OWC - Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence & Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor Council,
1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
-------------------
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
This past Saturday, October 21, the Los Angeles Times and other
international media reported that the 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca had
voted to end their 5-month strike and to accept the settlement
proposed by Mexican Minister of the Interior Carlos Abascal Carranza.
This news report was based on a press release issued the previous
afternoon by Rueda Pacheco, the general secretary of Section 22 of
SNTE, the teachers' union of Oaxaca.
This news report was inaccurate.
On October 21, the day after Rueda Pacheco issued his statement
announcing that the teachers had okayed the pact with the federal
government, the Delegates Assembly of Section 22 -- the union's
highest body -- voted to repudiate their secretary general for
conducting an undemocratic membership consultation. The delegates
also agreed to call for a new membership vote on October 23 and 24 on
whether to end or continue the strike.
Why this confusion?
As you may know, on October 9 and 10, top leaders of Section 22 of
SNTE and of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) held
direct negotiations with Abascal Carranza and other officials of the
Ministry of the Interior (SecretarÃa de Gobernación).
The federal government proposed that a three-person Senate Commission
travel to Oaxaca to investigate the claims by Section 22 and APPO
that PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz had violated the law and should
be impeached. The call for the impeachment of Ruiz Ortiz became the
main demand of the teachers' and popular movement in Oaxaca after
June 14, when the governor brought in state troops to break the
strike, killing three strikers and injuring dozens more. Since that
date, the battle cry of the teachers and their supporters has been,
"Ruiz Ortiz must go if there is to be any solution to the crisis!"
The Senate Commission included one senator from the PRI (the party
that held total power in Mexico for more than 70 years), one from the
PAN (the new ruling class party of Vicente Fox), and one from the
opposition PRD.
The federal government also committed to paying 185 million pesos
(about US$17 million) to the teachers to improve the parity of wages
-- or rezoning -- throughout the state of Oaxaca, with the remaining
815 million pesos demanded by the teachers paid over the next six
years.
The additional funding, however, was contingent on Felipe Calderon,
the "official" president-elect, being able to find this money in his
new budget. The money pledged concretely by the government for this
rezoning amounted, therefore, to less than one-fifth the sum demanded
by the teachers. The rest was a vague and possibly empty promise.
Rueda Pacheco and the top officers of Section 22 returned to Oaxaca
on October 11 and submitted the government's proposal to a vote of
the Delegates Assembly, with a recommendation that the union accept
the government's proposed settlement.
On October 14, the Delegates Assembly voted against Rueda Pacheco's
proposal. The delegates voted instead to wait until the Senate
Commission had issued its ruling before deciding how to respond to
the settlement offer by Abascal Carranza. The Senate Commission had
traveled to Oaxaca for four days, and its ruling was not expected
till October 17.
An Open Letter to the Delegates Assembly and to all Oaxaca teachers
signed by the 21 teachers on hunger strike in Mexico City warned that
it would be a "major betrayal of our struggle to vote to end the
strike" -- as Rueda Pacheco proposed -- "before the Senate Commission
had issued its ruling."
The actual ruling by the Senate Commission did not come till October
19. As expected, the Commission voted that there were no grounds to
remove Ulises Ruiz Ortiz from his office as governor of Oaxaca. The
vote was 2-1, with only the PRD senator voting against. The full vote
of the Senate came later that day. The Senate ratified the Commission
report, with a sop thrown to the protest movement: the Senate would
ask Ruiz Ortiz to take a "voluntary leave of absence" -- something
Ruiz Ortiz said he would refuse to do.
In the meantime, before even the final Senate Commission ruling had
been issued, the top leadership of Section 22 voted to conduct a
two-point "consultation" of the teachers on October 19 and 20. Local
teachers' assemblies were thus convened throughout the state of
Oaxaca over these two days to vote on the following two points
submitted by the leadership:
Point 1 asked the teachers if they agreed or disagreed with the
settlement proposed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Point 2 asked the teachers if they preferred returning to work on
October 23 or October 30.
