The teachers struggles taking place right now in Mexico are getting no coverage in the US media. But they deserve our attention. While the fight against the privatization of teacher education is intense all over the country there is a particularly fierce fight taking place in the state of Morelos where teachers have been on strike for two months.
This is video shot in a town in Morelos that was invaded by the Mexican Army after residents of the town blocked a highway in support of the striking teachers. Gregory Berger at Narco News explains what is happening (after the fold)
Three days ago I reported in these pages on the attack on the indigenous town of Xoxocotla, Morelos, in which the Mexican army participated, in blatant violation of the Mexican constitution.
Reporters and videographers faced harassment by armed soldiers and police while trying to do their work. At least one reporter I spoke with was attacked by police and forced to surrender the video tape of what he had recorded. We were able to shoot an hour’s worth of video footage and get it out of Xoxocotla without being accosted by police or military personnel.
This past weekend, I was scheduled to give a video editing workshop from various local universities. We took advantage of the activity to collectively edit this video report assembled from the material I shot.
Viewers should pay close attention to the close-up of the gas bomb dropped on an unsuspecting housewife by cowards in a helicopter: The "warning label" is in English and the bomb itself was presumably manufactured in the United States.
As I reported in my previous article, the use of the military in Xoxocotla is very distressing and would never have been allowed to happen had the Calderon regime not gradually desensitized the public to the presence of the army on the streets as part of its so-called "war on drugs." Thanks to the "Merida Initiative," approved by the U.S. Congress this year, such attacks are now paid for by U.S. tax dollars.
Take a look for yourselves and size up the absurd amount of firepower sent to squash a public protest.
As we enter a New Global Great Depression we should expect attempts to impose increasingly brutal austerity measures. What the world will look like for our children depends heavily on whether we fight back. The coming election in the US is important, but electing Obama will not protect the poor of the US and the world from the ravages of the present economic meltdown. We need to be willing to get into the streets ourselves (and not be afraid of calling out Obama when he predictably pursues policies favorable to the rich and powerful). We also need to spread teh word about the struggles that are breaking out in other parts of the world, take inspiration from them, and support them.