I interviewed Antonio Medina, coordinator of Letra S, a fortnightly supplement in left-wing daily newspaper La Jornada. He, and his couple were the first couple to utilize the registration scheme, introduced into being by the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 2006.
Antonio Mendina
41 years old, 19 years out of the closet, large family, very religious, but very educated. After he family, only took them a small amount of time to be OK with it. I believe strongly that the Personal is political, I began my activism at university. All my homework was about the question of homosexuality. We suffer a lot through the media. This is a big hurdle we have to change. Front covers like "maricon strangled/ homosexuals killed" in the front cover of magazines causes much pain.
I became active at uni, GUAM - they say Zapatista SubCommandante Marcos was a professor there. Very left campus, very progressive ideas. In 1996 I helped form a gay rights group - we campaigned and won a queer space. The rector was very supportive, very open. I lived in Canada for 2 years before going to GUAM, therefore I knew that unis had queer spaces. During my university time I came in contact with Letra S, and worked for them in a voluntary fashion. I joined with them , an investigation team into hate crimes. We sorted through many photos and cases of homophobic hate crimes. It was very hard. Wothout money. It was a hard job to do for ones sanity, ones mind.
In 1998, when I finished my studies, I got a contract with Letra S, after many years of volunteer work. This was the 90s, and lots of work was being done around AIDS.
I dont think in Mexico, there is really a gay strip, or gay community like there is in the West. We have small groups, but not a big community.
AIDS in the 90s and 80s was the big issue. 80% of men in Mexico who have AIDS are gay or men who have sex with men. In the 90s poor countries fought for the state to assume responsibility for medical attention - drugs became available but we did not and still do not have good medical attention. There no health for all here. The fight was around the fact that the state institutions did not want to say that yes, gay men are effected. 10 years in 1985 we had a big earthquake, and after this quaked there was a huge rise in social activism. All types of social activism, womens civil groups. AIDS came around this time to Mexico too, and so gay men fought for health care in the context of this rise of social activism.
In the 90s Patria Jiménez, the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico was elected. Also, the 90s held the Zapatistas, they were very important. Patria's first overrinding campaign was indigenous rights with the Zapatistas. 98 was the first legislative forum LGBT. It was very good, positive But the medias of communication were terrible/ violent against LGBT. Strong homophobia in the media. 1998 was too a commission around hate crimes.
2001 we began the fight around laws of convinience within FD. The Party of Social Democracy prepared a law convinience here. It was knocked back originally. Finally, after 6 years it was passed. But with much of debate, discussion. All social actors were speaking about this issue - magistrates, universities, churches, schools. Was being explained in all places. Because this law was first in a northern state - Colima, and it was put up by the PRI who have has 71 years in power here in Mexico, the law the state PRI put up was a law from France. Finally, in 2006 they approved almost the exact law here in DF that they had in Colima.
In the 6th MArch 2006, we applied the law of convenience. - me and my partner were motivated to use this law because no-one - no couples would come forth to use the law. If no-one used the law, then the community would come under fire.
Indeed this was already happening. After two months of the law passed, no-one had come forward to use them. There began to be critisim from Orocio Franco and various media.
So me and my partner deliberated. We had, them 4 years together, sharing our lives. So we did it, and for almost one month we were in the press talking about the law, the positives and the limits. My partner is not an activist, but he assumed the responsibility. We are still fighting for marriage. I got criticism from friends and family, because it was not just for love that we did this. We may or may not stay together for the rest of our lives, but we did it because the laws needed validation, and we needed more discussion in society about our rights.
For example, my partner got very sick, very suddenly and I went to the hospital and they said he may need a transplant, urgently and can you sign this form, are you family. And I said no, I am a friend, at that stage it was very early into our relationship. But then they said, well, no, ring his family. And I only had one number, of a family member and I could not reach them. So then I told them of our relationship, and they still refused, and so I told them that I was a journalist with La Jornada, and if they did not allow me to sign, I would go public. Well, I am a journalist, I have the power to do this, I know my rights. But for others, this is not an option. This new law helps, but it is not marriage, which would have more of a social impact, so that this could not happen.
