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Oaxaca Teachers Refuse to Budge, Reject Order from their Own Union Leadership to Return to Classes
National Senate Refuses to Resolve Oaxaca Stand-Off: APPO Must Find its Own Solutions
By Nancy Davies,
Posted on Tue Oct 24th, 2006 at 01:13:03 AM EST
Narcosphere
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/10/24/1133/6564
Commentary by Nancy Davies
Reporting from Oaxaca
Oaxaca, October 22, 2006
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Another difficult night in Oaxaca; around 2 a.m. church bells rang furiously, the emergency sound, dogs ran up and down our street barking madly, and rockets exploded. I got out of bed and turned on Radio Universidad, which was reporting on the statewide assembly of Section 22 of the teachers’ union.
At 8 a.m., the radio broadcast an approximation of what happened and the position of Section 22...
First, on October 19, the National Senate of Mexico, voting along party lines, refused to intervene in the Oaxaca crisis. The possibility that the Senate would declare that the government of Oaxaca has “disappeared” came to nothing, leaving the peoples’ and teachers’ social movement – comprised of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), Section 22 of the national teachers union, Oaxacan communities and civil organizations – to find their own solution to the stalemate that grips the state of Oaxaca.
With 74 votes in favor and 31 against, the Senate accepted on Thursday afternoon the statement of the Internal Governance Commission not to declare a disappearance of powers in Oaxaca and not to proceed with the removal of the governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. The 31 votes against accepting the report were cast by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party (PT) and the “Convergence” party, while the 74 votes in favor were cast by an alliance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), National Action (PAN) and “Green Party” (PVEM) legislators.
Meanwhile, during the time frame the senators were “considering” the issue (which in reality involved the formation of an alliance between the PAN and PRI) another teacher was murdered in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday, October 18. The primary school teacher, Pánfilo Hernández Vásquez coming out of an assembly with neighbors in the Jardín neighborhood, was shot twice in the abdomen. His death brings the total of movement murders, of teachers, APPO and indigenous leaders, to eleven since August (including the deaths of three members of the Triqui indigenous group – two men and a twelve-year-old boy – murdered in rural Oaxaca and left off of some versions of the death toll reported in the media).
By radio, the APPO called for citizens to strengthen and reinforce the barricades, maintaining the level of maximum alert decreed the night before. It was reported at the same time that as part of the government plan for “Operation Iron,” the state government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (“URO”) has completed renovating the prison in the city of Tlocolula, suggesting that it expects massive detentions of teachers and APPO members. The remodeling involves separating each cell into two, to double the holding size from 200 to 400. However, teachers, students and the APPO openly discuss that many of them will die by government-sponsored activities before they see their half-cell in Tlocolula.
Thousands of people had gone out to the streets on October 19 to show their allegiance to the APPO, which declared that it is preparing for the next phase of the struggle. APPO spokesman Florentino López Martínez announced that the Oaxaca people will continue to seek international support – for example, from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission – to pursue the demand for a declaration of failed government.
The state was in a grim mood, as the teachers’ union returned to its base for another consultation about returning to the classroom. Many teachers viewed themselves as facing a choice between death or continuing to fight. But for the first time, I saw on Saturday a spray-painted wall saying. “Rueda P, you are a traitor to the teachers and to the APPO.” Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the head of the teachers’ union, had announced the return to classes on national television. His declaration was “illegal,” in the sense that no consultation with the base – required under Section 22 principles ¬– had yet taken place. When teachers received their ballots to vote on the future of the strike, the ballot questions asked only when they thought classes should resume; continuing the strike was not offered as an option.
Rumors abound (stoked by the Commercial Media, which has got most everything wrong since the conflict erupted last May) about blocs forming within the movement that may split it, including the splinter teachers’ Central Committee for Struggle (CCL), which is affiliated with the governor’s PRI party and has also called for a return to classes.
The Wide Front for Popular Struggle (FALP, one of the more of important groups that make up the APPO) convened a meeting of the movement and the teachers to call for “the reflection of those forces which many times have acted and continue acting in an irresponsible manner, immature and excessively protagonist, and that many times have carried this movement to the brink, from which it has been difficult to extricate itself.” In a communiqué, the FALP stated: “One has to put above all the general interest and the continuity of the movement; one should not permit the goals of groups, often illusory, chimerical, to change the years of popular struggle in Oaxaca.”