The questions were confusing. The leadership told the media that no
matter how the teachers voted on Point 1, they would be returning to
work either the 23rd or 30th. If the teachers voted to reject the
settlement, the Section 22 officials explained, this would only mean
more work-site actions to protest the contract, but it would not mean
continuing the strike.
But while the main Section 22 leaders explained this to the media,
they told the teachers that a vote in opposition to the Abascal
Carranza settlement could mean continuing the strike. Teachers were
extremely confused. It was not clear what they were being asked to
vote on, and what their vote would mean.
One leader of Section 22, Augusto Reyes Medina, issued an Open Letter
to all the teachers in Oaxaca denouncing the way the questions were
formulated and demanding that a new Delegates Assembly should be held
on October 21 to reformulate a clear question to the members.
The Open Letter by Reyes Medina -- which was co-signed by all the
hunger strikers in Mexico City and most of the rank-and-file teachers
who had marched for 15 days to Mexico City from Oaxaca -- created an
enormous stir throughout the union. Many local assemblies of the
Section 22 membership refused to cast a vote on the two-point
consultation, to protest the leadership's maneuver.
The afternoon of Friday, October 20, Rueda Pacheco announced that the
membership vote had been tallied, and that the teachers had voted to
return to work on October 23.
Immediately, a majority of members of the Delegates Assembly -- a
body of around 780 teachers delegated from each school -- voted to
convene a new Assembly the next day (October 21) and to disavow
publicly the report presented to the press by Rueda Pacheco.
On October 21, a full Delegates Assembly was held, with the presence
of Rueda Pacheco and all the top officers. The overwhelming majority
of the delegates voted to reject the undemocratic methods used by
Rueda Pacheco to try force the workers to return to their jobs, and
they agreed to convene new local assemblies throughout the state on
October 23 and 24 where only one question would be on the ballot: "Do
you agree that the union should accept the government's last offer
and therefore return to work, thereby ending the strike?"
This is the status of the situation as of this writing on October 23.
It is difficult to know if the teachers, who have not received a
paycheck or any funding from the union for more than two months, will
agree to go back to work. Many are facing evictions from their homes,
repossession of their cars, and dire hunger at home. They also fear
the government may follow through on its pledge to send in the Army
and Marines to dislodge the strikers from the downtown district of
the city of Oaxaca if the strikers don't agree to return to work.
On the other hand, the teachers also know the government is not
offering them anything remotely acceptable: the wage-parity issue (or
rezoning) is not even close to what has been requested, and Ulises
Ruiz Ortiz will stay on as governor. They know that nine strikers
have been killed, scores injured, and countless families divided in
the course of this bitter strike. They don't want these deaths and
hardships to be in vain. They know they are standing up for all
working and oppressed people in Mexico, who are fighting for
democracy and justice.
Their situation is immensely difficult, as you can see. While protest
actions in support of the Oaxaca teachers have taken place across
Mexico, the Mexican trade union and political movements have not yet
stepped up to the plate to offer their sisters and brothers in Oaxaca
their full financial and logistical support to win this strike. This
remains to be done.
I will keep you updated on the situation in Oaxaca as I get new
information.
In the interim, it is more necessary than ever for unionists and
activists to show their full support for the teachers in Oaxaca by
urging a negotiated solution to this crisis and a halt to any and all
forms of state violence against the strikers and their supporters.
Please send your messages to:
Vicente Fox Quesada,
President of the Mexico:
<vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx>
and
Carlos Abascal,
Ministry of the Interior:
<segob@rtn.net.mx>
Please send a copy to Fernando Mendoza Perez,
Member of the Executive Committee
of Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE:
<Alborotador_oax@hotmail.com>
Also, please send a copy of your letter to
Open World Conference:
<ilcinfo@earthlink.net>
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
Executive Board member,
San Francisco Labor Council
Independence & Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor Council,
1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
-------------------
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
This past Saturday, October 21, the Los Angeles Times and other
international media reported that the 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca had
voted to end their 5-month strike and to accept the settlement
proposed by Mexican Minister of the Interior Carlos Abascal Carranza.
