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Solidarity Without Borders News
Anti-Immigrant Coalition Tactics in US, Exposed in Conference Call
In Secret Meeting, Talk of Immigrant Women as "The New Welfare Queens" and Other Incendiary Rhetoric
By Erin Rosa
http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/post/erosa/C2Ql
Campus Progress
March 9, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
No-Racism: Stell Dir vor Du bist schwarz und illegalisiert
Text einer spanischen Verfasserin aus Tanger/ Marokko, die dort seit langem lebt und (illegalisierte) MigrantInnen unterstützt. Sie begleitet und übersetzt für TransitmigrantInnen bei marokkanischen Behörden.
Read more [Delete the Border]
Mitziton: A Community in Chiapas Resisting a Government Road
Paramilitaries Tied Other Campaign Adherents to Trees and Tortured Them while State Police Waited Passively Nearby
By Jessica Davies
Via the Narcosphere
March 5, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
Federal Police Intimidate Electrician Union Members in Iztapalapa, Mexico
Laid-Off Workers Vow to Relocate Their Table to Continue Assisting Striking Customers
By Kristin Bricker
Via the Narcosphere
March 4, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
Federal Police Intimidate Electrician Union Members in Iztapalapa, Mexico
Laid-Off Workers Vow to Relocate Their Table to Continue Assisting Striking Customers On Monday, March 1, at about 9am, approximately ten heavily armed Federal Police arrived at the former Luz y Fuerza del Centro's Santa Cruz Meyehualco office in Iztatapalapa, Mexico, and forced union electricians to remove a table they had set up outside their former workplace. The electricians, all members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), have continuously staffed the table since December 17, 2009. The table in Iztapalapa is one of about 250 "information modules" that the SME set up all over the area that Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) served before President Felipe Calderon's October 11 executive order that summarily shut down the power companyand threw its 44,000 workers out on the street. While the SME refers to the tables as "information modules," in reality they act as guerrilla customer service centers--and all of the services they offer are free to the public. Electric customers can go to the tables to file legal complaints with the government regarding service problems they have experienced since Calderon shut down LyFC and put its grid under the control of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). Customers who file complaints can also join the consumer strike and refuse to pay their bills. Electric customers who experience service interruptions either due to CFE incompetence or strike-related shut-offs can request that a team of SME electricians come out to restore their power. "Theft Disguised As Inventory" The Iztapalapa information module began to experience problems on February 22 whenagents from the Ministry of Administration and Asset Transfer (SAE) arrived at LyFC's Santa Cruz Meyehualco office with a public notary and several local police under the auspices of carrying out an inventory. They were met by 16 SME members who were staffing the information module. The SME members told the police and SAE officials, "You can't go in. If you want to go in, then we go in, too, because we have personal belongings inside." When the police insisted that the SME let the SAE officials enter, an SME member responded, "There's negotiations going on with the federal government, directly with [Secretary of the Interior Fernando Francisco] Gómez Mont. The union is negotiating so that we can go in and get our personal belongings out, accompanied by a public notary. But we [in the meantime] we can't let strangers inside." Joaquin Gomez, one of the SME members that has staffed the information module outside the Santa Cruz Meyehualco office, told Narco News, "Ever since [Calderon sent Federal Police to take over LyFC without warning on] October 11, we haven't been able to enter. We think these people are trying to steal our belongings. We have a lot of personal belongings inside, including money. We left a lot of personal belongings in our desks and lockers." In addition to personal belongings, Gomez and his former co-workers also fear that the SAE will steal LyFC's customer databases. "They came with laptops, so we think that what they want is the database with all of our customer information. We served about 100,000 customers [at the Santa Cruz Meyehualco location]. So we think they want the files to be able to locate the customers. As soon as the SAE and the local police tried to enter the LyFC office, the workers called their fellow union members for backup. They also called the Francisco Villa Popular Front - Independent (FPFV-I), who are members of the Zapatista's Other Campaign in Mexico City. The FPFV-I immediately sent dozens of members to the office in Santa Cruz Meyehualco office to guard the doors and rally in support of the SME. Faced with such a show of solidarity, the SAE officials and the police retreated, warning that they would be back another day. The SAE officials and local cops didn't come back. However, heavily armed Federal Police came to Santa Cruz Meyehualco on March 1 and forced the SME to take down its information module in front of the office. According to Gomez and the other SME members gathered near the office, the police rotate their positions: approximately four police are inside the offices at any given time while another six stand guard outside. Gomez told Narco News, "We don't know what they [the Federal Police] are doing inside. We suspect that they want to remove vehicles and equipment and files, as they've done in other [LyFC] buildings." The workers report that thus far they have no visual confirmation that the police have removed items from the Santa Cruz Meyehualco office. However, their suspicions aren't unfounded: the SME has video documenting police stealing computers, tools, and even huge suitcases full of copper wiring from LyFC buildings. Consumer Strike Gomez reports that the Federal Police's presence intimidates people. "People are scared to come here because they see the federales outside the agency," he says. "In this zone we were turning in 40-50 complaints daily" before the Federal Police showed up. Now with armed police standing guard, hardly anyone stops by the table, the workers report. Much to the police's chagrin ("Who gave you permission to take photos?" snarled one officer at our photographer), this friendly news team interviewed former LyFC worker Carlos Romero outside the Santa Cruz Meyehualco office. He explained the free services the SME offers at the information modules, and how customers can join the strike. Narco News: What services do the information modules provide? Romero: We explain the reasons for why people shouldn't pay their bills. First, it's because they never signed a contract with the CFE, and therefore they never hired that company to provide any services. Narco News: So, for example, if I were a Luz y Fuerza customer and I didn't want to pay the CFE, what would I have to do? Romero: You just need your voter