Lesbian March, People's Ecomomy March

There was around 4000-5000 women and men at Saturdays lesbian pride march. Great energy. A week before, there had been a Lesbian, Feminist Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean. Which I missed, due to not having the details. Around 5000 women went to the Conference, which sounded good, from the snippets of information I gleaned from two participants. One women from Peru, who was at the Conference spoke at Sat's rally and was very good.

(picture from La Jornada)

She wore a Lenin necklace, and many political badges. She called for unity with unions, progressive political parties and a stronger, more unified gay rights movement. The point was not lost on the organisers of the rally, who produced a poster saying men should not come, and did not strive to bring unions to the rally. The rlly organisers also made the point many times about the rally being political party free. This is despite Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) having a great record on queer rights and the first elected open lesbian to Congress, in 1997 - Patricia Jiménez.

They did get 2 women from the city of Cuidad Juarez which is under semi-martial law to speak. Cuidad Juarez is a frontier town, on the border of Mexico and the US. Lots of drug trade goes through the town, and it is rife with violence and gang warfare. 100 women have been disappeared in the last 5-6 months.

The PAN government sent troops into the town, which has not abated the assasinations. Obama is talking about sending US troops in. Rallies have been taking place against the militirsation of the city. As they should be.

Back to the dyke rally.

Was good, big, lots of energy. Lesbians are derogatorily called "tortillas" here. So there was a chant "No me gusta PAN, no me gusta PAN, me gusta tortilla - comida nacional". I dont like bread, I dont like bread, I like tortilla, national food.

A play on the fact that PAN is the party in power federally, and aligned with the Catholic Church and conservative.

A GREAT Cuban feminist duo hip hop band called "Kandela" performed at the end. They are really political, pro-Cuban revolution. Very cool.

Then a party took place around the corner from the end of the march with this cool 80s eske salsa, cumbia women's band. Was very cool.

On Sunday, 30,000 - 40,000 people rallied in the cities centre to demand a People's Ecomony. Mexican banks have the highest taxes in the world, according to one speaker. 6000 people are losing their jobs per day, and in response the PAN government are making moves to try to privitise the petrol industry.

Obrador, the legitimate president is at the forefront of the campaign for a People's Economy. This rally was nation wide and dynamic.

The next move is a rally outside the Congress to demand the top level public funcionaries take a salary cut to ave the poor from further destitution.

There was a meeting on the Sat (same day as the Dyke rally) of 12,000 local leaders of PRD/ or the movement for a people's economy. Elections are in July here and the country is in election mode. But Obrador was at pains to communicate the movement for a Peoples Economy was not beholden to personal ambitions.