts. It is necessary to rouse in the entire union the necessity to
defend education that is public, secular and free.
---
(* Gemma Lopez Limon is a senior researcher at the Autonomous
University of Baja California in Mexicali.)