The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project

January 27, 2021/ This week's issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten’

Author Robert Fulghum had it right in the book by that title he wrote some 35 years ago. Take only what you need. Share your toys. Don’t hit other kids.

The good news: Fulghum had a bestseller with that perspective. The bad news: Capitalist societies run by the opposite rules. Winner takes all, even if by cheating. Ignore any suffering you wreak on your way to the top. Whoever grabs the most toys wins. To “succeed,” in short, we have to un-learn the lessons of kindergarten.

We all have our stories about work, about watching people get robbed of the value of their labor, of their dignity, even of their health and lives. US companies in México have done more than their share of that robbing. Maquila owners excel at squeezing from the most desperate. They see their employees as more disposable than face masks. At Covid’s height, they ordered workers to keep working, without masks, even after the Mexican government asked companies to close down.

The workers involved protested and moved to form their own union. The response? Local officials had worker lawyer Susana Prieto arrested for “inciting riots,” and she’s still, months later, sitting under house arrest and facing threats to her life. More on the struggle around her in this week’s issue.

Does work have to rest on conflict between owners and workers? Must an ever larger share of the rewards from work go to those who don’t actually work? Must those who do suffer brutal repression? Not if workers themselves own and manage their own workplaces.

In our Interview this week, activist Pablo Correa explores the emerging world of cooperative workplaces, enterprises where we have everyone pulling in the same direction, not two sides pulling apart. Cooperation. A no-brainer. We learned that in kindergarten.

As a bi-national US/México cooperative effort, May First Movement Technology remains rather unique. Why did you get involved?

I’m not a “techie”! I’m a journalist, and internet services have always been essential for me. But I’m also on the political left, and I didn’t want to use mainstream providers who gather information on you to make profits for themselves and their advertisers. I also didn’t want to be part of technology that could potentially aid our political opponents. So I was happy to find May First, an effort that for 16 years now has been putting technology at the service of social movements and people organizing for social change.

May First offers an alternative way of organizing and administering infrastructure for electronic communications. With a governing board elected by members, May First’s decision making has always been transparent and advances through member dialogue. The May First technology rests on “free software,” so improvements can come from anyone who has innovative ideas.

May First also hosts political debates that help activists reach common agreement about what’s happening in our countries and in our world, and these debates shape how technology can serve social justice. And the biggest benefit from the May First user point of view may be security. With May First, Big Brother cannot watch you.

How does May First overcome differences in language and culture and ensure equality for people on both sides of the border?

We make a major effort to be bilingual, and you can see this commitment at all levels of our work. Real challenges do arise, with technical documentation one example. Simultaneous translation can also be difficult. We use the free tools available, but better technology still could be developed.

Another way we ensure equality is by raising the level of dialogue in all our live meetings, whether online or in person. Our goal: making sure viewpoints on the different situations, needs, and analyses from two different countries get solicited and heard. By achieving all this, we enrich the work we do.

Can you tell us about cooperatives in México? Is the cooperative sector growing?

In México, no laws forbid or regulate workers who want to self-manage, either in providing services or producing goods. But we can’t tell if cooperatives are growing because no adequate data about them exists.

With decent jobs in México hard to come by, much of the population has to make a living informally, as street vendors or in whatever day jobs people can find. Many small collectives and cooperatives exist in this environment. For example, in the middle of the pandemic, the Multitrueke Mixiuhca group built an initiative to acquire food for distribution directly to campesinos. Other cooperatives for consumers, local currencies, and networks of fair commerce are also operating.

Can we be doing things to encourage more cooperatives in México?

Yes! Many initiatives are already promoting and strengthening the cooperative movement. One of these, La Coperacha: Información Cooperativa Fresca y Solidaria, tells the stories of workers who’ve become their own bosses and owners of their own workplaces.

We can draw inspiration and lessons from other countries as well. “Fábricas recuperadas” has become a powerful movement in Argentina, where over 300 factories went bankrupt during the neoliberal economic meltdown two decades ago. Workers took over many of these factories.

In México, two companies, TRADOC and Pascual/Boing, have been “recovered,” but only after years of strikes, conflicts, and deaths.

We have no blueprint for moving ahead. How cooperatives will form will vary from country to country, workplace to workplace, since each has its own characteristics and contexts. But one thing we can be sure of: Workers across the world will continue to organize for control over their own labor.

Susan Terrazas Prieto, a Mexican labor lawyer loved for her fearless defense of workers at US-owned maquilas and hated by conservative PAN party authorities in her home state, has always been unwilling to be silenced. Late last spring, she was arrested and forbidden to travel north to represent workers near the border. Her life now stands in danger. The Public Citizen/Global Trade Watch website is carrying her full letter asking Mexican President Lopez Obrador to intervene.

