Mexico: Weekly Newsletter
We hereby share an unofficial translation of the part on Mexico from the latest Weekly Newsletter published by Sol Rojo on the 16th of June.
Despite the federal government’s intransigence and the campaign of political persecution launched against teachers, the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) is continuing the national strike, which has now lasted 16 days, with a central sit-in in Mexico City and actions in several states across the country. An article by Desinformémonos discusses the growing strength of the national sit-in in the country’s capital.
Despite what happened last week during the opening match of the FIFA World Cup, the democratic teachers’ movement has decided to press ahead with its strike and maintain its demand for the repeal of the disastrous 2007 ISSSTE Law, the repeal of the misnamed “educational reform” pushed by EPN and AMLO, a 100% wage increase, and the fulfillment of demands for justice, among others. In their decision to continue the strike, the rank-and-file members of the Coordination are confronting the entire machinery of the old Mexican State and imperialism, which seek to isolate them from the Mexican people in order to crush the movement.
In this regard, in its most recent Special Supplement addressed to the CNTE’s rank-and-file teachers, The Mural Newspaper offers some points for reflection on what this teachers’ struggle has entailed thus far and on the primary task at this moment, which is centered on maintaining the movement’s unity and morale, while also calling on them to build on the “solidarity fostered by the CNTE among various labor unions, student movements, peasant movements, popular movements, movements of mothers searching for their missing children, tenants, settlers, etc., at the national level and particularly in those states where the Coordination has a presence.” The document contains important points intended to contribute to the debate and the development of ideas for the reorganization of the forces and the struggle of the democratic teachers’ movement.
The democratic teachers at the CNTE’s national sit-in and at the various mobilization sites throughout the country know that this will be a protracted struggle, but not an impossible one. Today more than ever, the CNTE’s chance of victory lies in its ability to forge organic and political ties with other movements that champion the struggle and resistance of Mexico’s workers and peoples, defending their class independence against the regime.
We in the Front of the People – Red Sun continue our actions of solidarity with the CNTE, the FECSM, the mothers searching for their missing loved ones, the peoples and communities in resistance, and those groups that have mobilized during the World Cup, taking up the call for a boycott. Now it is necessary for all these sectors to promote a major National Convention for the Unity of the People’s Struggles, with the central focus on the path toward launching the General Strike of National Resistance against the old State and imperialism.
Here and now with the Coordination!
It is right to rebel!
General Strike of National Resistance!
