Category: Education

Police Open Fire on Rural Students in Michoacán, One Seriously Injured

The escalation of violence against social protests is evident in the harassment and repression of teacher-training students in Michoacán, Aguascalientes, or wherever they are based.

Rural activism by normal school (teacher-training) students has once again become the target of armed repression by the Mexican state. On Wednesday, June 21, students from the Vasco de Quiroga Rural Normal School in Tiripetío, Michoacán, were brutally repressed by Special Operations Group police (GOES) who detained, beat and shot at the students. One student, Gael Solorio Cruz, was shot in the head and is reported as being in critical condition.

The students reported that “elements of the Michoacán Police entered the school buildings while fourth-year youths were carrying out team activities. As youth attempted to stop them, the police opened fire. One of their targets was a white van that the students used to move around the community, and as they fired, they wounded Gael in the head. He is now in critical condition.”

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CNTE: Negotiations or Burnout?

“We know the government’s strategies. They co-opt, they persecute selectively, they harass, they buy off leaders or incarcerate those who won´t sell out.”

By Sare Frabes
Avispa Midia
August 18, 2016
Translated by El Enemigo Común

Oaxacan teachers and community members know that it was the assassination of 10 common citizens during recent mobilizations, primarily in Nochixtlán on the 19th of June, which drew  the attention of national and international press to Oaxaca and the CNTE´s struggle, and which gave way to the re-initiation of dialogue committees and government negotiations with the teachers.

Through several sessions in three different dialogue committees (the political committee, the educational committee, and the social committee), on Tuesday the 16th of August the political committee closed its session with no further solutions resolved between the Secretary of Governance and the CNTE.  Meanwhile the CNTE´s assembly, which took place on the 17th of August in Mexico City, agreed upon the re-activation of blockades of major roadways throughout the state of Oaxaca.  They also agreed to not beginning the new 2016-2017 school year until  their demands are met.

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Oaxaca 2016: “This is not a teachers struggle, it belongs to the people of Mexico”

Thousands of men and women, from a multitude of peoples and communities, are struggling daily to build a different path, just and dignified.

By Simón Sedillo and Niñx Salvaje
Photos by Radio Jenpoj and Estereo Comunal Yeelatoo
SubVersiones
July 3, 2016
Translated by Scott Campbell

In Oaxaca, 12 people were killed by police between June 19 and 26, 2016, while participating in the current rebellion happening in the state. One of those killed was a teacher, the rest were part of the people. Despite the violent repression, a multitude of blockades remain in place throughout the state, be they temporary or permanent. In addition, thousands of men and women, children, young people, elders and entire communities have rallied in support of the teachers, in repudiation of the repression and against the structural reforms and neoliberal policies that threaten communities. In this context, one thing is clear: the struggle in Oaxaca is not just a teachers struggle but belongs to the peoples who for their part are also fighting for life, territory and autonomy. In Oaxaca, the peoples’ resistance does not begin nor end with the teachers: it began centuries ago and the road ahead is long.

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Section 22 march blasts brutal repression in Oaxaca

After the brutal repression experienced on Sunday, June 19, Section 22 of the CNTE in Oaxaca called a demonstration at the Juarez Monument.

By José Stalin Pedro / Photos and sound landscape by Griselda Sanchez

After the brutal repression experienced on Sunday, June 19, Section 22 of the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) in Oaxaca called a demonstration at the Juarez Monument. Thousands showed up with banners and posters supporting the teachers union, condemning the repression and rejecting the educational reform signed into law by the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto.

At 10 o’clock in the morning the next day, the march set out on Federal Highway 190 towards the Zocalo of the city of Oaxaca. Along the way, thousands of people chanted slogans: “Right now, right now, there’s something you must do, bring our people back alive and punish all those guilty.” And “Press, press, press, if you have any dignity, all we ask of you is truth and credibility.”

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State Terrorism and Education, the New Speculative Sector in the Stock Market

The reasons why the Mexican government wants to impose the Educational Reform are rooted in objectives guided by international financial organizations.

SubVersiones
June 22, 2016

By Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F.
Photos: Xiaj Nikte and Niña Salvaje
Videos: SubVersiones, Jarana Films, El Enemigo Común, Desde las Nubes and Avispa Midia
Translated by El Enemigo Común

The reasons why the Mexican government wants to impose the Educational Reform, even if it means killing people, as with the massacre in Nochixtlán by repressive state forces on June 19, are rooted in economic objectives guided by international financial organizations. The reform, proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the OECD-Mexico Agreement to Improve the Quality of Education in Schools of Mexico, aims to lay the groundwork to shift education from being a State responsibility to instead being resolved in the realm of the financial market.

One of the state’s actions accompanying the Educational Reform is the issuing of bonds to the speculative market. Just over a year after the adoption of the reform, in December 2015, the first educational bonds or National School Infrastructure Certificates (CIEN) were issued by the Mexican Stock Exchange, which investors BBVA Bancomer and Merrill Lynch purchased for 8.581 billion pesos.

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Resistance Extends Throughout Oaxaca Against Education Reform

“Welcome to Oaxaca” says a metal plate at the entrance to this city.

June 16, 2016

By Avispa Midia
Photos: Heriberto Paredes and Santiago Navarro F

“Welcome to Oaxaca” says a metal plate at the entrance to this city. A city worth knowing, with a great gastronomic and cultural diversity, colors, sounds and tastes. One of the states of Mexico with the most diversity in native languages, one of the richest in natural diversity, but also the 3rd poorest state in Mexico, according to statistics of the National Council for Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL). Although, truth be told, there have always been two Oaxacas, the profound and everyday Oaxaca, and the one sold in advertising- a made-up Oaxaca offered to a wealthy sector. Today, an intense day of demonstrations throughout the entire state, the legend “Welcome to Oaxaca” was a welcome for the federal police sent by the federal government to establish peace and order in this federal entity and “to apply the Education Reform with military methods,” says the housewife, Jazmín López, who has joined the reception.

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Insumisión: Strike!

While the state has the guns, the teachers have the numbers, and they’ve been using them.

Originally posted to It’s Going Down
May 30, 2016
By Scott Campbell

The last edition of Insumisión started with news of the national teachers strike in Mexico and that’s where we’ll kick things off here. It’s been an intense fifteen days since the National Coordinating Body of Education Workers (CNTE) began an indefinite strike on May 15, primarily against plans by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to implement neoliberal reforms to the country’s education system.

Since being selected as president in 2012, Peña Nieto has attempted to privatize and standardize the Mexican education system, along with instituting policies to disempower Latin America’s largest union, the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), and its dissident and more radical faction, the CNTE. In 2013, the CNTE mobilized its base to fight back against similar reform efforts. An article I wrote then gives some context to the developments occurring now, as well as clarifying the distinctions between the SNTE, the CNTE, and their relationships to the state.

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