Oaxacan Teachers Resist Tests, Merit Pay—Strikes to Spread Throughout Mexico?

On May 23, 70,000 teachers struck in Oaxaca, Mexico. They were not asking for raises or better benefits, though they certainly need them. They were demanding better funding for their students and expressing their opposition to the government’s merit pay plan that ties teacher pay to their students’ score on the new national test. Many teachers oppose the test entirely and have refused to administer it, despite the fact that their union president signed a pact with the government accepting the merit pay scheme. The new national education law, Alliance for the Quality of Education (ACE), also replaces tenure with yearly contracts. According to Labor Notes, the teachers also want the Oaxacan government to pay for the schools’ utility bills, rather than charging parents, most of whom are struggling to pay their own bills and feed their children. They also want computers installed in the schools.

Oaxacan Teachers Strike (from the South Notes website)

The strike action included blockades of government offices and private businesses. Teachers also shut down major intersections and “liberated” the toll booths on the private highway from Oaxaca to Mexico City (see Indy Bay). South Notes says that Seccion 22, the Oaxacan local, intends to continue their strike through June 3. Labor Notes reports that other teacher locals could join the Oaxacan strike, including those in Chiapas, Michoacan, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, and the Federal District, and that the opposition caucus within the union is organizing for a general strike to oppose the test.

Oaxacan teachers have been at the forefront of Mexico’s labor movement, engaging in job actions nearly every year for the past 30 years, according to Indy Bay. However, in 2006, they went on a protracted strike in which they erected barricades, took over radio stations and set up a camp in the Zocalo, in Oaxaca town. Then-Governor Ulises Ruíz sent in the police to attack striking teachers as they slept. He was also probably complicit in the creation of the death squads that killed over 20 teachers and their supporters (See here and here).

Oaxaca Teacher Occupation Against Education “Reform”

Teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico are occupying the main square of the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, in opposition to neo-liberal education reform. The teachers are members of section 22 of the SNTE union. They are resisting US-style Ed Deform being imposed on them by the Alliance for Quality in Education (ACE) law. According to the Teacher Solidarity website, this law would increase standardized testing, consolidate curriculum and makes teachers’ jobs temporary.

On May 21, the union voted to strike. On May 23, they began their strike with protest marches converging on the Zocalo (main square) of Tuxtla. (From Riseup.net) Teachers have also set up blockades at several government buildings and corporate businesses. They are demanding the repeal of ACE, an expansion of the free meal program for students, salary increases, and the return of teacher Carlos Rene Roman Salazar, who was disappeared in April.

Section 22 is organized as an industrial union, rather than a trade union, as it includes teachers, psychologists, janitors and others in the education industry. As such, the union is much more powerful than a trade union, since trade unions have a tendency to promote competition between workers in different trades, rather than the solidarity that is required to fight the larger battles that affect all workers. Furthermore, it is much easier to get all members of an industry to participate in direct action when they are all members of the same union. Thus, teachers, psychologists and janitors can all be found together at the barricades and the Zocalo.

Section 22 has been engaged in ongoing struggles against the state, including an uprising in 2006 that included a 6-month work stoppage and occupation of Oaxaca city. During the uprising there were numerous assassinations of teachers and their supporters. An American journalist who was covering the movement was also shot and killed by vigilantes. (See here and here)

Mexican Cops Fire on Striking Teachers in Oaxaca

Oaxacan teachers protesting a visit by President Felipe Calderon were attacked by riot police near the Zocolo on Tuesday. The cops fired tear gas and live ammunition at the teachers. The battle lasted for seven hours and left more than 20 people seriously injured. Teachers were protesting Calderon’s signing of legislation that allows the wealthy to deduct the costs of their children’s private school from their income taxes, money that would otherwise go toward public education for all children.

During the protests, federal police fired tear gas canisters at point-blank range and opened fire with live ammunition from a distance of only 20 feet. Snipers also shot at teachers from rooftops. One teacher, Raymundo Servando Santiago Sanchez was hospitalized after being struck in the chest with a tear gas canister. Another teacher, Marcelino Coache suffered a fractured skull. The federal police purchase much of its equipment through aid from the U.S. under the Merida Initiative.

Teachers from 13,500 schools across the state of Oaxaca refused to work Wednesday, marched through Oaxaca town, and blockaded highways. They also called for the resignation of the state government’s secretary general, Irma Pineyro, and the director general of the State Institute of Public Education, Bernado Vazquez Colmenares.

Oaxaca was racked with police and vigilante and police violence against striking teachers in 2006. Teachers erected barricades throughout the city during the protests. More than 16 people were killed in the conflict, including an American journalist.