Building cross-border solidarity

December 10, 2009

A RECENTLY decimated Mexican union now struggling to survive is garnering support from its labor compañeros to the North. And the Mexican politicians trying to destroy it are not pleased.

As previously reported by SocialistWorker.org ("Mexican union fights for its life"), after the unexpected announcement by right-wing President Felipe Calderon that the state-owned power company Luz y Fuerza del Centro would be shut down and merged with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, and the 44,000 members of the electricians' union, Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME)--the country's most democratic and independent union--would be losing their jobs, workers immediately began mobilizing to demand the order's reversal.

Since Luz y Fuerza's liquidation, SME has carried out almost daily actions, including a march of 300,000 to Mexico City's central plaza; a one-day strike with the participation of scores of unions and community groups that paralyzed the capital city with protests and highway blockades; a failed attempt at introducing a bill in the Mexican Congress to overturn the termination order; and an ongoing hunger strike, soon to enter its second week--none of which the government has been happy about.

But the arrival of representatives from the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labor Confederation (CLC) on December 2 to meet with and support SME has really gotten to the Mexican ruling class.

Calling the electricians' firing a "grave case on an international scale," Stanley Gacek, director of international affairs for the AFL-CIO, noted that the Mexican state talks about reinstating the rule of law by combating narco-trafficking corruption and border insecurity, but "how can we talk about a country of rights when there are violations of basic labor laws?"

Gacek and representatives from the CLC, United Steelworkers, Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, spent three days in Mexico City on a fact-finding trip. Other unions have pledged their support to SME, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard called the actions "further evidence of the [Mexican] government's anti-worker, anti-union agenda and its scorched-earth policy against democratic and independent unions."

In the daily La Jornada, Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano had the following to say about the labor associations' arrival in Mexico: "They're weighing in on something they know nothing about, and are judging a case they haven't studied; they're making assertions that correspond neither with reality, nor the judicial framework of the country."

He continued, "It must be remembered that the political issues of the country are reserved for citizens of the Republic."


LOZANO'S STRONG words against the foreign unionists visiting his country have overtones of the "selective nationalism" used by Mexican politicians since the country's revolution, and still in use in the neoliberal era.

Neoliberals never utilize the discourse of a country assailed by foreigners when they are pushing free trade agreements like NAFTA, which allows transnational capital to descend upon the country to extract natural resources, exploit citizens' labor for next to nothing, pollute the country and pay no taxes; nor do they portray the prospect of selling off the country's nationalized oil reserves to private companies like Halliburton or the nationalized electricity to European and American corporations as an assault on the "patria."

But the moment a few union activists venture south of the Rio Grande to pledge their solidarity to a working-class struggle, the Mexican elites start sweating, re-employing the nationalist, conservative populist rhetoric born to beat back the more radical elements of the country's revolution, and dismissing the unionists' presence as "undue foreign interference" in the affairs of the sovereign republic of Mexico.

Of course, the Mexican government is not the only one to employ such reactionary rhetoric. No country has been better at utilizing national chauvinism when it proves expedient than the U.S. And American unions in particular have an extensive history of employing jingoistic nationalism that continues to this day--whether it's China-bashing at the AFL-CIO convention or some Teamsters' blatant racism against Mexican truck drivers in discussions over a cross-border big-rig agreement.

But solidarity actions like this one are a step in the right direction for labor. They have the potential to contribute to a truly international workers' movement, and hopefully to long-term cross-border solidarity.

The results of the SME/AFL-CIO/CLC collaboration remain to be seen. Of course, the Mexican electricians and civil society themselves are the only ones who will be able to force a reversal of President Calderon's liquidation order through continued mass action. On December 4, the union organized "symbolic take" of Mexico City, with citizens from throughout the country flocking to the capital to participate; and a possible general strike is on the table for January. And as any cursory glance over American labor history will tell you, the AFL-CIO is far from a steadfast radical ally in struggles like these.

Still, it's good to hear that representatives of Canadian and U.S. labor are throwing their hats, verbally and financially, into their southern comrades' struggle for survival. If the "foreigner" argument is the best response the Mexican neoliberals can muster, the 44,000 fired electricians seem to stand a good chance at winning.
Micah Williams, from the Internet

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