identification, an old bill from Luz y Fuerza, and your bill that you received from CFE. If the CFE bill hasn't arrived--because in many neighborhoods people haven't received CFE bills yet--then you just need your voter identification and and old Luz y Fuerza bill. This is to demonstrate that you had contracted electric service with Luz y Fuerza and to demonstrate to Profeco (the Federal Prosecutor's Office for Consumer Affairs) that you are being affected. You need to bring three copies of every document to the information module. Narco News: If I stop paying my electric bill and the CFE comes to turn off my power, what happens? Romero: The CFE doesn't have the legal right to shut off your electricity. In fact, they don't even know who has paid and who hasn't paid because they don't have an accurate database. And they don't have a database or a list where they keep track of who has paid and who hasn't paid. In fact, some people are getting CFE bills that tell them that after they paid their bills they should call a number to inform the CFE that they've paid. That's rediculous. They should know who paid and who hasn't. If it happens that they do shut off your power for nonpayment--which would be a very unlikely case--compañeros here from the union would go and reconnect your power for free. This is a service that we're providing to the public so that they have the security of knowing that absolutely nothing will happen to them. It's a benefit we're offering our customers. Since Mexico City is very big, there are modules in neighborhoods and boroughs all over the city. You can find a list of all of the modules online atsme1914.org and radiosme.org.mx. If you go to the module in your neighborhood or borough, they'll give you phone numbers for the teams that are closest to you so that they can come out to your house and help you out. "We Can't Back Down" Gomez says that the police presence outside of the Santa Cruz Meyehualco office won't deter the SME. "We'll put the table next to the office instead of in front of it so that we can continue to serve the public. We can't back down." To former Luz y Fuerza customers, he says, "Don't stop filing complaints. Don't pay your electric bills. File legal complaints with the government. Don't be afraid of the police. We're not afraid of them. We respect them because they have guns. But keep supporting us, and come out with us on March 16 during the national strike." Photos and additional reporting by Santiago Navarro.
Read more [My Word is My Weapon]
Bolivian President Evo Morales Visits Mexico City
The Event, Organized by the Mexico City Government, Was Evo's First Official Visit to Mexico Evo Morales visited Mexico City on Sunday evening on his way to a Rio Group summit in Cancun. The Mexico City government, controlled by the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), organized a public event and press conference to receive the Bolivian president. Hundreds of Mexicans crowded into the central plaza in Coyoacan, an upscale neighborhood in southern Mexico City, to hear Morales speak. Many wove wiphala flags, the rainbow-colored flag that represents Andean indigenous peoples in Bolivia. Bolivia's new constitution, written during President Morales' administration, officially recognizes the wiphala as a government flag. Union leaders and some rank-and-file union members were in attendance. Uniformed members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) could be seen dispersed throughout the crowd. SME Secretary General Martin Esparza was also reportedly in attendance. Other unions, such as the PRD-aligned Public Transport Workers Union, hung their banners around the plaza in Coyoacan. Grassroots and indigenous organizations for the most part did not have a visible presence in the crowd. However, Felisa Segundo Mondragon, a mazahua originally from Mexico State, spoke at the event. She originally arrived in Mexico City with her 9-year-old daughter in search of work. In the 1990s she helped found the Flor de Mazahua artisan cooperative, where she and other mazahua women produced traditional mazahua toys, dresses, and blouses for sale in Mexico City and abroad. She is now an indigenous representative in the United Nations. Segundo enthusiastically received Morales: "His struggle is our struggle... because he is the only man who is recognized throughout Latin America who listens to us, and because he has suffered with us." During the event some indigenous people held an Ancestral Ritual in which they ceremoniously presented a scepter to President Morales. During the ceremony, participants burned copal, an incense made of tree resin. In Mexican indigenous cultures, copal is used in ceremonies as a bridge or mediator between people, heaven and earth, and the living and the dead. Bolivia's indigenous president recognized the contradiction that Sunday's visit presented: his first public visit to Mexico was organized by a political party, not indigenous organizations. His first order of business during the event in Coyoacan was to apologize to Mexican indigenous organizations who had sent him many invitations to meet with them. "I'm sorry that I couldn't come because I had the difficult work of defending myself as President," he said. Morales said that his speech was directed at "the social movements...that dream of another world." He recounted his experiences in social movements and later in the electoral arena. "First, we identified internal enemies and purged them from the popular movement." Morales identified a 1991 meeting of indigenous peoples in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, as the moment leaders of the popular movement in Bolivia decided to organize themselves to take state power. "It took us four or five years [after that] to transform ourselves from a popular struggle to an electoral struggle, from resistance to taking political power." He went on to explain that in 1995, after forming concrete proposalsregarding the defense of Bolivia's natural resources and public services, the movement worked to unite peasant and indigenous movements. "Then we united ourselves with leftist political parties, communist parties, socialist parties--with everyone." Morales says that when the electoral campaigns began, "We made a call to the middle class, to the intellectuals, to join us as well." Uniting so many different factions, Morales argued, was key to winning 64% of the popular vote in December's elections. Morales argued that workers and indigenous peoples throughout America can unite around the common issues of dignity, sovereignty, the recuperation of natural resources, and against the privatization of public services. Later in the evening Morales offered a press conference in the Sevilla Palace hotel on Paseo de la Reforma. There, he stressed the importance of creating a new Organization of American States that does not include the United States. He said that he will present this proposal at the upcoming Rio Group summit in Cancun. Morales asked those gathered at the press conference, "How far can we get with empire or without empire? In my experience, it's better without empire." Fernando Leon contributed to this report. This report originally appeared in Narco News.