Some teachers marched to Mexico City on foot, camped out and launched a hunger strike in anticipation of the Senate’s vote on the disappearance of powers. In a communication published in Noticias, the encamped teachers, wrote to their compañeros in the rank and file of the Oaxaca teachers’ union: “The first accord of the state assembly on October 18, 2006 which says: the departure of URO is not revocable or negotiable, therefore, the consultation that appears to propose the return to classes, leaves us with the clear idea that within the teachers union there are positions which favor the state, shown by putting dates to this resolution, which squeezes our base for an immediate reply without the opportunity to think if this is the best way to achieve a dignified exit from the conflict that we face today; such an exit was being analyzed by the senators of the republic who, upon seeing the result of the state (teachers) assembly radically altered their decision. Of the 14 members of the Internal Governance Commission in the senate, 11 voted against and only 3 in favor of the disappearance of powers once they confirmed that that this teachers union was inducing their bases to lower the pressure which was being exercised, in place of waiting for the result of this commission as was agreed in the prior State Assembly (of teachers).”
The document goes on to cite the brutal repression of June 14, the ten assassinated companions, the four comrades imprisoned, the 500 kilometers walked to Mexico in the march, and the 21 teachers on hunger strike.
”While we agree there is a commitment to the children and parents, we also consider that the return to classes under present conditions does not guarantee in any way the security and physical safety of all the education workers and of the people organized in the APPO, as was shown in the cowardly assassination of the compañero Pánfilo Hernández Vásquez of the Sector Zimatlán tonight in the Colonia Jardín.”
Those camped in front of the Senate building in Mexico, and the hunger strikers camped out at the downtown Juárez monument, jointly agreed in their document that this is a movement of the rank and file, not of the leaders. Therefore individual teachers have the right to decide to return to classes or not, without subjection to the dates and conditions indicated. Thus Oaxaca waited anxiously for the result of the teachers’ vote. Once again callers to the radio station (now the resurrected Radio Universidad) were weeping, and others with great sadness reminded the teachers that the people have supported them, fed them, and lived with them on the barricades and encampments. Granting that callers are self-selective in support of the APPO, the constant stream of phone calls pleading for the teachers to hold on, was moving.
Many teachers remain committed to the APPO maxim that the departure of URO is not negotiable. In two previous votes, the rank-and-file have vowed to open classes only five days after Ulises Ruiz Ortiz leaves office. On Saturday, October 21, in third consultation vote by the membership of Section 22 across the state since the strike began, initial reports suggested that a majority of the teachers rejected Rueda’s call to return to classes, citing their obligation to honor their dead, as well as their promises to the people and the APPO.
The first result of the teachers’ consultation was received by telephone to Radio Universidad on Saturday. They were read on the air, declaring the vote in favor of continuing the struggle, with no return to classes. The initial vote results announced on Radio Universidad and in Noticias, reported that six of the eight regions had rejected the opening of schools before URO left.
However, when Rueda arrived at the teachers’ assembly, after hours of delay, the vote seemed to have shifted (or to have been shifted by Rueda). Now the vote was to return to classes, with figures like 25,000 in favor of a return, 15,000 against. The fight was on. Radio Universidad called on everybody to go to the teachers’ union hall to protest, with that loud clamor which woke those asleep.
On Sunday morning, the proposition has emerged that another consultation be held, to verify the teachers’ position. The questions for the new consultation are: first, do you agree to open the classrooms, and second, if yes, when? This indicates that Rueda’s ploy did not work.
Meanwhile Oaxaca must cope with its alarms. For example, the town of Villa Alta, in the Sierra Norte, issued a formal complaint on October 16 against the presence of military troops who give no explanation as to as why they are there, and have increased the fear among the people. Many small towns are inhabited only by elderly people who are strong in demanding their rights, but physically incapable of defending them. If conditions are so dictated, they might be living permanently under military control, similar to parts of the state of Chiapas. Furthermore, in addition to the rural towns, many cities are presently held by APPO sympathizers who expelled local PRI politicians and now occupy the government buildings. As the movement goes, so goes their fate.
Another example is the declaration by the human rights group of Oaxaca stating that armed police in civilian clothes were stationed outside the meeting place for the Dialogue for Oaxaca, which has entered the work-table phase. When the participants left the building they were followed by vehicles, which held 18 heavily armed men. This case of intimidation is one of many.
Ulises Ruiz (URO) first declared that he would once again reorganize his cabinet, and based on the teachers’ return to classes, issue a general amnesty. Immediately upon the teachers’ apparent Saturday rejection of resuming classes, he changed his statement to a threat to call in the Federal Preventive Police to clear the encampment and barricades by force. But URO does not control the PFP, the federal government does.
