Anything on the 'gasolinazo' protests in Mexico?

Mexico: #Gasolinazo Uprising Spreads Through Blockades, Looting, and Clashes with Police
https://itsgoingdown.org/mexico-gasolinazo-uprisings-spreads-blockades-looting-clashes/

https://itsgoingdown.org/news-didnt-even-know-going-middec17/

Mexico On Fire

The Zapatistas celebrated another anniversary of their insurrection against the Mexican State. One article wrote:

“If we had spent those 23 years exchanging gunshots,” says Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in an evening address to the many gathered for “The Zapatistas and ConSciences for Humanity” encounter currently taking place in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, “would we have been able to build this?”

The Subcomandante was referring to the flourishing infrastructures of self-organized Zapatista life, lived by thousands of rebel Indigenous people in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista movement today celebrates the 23rd anniversary of its uprising in San Cristóbal on Jan. 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. In the 23 years that have followed the Zapatistas are organized by small communities known as caracoles and have built autonomous hospitals, schools, health clinics, security, transport, and communications operations.

The Zapatista “command” of which Subcomandante Moisés is a member had, as the Subcomandante was recounting in his address, begun shortly after the uprising to consider “another way of fighting” the system of neoliberal economics and bad government that currently has humanity in its grip, with Indigenous peoples of the world being squeezed the hardest. That is, they began to explore a resistance to this death grip that did not rely on weapons and violence and in which only guerrillas played a role. The leaders of the movement began to speak with the “compañer@s*” of the Indigenous communities that comprise it about alternatives to fighting the war against them. The alternative, they discovered, was to include all the rebel Indigenous who struggle — the women, the children, the older people — all together building the just and rational world being fought for “from below” while continuing to face the threat of extermination by the state and capital. As such, the Zapatistas decided they would stop using their weapons against their aggressors and develop a system of self-government, completely autonomous from the state and capital.

For a round up of current Zapatista and indigenous news from Chiapas, check out Dorset Chiapas Solidarity’s monthly round up here.

The #Gasolinazo uprising continues. As Forbes wrote:

The present wave of gasolinazo in Mexico is torching more than social order, peace and property. It has left President Enrique Pena Nieto’s political capital and credence in blisters. His government hiked the gasoline prices by up to 20% with less than a week’s notice, sending millions into a last-minute scramble for filling tanks and jerry cans. The ensuing chaos, fuel shortages, stockpiling, protests, riots, arson, widespread mass looting and at least six deaths since the new year began is nothing but a spillover of public anger at Nieto’s failure to curb corruption and his toothless reforms to boost living standards.

To worsen their woes, Mexicans now fear a steep rise in food prices and basic necessities is imminent. Consumer prices, according to analysts at Banamex, are expected to go up by more than 1.6% in January, highest rise in 17 years in month-on-month comparison. The cost of maize has already soared by 5% – touching 80 cents per kilogram. As a result, tortilla prices – the country’s staple food – have already begun going up in several cities. Half of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, with a significant number subsisting on $3.8 in daily minimum wages. Not being able to afford tortilla was once unthinkable, today millions of Mexicans are bracing to face the stark reality. In 2007, a similar spike in tortilla prices had triggered nationwide protests. But this time, the Mexicans know, it’s different.

teleSur reports that the militant CNTE teachers union has entered the struggle:

Unionized education workers launched actions across the country Saturday, in order to protest against the gas price hikes that have sparked massive protests in recent weeks against the gasolinazo.

Since the protests broke out, clashes between police and protesters and looting have left six people dead, 1,500 arrested, 420 businesses affected and several roads blocked.

Another article discussed some of the economics fueling the revolt:

Last week, the currency fell another 2.5 percent as investors grappled with potential changes in trade policy. Ford Motors, for example, has yielded to Trump’s protectionist threats, cancelling Mexican projects worth billions of dollars. Fiat Chrysler is also considering closing its Mexican factories.

The spike in fuel prices, or “gasolinazo” (gasoline blow), coupled with the weakened currency, has sparked discontent across the country.

Angry Mexicans have taken the streets in at least 25 states, blockading roads, gas stations and fuel facilities. Looting has led to thousands of arrests.

If you’re hungry for more, check out a great collection of articles here.

Happy New Year! (The revolt has begun)

january 11, 2017by edicionesineditos, posted in mexico, translation

“ Behind this movement is hunger. If you do not understand then step back, shut your mouth and learn.
Some complain that the people are “stealing” TVs and other appliances, instead of beans and tortillas. Their ideology wants them to see the poor robbing from poverty”

https://ediciones-ineditos.com/2017/01/11/happy-new-year-the-revolt-has-begun/

Chronicle of days of looting & revolt. Or what comes next?
https://libcom.org/news/chronicle-days-looting-revolt-or-what-comes-next-19012017

This article might seem a bit stodgy by comparison with some of the earlier 'Situationist' style coverage linked above but it still has some useful comment and additional background information for people less familiar with recent Mexican history:
www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2017-01-21/mexicos-turmoil
It's a recent listing on the homepage if that link doesn't take you direct