The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.19           May 13, 1996 
 
 
Social Tensions Sharpen In Mexico  

BY LINDA JOYCE

MEXICO CITY - The government of Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo is pushing ahead with deep austerity measures, selling off state enterprises to meet massive debt payments and abide by the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin announced February 29 that Mexico had paid $750 million dollars on the interest of the emergency $50 billion bailout Washington put together last year. While Zedillo hopes to avoid setting off a social explosion, the skyrocketing prices and unemployment rate have deepened social tensions.

Over the past 14 months, the price of basic goods more than doubled, with inflation projected to run at about 30 percent this year. The first week in April the government raised the minimum wage 12 percent, but hiked the price of tortillas 27 percent. The minimum wage is around $2.95 a day, with many in the countryside earning less than $1 a day.

In line with conditions imposed by the IMF and the World Bank to service Mexico's debt of $100 billion, more of the country's resources have been opened up to control by U.S. corporations. By mid-1994, the number of state-owned enterprises dropped from 1,155 to less than 150.

Even workers in better-paying jobs are feeling the pinch. At a Chrysler plant here, gleaming new Dodge Ram pickup trucks are lined up behind the plant, and look oddly out of place on the decaying street. Working at breakneck speed, the 3,000 assembly line workers are paid 550 pesos ($73) a week for six days' work with no breaks except for a half-hour lunch. No women work at the factory in production.

Picasso Morales, a 26-year-old assembly line worker, said, "The crisis has affected us very much because everything has gone up but our salaries. Inside we've had to cooperate to reduce costs and they want us to work harder. Many of the new people can't take the pace of the work."

Eduardo Domínguez, 20, added, "But we know we earn three to four times what others can. Still, we have to do work on the side just to make ends meet."

Wide range of protests
At the University of Mexico students gathered in the School of Economics common area where banners adorn the high walls. One called for the abolition of child labor, while another one highlighted the resistance in the state of Tabasco to the environmental damage caused by the huge state-owned Pemex petrochemical industry, now in the process of partially being sold off to private companies.

Gerardo Lozano, 21, an economics major, explained that the university was continuing to cut enrollment. "For us students, everything is expensive. Looking at the future, I feel like we're in the mouth of a volcano." Last year 48 percent of youth earned less than minimum wage.

In the first week of March, daily demonstrations in the capital gave a glimpse of the impact of depression conditions on Mexico's population. Protests of 100 to 500 people occurred over the credit crunch for peasants, for safe drinking water, against the suffocating pollution levels, and against the drastic reduction in school lunches.

Sanitation workers from the state of Tabasco, illegally fired last July after they won an arbitration claim to be paid for the nine hours they worked every day instead of just for eight, are holding daily vigils. They have been beaten by cops and forcibly sent back to Tabasco twice, but have returned and are not giving up their fight to be reinstated.

On March 1, a group of about 100 peasants and supporters protested the murder of 17 peasants in Aguas Blancas, in the state of Guerrero, and called for the resignation of governor Ruben Figueroa. The murders occurred last June, and a special prosecutor closed the case on February 27, exonerating the governor. When a video of the massacre was broadcast on Mexican TV, public outrage and a series of protests finally forced his resignation March 12.

Cop killings of peasants
Just days after Zedillo's government cried crocodile tears over the April 1 beating of two Mexican workers by police in California, the Mexican cops ambushed another group of peasants on April 10 in the state of Morelos, killing one and wounding dozens. The group of some 500 organized by the Committee of Tepozteca Unity planned to protest the building of a golf course on environmentally sensitive land in Tepotzlán. The governor of Morelos initially denied the shooting occurred but, after a videotape of the gun-toting cops was shown, he was forced to suspend four of them.

In the meantime, the official union federation, whose leaders are tied to the ruling party, has once again announced there will be no May Day parade, while nine of the federation's unions stated they would go ahead with one anyway.

As all this goes on, the Mexican army is stepping up its activities under the guise of fighting drug traffickers, with U.S. government cooperation. Washington announced it would provide 50 Huey helicopters to the Mexican army for the so-called war on drugs. One of the places the "war" is being carried out in is Chiapas, where indigenous communities are battling for the removal of the federal army from the area.

A communiqué from CONPAZ, a grouping of nongovernmental peace organizations in Chiapas, stated that the army has recently entered several communities, set up military detachments, demanded the names of all in the town, and raided properties all as part of the anti-narcotics operation.

Linda Joyce is a member of United Auto Workers Local 882 in Hapeville, Georgia, who participated in the Mexico City Bookfair in March. Militant staff writer Laura Garza contributed to this article.  
 
 
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