By Anna-Reetta Korhonen

October 15, 2006

A demonstration is led by two young women holding a banner that thanks teachers for striking. Demonstrators gather in the city’s main square, the Zócalo, where people give speeches in an intense, passionate way. A young woman from mass inside the church shouts out: “Maestro, amigo, Dios está contigo”, ”Teacher, friend, God is with you.”

In October the city of Oaxaca, located in southwestern Mexico, is an impressive sight. Teachers, who have been striking for four months now, sit on stools and sofas that they’ve carried to the main square and to streets. All the women seem embroidering under the colourful tarps. The demonstrators have hung hundreds of banners in the city centre, and closed surrounding streets with barricades.

Teachers in Oaxaca go on strike every year, but this year the strike gained much more attention than usual. When the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, attempted to crush the movement with violent repression on June 14th, the strike grew into a much broader social struggle, demanding the resignation of the governor, who is accused of countless human rights violations. Ruiz belongs to the Institutional revolutionary party (PRI), which governed Mexico for 70 years and Oaxaca for even longer. Walking in the streets of Oaxaca, you can see the demand for Ruiz’s resignation everywhere, since almost every house has been painted with slogans like “Ulises, you rat, get out of Oaxaca.”

The demonstrators have occupied the city hall, the governor’s office, city legislation and the Supreme Court. The city has no police – at least none in uniforms. In the beginning of October, when helicopters were circling above the city, Oaxaqueños were afraid that the army would attack.

Despite jokes and warm greetings, teachers in the central square are clearly exhausted. It’s no wonder, since besides the four month plantón, they are tired of two months without salary. One teacher tells me that she’s managing with the help of relatives and friends; another says she has sent her three children to stay with her mother in another city.

The teacher, Juan Gonzalo Alonso Lopez, joined the march from his village, two hours from Oaxaca.

He shows me today’s paper, on the cover of which is a picture of a teacher murdered the previous night. This isn’t the first time teachers read about lost comrades. So far death squads, which are said to be employed by Ruiz, have taken the lives of nine people. Those assassinated were part of the APPO, the assembly formed by hundreds of organisations and individual citizens after the repression of June 14, which has virtually replaced the constituted powers and taken over various government responsibilities. The murders are only the tip of the iceberg; dozens have been beaten or disappeared.

Alonso Lopez asserts: “Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a repressive, fascist governor. Already before he was nominated for his post, he was planning to crush the organisations. These compañeros were attacked only for telling the truth about what is happening in this state.”

The city of Oaxaca has 300 000 inhabitants, the whole state three million. A large part of the city’s economy depends on tourism. Tourism has increased housing prices and rents, and teachers’ salaries don’t cover living expenses. One of their central demands has been an increase in salary, but as the movement has extended to include many sectors of society, demands have become wider and deeper in scope.

Conflicts within the teachers’ union

The Mexican teachers’ union, the SNTE, has a history of being very active in the Mexican political arena, and the Oaxacan section 22 has a reputation for being the strongest section in Latin America. Since the 1970s, there have been many struggles within SNTE to democratize the union. In mid-October the national union leader, Elba Esther Gordillo declared that she is no longer supporting Section 22. As a union leader who has a political career inextricably linked with the fraudulent political party the PRI, Esther Gordillo is widely held to be extremely corrupt.

Alonso Lopez continues, “At the national level, the teachers’ movement is very corrupt. However, at the state level, people want to defend their comrades. Here we don’t have any religious affiliation or political party. This is a class in struggle, and I’d like the politicians to understand that.”

Many languages, lack of resources

The variety of indigenous languages has created challenges for Oaxacan schools. Sixteen indigenous languages are spoken in the area, and remote villages need bilingual teachers. Alonso Lopez is also indigenous and speaks zapoteco.

“Many of the 570 municipalities in Oaxaca are marginalised. I’ve worked in communities without electricity or even a road. For strong men it takes four hours to get there, for women eight. Those of us who belong to the indigenous communities lend our labour to these remote communities. We make compromises and settle in communities so that they will develop.”

The quality of education in Oaxaca is notably low. Privatisation has been proposed as a resolution to the financial crisis. However, privatisation would make it increasingly difficult for the indigenous poor to get any education, since in small villages there is rarely any disposable income. Alonso Lopez opposes privatisation. Instead, he hopes to a see a fundamental reform in public education.

“Education should not only serve the state or private business. Most of all, we should teach people how to be self-sufficient. We have many communities that have lost their old ways of nutrition. It’s important to learn about life on the wider and international level, but also to take one’s own village and livelihood as a starting off point.”

According to him, in order to guarantee nutrition for people, it would be useful to consider the prehispanic period.

“It’s not only the task of the government; it’s also our task to educate our teachers and communities. Oaxaca is a large and poor area, and many are fond of alcohol. There’s a lot to do, but maybe this is like a gestation period, which will give birth to a situation in which even more people will rise up to demand change.”

A small altar with the picture of the murdered teacher and flowers has been built on one side of the Zócalo. Alonso Lopez acknowledges, “I have no arms. My only weapon is my voice. I’m not afraid, because we all die one day, and if I die in this struggle, I’ll die for a just cause, in a dignified way.”

The day before the demonstration, the Mexican parliament decided that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz can continue to govern Oaxaca. But Alonso Lopez believes that the governer will go, sooner or later.

”I’m here for future generations, so that one day they also will be able to demand their rights.”