Mexican Teachers: "Education is Not a Class Privilige, It is a Social Right"

by Jack Gerson

The previous post on this blog, Ken Hanley's article "Mexico Teachers Strike Closes Classes in Several States", gave a partial picture of the massive and bitter struggle that has been going on across most of southern and central Mexico for nearly a year, including months-long and ongoing mass strikes of teachers in several Mexican states. The root cause of the conflict is the attempt by Mexico's new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, to impose austerity in the form of a neoliberal education agenda akin to the assault on public education in the U.S. and the UK, including tieing teachers' jobs to student performance on high stakes standardized tests, weakening union rights, and modifying the curriculum to be "business-friendly" -- as dictated by the World Bank and a cabal of multinational banks and corporations.

The best popular background article on the Mexican struggle is David Bacon's "U.S.-Style School Reform Goes South",  published last April in The Nation magazine:

http://www.thenation.com/article/173308/us-style-school-reform-goes-south#

However, since that article was published, the struggle has really heated up. Teachers in Guerrero, Michoacan and other states have walked out, joining the Oaxacan teachers (discussed in Bacon's article), mainly led by the CNTE (a large radical national grouping in the national teachers' union).

I think that the essence of the struggle is contained in the April 22 declaration of the teachers of Michoacan state stating their grievances and their resolve and their intention to strike until their grievances were resolved. I'm including it in the original Spanish, but I'll translate the heading:  "Education is not a Class Privilige, it is a Social Right."

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“LA EDUCACIÓN NO ES UN PRIVILEGIO DE CLASE, ES UN DERECHO SOCIAL”

A LA  OPINIÓN PÚBLICA

A LAS GOBIERNOS FEDERAL Y ESTATAL

A LOS MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN:

Hoy, 22 de abril del año 2013, el magisterio michoacano, nos dirigimos a ustedes para hacer saber la determinación que hemos tomado de asumir nuestros deberes cívicos, frente a las reformas laboral, energética, fiscal y educativa, y lo hacemos una vez que tocamos todas las puertas de gobierno, que buscamos oídos para nuestras peticiones, que solicitamos  la protección de la justicia ante los tribunales, que públicamente hemos solicitado ser incluidos en las discusiones para la construcción del modelo educativo  que requiere este país, y la respuesta ha sido negativa. Pero, al mismo tiempo, el trato que nos dan es de difamación desde los medios de comunicación, para justificar el uso de la represión policiaca. Por todo lo anterior, a partir de esta fecha NOS DECLARAMOS EN PARO DE LABORES POR TIEMPO INDEFINIDO, hasta lograr respuestas satisfactorias en lo referente a:

1. La  abrogación del decreto, emitido por Enrique Peña Nieto, que reforma los artículos 3° y 73 de la Constitución, por lesionar el carácter gratuito de la educación al imponer cuotas a los padres de familia, y permitir que la educación sea un negocio de los empresarios; por lesionar los derechos sociales y laborales, legítimamente legados por los hombres que nos dieron Patria; por pretender instituir el contratismo y buscar el despido de más de un millón de maestros con un examen tramposo, que no es una evaluación; y por buscar un mayor empobrecimiento de los contenidos educativos, en detrimento de la formación integral de los estudiantes.

2. El castigo correspondiente a Elba Esther Gordillo Morales por el despojo de nuestro dinero y otros delitos cometidos contra el magisterio y el pueblo de México. Que se realice un proceso de elección de los representantes en nuestro sindicato,  donde todos los profesores participemos. Desconocemos la imposición, por parte del gobierno federal, de Juan Díaz de la Torre, miembro de la mafia de Elba Esther.

3. El respeto total a las Normales formadoras de docentes, por ser un pilar fundamental de la educación pública y gratuita, y legado de la Revolución Mexicana.

4. Que se ponga un alto a la represión física, administrativa, mediática y laboral que los gobiernos estatal y federal han emprendido contra los maestros que luchamos por nuestros derechos y por la defensa de la educación pública, científica, nacional y gratuita.

 Sabidos de los riesgos que corremos por las amenazas de un gobierno que se niega a respetar el derecho de niños y jóvenes de acceder a la cultura universal, tomamos esta determinación porque estamos seguros de la justeza de las demandas, y tenemos claro  que, si bien el Paro Indefinido reduce el número de días clase en las escuelas, no salir a luchar contra esta mal intencionada reforma, es renunciar a contar con escuelas públicas y con programas de estudio basados en el progreso de las ciencias y la tecnología, orientados al desarrollo de las facultades humanas. No salir a luchar, sería seguir aceptando programas de estudio y textos empobrecidos, que tienen al día de hoy resultados catastróficos en niños y jóvenes, y dejarle paso libre al creciente cobro de cuotas y a la destrucción del sistema educativo. Por el cariño y compromiso hacia nuestros niños y jóvenes, seguiremos luchando con la mayor organización, inteligencia y solidaridad posibles.

