---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 3:04 PM
Subject: Fwd: Nov. 20 Protest in SF to Demand Justice in Mexico; The Meaning of Nov. 20 for Today; Solidarity Appeal for the Ayotzinapa Students
To:
Dear Sisters and Brothers,å
Please join us this coming Thursday, November 20, at a march and rally in San Francisco to protest the killings of 6 students and the disappearance of 43 other students at the community teachers' college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, in Mexico. The starting point of the march will be at 4 pm at Justin Herman Plaza. The march will end at the Civic Center to join forces with another protest action (protect Net Neutrality) that will be taking place there.
The march has been called by a broad coalition of organizations led by the ANSWER coalition, including MEChXA and many other Latino and grassroots community groups. The Organizer Newspaper and its sister Spanish-language publication, El Organizador, are urging their readers and supporters to mobilize to demand justice for the students in Ayotzinapa but also to place the onus for the killings/disappearances on the Mexican State, as the workers and students will be doing across Mexico in mass mobilizations and student strikes on November 20 -- a national holiday in Mexico that marks the beginning of the Revolution of 1910-1917. [See Appendix 1 below on the Meaning of November 20 for Today.]
Here is the facebook link to the November march and rally in San Francisco:
https://www.facebook.com/events/963615640332968
The Organizer and El Organizador have also been circulating widely an Appeal issued by students across Mexico demanding justice for the students of Ayotzinapa [see Appendix 2 below]. Please join us in circulating this Appeal widely.
* We Want The 43 Disappeared Students Back Alive!
* Punish Those Responsible For These Crimes!
* Justice Now!
In struggle,
Editorial Board
The Organizer Newspaper
* * * * * * * * * *
APPENDIX No. 1
November 20 and Its Meaning For Today
November 20 is the date that marks the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917 that overthrew the pro-U.S. dictator Porfirio Díaz and established a Constitution granting major social, political and economic rights to the people of Mexico - all gains that would be extended during the 1930s by the government of Lázaro Cárdenas. November 20 marks the beginning of a major social revolution that affirmed the sovereignty and independence of Mexico against all foreign interests and against all Mexican politicians in their service.
But November 20, 2014 - more than 100 years later - marks a moment when the Mexican nation and its people, the majority of them working class, are at a crossroads, as the entire political establishment and its institutional parties (PRI, PAN and PRD) have all accepted to implement the country-selling "counter-reforms" promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto, at the behest of U.S. imperialist interests, in the name of the Pact for Mexico (a misnomer, if ever there was one).
The implementation of these "counter-reforms" - which are due to be carried out in the coming weeks - will constitute the comprehensive dismantling of the material foundations of national sovereignty and the full-scale destruction of the rights and gains won through struggle by the working masses and the oppressed people of Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
Let us also not forget that during the 1930s, President Lázaro Cárdenas expropriated the British and U.S. imperialist oil companies and thus created the state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). Over the course of the next 76 years, oil revenues were completely in the hands of the nation, which provided for the establishment of the public healthcare system, the national electrical utility CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad), and other institutions in the interests of the Mexican people.
Indeed, under pressure from the revolutionary movement that had not yet died after 1917, Cárdenas carried out a far-reaching land reform, which distributed 20 million hectares to low-income rural workers and promoted the agrarian institution of the "ejido" - communal land owned by the State but tenanted and worked by individual farmers on an inalienable basis. In this same situation, the State was compelled to recognize collective bargaining for the oil workers and those in other industrial sectors.
The struggles of the 1930s were part of the continuity of the Revolution of 1910-17, which posed the land issue among others (the land was controlled by an oligarchic minority and foreign estate-owners).
Today, the future of the Mexican nation is at stake, along with its sovereignty and the survival of the working class and youth. Mexico's oil is being handed over to foreign-owned transnational corporations. The ejido, already negatively impacted by NAFTA, is slated to be dismantled altogether. Mexico's national healthcare and social service legislation are about to be destroyed.
On November 20, all the political institutions and mainstream parties will be celebrating the Mexican Revolution and giving lip service to its heros. But all the political institutions and parties that supported NAFTA, and/or the Mérida Plan, and/or the Pacto por México (as is the case of the PRI, PAN and PRD) have no right - they have no moral or political authority - to speak in the name of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917 or to celebrate this historic date. Through all their actions, these country-selling politicians, are reversing all the gains enshrined in the Mexican Constitution as a result of this revolution.