The law has limitations, The biggest is social security - that for hetrosexual couples they have the right to their partners benefits if they die/get sick/ hetrosexual couples are able to go to football games on special packages for example too, gyms etc have packages etc but we don't get that kind of recognition with this law. There is also no adoption rights.
For hetro couples who have lots of money, they can get kids through adoption. Not so for us under this law. However, the law has benefits - it is in large part symbolic - it is very important to see that we have rights. Symbolic for society. That we are informed that their exists rights. We change things little by little.
The first gay march was 1978, and now at the end of June we have a very big march/ procession. Previosly, when they started in 1999, they went to Chapultapec to the Benito Juarez memorial because he was president who fought hard for the separation of church and state. The rally at Chapultepec went to the Benito Juarez memorial to honor his role. Then the marches grew to 20,000 to 30,000 people and we moved and went to the Zocolo which is in the center of town, and of course very symbolic. We entered and then, after the march increased in numbers. Not just gay people, their familes, aunties. People from unions, universities UNAM, Zapatistas.
The Zapatistas were important SCMArcos mentioned the rights of LGBT people very early on in the life of the Zapatistas. Companies were interested in coming - ABSOLUTE (vodka) for example, beer companies and the like. Little by little, they made their way into the marches. They are very expensive to organise. Has a negative impact, yes, but expensive, so accepted the money. 100,000 people at the last two rallies participated. There are now fights between groups as to who will march at the front.
70s the fight was against police and general repression.
80s question of AIDS and health care
90s marriage rights - sexual education campaigns in schools and society.
La Jornada and Letra S
1st year of La Jornada was 1994, just before the 1985 earthquake. Left leaders were the founders. Communist Party in the 70s and 80s fought hard the social fight and then founded LJ. Also joining it were left intellectuals and uni professors. When it was founded HIV hit Mexico. Letra S began 10 years later, in 1994. Originally it began in a government space, in a government newspaper called the 'National' which was very official, very government. But it was also very limited, because its circulation was low, not many people read it. In 1998 Letra S joined LJ, which was a good move because LJ has a higher circulatin, so more people read Letra S now. Much better impact. 100,000 LJ sold every day in Mexico. Letra S is also an non-government organisation, that works on issues of sexuality, AIDS, as well as a sumplement 14 years old. Letra S takes up political themes, critical of public politics, critical of the health government institutions, education department,
development department. Very critical overall. A style of journalism that is
different from the rest, there are very few good issues raised in other publications. A social vision, very different.
Other issues in Mexico is that transgendered people need to be able to change their identity - they need to have operations.
Censure, there is no self-censorship but well, in some spaces yes. For example, 2003 those in the military with AIDS, still the military will not talk about it. In Mexico you cannot criticize the Virgin Guadalope, well, with the military, its like the same. You cant question them. They have power, they can make you disappear, so yea, people are afraid to question them. Not all the media, thanks to our push and others homsexuals in the media, we wrote about it. Then, practically all the press LGBT wrote about it. It was very good. Also, the theme of youth homosexuality because of the charge of pedophilia. There are specialists who have investigated this - but we are not writing about it because they are are afraid they will lose their jobs and the like. Also, erectile dysfunction between gay men is not reported, but it is common. Those men who are 'tops' that is they do the penetrating, they are penetrating or tops have problems with erectile dysfunction.
There is no law in Mexico that would enable the LGBT community to stop lies about condoms not causing lies. Like the lies that Pope Benedict promotes. They are very dangerous. There is no such laws here, and they would be good.
There are two grand private companies that dominate the press here in Mexico. Before the elections here in July, it is not good to campaign around marriage law. Why? Because they thing of a lay like marriage is that it is a Federal law, and we need to utilise these elections to win more deputies. The PRD, need to be strong federally for us to pass such a law, Socially, homosexual marriage is a great necesity. There are better times for us to push for this law. We will use up a time that is not good, if we push it before the elections.
