CLASS

The Mexican Electrical Trades Union SME, the Mexican National Union of Mining Workers (Cananea, Sonora), as well as many other unions and social, political, peoples organisations, are calling for a National Day of Political Strike, on March 16, 2010, starting at 12pm. (Remember March 16 Mexico time is March 17 in Australia).

These organisations are calling for different protest actions nationally and internationally.

To support this initiative you can:

1) Protest outside the Mexican Embassy in your country.

2) Donate to the resistance against the liquidation decree of Luz y fuerza and in support of the Electrical Trade Union and their families.

Send your donations to the account: BBVA Bancomer 0168715246. To do so, please contact: C. Martin Esparza on the phone +52 55 5546 3200, or send an email to sme1014@gmail.com

3) Write a letter addressed to the Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico, demanding his government respond to the demands put forward by the National Assembly for Popular Resistance and the Social Congress.

You can send a personal latter or ask your union or organisation to write one. You can forward the following sample letter of you can write one with your own words:

Please write to:

Felipe Calderón, President of the Republic: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

Government Offices: gobierno.digital@funcionpublica.gob.mx

Mexican Congress: administrador@congreso.gob.mx

Javier Lozano, Minister for Labour and Social Security: javierlozano@stps.gob.mx

Please copy the letter to: sinmexel@sme.org.mx to let them know you ar supporting their actions.

Please also copy info@latinamericasolidarity.org Continue reading Mexican Electrical Trades Union calls for support on the National Day of Strike, March 16

Some 1,200 members of Mexico’s National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union, or Los Mineros, have been on strike since July 2007 at the Cananea mine over health and safety and other contract violations. Grupo Mexico – the mining giant which operates Cananea – and the Mexican government have continuously tried to end the strike and crush the union. The Government of Mexico has threatened and jailed union leaders, illegally frozen union bank accounts and failed to investigate or prosecute assassinations of union members. On February 11, a federal court gave Grupo Mexico permission to fire the striking workers and terminate the labor agreement, effectively eliminating the right to strike in Mexico. The Mexican government has threatened to use armed force to gain control of Cananea. The Los Mineros members at Cananea are resolved to continue occupying the mine until a fair labour agreement is reached. Los Mineros is one of the strongest and most democratic trade unions in Mexico.

To support this innitiative and send a letter, click the link to LabourStart Continue reading Mexico: Support the Cananea miners

On this International Womens Day, we would like to share this message from the women form CODEP-APPO, Oaxaca Mexico. ¡Viva la lucha de las mujeres!

In the struggles that have transformed our communities and that have been vital for the development and the improvement of humanity, the participation and leading role of women has been of great importance. That is why we, the women of Oaxaca, decided to take part in the struggle for a Oaxaca free of repression, with social justice, economic and gender equality, a society where the life and work of women is taken into account, and where our opinions are heard, as well as our decision when choosing our leaders.

On July 14, 2006, in Oaxaca City [a State capital in the South West of Mexico], after a failed eviction the State government attempted against a long sit-in strike by the teachers and people, the state made use of all its repressive forces. But the women of Oaxaca, following our tradition of political participation, took to the streets in protest. Continue reading The leading role of women from Oaxaca in the struggle of the APPO

The Pablo Neruda Cultural Centre is organising a Celebration for the International Women´s day.

Saturday March 13, 6:30pm

At the Maritime Union of Australia. 46-54 Ireland St., West Melbourne

All money raised will go directly to support aid project in Chile, for the recovery after the terrible earthquakes. Come along!

No more sexism! no more neoliberalism!

Find the event on Facebook and send to your friends.

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El Centro Cultural Pablo Neruda tiene el agrado de  invitar a todos Uds., Compañeras (os) Amigas (os) a celebrar con un Cena Bailable, el dia Internacional de  la Mujer.

Esta  Jornada  se  llevara  a  efecto el Sabado 13 de Marzo desde las 18.30hrs. en el Sindicato Maritimo de  Australia ubicada en la  Calle Ireland   46-54  West Melbourne muy cerca de  la  estacion de  trenes de North Melbourne.  Te  esperamos  con  una gran  cantina  Latinoamericana.

Los fondos reunidos irán directamente a Chile, tras el terrible terremoto. Los esperamos!

All together for Haiti!

By Andres Schipani
BBC News, La Paz

In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country’s independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline.

But their presence on the battlefield did not translate into presence in the political life of their nation. For many, their education, job opportunities and political rights were limited - until now.

Justice Minister Copa started her political career as a trade unionist

“For a long time, we women have been excluded - it was one of the dark legacies of the colonial model,” the recently appointed Justice Minister, Nilda Copa, told the BBC at her office.

“I remember my mother didn’t know how to read and write, neither did my grandmother… not because they didn’t want to learn,” Ms Copa says.

Ms Copa joined a trade union very young, when she was only 16, because she felt a drastic change was needed and that was the only platform where women “had some voice”.

And that change seems to have arrived. Today, posters proclaiming the slogans of female Bolivian heroes such as indigenous rebel Bartolina Sisa and independence icon Juana Azurduy plaster the walls of several ministries. Continue reading Bolivian women spearhead Morales revolution

Written by Geovani Montalvo, from UpsideDown World

Indigenous peoples in the western Salvadoran town of Izalco commemorated the 78^th anniversary of  the slaughter of 30 thousand indigenous people and peasants, killed during the popular uprising of 1932.

During the dictatorship of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, the dissatisfaction with the unfair distribution of wealth caused a social uprising. The dictatorship struck back, with one of the worst massacres of the continent on occurring on January 22, 1932. Continue reading Indigenous Peoples in El Salvador Commemorate 1932 Massacre

An Interview with Laura Carlsen
By Mike Whitney
Global Research, December 24, 2009

“Militarization is not the way to deal with Mexico’s political crisis.” Laura Carlsen

Mike Whitney— Will you explain what Plan Mexico is and how it relates to the North American Free Trade Agreement? (NAFTA)

Laura Carlsen:  Plan Mexico, also called the Merida Initiative, is a three-year regional security cooperation plan devised by the former Bush administration and presented in October of 2007. The plan grew out of the extension of NAFTA into security areas, known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Originally Plan Mexico was to be announced in the context of the SPP trinational summit but was delayed. It is presented as a petition of the Mexican president Felipe Calderon for US help in the war on drugs but in reality it was designed in Washington as a way to “push out the borders” of the US security perimeter, that is, that Mexico would take on US security priorities including policing its southern border and allowing US companies and agents into Mexico’s intelligence and security operations. Continue reading Obama’s Role in the Militarization of Mexico