Something extremely important is happening Sunday in Mexico. I don't think you're going to hear much about it on the Trad Media TM. Especially English language Media. Or on the blogs. So I'm putting this up to tell you about it and to ask for your solidarity, in whatever form it might be able to be expressed.
This from NarcoNews:
On Sunday, June 10, the Mexican movement known as “YoSoy132” will participate together with the convening organization “Enrique Peña NO” in the “Second March of Anti Peña Nieto Information.” The first occurred when tens of thousands marched through the streets on May 19. ...
The national march on Sunday will converge from two routes [in Mexico DF]. ...:
• At noon from the Zocalo in Mexico City the “Second March of Anti Peña Nieto Information” will head toward the Angel of Independence.
• At 10:30 a.m. a contingent of the YoSoy132 movement’s Arts Commission will head out from the Casco de Santo Tomás, near Metro Station Normal, toward the Zocalo, in memory of the June 10, 1971 massacre in which government and paramilitary squads massacred 120 students who had marched peacefully against the PRI government. That massacre is today known as “El Halconazo.”
Both marches will converge at the Zocalo and then march to the Angel of Independence, where demonstrators will watch, together, the broadcast of the second presidential debate (which, thanks to the pressure of the student movement will be aired by the Televisa and TV Azteca duopoly) at 6 p.m....
[S]imultaneous protests have been organized in at least 52 cities and towns throughout the Mexican Republic.
Some backstory so you can understand what is happening.
Who is Enrique Pena Nieto (EPN)? He's the PRI candidate for President of Mexico. The PRI was in power for about a century, until 2000. The election is scheduled for July 1, 2012. Here's what you need to know about him. The short version:
The Mexican version of the old Soviet Politburo is poised to make a comeback, with potentially disastrous consequences for North America. In 2000, the world hailed the end of more than 70 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, as a sign of democratic transition. Today, the PRI's presidential candidate in the July 1 election, Enrique Peña Nieto, threatens to bring back the authoritarian ways of the past.
The PRI has not cleaned up its act or modernized over the last 12 years. To the contrary, it has deepened its networks of corruption and illegality in the territories it still controls. The 10 states where the PRI has never lost power are among the most violent, underdeveloped and corrupt in the country. In these states, democratic transition and accountability are exotic concepts and the local governors rule like despotic feudal lords.
What is YoSoy132?
On May 11th an uncounted number of students jeered at Peña Nieto when he addressed them at the Ibero University in Mexico City. The Media tried to diminish the importance of their protest by reporting that there were only 131 students involved. There were many more than that… and so the students started to furiously spread the word: “I am # 132” The slogan appeared on T shirts, banners, placards Then a group of them made a You Tube video clip that went viral.
The video is excellent (and has English subtitles):
Paco Taibo II, one of my writer hearoes, has written about YoSoy132:
“The real miracle is that a complete generation that was condemned to apathy, to only observe, and to individualism, is once again making the nation’s destiny their own.”
The purpose of Sunday's march:
We will march with placards, megaphones, banners, etcetera, making evident to all of society all the errors, goof-ups, evil governance, repression, corruption and other messes by Peña Nieto. We will tell the truth since the traditional media of television and newspapers refuse to broadcast it… Together we will demonstrate our rejection of the most repressive and corrupt party in the country and it’s candidate, a plastic puppet!
But the march is clearly NOT about particular candidates or parties. In fact,
the agreements for participating in the march proscribe partisan displays and partisan activities of all kinds. Instead, the march requests that all wear black so that no partisan colors are displayed.
I am in solidarity with Yo Soy 132 and this march. Join me in this. Wear black if you are marching. If you are in Mexico, join a march near you. If you are in the US, and there is a march near you (So Cal, Tejas, Arizona, you hear me?) join it.
I think YoSoy132 is a model of what the Occupy movement in the US could become, but that's another essay. And it's a movement that could join with the anti-Drug War movement organized by Javier Sicilia because both are focused on corruption of the state, of the army, of the political system. That's another essay, too. Right now, what is important is that people on both sides of the border stand in solidarity with YoSoy132 on Sunday. Join me.