SNTE leaders accused of attacking their own members in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico
Sep 11 2007 03:36
One for the ultra leftists, this.
To paraphrase, during the public sector's national strike on 31st August against a new law being implemented that bring in what is euphemistically called "pension reform" (but actually amounts to pension erosion), after they blockaded a bridge for a while, rank and file SNTE (that's the teachers' union whose strike kicked off the hoohah in Oaxaca last year) members in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua seized the opportunity to demonstrate outside the local offices of "various heads of sector and school inspectors" against "abuses of powers...which include sexual harassment [including one accusation against the local union chief, also in Spanish] and intimidation and the selling of positions, amongst others" - basically the same old story of low-level corruption, which, it's generally agreed, is on the increase over here.
In response, on 2nd September, the local union building (occupied by rank and file unionists since May) was subjected to harassment by unidentified individuals who showed up in two vehicles: "throwing punches at a professor", breaking equipment and shouting abuse. The writer of the article seems pretty convinced it was the conduct of the local SNTE hierarchy, although he doesn't back it up with any evidence:
"These actions once again demonstrate the recurrent, cynical and above all desperate modus operandi of the corrupt SNTE leadership in response to the threat constituted by its organised and united base. [...]We hold the leaders of Section 8 of the SNTE responsible for these aggressions, those sector heads and inspectors who felt implicated by the protest we held outside their offices on the 31st."
Seems like a huge gulf is opening between the SNTE leadership and its rank and file, for whatever that's worth.
Sep 11 2007 04:25
#2
More details of Gordillo's horsetrading with Calderon courtesy of The Economist. Allegations abound of her involvement in election rigging (she's currently a Panista: member of Calderon's party) and misappropriation of up to $70 million of union funds. She also just accepted the union leadership "for life".
Sep 11 2007 04:31
#3
I've also heard a couple of reports of teachers' actions around the offices of the Social Security Ministry (ISSSTE) in relation to this new pensions law I mention in the OP. I can't remember the details, but I'll look into it. This is the big national movement right now, although it seems to have got involved with Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City who lost a presidential election and has spent a year whingeing about it.
Sep 11 2007 07:39
#4
Alan, if you have time, any chance writing up for news? There's enough there at the moment probably just a bit of jigging would do.
Sep 11 2007 10:03
#5
yeah cheers alan this is interesting.
Sep 11 2007 11:09
#6
Alan, you shoud check into the CNTE, the semi-syndicalist opposition in the SNTE, they control Section 22, the Oaxaca branch. Gordillo scabbed on them during the strike.
http://www.seccion22snte.org.mx/cnte/cnte.htm
Sep 11 2007 17:31
#7
Thanks David, I came across them various times during research. I'd say, given the context of Mexican politics and the established bourgeoisie's shrewd handling of its opposition, that even Section 22 is used as propaganda by the STNE hierarchy. They make STNE look democratic, broad and proletarian. To be honest, if it's reached the stage where your own union boss is scabbing on you, you might wanna just split?
What do you have on the Movimiento resISSSTE? I found a Yahoo Group and tried to join but I'm not sure they'll let me in. There also seems to be more or less unanimous calls for "democraticisation" of unions. The union at my uni isn't affiliated to STNE (but still held a token 2 hour strike on the 31st), and yet they seem to be fighting their own bureaucracy. I think I read somewhere that Gordillo actually supports the ISSSTE law?
Sep 11 2007 18:01
#8
Alan wrote:
Thanks David, I came across them various times during research. I'd say, given the context of Mexican politics and the established bourgeoisie's shrewd handling of its opposition, that even Section 22 is used as propaganda by the STNE hierarchy. They make STNE look democratic, broad and proletarian. To be honest, if it's reached the stage where your own union boss is scabbing on you, you might wanna just split?
I wouldn't be shy about suggesting it, but then I'm not a school teacher in Oaxaca.
Quote:
What do you have on the Movimiento resISSSTE? I found a Yahoo Group and tried to join but I'm not sure they'll let me in. There also seems to be more or less unanimous calls for "democraticisation" of unions. The union at my uni isn't affiliated to STNE (but still held a token 2 hour strike on the 31st), and yet they seem to be fighting their own bureaucracy. I think I read somewhere that Gordillo actually supports the ISSSTE law?
I hadn't hear of Movimiento resISSSTE, although on googling them they seem active and widespread, particularly around the border. Anti-bureaucracy sentiment is common in Latin American union circles of late, it's largely reformist rank and fileism, but the potential is there for more radical developments.
She does! Although it's the reform of the law thats at issue. See La Jornada
Here
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I used the term rank and file too much there. That's not to imply rank and filism on my behalf. I am encouraged by hints of union members battling their own hierarchy. The specifics of Mexican post-revolutionary politics allow for a unique ability to integrate (recuperate) revolutionary and oppositional currents into the bourgeois state machinery (as Wildcat claim has happened to the Zapatistas and Kellen Kass appears to identify similar trends within the APPO in Oaxaca), and SNTE's leader, Elba Esther Gordillo, has become very close to President Calderon. This is a definite factor in the membership's increasing distrust in its bureaucracy.