Trinidad Ramirez, wife of the imprisoned leader of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), also appeared in stage to present Morales with a red bandana.
Read more [My Word is My Weapon]
On-Going Violations of Human Rights Elicits Call for Honoring Mexico's Treaty Commitment
Pressure for Justice Growing in Oaxaca
By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca
February 28, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
No-Racism: Ägypten: Grenzwachen erschießen Migrant_innen
Ägyptische Grenzwachen haben erneut zwei afrikanische Migrant_innen erschossen, die heimlich nach Israel gelangen wollten. Drei weitere Flüchtlinge wurden nach Informationen der Behörden schwer verletzt.
Read more [Delete the Border]
No-Racism: Protests in solidarity with Yarl's Wood hunger strikers
A mass hunger strike by migrant women detained at Yarl's Wood immigration prison in Bedfordshire has been ongoing since 5th February, 2010.
Read more [Delete the Border]
SME: "Don't Pay Your Electric Bill!"
Supporters Argue that the Closure of Luz y Fuerza is an Affront to Taxpayers, Electricity Customers, Workers, and Subcontractors The "Electric Bill Strike Committee," which coordinates the consumer strike, argues that Luz y Fuerza customers should refuse to pay their electric bills (which are now issued by the CFE) for the following reasons: The SME assures striking consumers that the CFE has no legal power to shut off their electricity if they do not pay their bills. In order to provide striking customers with legal protection, as well as to officially register consumer unrest with the government, the Lawyers Front in Defense of Consumers of Public Services is assisting customers in filing legal complaints against the CFE and the federal government for unlawful charges. The Electric Bill Strike Committee has set up tables in public plazas and shopping malls to help customers file their legal complaints. Last week, Montes de Oca was in California rallying support for the SME from US labor unions such as the AFL-CIO. Photo by Santiago Navarro. Originally published in Narco News on January 26, 2010.
The Mexican Electric Workers Union (SME) is keeping the pressure on the federal government leading up to negotiations between the union and the government over the fate of 18,000 SME members who have still not accepted their severance packages.
The SME is still fighting for a reversal of Calderon's October 10 executive order that shut down the government-owned electric company Luz y Fuerza del Centro, which supplied Mexico City and several central states. The fight to reverse the executive order continues to play out in the courts. This past December, the Mexico City metropolitan region’s First District Court ruled against the SME's petition to reverse the executive order that put 44,000 union members out of a job literally overnight. The SME has appealed the court's decision.
SME’s Secretary of External Relations, Humberto Montes de Oca, informed Narco News that the SME will enter negotiations with the government with an alternative option: that the 18,000 SME members who have still refused their severance packages return to work, that this return to work be under the terms of the collective contract that the SME negotiated with Luz y Fuerza, and that the SME represent those 18,000 former Luz y Fuerza workers when they go back to work. Regarding its demand that its members return to work, the SME continues to fight for the re-opening of Luz y Fuerza. However, union officials have also mentioned to the press that they would accept rehiring with the CFE as long as the CFE complies with the other two demands regarding representation and the SME’s contract.
The federal government put the CFE in charge of Luz y Fuerza's infrastructure and territory, essentially absorbing Luz y Fuerza into the CFE.
The federal government originally estimated that the CFE would rehire about 10,000 laid off Luz y Fuerza workers. It used that empty promise to encourage Luz y Fuerza workers to accept their severance packages: if workers accept their severance package by a certain deadline (a deadline which has been repeatedly pushed back) then the government will do its best to find them new jobs in the CFE, or so the official story goes. In reality, few—if any—Luz y Fuerza workers have been rehired. Given this reality, 18,000 SME workers are holding out for a better deal.
