Berta Joubert-Ceci
This year, countries throughout Latin America have been commemorating 200 years of freedom from Spanish colonialism. People throughout the region are remembering the independence feats of Simón Bolívar in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; José de San Martín in Argentina; and Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico. The people are holding these celebrations, however, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has said, while the Americas still struggle for their “second emancipation,” this time from the voracious appetite of U.S.-based transnational corporations.
Nowhere in the region are these celebrations of emancipation as filled with contradictions as in Mexico. The Mexicans held their festivities under a formidable display of 25,000 government security forces, including federal agents, army and navy troops; 4,000 police patrolled in Mexico City alone, with the same number staying on alert.
A people ripped by sheer poverty and government-sanctioned violence coming from mafias and paramilitary groupings aligned with sectors of the oligarchy has seen — and criticized — its government’s spending of $200 million in celebrations for the bicentennial.
But resistance to this government and its political system is also growing. On Sept. 15, the Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) that initiated the independence war 200 years ago is remembered. As is traditional for each sitting Mexican president, this year the neoliberal pro-U.S. president, Felipe Calderón, pronounced this grito. But there was another from the people’s resistance.
Earlier in the day, Secretary General of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) Martín Esparza pronounced the Grito de los Insurgentes (Cry of the Rebels) from the balcony of the SME’s headquarters in the capital.
The SME is a militant and class conscious union founded in 1914. It has been in constant struggle against Calderón’s government since Oct. 11, 2009, when the Mexican president ordered by decree the closure of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, the national electrical company that served five states, covering a population of more than 20 million people.
This closure immediately laid off more than 42,000 electrical workers with no previous notice nor any due payment. Since then, the SME has been organizing together with other unions and social organizations to fight the layoffs.
On Sept. 15, the SME reaffirmed its pledge to fight not only for the re-establishment of the contractual obligations by the government, but also, and most importantly, for a society with social and economic justice. In a fiery speech echoed by hundreds of SME members and their families, Esparza summoned the names of the heroes of the Mexican independence struggle, ending with the traditional ¡Viva México!
Below is part of that speech (On video in Spanish at sme1914.org).
“Today, in this Avenida de los Insurgentes, as 200 years ago, a group of men and women who remember history decided to continue the struggle to defend this great institution called SME, comrades. In this 2010, the Mexican people have nothing to rejoice about but much to commemorate: those men and women who gave their lives to have a homeland with liberty, justice and democracy.
“Today, 200 years later, those of us who had the task of visiting all 32 states, have realized that the country’s existing conditions are similar to those 200 years ago. Indigenous and peasant people are being stripped of their lands, and these lands given to transnational corporations so that they can exploit all the natural resources.
“Today, as 200 years ago, the conditions of inequality should make obvious that the SME struggle will define what the route for our nation will be. And I ask you comrades, since we received the ‘Sentiment of the Nation’ medal from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero, if we are ready to defend our homeland, to end inequality, poverty, to leave for our children and grandchildren a country that will better distribute its wealth?
“We have the richest man on earth but 60 million poor. ... That is why today ... let all of us make a pledge, to maintain the unity of the SME so we can push forward the unity of the people of Mexico. To call on the Indigenous, the students and civil society to end this economic system; this savage capitalism; because today the decisions are not made by the resident of Los Pinos [Calderón], the decisions come from the exterior.”
When Esparza asked: “Are we afraid to defend our homeland?” a resounding response was heard throughout the crowd: “No!”
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