Honorable Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Having exhausted the means of communication within my reach, I respectfully write to you as a final recourse, to update you on the political and criminal siege of which I am the target of in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, and how I have been left without help from the Secretary of the Interior, who you instructed to deal with my case since July 27th, 2020, the day you received me at your offices with infinite chivalry.

I request, Mr. President, a new meeting to explain to you in detail what has happened since then, and the shocking situation I face, not only with respect to my liberty, but my very life. You know better than anyone about the age-old marriage that exists between the authorities and criminal organizations in Tamaulipas, as well as the political and business collusion that flourish not only here, but in Chihuahua, my home state: a convergence of illegal interests that drives the persecution of which I am the target...

Beyond the judicial systems — in which decisions are made without autonomy and always under the control of the government — a criminal wing operates that aims to stop my activities through intimidation and the threat of death. The governors of Tamaulipas and Chihuahau, who have kept me in house arrest, are maneuvering to eliminate me since they are unable to counteract my movement in support of workers through fair play of the law.

The most recent threats took place on December 22. A series of intimidating messages were sent to my cellphone, in which I was informed it would be in my personal interest to stop criticizing Juan Villafuerte, general secretary of the Union of Day Laborers and Workers of the Industrial Maquiladora in Matamoros (SJOIM), or the “situation could lead to mishaps.”

Mr. President, my case has been lost in the labyrinths of bureaucracy and the disdain that dwells in the Secretary of the Interior. Nothing describes a broken agreement better than small details. For instance, suffice it to say that I was given a “panic button” [to call for help from the government] that does not work. 

The political persecution against me and my imprisonment affect the decades-long fight to improve the living conditions of workers in Mexico. This became visible with the struggle for union democratization and freedom of association by the workers of the companies Tridonex and Fischer Dynamics, which were restraining the freedom of association and collective bargaining rights enshrined in the reforms to the Federal Labor Law of 2017 and 2019, as well as Chapter 23 of the USMCA, for which our country may be held liable before international tribunals.

Time must be of the essence. I hope you can receive me as soon as possible and that you are aware that my life is in danger if the Mexican State refuses to protect me.

Attorney Susana Prieto Terrazas

Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua

January 12, 2021

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-México border

John Ackerman, Biden: ¿Peligro para México? La Jornada. El intervencionismo y la desestabilización siempre constituyen ejes centrales de la política exterior norteamericana.

Mark Stevenson, Rob Gillies, and Aamer Madhani, Mexican leader says Biden offers $4B for Central America, AP. President Joe Biden’s first calls to foreign leaders went to Canada's Trudeau and Mexico's López Obrador at a strained moment for U.S. relations with its North American neighbors.

Mexican president ‘celebrates’ border wall construction rollback, CBS. AMLO is celebrating the Biden decision to reverse several hardline Trump immigration policies, including the border wall.

Felipe de la Hoz, Why Biden’s ‘Virtual’ Border Could Be Worse Than Trump’s Wall, Nation. Advanced surveillance tech on the border poses dangers to both migrants and citizens.

Gaspard Estrada, Cienfuegos está libre y la justicia está presa por la política, New York Times. En el caso del exsecretario de Defensa mexicano, como en muchos de la llamada guerra contra las drogas, falta justicia y sobra política. Pero no solo en México, también en Estados Unidos.

Ben Norton, Twitter Latin America coordinator exposed as right-wing operative, amid anti-AMLO social media purge, Gray Zone. A senior executive at Twitter Latin America spent years working for right-wing Mexican politicians.

Gabrielle Olya, These 47 Billionaires Got Richer During the Pandemic, Yahoo Finance. The richest man in México, Carlos Slim, has seen his fortune jump to $52.8 billion.

Mexico president OKs states acquiring vaccines, Discourse on Development. Mexico President Lopez Obrador has given state governors permission to acquire corona vaccines on their own. The federal government hasn't received enough vaccine for the country's 750,000 front-line medical workers.

Francesca Emanuele, The truth wins out, Red Pepper. Lessons for Mexico from Bolivia: Disinformation tactics did not deter support for Bolivia's Movement for Socialism. But the OAS is still labeling the 2019 election results as fraudulent.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice who see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty. 

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Bill Gallegos, Sam Pizzigati. We welcome your suggestions and feedback. Interested in getting involved? Drop us an email!

Web page and application support for the México Solidarity Project from NOVA Web Development, a democratically run, worker-owned and operated cooperative focused on developing free software tools for progressive organizations.