It is now up to the Mexican working class - as demonstrated by the electrical workers of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME), who with their resistance struggle are calling to defend Mexico's energy sector - and it is up to the Mexican youth, who are organizing mass marches and general student strikes to demand justice for the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa - to reclaim the banner of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17 and drive out all the corrupt politicians who have sullied the Mexican struggle led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata for national independence and social and economic justice. -- A.B.
* * * * * * * * * *
APPENDIX No. 2
Ayotzinapa (Mexico) Solidarity Campaign
* We Want The 43 Disappeared Students Back Alive!
* Punish Those Responsible For These Crimes!
* Justice Now!
Mexico City, November 8, 2014
To Student Organizations and Youth Worldwide:
We, the undersigned students at schools and universities across Mexico, write you this open letter to express the following:
On the night of September 26, 2014, in the city of Iguala, Guerrero (Mexico), six people were killed (including three "normalistas" - that is, youth studying to become public school teachers). In addition, 25 "normalistas" were wounded (two of them severely) and 43 others were kidnapped. All these young people are students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Teachers College in Ayotzinapa, a school attended by children of the poorest peasant families in the country.
The events of Iguala have shown for all to see the close relationship that has been woven over recent decades between the drug gangs and the State institutions (municipal and federal police; mayors of all institutional parties; and army commanders, who failed to take action to stop the repression and kidnapping of the young "normalistas.")
The barbarism of Iguala has sparked a huge outcry among the Mexican people, first and foremost among the hundreds of thousands of young students who have taken to the streets in mass demonstrations in all the states across Mexico. In Mexico City alone, three major mass protests have taken place on October 8 and 22 and November 5, the latter having gathered more than 100,000 participants.
More than 40 days later, President Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI) and Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam have stated that the 43 were killed, burned, tortured, and their bodies dumped in a river.
Parents and students of the 43 "normalistas" have rejected, understandably, the declarations of Peña Nieto and Murillo Karam. The parents have stated: "We have no confidence in the government of Peña Nieto and the Attorney General." Indeed, for more than 40 days, the government has done nothing but slow down the investigation and the trial of the detained police officers. They have told lie after lie about what occurred. They have tried to hide the close ties between the police and officials, on the one hand, and the drug gangs, on the other. NO, we cannot accept what the highest officials now tell us if there is no clear, scientific/forensic proof to back their claims.
The parents of the disappeared students, supported by students nationwide, are calling for increased mobilizations and solidarity -- both locally and internationally -- until their demands are met.
* We Want The 43 Disappeared Students Back Alive!
* Punish Those Responsible For These Crimes!
* Justice Now!
These barbaric acts are the most recent expression of a policy of repression against the youth, and they are bound up with the policies pursued by the State over the past few decades aimed at destroying the hard-won gains of working people and dismantling the sovereignty of the nation through the so-called "structural reforms," "free trade" and privatization.
All these policies have led to a process of social decay and corruption at all levels of government. Those responsible for these crimes are not only those who directly kidnapped the students; also responsible are the mayor of Iguala (now in jail), the governor of the state of Guerrero (who was forced to resign -- in both cases because of the pressure from below of the protest movement), and the federal government of Enrique Peña Nieto. In all the mass protests and in slogans painted on walls nationwide, the youth are crying out: "The State Is Responsible."
Students and young workers, leaders of student organizations around the world:
We call for solidarity in your countries with the just demands of the "normalistas" in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero (Mexico), in ways that you deem appropriate (delegations and protests at Mexican embassies and consulates, letters of protests / emails to the Mexican government, rallies, etc.).
We call on you to demand:
* We Want The 43 Disappeared Students Back Alive!
* Punish Those Responsible For These Crimes!
* Justice Now!