Holland were vanguardists in this regard. They passed it in 1989, they advanced on abortion as well.
LGBT oppression is not only social but it is cultural, it is within peoples thoughts, internalized. Not only outside repression. Therefore, it is important to have marriage as a symbol. That we have the same rights as hetrosexual couples.
Transgender oppression for LGB is about gender, and there is a lot of oppression within trans people within the LGBT community in Mexico. It is part of the human condition. It is part of the folklore of the African American communities, the peasant communitys, and in our communtiy there is violence. I have transexual friends, and we are walking, and some other people I know, other friends, will not come and greet me if they see me with transgender friends. This is part of out internalised homophobia/transphobia - attacking someone who is different to ourselves. Discriminatory, a question of status as well, Mexico history of classification - of looking down at those in a lower class conquistadors, criolle, etc etc.
Post the war of 1910, the revolutionary democratic government demanded homosexiuals be given specific identification, for example.
On our processions, festivals, nightclubs. They are a celebration of nudity. Meat of nudity. They are a result of our oppression that we have suffered for so long. The pagan carnival was a fertility carnival, tied closely with sex, for rain, sun, so that the crops would grow and life would continue. That is the history of carnivals. So our festivals now are this, but they are also a protest against hate and against the ideas of the Catholic church. They are to repudiate our repressor.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Patria Jiménez - Latin America's first lesbian deputy
I interviewed this activist. Will get the full interview up on the blog soon, but here is a brief explanation of her work.
In 1997, Jiménez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico. Representing the Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT) which was in an alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Jiménez was also the first lesbian candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within Salvemos México (Save Mexico) for Mexico’s upcoming July federal elections.
I want to share an interview conducted by a skilled writer, who managed to get more of the personal components of her life. I think every queer person needs to read this interview. And all those who want to know what we go through.
http://www.speaktruth.org/defend/profiles/profile_45.asp
Here is some of the best bits of her responses
'And I will look back and realize the true meanings of many things, like courage. Courage is when, in Chiapas, you ask a general to remove his troops from a community because they are entering houses at night, frightening people. You have to talk to that general, to confront someone with weapons and power, to overcome your timidity and fear. Today they tell me I’m going to Chiapas, to lead the people on a march into the community of La Realidad. When we get to the roadblock, there will be armed paramilitaries. These are the most risky situations: entering communities in which my truck is surrounded by paramilitaries threatening to burn it, saying that they will kill us. It used to make me afraid, but it doesn’t any more. Because I am never alone. Even when people ask me to go in front, to confront the troops or the paramilitaries, they come with me, so we’re a group.'
My fear disappears when I begin to speak in these situations, without raising my voice. I just try to explain to people what’s going on. I’m afraid inside, but calm outside. It’s only when I get home that I react. The morning after, I wake up and say, "What did I do?" That could be brave. I don’t know. I’m not someone who takes risks. Others have been beaten up, but this has not happened to me. If that happens to me some day, it will be part of the work. I just hope they don’t hurt me too badly.
But I take courage by realizing that here is an opening, and we have been able to move forward on difficult cases. I’ve gotten a reputation of being a good advocate. But it works because there is openness on the part of the other side. They are small cases, but they are very important, because they have to do with people’s lives—someone in jail, rape victims, a pregnant woman, a person kicked out of work after twenty-five years. Very small cases, but it’s their lives. And it’s so worth fighting for.'
Incredible!!
In 1997, Jiménez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian candidate in Mexico. Representing the Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT) which was in an alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Jiménez was also the first lesbian candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within Salvemos México (Save Mexico) for Mexico’s upcoming July federal elections.