Echar abajo la reforma educativa no será cosa sencilla, se requiere  contar con la participación decidida y consciente de toda la sociedad en las acciones de oposición y presión política. Se unifican los ricos empresarios, el gobierno, los diputados, senadores, partidos políticos y medios masivos de comunicación para imponer la reforma educativa en contra de los intereses y aspiraciones del pueblo. Por ello, nuestro llamado a unificar todas las fuerzas del pueblo es urgente, por el presente y futuro de la Patria.

Vamos a una intensa Jornada Nacional de Lucha, al lado de los trabajadores y pueblos de Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, Chiapas, Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo, Puebla, Distrito Federal, Tlaxcala, San Luis Potosí, Coahuila, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Jalisco, entre otros.

Informamos que en el marco del Paro, además de acciones de presión política, realizaremos actividades culturales, pedagógicas, deportivas, sobre el cuidado del medio ambiente, alimentación sana, etc., en los centros escolares y comunidades, como parte del compromiso que hemos asumido en  el Congreso Estatal Popular de Educación y Cultura, realizado los días 17,18 y 19 de abril, en la ruta de implementar un modelo educativo que responda a los intereses de TODOS los michoacanos.

Y, aunque queda claro, es necesario decirlo: es responsabilidad del gobierno federal y estatal el estallamiento del paro de labores, por su intención de acabar con la educación gratuita de los mexicanos, ¡NO LO VAMOS A PERMITIR!

ATENTAMENTE

“POR LA EDUCACIÓN AL SERVICIO DEL PUEBLO”

SECCIÓN XVIII DEL SNTE-CNTE

MICHOACÁN

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Mexico teachers' strike closes schools in several states

From The Digital Journal

 By Ken Hanly

Aug 23, 2013 in Politics

Mexico - Most of the 26 million Mexican students return to school this week but more than two million were forced to stay home as teachers in several areas launched strikes opposing changes to the public education system.

About 24,000 schools in five impoverished states in the south of Mexico remain closed as teachers strike. Among the chief demands is the cancellation of new federal regulations requiring teachers to take competency exams to be hired and retained. In the state of Tabasco half a million students will not go back to school as teachers demand the resignation of the state education minister.

About 20,000 strikers marched on the National Congress in Mexico City and have set up camp in the central plaza. Leaders say they will stay there indefinitely. Hundreds of strikers attempted to force their way into a session of the legislature voting on reforms and fought pitched battles with police, in which 22 officers were injured. A blockade by teachers on Wednesday forced senators and deputies to hold their session at a convention center. Leader of the largest teachers' union the CNTE, Francisco Bravo, said: “Our demand is for them not to vote the laws, that they suspend the process and that we enter into negotiations that take the teachers' point of view into consideration". President Enrique Nieto persuaded the Mexican congress to pass sweeping educational reforms last December. This month legislation is being negotiated to implement the reforms.

As classes began in many schools and strikers entered the capital Nieto said: "Education is the most powerful instrument for Mexicans to reach new and better opportunities in life." The striking teachers say they are simply scapegoats and that the real problems in Mexico's poorly performing public education system is years of underfunding and endemic corruption in the system. The strike leader Juan Ortega told the press: "We want the whole national education system to be evaluated". While there are serious weaknesses in the Mexican system, the situation has vastly improved from a generation ago. Then, adults were fortunate if they were able to finish six years of grade school. Now almost every child fifteen years and younger is in school. However, the quality varies greatly and Mexico has the highest dropout rate of the 34 OECD member nations.

The head of the National Education Worker's Syndicate or SNTE, the largest teacher's union has been jailed on corruption charges. Somehow while supposedly living on her teacher and union salaries Gordillo managed to amass a fortune of millions of dollars during her more than two decades as head of the union. The strikes taking place now are being led by a rival union that is often more radical, the National Education Workers Coordinator. The fight against the reforms in southern Mexico has been ongoing all year. Teachers in the province of Guerrero attacked and burned government and party offices after the state legislators passed the reforms. Parents in Guerrero are setting up their own classes as thousands of teachers protesting a revamp of the country's education system have closed schools.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/356941#ixzz2czIukzD5

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Solidarity With Striking Mexican Teachers

 by Jack Gerson

Facts for Working People salutes and sends solidarity greetings to the courageous Mexican teachers who are locked in bitter struggle against the Mexican national government’s attempt to impose a U.S.-style corporate reform agenda on Mexican public schools and teacher unions. Last week, tens of thousands of teachers in the southern state of Guerrero dramatically escalated their strike against Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s “national education reform” package by marching on the state capital of Chilpancingo, blocking the highway connecting Mexico City with Acapulco for hours. Within days, teachers in neighboring Michoacan state announced that they were striking until Pena Nieto withdraws his proposals, state victimization of teachers stops, and corrupt former National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) president Elba Ester Gordillo returns the 2 billion pesos ($160 million) that she embezzled from the teachers’ union. The powerful teachers union of Oaxaca state (which has battled state and national governments throughout the past decade) are also striking, as are teachers in parts of Chiapas state.