SME workers have also been reluctant to accept (albeit false) promises of rehire with the CFE because CFE workers are represented by the Union of Electrical Workers of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM). The SUTERM´s leadership is notoriously pro-government—a dangerous bias when ¨the boss¨ is the government, as is the case with the CFE workers it represents. The SUTERM has been ruled by the same family for the past 29 years, further calling its degree of democracy and independence into question. The SUTERM´s collective contract with the CFE provides its members with significantly fewer benefits than the SME’s contract with Luz y Fuerza.
Mexican independent labor considers Calderon's decision to shut down Luz y Fuerza to be a direct attack on the SME and independent (not government-controlled) unionism as a whole.
The SME's proposed alternative to the re-opening of Luz y Fuerza would leave the SME—one of Mexico’s few independent (not government-controlled) unions—and its collective contract intact.
The SME's strategy going into negotiations is to focus on grassroots political pressure, namely through mobilizatio ns. “We are combining mobilization with negotiation,” Montes de Oca told Narco News. “Mobilizations strengthen the union’s position at the negotiating table.” The union has also initiated a consumer strike by encouraging electric customers to refuse to pay their bills.
Consumer Strike
At a recent assembly that officially kicked off the consumer strike, La Jornada columnist Pedro Miguel argued that Calderon’s decision to shut down Luz y Fuerza, a government-owned company, is an affront to taxpayers.
At that same assembly, participants agreed to a proposal from Congressman José Antonio Almazán González, a retired electrician and tireless defender of what’s left of Mexico’s nationalized energy sector, that the consumer strike take up three demands that reflect the SME's demands at the bargaining table:
SME's Counter Offensive
The SME has launched a counteroffensive against the Calderon regime. The counteroffensive consists of defending the union from the federal government's smear campaign, vocalizing and publicizing popular discontent with the Calderon administration, and mobilizing workers and allies in support of the laid off Luz y Fuerza employees.
The Calderon administration's official reason for closing Luz y Fuerza was because it was "inefficient"--it operated year after year with a deficit that the government made up for with public funds. The Calderon administration has justified the middle-of-the-night federal police operation that threw 44,000 unionized electrical workers out onto the street (in some cases, literally) by blaming Luz y Fuerza's insolvency on the SME.
The Mexican filmmaking team Canal Seis de Julio refutes these claims in a damning new documentary entitled "Let There Be Light" ("Que Se Haga la Luz"). SME members now can be found on the streets and at public events distributing burned copies of the DVD in exchange for spare change--they ask for enough money to keep burning more copies.
"Let There Be Light" points out that a union, by definition, works to improve its members' wages, benefits, and working conditions. A union does not run the company. In Luz y Fuerza's case, it was government-appointed administrators who ran Luz y Fuerza and made key policy decisions. Moreover, federal law--not the union--dictates how electricity is generated and sold.
"Let There Be Light" notes that the federal government and its appointed administrators set up Luz y Fuerza to lose money. Mexico's Constitution mandates that electric companies be government-owned. Undeterred, the federal government found an ingenious way to circumvent the Constitution: it provided almost no funding for the construction of government-owned generating plants and forced the government-owned electric companies to purchase the majority of their electricity from foreign companies at a rate of over 90 Mexican cents per kilowatt-hour, while government-owned plants can produce electricity at a cost of 60 Mexican cents per kilowatt-hour. Mexico's version of the Internal Revenue Service (known as the Hacienda), which sets electric rates, then mandated that Luz y Fuerza sell that same expensive, privately produced electricity to industrial consumers at a preferential rate--a rate that was lower than the price Luz y Fuerza originally paid for it. In other words, the government intentionally created Luz y Fuerza's deficit. Specifically, Calderon created Luz y Fuerza's deficit: "Let There Be Light" notes that it was Calderon that approved this backhanded and--as he calls it--"inefficient" scheme when he was the Secretary of Energy.
Not only did Calderon set up a system in which Luz y Fuerza operated at a loss, his administration turned its back a potentially lucrative proposal from Luz y Fuerza and the SME to exploit Luz y Fuerza's fiber optic network. As Narco News reported this past October, Luz y Fuerza and the SME solicited the government's permission to provide the triple play service (television, internet, and telephone) over its fiber optic network. The Calderon administration responded by shutting down Luz y Fuerza and busting the SME, which opened the door to a Spanish company and Calderon's fellow party members to exploit Luz y Fuerza's taxpayer-funded fiber optic network for private profits.
To throw salt in the wound, Luz y Fuerza's government-appointed administrators further exacerbated the electric company's publicly funded deficit with exorbitant golden parachutes for its retired executives and free electricity for major corporations and government agencies. Amongst the beneficiaries of free electricity are: BBVA (a bank), Herdez (food products), Soriana (department store), Comercial Mexicana (a grocery store), and Reforma (a newspaper); dozens of government agencies such as the Federal Attorney General's Office and the Supreme Court; the president's residence, Los Pinos; and the United States Embassy.