I want to share an interview conducted by a skilled writer, who managed to get more of the personal components of her life. I think every queer person needs to read this interview. And all those who want to know what we go through.
http://www.speaktruth.org/defend/profiles/profile_45.asp
Here is some of the best bits of her responses
'And I will look back and realize the true meanings of many things, like courage. Courage is when, in Chiapas, you ask a general to remove his troops from a community because they are entering houses at night, frightening people. You have to talk to that general, to confront someone with weapons and power, to overcome your timidity and fear. Today they tell me I’m going to Chiapas, to lead the people on a march into the community of La Realidad. When we get to the roadblock, there will be armed paramilitaries. These are the most risky situations: entering communities in which my truck is surrounded by paramilitaries threatening to burn it, saying that they will kill us. It used to make me afraid, but it doesn’t any more. Because I am never alone. Even when people ask me to go in front, to confront the troops or the paramilitaries, they come with me, so we’re a group.'
My fear disappears when I begin to speak in these situations, without raising my voice. I just try to explain to people what’s going on. I’m afraid inside, but calm outside. It’s only when I get home that I react. The morning after, I wake up and say, "What did I do?" That could be brave. I don’t know. I’m not someone who takes risks. Others have been beaten up, but this has not happened to me. If that happens to me some day, it will be part of the work. I just hope they don’t hurt me too badly.
But I take courage by realizing that here is an opening, and we have been able to move forward on difficult cases. I’ve gotten a reputation of being a good advocate. But it works because there is openness on the part of the other side. They are small cases, but they are very important, because they have to do with people’s lives—someone in jail, rape victims, a pregnant woman, a person kicked out of work after twenty-five years. Very small cases, but it’s their lives. And it’s so worth fighting for.'
Incredible!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Eduardo Galeano - The Devil Is a Homosexual
La Jornada has a fortnightly sexuality lift out that this week featured a double spread about intersexuality. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/05/07/ls-cara.html
This edition also featured a 'chapter' from Eduardo Galeno's new book 'Espejos' / Mirrors. It's called 'The Devil is a Homosexual' and it went something like this.
'Excluding the reign of the Aztecs and the Incas, the homosexuals were free in America. The Spanish conqueror Vasco Núnez de Balboa hurled starving dogs to the Indians showing this abnormality with total normality. He believed homosexuality was contagious. Five centuries after, I listened to Archbishop of Montevideo say the same thing.
The historian Richard Nixon knew that this vice was fatal for civilization. Nixon "You know what happened to the Greeks? Homosexuality destroyed them! For sure Aristotle was a homo. Everyone knows it. And also Socrates. And you know that is what happened with the Romans?"
The civilized Adolf Hitler had taken drastic measures to save Germany from this danger. The degenerates guilty of this perverse crime against nature were obliged to wear a pink triangle. How many died in the concentration camps? They do not know. In the year of 2001, the German government resolved to rectify the exclusion of homosexuality among the holocaust victims.
More than half a century passed away before there was a correction of this omission.
Saffo: continued Galeano,
Little is known of Saffo.
They say she was born 2,600 years ago in the island of lesbos, and that because of her they gave the name lesbians.
They say she married, had one boy child that she threw off a cliff because a sailor did not give her due attention. They say she was slight and ugly. Who knows.
The machos do not take well that women prefer other women, instead of succumbing to our irresistible charms.
In the year 1703 the Catholic Church, bastion of male power, sent all the books of Saffo to the fire. Some poems, only some, have been salvaged.
Leonardo: In his 20th year, the guards of public morale, the watchmen of the night, they plucked Leonardo from the workshop of teacher Verrocchio and they hurled him into jail.
Two months there, without sleep, without breath, terrorized by the threat of the stake. The price of homosexuality was fire and one anonymous denunciation would have the accused within it.
Leonardo was absolved for lack of evidence and he returned to to his life.
And he painted expert works, almost all unfinished, that in the history of art, excelled.
Salvemos Mexico
Obrador, Mexico's legitimate president, is in election mode. Elections are July 5th, and there are notices on the trains here in DF, asking people to think seriously about their choice.
The PRD, has come under much criticism by people in general, for being corrupt, and for not offering a significant alternative to the PRI, PAN pro-corporate, conservative duopoly.
They are the 'least worst choice' many say.