Pena Nieto’s proposals are modeled after planks of the corporate assault on U.S. public education. They push test-based accountability, linking teacher pay and even their jobs to student scores on high stakes standardized tests. As David Bacon documented in The Nation magazine (“U.S.-Style School Reform Goes South”), the corporate assault on public education in Mexico has heavy backing from major corporate and financial forces – the World Bank prominent among them – and has long-term aims of union-busting, privatization, and downsizing (all of which are already well under way in the U.S.) The Mexican education "reformers" cite the same for-rent academic hacks that are trotted out in the U.S. -- one of their favorites is Hoover Institute economist Eric Hanushek, a notorious teacher-basher whose data distortion has been pretty thoroughly exposed in the U.S.

We should all express solidarity and support for the embattled Mexican teachers. Of course, we should raise solidarity motions in our unions and organizations. We should send letters of support. But the best way to show our solidarity is to ourselves take action against the corporate assault that we face here -- against the downsizing, the outsourcing, the school shutdowns, the high stakes testing, the union-busting. And, finally, that's starting to take shape:

First, of course, was the massive turnout by teachers and community for last September's Chicago Teachers Union strike, an action that has energized public education advocates around the country; 

A few days ago, we blogged about the inspirational and ongoing Seattle teacher-led boycott of their school district's high stakes standardized Measures of Academic Performance (MAP) tests.

Last week, Chicago high school students walked out on their school district's standardized tests to protest the planned closure of 54 schools as well as to protest the tests themselves. These brilliant young people directly linked the school shutdowns with the high stakes tests whose outcomes are being used around the country as the excuse to close schools in low-income communities -- hitting especially hard at black and brown communities. (Philadelphia is closing 23 schools; New York City closed 140 schools and plans to close 23 more; Washington DC closed 24 schools and plans to close another 15; Kansas City closed more than half its public schools; etc.) 

The ongoing and monumental struggle of Mexican teachers to defend the right of all citizens to a public education and basic teacher union rights -- rights guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution -- is a fight against "reforms" that would impose the same formula being fought by the Seattle teachers and the Chicago students: tie teachers' jobs to student scores on standardized tests, adopt new curricula dictated by powerful corporations, discourage critical thinking and demand obedience.

Nevertheless, it's clear that the struggle to defend public education in Mexico is far more advanced than that in the U.S. At least part of the reason for that has been the abject passive, class collaborationist role of the national and state teacher union leadership (and, alas, many local leaders as well. For years, some of us have campaigned to get  U.S. teacher unions to mount mass campaigns against the corporate assault / privatization of U.S. public education: high stakes testing , school shutdowns / downsizing, charter schools, outsourcing. We've been opposed every step of the way by the national and state union leadership (and most local leaders). So while solidarity motions are good, we  need to underscore that the fight being waged in Mexico needs to be waged here as well -- not let the union bureaucrats mouth support while blocking action.

Seattle to Chicago to Guerrero; Philadelphia to Oaxaca; New York to Michoacan. Same struggle, same fight.

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Immigration: Obama goes where the imbecile Bush feared to tread

by Richard Mellor

When Clinton signed the North American Free Trade agreement (NAFTA) it had a number of consequences.  It sped up the export of US jobs as US manufacturers shifted production south of the border to take advantage of cheaper labor power.  By 2010, more than 500,000 US jobs were displaced according to the Economic Policy Institute. This also had the effect of lowering wages in the US as NAFTA never contained provisions that protected Mexican workers from super exploitation and US firms demanded concessions to compete.  The threat of moving was used more and more as a form of economic terrorism to force US workers to accept concessions.

NAFTA threw Millions of Mexican subsistence farmers off their land; destroyed their way of life as there was no way these small farmers producing corn could compete with US agribusiness which is highly mechanized by comparison and which by 2002 was subsidized to the tune of 40% of net farm income.

Having no means of subsistence, many of these landless Mexican peasants headed north.  As I have said many times before, the relationship between the global power and its southern neighbor reminds me very much of that between England and Ireland which supplied the colonial power with a steady supply of cheap labor and cheap food.