Making Noise
Calderon should have known that the SME, one of Mexico's oldest, most respected, and most militant unions, wouldn't go down without a fight. Perhaps Calderon figured he had the upper hand. The corporate media unquestioningly parrots whatever his government says. He controls the police and the military--which, thanks to US funding under the Merida Initiative, have new equipment and training at their disposal. But Calderon seems to have underestimated the determination of 44,000 suddenly unemployed union members who have nothing left to lose.
The SME appears to be looking to expand its support base by opening its campaign to non-unionists. It hopes to achieve this goal by broadening its rhetoric and criticisms of the Calderon administration to include issues that affect unionists and non-unionists alike. Additionally, it is opening up a space within its campaign against Calderon's union busting for non-unionists' active participation.
Specifically, the SME has expanded its criticism of Calderon beyond his arguably illegal anti-worker behavior. Many SME members and supporters have publicly criticized Mexican lawmakers’ notoriously high paychecks and bonuses—a sticking point in a country where half the population survives off about $150 USD per month.
The SME's Secretary General Martin Esparza has publicly called upon Mexican social organizations to organize a recall of President Calderon. The SME is an active participant in the Campaign to Recall Calderon, which is largely driven by members of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
The SME is also pulling out more evidence to support its argument that Calderon's attack on the SME is an attack on organized labor. It points to a January 17 article in La Jornada that exposes the working conditions of the electricians who have been contracted to replace SME workers in three Mexico City delegations (similar to New York's boroughs). According to the article, the CFE (which readers will recall is now in charge of Luz y Fuerza's grid) has contracted eight private companies to subcontract 200 people who work under the worst imaginable conditions. The majority of the workers sleep in cots in a 10-meter by 20-meter tent. La Jornada published a picture of the tent: it is reminiscent of an emergency storm shelter. Despite a cold snap that caused Mexico City temperatures to plunge recently, the 200 workers share six showers that only produce cold water. They also share twelve portable latrines.
The private companies brought the subcontractors in from other parts of the country. The men rarely return home see their families, if ever. According to La Jornada, bus tickets home would cost the workers anywhere from a third to 70% of their weekly wages.
The SME's Secretary of External Relations, Humberto Montes de Oca, says the subcontractors are untrained and working under dangerous conditions. He says that many of them have been injured on the job: he cited one man who was reportedly electrocuted and another who fell from a tower. Montes de Oca says that there have been "multiple" deaths. "This is how the government wants to see all of us workers," he told a crowd at a recent assembly. "With miserable paychecks, in a tragic situation, without benefits, without a collective contract, and without a union."
The SME is looking to canalize the participation of non-unionists in its struggle. In addition to holding neighborhood assemblies regarding the crisis, the consumer strike is designed to get people who aren't already SME members involved in the campaign.
The SME is also benefiting from mutual aid. In recent years, the SME has supported other social movements and organizations—even those that aren’t directly related to labor. It mobilized to support the People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) in Atenco when the government laid siege to that peasant organization and put its leader, Ignacio del Valle, behind bars for life. The SME rushed to Oaxacan teachers´ aid in 2006 when the government brutally repressed their strike. The SME also supported National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) students during their 1999-2000 strike against tuition increases. Now students, teachers, and peasants are mobilizing to defend the SME.
The SME is also making its presence known outside of its own events. In addition to its participation in the campaign to recall Calderon, it will send a large contingent to the January 29 "mega-march" in Mexico City against the Calderon administration's proposed tax increases on basic goods. The National Peasant Confederation (CNC), which is affiliated with the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), is organizing the march. The mega-march could have originally been a stunt designed by the PRI, which ruled Mexico under a 70-year one-party dictatorship, but the SME's participation might be a sign that the march is taking on a life of its own.
Read more [My Word is My Weapon]
Bolivian President Evo Morales Visits Mexico City
The Event, Organized by the Mexico City Government, Was Evo's First Official Visit to Mexico
By Kristin Bricker
Via the Narcosphere
February 22, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
Mostlywater.org | Migration: UK: Gaza Protesters Get Hammered
SchNEWS - Friday 19th February 2010 | Issue 710 The state has begun handing down vicious sentences to men accused of participation in the rioting in London that occurred during the weeks of protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza...Ten young men have been jailed for their role in protests demanding an end to Israel’s invasion of Gaza early last year...In total, 91 were arrested, the vast majority young Muslim men...The protesters were all...for the most part...[of] working class immigrant origin.