This news report was based on a press release issued the previous
afternoon by Rueda Pacheco, the general secretary of Section 22 of
SNTE, the teachers' union of Oaxaca.
This news report was inaccurate.
On October 21, the day after Rueda Pacheco issued his statement
announcing that the teachers had okayed the pact with the federal
government, the Delegates Assembly of Section 22 -- the union's
highest body -- voted to repudiate their secretary general for
conducting an undemocratic membership consultation. The delegates
also agreed to call for a new membership vote on October 23 and 24 on
whether to end or continue the strike.
Why this confusion?
As you may know, on October 9 and 10, top leaders of Section 22 of
SNTE and of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) held
direct negotiations with Abascal Carranza and other officials of the
Ministry of the Interior (SecretarÃa de Gobernación).
The federal government proposed that a three-person Senate Commission
travel to Oaxaca to investigate the claims by Section 22 and APPO
that PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz had violated the law and should
be impeached. The call for the impeachment of Ruiz Ortiz became the
main demand of the teachers' and popular movement in Oaxaca after
June 14, when the governor brought in state troops to break the
strike, killing three strikers and injuring dozens more. Since that
date, the battle cry of the teachers and their supporters has been,
"Ruiz Ortiz must go if there is to be any solution to the crisis!"
The Senate Commission included one senator from the PRI (the party
that held total power in Mexico for more than 70 years), one from the
PAN (the new ruling class party of Vicente Fox), and one from the
opposition PRD.
The federal government also committed to paying 185 million pesos
(about US$17 million) to the teachers to improve the parity of wages
-- or rezoning -- throughout the state of Oaxaca, with the remaining
815 million pesos demanded by the teachers paid over the next six
years.
The additional funding, however, was contingent on Felipe Calderon,
the "official" president-elect, being able to find this money in his
new budget. The money pledged concretely by the government for this
rezoning amounted, therefore, to less than one-fifth the sum demanded
by the teachers. The rest was a vague and possibly empty promise.
Rueda Pacheco and the top officers of Section 22 returned to Oaxaca
on October 11 and submitted the government's proposal to a vote of
the Delegates Assembly, with a recommendation that the union accept
the government's proposed settlement.
On October 14, the Delegates Assembly voted against Rueda Pacheco's
proposal. The delegates voted instead to wait until the Senate
Commission had issued its ruling before deciding how to respond to
the settlement offer by Abascal Carranza. The Senate Commission had
traveled to Oaxaca for four days, and its ruling was not expected
till October 17.
An Open Letter to the Delegates Assembly and to all Oaxaca teachers
signed by the 21 teachers on hunger strike in Mexico City warned that
it would be a "major betrayal of our struggle to vote to end the
strike" -- as Rueda Pacheco proposed -- "before the Senate Commission
had issued its ruling."
The actual ruling by the Senate Commission did not come till October
19. As expected, the Commission voted that there were no grounds to
remove Ulises Ruiz Ortiz from his office as governor of Oaxaca. The
vote was 2-1, with only the PRD senator voting against. The full vote
of the Senate came later that day. The Senate ratified the Commission
report, with a sop thrown to the protest movement: the Senate would
ask Ruiz Ortiz to take a "voluntary leave of absence" -- something
Ruiz Ortiz said he would refuse to do.
In the meantime, before even the final Senate Commission ruling had
been issued, the top leadership of Section 22 voted to conduct a
two-point "consultation" of the teachers on October 19 and 20. Local
teachers' assemblies were thus convened throughout the state of
Oaxaca over these two days to vote on the following two points
submitted by the leadership:
Point 1 asked the teachers if they agreed or disagreed with the
settlement proposed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Point 2 asked the teachers if they preferred returning to work on
October 23 or October 30.