By 2007 more than 850,000 people were caught trying to cross in to the US illegally through our southern border. You cannot stop people trying to feed themselves and their families. The politics and economic behind it all is hidden.  The role of US imperialism in that part of the world, an area the US capitalist class considers their “back yard” is unknown to most Americans; the invasions, government coups, assassinations of opponents to the US multinational corporations that have plundered the region's resources, poisoned its environment and exploited its workers, we don’t hear too much about that.

As was the case with the Irish in Britain, these southern immigrants come under assault in all sorts of ways.  They are firstly raped, robbed and beaten by those they pay to transport them here. They have been murdered by their guides or US border agents as has been the case on more than one occasion.  If they find work here, their undocumented status makes them most vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation by landlords and employers. They are blamed in the media for the taking of jobs “real” Americans could fill and as a burden on the taxpayer.

In bad economic times they are the perfect scapegoat, they are poor, foreigners, a different nationality and more often than not, although not exclusively, a different color; a perfect part of a divide and rule strategy.

Responding to this xenophobic warfare, Republicans pushed the imbecile Bush to do more.  By 2007 they demanded that he “deploy four drones” along the border, build 105 radar and camera towers and increase the number of border agents to 20,000 while building more fencing.

Where Bush failed though, Obama has not feared to tread.  In his first term the Obama administration spent $73 billion on immigration enforcement. Presently the US has 120 drones scouting the border, has installed 670 miles of fencing, erected 300 towers and beefed up the border agents to 21,394, 18,500 of them on the US Mexican border according to Bloomberg Business Week.  The results have been favorable as immigration agents deported close to 1.5 million undocumented workers in the past four years. The reduction in border crossing most experts agree is also due to the crash as fewer jobs were available and many immigrants returned home.

As I pointed out in a previous blog, for workers it is in our economic and class interests to oppose these measures and the racist and xenophobic attacks on undocumented workers. There was a headline in my local paper a few weeks ago about Latino’s being the most populous ethnic group in the state before too long. “The Latinos are coming, my god, the Latinos are coming.”  But which Latinos? I would argue as a worker it is “our” Latinos, people from the same class background as the vast majority of us, wage earners-----workers.  The 11million or so undocumented workers already in the US pay their dues and have paid them a thousand times over.  They work in the worst jobs for the lowest pay and face savage discrimination at times.  They are the butt of racist jokes and are denied basic human services by politicians who are millionaires ( and billionaires) and who whip up this climate of fear in order to divide us and drive all workers to conditions that prevailed before the rise of the CIO in the 1930’s and the civil rights movement that followed.

I don’t intend to beat a dead horse but to side with the anti-immigrant crowd on this issue is disastrous. We cannot escape the effects of having a 2000 mile border with a low waged economy and super exploited workers. For workers not to have an independent position on this issue means the bosses win all round.  Leaving aside the $73 billion of our money being spent on militarizing US society which will be used against US workers as we resist the destruction of our living standards in the future (drones will be used against us and so will the border guards to break strikes and protests against austerity), having cheaper labor just across the border also weakens us in other ways.  As I wrote some time ago in a piece I distributed at work:

“But even if these workers and peasants don't come here to the US, staying in their home countries will have basically the same effect. It will increase the supply of Labor, further driving down wages (Labor’s price) and increasing the rate at which capital invests since there would be even greater profits to be made there. Obviously this would mean further job losses here in the U.S. Thus, we cannot escape the affects of the conditions of those workers and peasants, no matter if they come here or stay in their home countries. The only real difference is that if they come here, the effects of this forced competition are more visible to us.”

A Mexican farmer doesn’t leave his family, his children and his country without being forced to either by the gun or through economic terrorism. Neither does an African migrant in Europe. While it isn’t realistic to simply call for the opening of all borders when on one side wages and conditions are higher than the other, as it would simply depress the higher in favor of the lower which would be opposed by higher paid workers and divide the class an alternative is to recognize class solidarity, overcome nationalist sentiment and do what we can to build links with workers south of the border or any workers no matter where they may be, and join with them in raising their wages and standard of living. We must join with them in the struggle against global capital launching a global offensive of our own.  We must build an independent political party of our own that will break the monopoly the two Wall Street parties have over the political process and prevent them from moving production by taking over the industry; the Democrats will never do this.

We only have to think of all the money we spend on defense and militarization of our borders and immigration control and what effect that has.  We can’t as Americans travel in half the countries of the world.  Our standard of living is declining; our jails are the most populated in the world, our health care is dismal; the inequality gap is wider than ever before, and our young people will, if they are lucky enough to have a job, will be able to retire at 80.

We need more allies not enemies; we’ve got plenty of them on Wall Street and in Washington.  We call them, "fellow Americans".

Some reading:

The Myth of Free Trade

Tariffs and Tortillas

Lessons of NAFTA

Hey Look, Somehow the Border Got Secured Businessweek Feb 25, 2013

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