Read more [Delete the Border]
The political prisoners of Santiago Xanica: What do they want? Freedom!
by carolina Abraham Ramírez Vásquez, Juventino García Cruz and Noel García Cruz, the first political prisoners of the Ulises Ruiz regime in Oaxaca, are from the Zapotec town of Santiago Xanica. The three members of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) and the Popular Anti-neoliberal Oaxacan Magonista Coordinating Body (COMPA) were arrested on January 15, 2005, after hundreds of preventive and judicial police opened a crossfire on a group of 80 men, women, children and old people who were unloading bricks from a truck as part of a community work project. Abraham, Noel and Juventino were seriously wounded by gunshots. The people responded to the attack with sticks and stones, but more police came in, dragged the three wounded people out of the clinic, and took them to a house to be tortured by the police. After a few days, they were taken to the Ixcotel prison and then to the prison at Pochutla. Despite their serious wounds, they received no medical treatment until 36 hours after being admitted to the Pochutla hospital. The comrades were jailed under prefabricated charges of homicide, attempted homicide, kidnapping, and felonious assault. In truth, they were being punished for daring to choose their own local officials according to their own customs and traditional decision-making process, and for protecting the rivers, forests, and ecosystem from the destruction caused by the big Huatulco hotel chains. Several hours after the January 15 shooting, around 300 police showed up in Xanica and stayed for six months. Townspeople were subjected to constant searches, interrogations and surveillance. The police profaned their houses, held children at gunpoint, and harassed the men when they went out to work in the fields. Arrest warrants were issued for many people, who have lived with the constant threat of being detained. When Subcomandante Marcos was on his way to the area with the Other Campaign in 2006, Sergio Ramírez Vásquez, Leoncio Cruz and César Luis Díaz were arrested while putting up posters to announce an event. Policemen and their civil henchmen tortured Sergio and tried to hang César, who was rescued by the women and children of Xanica. 2009 was no exception to five years of mistreatment and abuse. At the first of the year, Abraham Ramírez Vásquez submitted a denunciation of torture to the National Human Rights Commission and sent this message to the public: “…Today, January 15, 2009, marks the fourth year we’ve been held captive by tyrants protected by laws that give them the right to kidnap, kill, and disappear our brothers and sisters who go against their projects. We say to the neoliberal puppets headed by the killer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and to his scroungy dogs turned loose on a crime spree to fill the prisons with innocent people, that our people’s only crime is demanding their rights. As these killers well know, our rebellion comes from the heart and we’ll never just sit back and watch this injustice go on. All their chains and cells and walls aren’t strong enough to keep our voice from being heard… They sell our resources to the highest bidder while our people bear the brunt of the direst poverty, and then they act like they’re so concerned about how terrible the economic crisis is….” On January 31, 2009, a heavily armed police commando made a surprise appearance at the San Pedro Pochutla prison to move Abraham Ramírez Vásquez to the higher security Miahuatlán prison. Calls for urgent action in his support were sent out by CODEDI, Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca (OIDHO) and the Magonist Autonomous Collective (CAMA); the three groups make up the Zapatista-Magonista Alliance. On Tuesday, February 10, CAMA called a press conference and rally at the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City. In a letter sent to Josefina Jaime Quiroz on March 5, 2009, Abraham wrote: “When they took me out of the Pochutla prison, I wasn’t informed of anything. They didn’t give me time to get my things together, and my wife along with my three children, who are four, six and eleven years old, were left inside, putting their lives and physical integrity at risk. What do you have to say about the rights of women and the rights of children that sound so nice in the articles of our Constitution? The psychological damage inflicted on my children is irreparable, as is the loss of my belongings, kitchen equipment, products used in food preparation, refrigerator, grills, gas tanks, paintings and handicrafts that were thrown out into the street. All this simply reflects the scorn that you have for the life of your fellow man”. On March 19, 2009, Abraham began a short hunger strike to demand his release from the punishment area of the security prison where he is isolated and barely fed, where his family members are unable to visit him, and where he is only allowed to go outside for exercise one hour a day. On Friday, March 20, around 30 members of Nodo Solidale demonstrated outside the Mexican Embassy in Rome, Italy. They reported: “Despite the presence of an overly large deployment of police and guards, we shouted out our rage and demanded the immediate freedom of the comrades for more than two hours.” At the beginning of May, the family members and APPO militants who make up the Xanica Prisoners Committee, set up camp to demand freedom for the three political prisoners. On May 19, 2009, Carolina Cruz of CODEDI sent out a denunciation of a foiled search of the town of Xanica on the night of April 25: “Once again the intimidation of the marginalized peoples in our state is on the rise. They send us military troops, supposedly to disarm the citizens when the reality is that entire families have nothing to eat. Many children didn’t eat breakfast before going to school today, and the federal government is shoring up its battalions sent out to intimidate Mexican people. Troops came to Santiago Xanica on April 25 to do a general house search in the town that night. Under federal orders they had searched towns in the surrounding area in the early morning hours the day before. In a show of power, they went in raping people, stealing their money and jewels, and they came to Xanica the next day with the same intentions. They weren’t able to do what they wanted, thanks to the intervention of citizens and comrades, but