Therefore, once again the embattled state awaits some sort of resolution, now not just the standoff with URO, but also to relieve the exhausted teachers who have no income and bear the brunt of sleeping in the encampments. No way out, no way back, no way to separate the strands of the movement, the teachers, the indigenous, the rural towns, the workers and the citizenry of Oaxaca, appears clear. The only glimmer in the darkness is the creation of more and more APPOs, such as the newly formed assembly in the state of Mexico. As I’m listening to the radio, the strongest mood prevailing is determination to hold on, united if possible.
Power outages lasting longer
City Light says fixing problem will cost money -- and trees
By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Saturday, October 21, 2006
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/289517_power21.html
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
If it seems as though power outages in Seattle are keeping you in the dark twice as long as they used to, you're right.
The amount of time the average Seattle City Light customer goes without electricity has about doubled in recent years, and is nearly twice that of Tacoma, according to Seattle's public utility.
City Light says it has a plan for improving its reliability -- but that it will come at a cost to customers and urban trees.
There's a noteworthy political context to the utility's candor about its own performance problems -- and the timing of that mea culpa. The City Council is reviewing a proposal to reduce household power bills slightly while doubling some maintenance spending. A council committee plans to discuss the matter Monday.
Some critics of the rate proposal say the discounts fall far short of what's fair -- given the 58 percent increases that hit City Light customers during the energy crisis several years ago.
"They were described then as temporary surcharges," Steve Leahy, president of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, told council members at a recent meeting. "All of us took those folks at their word. They were not supposed to be added to a base that went on into perpetuity."
City Light and Mayor Greg Nickels have suggested cutting residential rates by 2.2 percent over the next two years, saving the average customer about $15 a year. Commercial customers would get varying discounts, from less than 2 percent to nearly 14 percent. Overall, the cuts are worth $56 million, the city says, and are possible because the utility has turned around its finances, socked away more than $200 million in cash and substantially reduced its debt.
Now it wants to invest millions more to catch up on previously delayed maintenance and upkeep.
But social activists, politically influential businesses leaders and others have questioned whether City Light would be hoarding too much money in its proposed 2007-08 budgets.
So have some council members.
For example, the Nickels budget proposal would more than double City Light's budget to pay outside contractors to trim trees, from about $3.2 million this year to $7.1 million next year and slightly more in 2008, a council staffer said.
"It sounds like an awful lot of money," Councilwoman Jean Godden, who chairs the energy committee, said at a recent meeting. "Are we going to trim every tree in the city?"
The council analyst said the utility wants to double the rate at which it prunes trees -- from a nine- to 10-year cycle to a four-year cycle.
No one disputes whether substantial work is needed. What is in dispute is whether it needs to happen as quickly as the mayor and the utility want.
Rod Kauffman, president of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Seattle, told a committee: "While it needs to get done, we don't need to budget for all of it over the course of the next couple of years. A further (rate) reduction is appropriate."
The average Seattle City Light customer experienced nearly two hours without power over the last year, not counting major disruptions and extremely short interruptions, according to a city analysis.
That's based on a common industry gauge of reliability that calculates a rolling average of annual minutes that a typical customer lacked power. Seattle's index for the 12-month period ending Oct. 1 was slightly more than 114 minutes. Tacoma's was about 62 minutes, Seattle officials said.
City Light's goal is to get the index down to 50 minutes, as it was in the past.
City officials blame the decline in reliability on a power system desperately in need of delayed maintenance work. Power poles must treated for rot. Breakers, transformers and vaults need to be inspected and cleaned. And many trees need to be cut back.
"We're going to have to take a lot of wood, and people are going to hate that," said Chris Heimgartner, City Light's officer for customer service and energy delivery.
The utility neglected such basic maintenance in the late 1990s, Heimgartner said. Instead, for much of that decade, Seattle leaders made a "political decision" to borrow about $400 million so they could reduce rates, he said.
Meanwhile, the system has aged and new construction constantly demands a great deal of the utility's resources, Heimgartner said.
Utility officials have tried to balance the maintenance needs with the call for rate reductions, Heimgartner said. "People are asking, 'Could you cut the rates more?' " he said.
But "in order to cut rates you've got to not do something.