The questions were confusing. The leadership told the media that no
matter how the teachers voted on Point 1, they would be returning to
work either the 23rd or 30th. If the teachers voted to reject the
settlement, the Section 22 officials explained, this would only mean
more work-site actions to protest the contract, but it would not mean
continuing the strike.
But while the main Section 22 leaders explained this to the media,
they told the teachers that a vote in opposition to the Abascal
Carranza settlement could mean continuing the strike. Teachers were
extremely confused. It was not clear what they were being asked to
vote on, and what their vote would mean.
One leader of Section 22, Augusto Reyes Medina, issued an Open Letter
to all the teachers in Oaxaca denouncing the way the questions were
formulated and demanding that a new Delegates Assembly should be held
on October 21 to reformulate a clear question to the members.
The Open Letter by Reyes Medina -- which was co-signed by all the
hunger strikers in Mexico City and most of the rank-and-file teachers
who had marched for 15 days to Mexico City from Oaxaca -- created an
enormous stir throughout the union. Many local assemblies of the
Section 22 membership refused to cast a vote on the two-point
consultation, to protest the leadership's maneuver.
The afternoon of Friday, October 20, Rueda Pacheco announced that the
membership vote had been tallied, and that the teachers had voted to
return to work on October 23.
Immediately, a majority of members of the Delegates Assembly -- a
body of around 780 teachers delegated from each school -- voted to
convene a new Assembly the next day (October 21) and to disavow
publicly the report presented to the press by Rueda Pacheco.
On October 21, a full Delegates Assembly was held, with the presence
of Rueda Pacheco and all the top officers. The overwhelming majority
of the delegates voted to reject the undemocratic methods used by
Rueda Pacheco to try force the workers to return to their jobs, and
they agreed to convene new local assemblies throughout the state on
October 23 and 24 where only one question would be on the ballot: "Do
you agree that the union should accept the government's last offer
and therefore return to work, thereby ending the strike?"
This is the status of the situation as of this writing on October 23.
It is difficult to know if the teachers, who have not received a
paycheck or any funding from the union for more than two months, will
agree to go back to work. Many are facing evictions from their homes,
repossession of their cars, and dire hunger at home. They also fear
the government may follow through on its pledge to send in the Army
and Marines to dislodge the strikers from the downtown district of
the city of Oaxaca if the strikers don't agree to return to work.
On the other hand, the teachers also know the government is not
offering them anything remotely acceptable: the wage-parity issue (or
rezoning) is not even close to what has been requested, and Ulises
Ruiz Ortiz will stay on as governor. They know that nine strikers
have been killed, scores injured, and countless families divided in
the course of this bitter strike. They don't want these deaths and
hardships to be in vain. They know they are standing up for all
working and oppressed people in Mexico, who are fighting for
democracy and justice.
Their situation is immensely difficult, as you can see. While protest
actions in support of the Oaxaca teachers have taken place across
Mexico, the Mexican trade union and political movements have not yet
stepped up to the plate to offer their sisters and brothers in Oaxaca
their full financial and logistical support to win this strike. This
remains to be done.
I will keep you updated on the situation in Oaxaca as I get new
information.
In the interim, it is more necessary than ever for unionists and
activists to show their full support for the teachers in Oaxaca by
urging a negotiated solution to this crisis and a halt to any and all
forms of state violence against the strikers and their supporters.
Please send your messages to:
Vicente Fox Quesada,
President of the Mexico:
<vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx>
and
Carlos Abascal,
Ministry of the Interior:
<segob@rtn.net.mx>
Please send a copy to Fernando Mendoza Perez,
Member of the Executive Committee
of Section 22 of the SNTE-CNTE:
<Alborotador_oax@hotmail.com>
Also, please send a copy of your letter to
Open World Conference:
<ilcinfo@earthlink.net>
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
Executive Board member,
San Francisco Labor Council
posted by:
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California
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