they stayed in the town for three days. Today they went up into the mountains, and we ask: What is their next plan? The children are terrorized. They’re afraid. When will they come back? Are they nearby? What will they do to us? In this region, everybody lives with this fear….” On June 10, 2009, members of the Xanica Prisoners Committee demonstrated outside the 4th Criminal Court to demand freedom for Abraham, Noel and Juventino. On August 4, 2009, the First Penal Court at Santa María Huatulco dictated a prison sentence of 8 years for Juventino and Noel García Cruz. On October 2009, a Pulque Fair was organized by CAMA at the Libertarian Social Center to raise funds for the political prisoners of the Zapatista-Magonista Alliance. On November 5, 2009, the Xanica Prisoners Committee demonstrated outside the State Human Rights Commission to demand the intervention of the state Ombudsman in the case. Their representative Yolanda Ramírez Vásquez, Abraham’s sister and also member of the Sentenced Prisoners Committee for Absolute Freedom, denounced the Commission’s failure to act. On November 11, 2009, Yolanda Ramírez Vásquez stated that even though Juventino and Noel’s sentence was dictated on August 4, it was only recently that one of the parties was notified of this sentence. She said: “They were forced to sign a document that was their sentence although they didn’t know it, thereby leaving the youth with no right to appeal. Neither their family members nor lawyers were informed of the decision.” On November 23, 2009, members of the Xanica Prisoners Committed demonstrated outside the Court at Santa María Huatulco to pressure the Judge Magaly Medina to release Abraham Ramírez Vázquez and the two brothers, Noel and Juventino García Cruz. A banner and graffiti demanded freedom for the three and an end to the hostile acts against Abraham. On December 12, 2009, the State Assembly of the Section 22 Teachers Union issued a statement “supporting freedom for the Xanica prisoners: Abraham Ramírez Vásquez and Noel and Juventino García Cruz and repudiating the unjust sentence of 8 years in prison for the latter two”. In closing, we go back to Abraham Ramírez Vásquez’s message of January 15, 2009: “We must always remember, people, that if we bow down to this treatment, our children will suffer the consequences. We were born free. We love freedom. So seeing as how all those puppets still don’t wear chains, we’ll never slack off in our struggle. And since so many of us have been killed, disappeared, or locked up, we can’t take one step backward.” To support the prisoners of Santiago Xanica, come to the dance on February 18 at 6:00 pm at the Multiforo Cultural Alicia, Av. Cuauhtemoc 91- A, Col. Roma. $40 pesos. Groups include Santocho Antifa (on their second anniversary), Salario Mínimo, Son Solidaridad and the Tlaxiqueros. Sponsors: Colectivo Autónomo Magonista, Cruz Negra Anarquista and Alianza Magonista Zapatista.
Read more [El Enemigo Comun]
Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno is free!
February 18, 2010 – From Casa Chapulin – Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, husband and father of three children, was released from prison for wrongfully being accused for the killing of Indymedia journalist Bradley Ronald Will. Will was shot on October 27, 2006 by paramilitary troops under the orders of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz while he was recording a mobilization in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca during the 2006 APPO movement. Amidst the clouds and rainy day, the Martinez Moreno family was greeted by community members, teachers, friends, and media. Family and friends marched from the prison to the Zocalo. Juan Manuel was imprisoned for approximately 16 months without any solid evidence or witnesses proving him guilty. photos by Sylvia Gonzalez In this clip, a community member shares with us some words while waiting for the release of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno. Juan Manuel was imprisoned for over 16 months for being wrongly accused for the assassination of Bradley Will, Indymedia reporter. In this clip, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno shares with us words of hope upon recently being release from prison. He was imprisoned for over 16 months for being wrongfully accused for the murder of Bradley Will, Indymedia journalist, who was documenting a mobilization in Oaxaca during the 2006 APPO movement
Juan Manuel (green shirt) walks free with his family, friends, and teachers at his side while leaving Ixcotel prison.
The media captures the release of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno
The family greets friends waiting for the freedom of Juan Manuel
The family stands strong as they receive the support of the crowd
Family members, friends, teachers, and community members march from the prison to the Zocalo to celebrate the liberty of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno
Rally in the city center
Read more [El Enemigo Comun]
Enlace Zapatista: Movilizaciones en apoyo a las comunidades zapatistas
ACCIÓN URGENTE!
LOS ZAPATISTAS NO ESTÁN SOLOS!
En días pasados se han dado una serie de agresiones a los compañeros Base de Apoyo Zapatista en Bolon Ajaw y en la Laguna de San Pedro, estos últimos eran compañeros y compañeras desplazados de Montes Azules.
Las acciones de intimidación y desalojo efectuadas por el mal gobierno, utilizando al grupo [...]
Read more [Delete the Border]
No-Racism: Calais: What happened this weekend?
Kronstadt Hangar, space for migrants and activists in Calais, was opened to the public on Saturday 6 February 2010. On Saturday afternoon police tried to keep any migrants from attending the space. However, about 150 migrants broke their lines and gathered in the space. On Sunday, 7 February 2010, french police violently evicted the hangar.
Read more [Delete the Border]
No-Racism: Migrant Centre Evicted by French Riot Police in Calais
On Sunday, 7th of February 2010, french riot police evacuated migrants from a warehouse in Calais after ministers expressed concern that the building could become a base for those trying to reach Britain.
Read more [Delete the Border]
Authentic Journalism Rises Again on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula
“We have to democratize journalism and make it a tool that is available and of use to every citizen trying to better his or her life and their community’s life.”
