Meeting Mexican Women Laborers after the NAFTA (4)
By Park Nam-hee
Published: October 12, 2011
Translated by Gayoung Yoon
Oaxaca, a tourist destination with a beautiful and diverse culture
With an
invitation from CILAS (Centro
Investigacion Laboral
y Asesoria Sindical),
an organization that promotes laborer education, I headed to Oaxaca. The reason
was to participate in an
international conference on the issue of “Labor union and education
activities.”
At the
conference, I heard a detailed story about demonstrations held by teachers in 2006.
The
7-hour bus journey from Mexico City to Oaxaca was beautiful. Mexico has an incredibly
vast and diverse landscape. The sceneries stretched along the winding mountain
roads displayed rocky hills and thick forests. There were cactuses, endlessly spreading maize fields, and people working in the
fields who looked
warm and friendly.
Before
I went to Oaxaca, I searched for some information on Internet. Most people who
have visited Oaxaca wrote
that it is a peaceful and culturally diverse place.
However,
the popular assembly was formed in
response to the killing of 26 innocent citizens by
police and army forces that were detached by the central government to quell a demonstration by the teachers’ labor union in 2006. The fact
that the Oaxacan
people’s non-violent
demonstration was brutally trampled by army forces is not well-known among tourists.
Shouts of teachers
and citizens that resounded in the square in 2006
Lucio is a 48-year old English
teacher. She has been working as a teacher for 21 years, and has been a union
member of the teachers’ labor union for 11 years. She was right there in 2006 during
the teachers’s struggle. That year she was newly born and found her identity.
She said she was very proud of being a member of the teachers’ union.
 |
| Women demonstrating in support of the assembly of the teachers’ labor union in 2006 |
In May 2006, they started to
fight for five conditions, including better treatment of teachers of the
teachers’ union, providing breakfast to students (she explained that a number
of students from villages need to eat in the morning as they walk for a long
time to get to school), increasing the government budget for schools (to provide
students with books and educational materials), and the teachers’ right to be considered
laborers protected by the labor law.
Teachers pitched a tent and
staged a sit-in protest in Zocalo (the center of Oaxaca). When they started the
protest, a number of community issues that people had kept silent about burst
out—the corruption of the central
government, loss of the native Indians’ land to a small group of privileged people and the disappearance of an environmental
activist who had raised this issue. People who kept silent about all sorts of
issues started to speak out.
Lucio explained about the
circumstances at the time.
“I was really surprised.
Nobody knew that people in the community would speak out about the issues that had
never been brought up openly. There were also many citizens who supported our
struggle as teachers when they recognized that we fought not only for our own
rights but also for students and the problems in the society. The number of
members of “Section 22,” a labor union, increased from 70,000 to 75,000.
When we talked about support
from citizens and their participation, Lucio shed tears.
“Citizens of the community
provided us with meals, water, coffee, bread and toilet paper. It was very
moving. Especially when soldiers tried to destroy our barricade with a tank,
older women came forward and stopped the tank with their bare hands. I will
never forget that scene.”
She said she found her
identity as an Oaxaca Indian.
“On June 14th,
2006, the regional government deployed police forces, but the citizens of
Oaxaca defended us. I couldn’t be more proud of Oaxacan people. Since I left my
hometown and started to live in the city at the age of 15, I have been a city
person. However, after the protest I realized my roots are in Oaxaca, with the help of the common people of Oaxaca.”
A principle
of the popular assembly: ‘Discuss until everybody agrees’
When the regional government
violently tried to take teachers to the police station, about 400 organizations
in the Oaxaca region formed Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly.
Lucio married when she was 18.
She divorced her husband 11 years ago and came back with her three children to
her father’s place in Oaxaca. She said she didn’t know participating in the
struggle of teachers in 2006 and organizing a popular assembly would change her
this much.
 |
| Lucio working at the labor union ‘Section 22’ |
“The popular assembly shared
ideas, discussed and argued until every participant agreed and decided. This
concept and way is the spirit of Oaxaca ‘native Indians’. In the beginning it
drove me crazy, as it was boring and time-consuming to gain the agreement of every
participant. However now I think it is necessary to discuss and argue for a long
time in order to achieve mutual agreement. Is time money? This is a western
mentality and it is wrong. We need sufficient time and plenty of discussions in
order to attain harmonious accord.”
She said it is not easy to
live as an executive of a labor union. There are a great number of bribes (in
the forms of money, entertainment and even drugs) offered to executives of
labor unions, and if they refuse them they get threatened and blackmailed. There
are still cases in which executives disappear.
Not only Lucio but also many
Oaxaca citizens have changed through the experience of organizing the popular
assembly.
“The struggle of 2006 changed
a number of Oaxaca people. A new young generation grew up as a main actor of a social
movement. People like me participate enthusiastically in the activities of the
labor union, and they became proud to be citizens of Oaxaca. There is an
expression in the native language: guelaguetza.
It is difficult to explain, but it means something like ‘I will be always there
for you whenever you need my help.’ During our struggle, the citizens of Oaxaca
showed this spirit. I found my roots.”
After talking to Lucio, we
came out to the Zocalo Square. It is where the teachers staged a sit-in
protest. Pointing out the posters on the street, she explained, “We protested
together up to the third street from here”. The poster was about another assembly
to celebrate the 2006 struggle.
It was such a pleasure to meet
Lucio in Oaxaca. She is extremely busy working with the labor union, community
activities and the women’s committee. Through them, she is practicing the
native Indian’s spirit of “I will be always there for you whenever you need my
help.” Oaxacan Lucio is my friend, my fellow.
Park
Nam-hee, who worked for 10 years with the Women’s Trade Union in Korea, has
been sending us stories of women laborers whom
she met during her travel in Mexico. Her stories, in a 5-part series, show
Mexican society in transition after the NAFTA between Mexico and the USA, and
women’s activities to cope with it.
*Original article:
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