First endorsers:
Centers of Higher Education
Mexico City: National Autonomous University of Mexico / UNAM: Fac. de Economía: Mancilla Ramos Osvaldo, Rodríguez Serrano Nuria, Cruz Vélez Azucena, Reyes Romero Miguel Ricardo, Galindo Betanzos Juan Pablo, Santana Duarte Orlando, Barrón Arturo, Martínez Edgard Adrián, Morales Rodríguez Juana del Carmen, Romero Esquivel Miguel Eduardo; Fac. de Arte y Diseño: José Miguel Silva. National Polytechnical University / IPN: Escuela Superior de Economía (ESE): Wendoline Zamora; Escuela de Psicología: Mariana Diosdado Cerroblanco; Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (ESIME): Jonathan Aparicio. Aldo Toño Trejo, Alejandro Ávila Gutiérrez, Ángel Gutiérrez, Luis Vázquez. Autonomous Metropolitican University / UAM: Ciencias Antropológicas: Gabriela Montoya; Arquitectura: Román Ortega López; Diseño Industrial: Cesiah Gómez Roldán; Ayudante de investigación: Gloria Miroslava Callejas Sánchez; Colmex: Josué Morachis, doctorado en economía. Instituto Tecnológico de Iztapalapa, Enrique Hernández Granados.
State of Jalisco: University of Guadalajara: Economía: Abiud Sánchez, Andrés Ramírez, Claudia Mendoza; Sociología: Fernanda Justo, Jonathan Ávila, Erika Jazmín Venadero, Alan Escatel, Javier Correa, Silvia López, Shannon Díaz, Topacio Lomelí; Derecho: Miguel Solís; Preparatoria 10: Abraham Garibi; Gestión y Economía ambiental: Juan Manuel Chávez, Edith Baltazar.
State of Sonora: UNISON: Escuela de. Trabajo Social: Gabriela Aracely Encinas Arriola; Ingeniería Civil: Francisco Eduardo Noriega Arvizu.
State of Baja California, Mexicali: Autonomous University of Baja California / UABC, Psicología: Erick Antonio Pedroza Peña, Adriana Ayala Macías, Antonio Pedroza Peña, Jesús Casillas Arredondo, Marco Morales Rojo; Ciencias de la Educación: Melissa Villanueva; Ciencias de la Comunicación: Manuel Ángeles y Edgar Galván; Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Políticas: Johan Alejandra Morales Silva; Facultad de Pedagogía e Innovación Educativa: Blanca Nathalia Carrillo Ortiz, Quetzalli Figueroa; Facultad de Arquitectura: Silvia Denisse Vidal, Gabriela Anchondo; Facultad de Artes: Erick García; Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas: José Williams; Facultad de Idiomas: Mayra Cordero. University of the Valley of Mexicali / UVM, Derecho: Carlos Elenes.Technological Institute of Mexicali / ITM - Jesús Enrique Cinco Ramírez. Estudiante de docencia en artes Ana Cázares Casillas; estudiante de preparatoria Elisa Gastelum,; Licenciatura Contabilidad Pública - auxiliar contable: Fabiola Cazares Casillas; Licenciada en docencia de la lengua y literatura: Princesa Raquel Lizárraga García.
Tijuana: Autonomous University of Baja California / UABC, Facultad de Odontología - Otzi Ramírez Guzmán; Facultad de Humanidades: Angélica Estrada, Luis Carlos Haro Montoya; Sociología: Joshua Rivera Arvizu; Facultad de Turismo: Laura Alejandra Rivera Arvizu; Facultad de Ciencias Químicas e Ingeniería: Andrés Arroyo; Colegio de la Frontera Norte, María Elizabeth Rivera Arvizu, Asistente de investigación en el Departamento de Estudios Culturales
Ensenada: University of Baja California / UABC: Facultad de Ciencias Marinas: Sergio Enrique III Rebelin Aranda; Sociología Erika Guadalupe Pérez Pacheco -
Estado de Chiapas, National Autonomous University of Chiapas / UNACH: Medicina: Nataly Jiménez García, Jorge Domingo Parcero Torres, Isaura Elvia Corzo Martínez; Pedagogía: Deiner López Hernández; Arquitectura: Héctor Ernesto Gusmán Vásquez; Center for Scientific and Technical Education / CECyTCH: María Elisa Santiz Gómez.
For more information and/or to send reports on actions in your schools, cities and countries: justicia.para.ayotzi@gmail.com
--Rafael Jesús González
P.O. Box 5638
Berkeley, CA 94705
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