By RJ Maccani
Class of 2010, School of Authentic Journalism
February 6, 2010
Read more [Narco News]
Judicial authorities endorse impunity in Oaxaca. Ulises Ruiz and accomplices are exonerated from the case of Emeterio
To all media outlets As many people already know, Emeterio Marino Cruz, one of the many social justice fighters that was repressed by the assassin governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and Felipe Calderon, filed a criminal complaint against Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Jorge Franco Vargas, Sergio Segreste Rios, Aristeo Lopez Martinez, Daniel Camarena Flores, Alejandro Barrita Ortiz, and Evencio Nicolas Martinez on charges of abuse of authority, attempted murder, physical torture, moral torture, psychological torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, destruction of public service, and injuries. This complaint was filed at the Mexican Attorney General’s (PGR in Spanish acronym) office. But after time, the complaint was suspended. Months later we found out that the complaint was in the hands of Evencio Nicolas Martinez, agent and defendant of the state of Oaxaca. Again, another crime was committed, because he did not step up to be a judge in this case and because he delayed the process that should proceed according to law. A couple days ago, the Licenced Wilfrido Bemardino Garcia Olivera, agent of the Public Ministry and associated with the Mexican Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca (PGJE in Spanish acronyms), announced that the aforementioned people denounced by Emeterio are exempt of all criminal charges, and therefore there is no guilty party for the actions on July 16, 2007. It is clear what we have already known, that “justice” in our country was not intended for the poor. It is for that reason that we make this public denouncement. This is an act of total impunity, but nothing strange for a country where a union of more than 60,000 workers could disappear from one day to the next, where the state is saturated with military and paramilitary troops under the pretext to stop narcotrafficking, a country that passes reforms to make the powerful more powerful, a country where the freedom of expression is a crime and the price is either death or imprisonment, as is the case for the political prisoners and those who were assassinated in 2006. It is for this reason that we make this call to organize and mobilize since this is the only way to achieve justice. 2010 will be a year in which justice and repression will switch names, where even if the tyrant URO leaves his position of power, it will not guarantee that there will be change in Oaxaca. We know that the impeachment of URO will not be easy but it is not impossible either. Fraternally, Emeterio Marino Cruz y familia
To the public body
To all community members
Read more [El Enemigo Comun]
El Enemigo Comun: Judicial authorities endorse impunity in Oaxaca. Ulises Ruiz and accomplices are exonerated from the case of Emeterio
To all media outlets
To the public body
To all community members
Read more [Delete the Border]
Oaxaca: Change possible with the reorganization of el pueblo, not with corrupt Political Alliances
To all media outlets On January 28, 2010 a local newspaper published an article written by Reynaldo Bracamontes titled “Political Alliances: The Only Exit in the Face of Oppression: Emeterio”. In the article Emeterio supposedly says that the Political Alliance is the citizen’s alternative in order to free ourselves from the oppression of the current PRI government. We deny this supposed declaration. The press conference held on the 27th of January was held in order to show the total impunity of the government in Oaxaca. Our position on the elections has been clear since the moment we joined the struggle. We are sure that change will not come from a political party and it is even less likely to come from this corrupt alliance, which allegedly contains leftist political parties. In reality the leftist parties are like all political parties, reformists and thieves. All of the political parties supported the repression in 2006-2007. Change is only possible with the reorganization from the people of Oaxaca. We remember the experience in 2006 when the PRD took advantage of the crisis in the state by declaring a punishment vote against the PRI and the PAN. They won the election, but once in power they abandoned the people. The PRI, PAN, PRD, PT, CONVERGENCIA, and other parties ordered the repression against the people of Oaxaca and allowed the PFP to enter the state in October of 2006. These experiences made the political situation in Oaxaca and the rest of the country very clear to us. We completely reject all the political parties that are participating in the Political Alliance because they are all the same as the PRI, but with another name. We will continue moving forward without political parties. The only popular power is in the people and we will continue moving forward with the people through this period of reorganization. Our dignity has no price. Our ideas are clear. We will not stop until there is profound change not superficial change. Sincerely, Emeterio Marino Cruz and Family
To the public body
To all community members
Read more [El Enemigo Comun]
El Enemigo Comun: Oaxaca: Change possible with the reorganization of el pueblo, not with corrupt Political Alliances
To all media outlets
To the public body
To all community members
Read more [Delete the Border]
No-Racism: About the death of the Indian immigrant worker in Varipetro
Press release by Forum of Migrants in Crete, 03. Feb 2010: For the death of the Indian worker in Varipetro, Chania, on 31st of January 2010.
Read more [Delete the Border]
No-Racism: Migrants in the Venna detention centre revolt
The revolt in this prison for migrants shows the truth behind the greek government's migrant-friendly mask!
Read more [Delete the Border]
Indybay: Jailed in Oaxaca for Asking Ulises Ruiz a Question
On January 28, at around 9pm Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of them recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away. A friend of Brad Will took advantage of the governor's presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved.
Read more [Delete the Border]
Off the press
Solidarity Without Borders
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