Thousands of campesinos from across Mexico blocked central avenues of the capital Jan. 30, many having traveled for days for the protest directed at President Felipe Calderón. Protesters decried that Calderón has instated a freeze on petrol prices, but not diesel—on which tractors and other farm equipment run. They also rejected Calderón’s free trade policies, which they say hurts the farm sector.
Teachers from Oaxaca and other states also marched in force, both in support of the campesinos’ demands and to protest Calderón’s planned reforms of the social security system and education system—which they see as moves towards privatization of both.
For five hours, hundreds of transport operators from the city of Nezahualcóyotl blocked the principal arteries into the capital, immediately to the north, using their combis (microbuses) to seal off street traffic. (BBC World Service, Jan. 31; La Jornada, Mexico City, El Imparcial, Oaxaca, Jan. 30)
Meanwhile, hundreds of farmers, principally from the state of Chihuahua, blocked the Córdova-Las Américas bridge that links the border city of Juárez with El Paso, TX. With banners reading “SIN MAIZ, NO HAY PAIS” (Without corn there is no country), the protesters called upon US President Barack Obama to follow through on his campaign pledge to demand a renegotiation of NAFTA. (El Golfo, Veracruz, Jan. 30)
See our last post on Mexico and the farmers’ struggle, and global econo-protests.
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I enjoyed this
I enjoyed this and the links.
Here is something that I stumbled on some time ago about WW4. Maybe I found it through this site.
The following text is an excerpt from a talk given by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos to the International Civil Commission of Human Rights Observation in La Realidad, Chiapas on November 20, 1999.
A long read but worth it.
http://onelittleduck.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/fourth-world-war/
You surprise us
Very astute, Mareika. You figured out the context for our name faster than most folks do. Congratulations. We suggest you stick with the Zapatistas and leave the Bilderburgs alone.
But still I am confused
Do you also think, “left wing nuttery” sometimes? Do you think that there are people on both sides and people who are libertarian who care about WW4?
Don’t be confused
Yes, we definitely call out left-wing nuttery, although we are of the left, and generally think the left goes astray when it paradoxically embraces figures of the populist or radical right—like Ron Paul or the Bosnia butchers.
As for “libertarian”—that’s a tricky one. We are definitely social libertarians. But unfortunately the word has been appropriated by the free-market right ideology of Milton Freidman & co. And needless to say, we utterly oppose this. We are old-school left libertarians—once upon a time, this wasn’t an oxymoron.
Thank-you
Thanks very much for answering my question and for the ‘left libertarian’ link in particular. I have just started reading what is available and am going to get back to it.