Forget oil, look at food prices
By Tumi Makgetla
Johannesburg, South Africa
22 October 2006 06:00
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articl
eid=287325&area=/insight/insight__economy__business/
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Oil has been such an economic bogeyman in recent times, hogging the headlines, that not noticed is as severe a threat -- food inflation.
Food staple maize has been trading internationally at record highs, driven by the world's move to energy diversification to produce bio-fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.
In South Africa maize prices soared this year with maize trading at R1 300 per ton on Monday, up from R500 per ton last year, according to futures company Farmwise.
The high staple prices are also in part driven by less planting last year, but the record prices have led farmers to scramble to make new plantings.
Meat prices have also been climbing. Stewing beef was 30% more expensive than the same month in 2005, according to research released by the National Agricultural Marketing Council.
But while price hikes in 2002 raised concerns about uncompetitive food markets, analysts say cyclical patterns of supply and demand lie behind the volatile maize and meat prices this year.
Food prices had a deflationary impact in 2005, but this year pose a "significant risk" to inflation, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said last week. He said meat contributed as much to inflation in August as petrol and diesel.
Petrol and diesel prices increased year-on-year by 22,1% in August, but have a lower weight than food in the basket of goods and services that the Bank uses to calculate inflation.
World oil prices declined to less than $60 in August, but Mboweni cautioned that the tight supply and demand conditions in the markets, coupled with oil-price sensitivity to geopolitics, meant that oil prices are still a risk to inflation.
Vice-chairperson of the South African National Consumer Union Lillybeth Moolman warns that the 35% year-on-year hike in the maize price should set off alarm bells because of lessons learned in 2002.
In 2002, food inflation ranged from 23% for very poor income groups to 19% for very high income groups. The maize price, which rose from R5 to R10 for 10kg to R25 to R30 in a few months, lay behind the high inflation.
These figures come from a paper by the food price monitoring committee, which was established by the department of agriculture in 2002 to review food prices and detect anti-competitive behaviour in the food supply chain.
To fulfil that mandate, the National Agricultural Marketing Council this month released a cost review based on a basket of 75 goods.
The council's findings differ from Statistics South Africa data because of methodological differences, said council member Johann Kirsten.
Using Statistics South Africa data, the Reserve Bank reported that maize inflation was "relatively low" at 4,7% in August, but the council's findings show that the price level of maize meal exhibited an average increase of 35,5% year-on-year.
Kirsten said grain prices had increased after record low prices in the previous season caused farmers to plant less grain for this year's harvest.
"I forecast that food inflation will probably do 7% to 8% for the next couple of months," he said, adding that it depended on the weather over the next three months. He said there is a "high intention" among farmers to plant and seed sales were up recently.
Futures trader Rudi Swanepoel said world demand for grain was high because of increased efforts overseas to produce bio-diesel and ethanol.
The world maize supply is at a 30-year low, he said, which contributed to high domestic prices along with the weakened currency. He predicted that domestic grain prices would stay high for the next two to four years.
Meat prices have also increased dramatically, according to the council's food price review. Fresh beef product prices increased by 26% at the retail level.
Agrimark Trends found that in September beef producer prices increased by more than 40% year-on-year for grades A, B and C meat.
Pieter Cornelius at Agrimark Trends said meat prices had increased because people were building their herds and sending fewer animals to slaughter.
South Africa's supply from international markets declined this year as foot-and-mouth disease concerns shut out imports from Brazil, he said. Imports from Australia and New Zealand also decreased as those countries had diverted exports to the United States.
Price choice
Meat prices are up countrywide, but location seems to account for the biggest differences. You can pay anything from R38,95 to R65 a kilogram for T-bone, a 60% difference, depending on where you shop.
A quick survey of butcheries in Johannesburg found that the most expensive T-bone steak, at R65 per kg, is sold at Thrupps in Illovo and at the Craighall Meat Centre.
T-bone costs R55,95 per kg at the Pick 'n Pay supermarket in Killarney and R42,95 per kg at the Pick 'n Pay family market in Brixton. At the Roodt Meat Florida butchery in Roodepoort, T-bone costs R49,95 per kg. It costs R49,80 per kg at The Butcher's Wife in Midrand, and R47,99 per kg at the Shoprite Checkers in Dobsonville. Simply Meat in Bruma sells T-bone for R46,95 to R48,95 per kg, and Muscat Holdings in City Deep charges R38,95 to R41,95 per kg.
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Oaxaca Teachers Refuse to Budge, Reject - By Nancy Davies, Narcosphere