Obrador has been moving away from the PRD. His television ads don't have him mention the PRD, but mention PT and Convergencia, both left parties that are in an electoral alliance with the PRD. This has angered José Ortega, the conservative PRD president. However, without Obrador, the PRD would be without an electoral chance. So there have been some sharpish words in La Jornada, but nothing much more.
The other move that Obrador has made has been to set up 'Salvamos México', a coalition between Convergencia, PT and remnants/ members of PRT. This coalition, from what I have been able to gather has electoral registration in its own right. This would be in direct competition with the PRD.
Good developments on the reshaping of a left leadership that will be able to make advances in the struggle.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Swine Flu in Mexico
This is an article Lauren Carol Haris and myself wrote about swine flu in Mexico.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40818
Mexico: Swine flu, health and profits
Rachel Evans & Lauren Carroll Harris, Mexico City
2 May 2009
Streets that bustled only two weeks ago are eerily quiet.
School playgrounds and university lecture halls are deserted. Museums, cinemas, libraries and many restaurants are shuttered.
And most people — from children playing in the streets to workers going about their business — are wearing the ubiquitous blue surgical masks.
Yet another international health emergency has emerged: swine influenza.
Type A H121 influenza, swine flu, resists human immunity, has no vaccine, and sprouted in an underdeveloped country with struggling health services.
Now that international air travel allows people to cross the world in a matter of hours, it seems that pigs really can fly: countries as far apart as Peru, New Zealand, Austria and the US have reported cases of swine flu.
Although swine flu is undoubtedly a real danger, it can be prevented when simple protective measures are taken. It can be adequately treated with antivirals such as Tamiflu when treated within the 48 hours of infection.
This has not stopped the Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who won the 2006 elections through massive voter fraud, from using the outbreak to decree authoritarian laws. Health authorities have been granted emergency powers to detain any person suspected of being infected with swine flu. Authorities also have the right to enter any shop or home.
This occurs in a context of already increased militarisation. The military is already mobilised on the streets in the name of the “war on drugs”. This latest move appears to be taking advantage of the swine flu outbreak to extend state powers.
The media are whipping up a hysterical frenzy over swine flu. Yet, there is no mention of the World Health Organisation estimate of the between 250,000-500,000 people who die each year from seasonal influenza.
The outbreak has highlighted the importance of strong state health systems and government responses.
The real problem facing Mexico is not an uncontrollable epidemic, but that its health system, run down by governments following neoliberal prescriptions set out in the US-enforced North America Free Trade Agreement, risks making the situation much worse than it needs to be.
This latest health emergency points to the need for well-maintained public health systems, global access to generic drugs, proper regulation, infrastructure for surveillance of public health issues, food industries and livestock diseases.
The Third World, with its high-density populations, dilapidated health-care systems, weakened or non-existent social services and poor populaces, is acutely vulnerable to wide-scale health problems. It will suffer more from this outbreak.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund actually mandated the privatisation of many Third World countries´ health systems as part of structural adjustment programs. Implementing such programs are a condition for poor countries receiving needed loans.
The impact of swine flu has already impacted on the lives of Mexico’s people, half of whom live in poverty. The outbreak has diminished work for the millions of people in Mexico City’s informal sector , who rely on income from street stalls.
The AFP said on April 30 that flu-related closures are costing Mexico US$57 million per day.
The swine flu outbreak has also drawn attention to the corporate practices of agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, which routinely place business over health.
The pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on global health prevents swift and efficient measures from being taken in the event of health crises. Third World governments are forced to rely on pharmaceutical companies to supply medicines. The needed prescription flu treatment Tamiflu is produced by the Roche corporation.
Already, giant drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline’s stock prices have increased by 8% since the announcement of the swine flu outbreak.
Health care is out of our control. Giant drug manufacturers profit from privatised health systems that prevent patented drugs from being distributed en masse in generic formats to those who need them.
A profound health crisis already exists in the world. This is not a screaming headlines and surgical masks- type crisis. It is largely silent.
For the 3 billion people who live on less than $2 per day, decent health care is a distant dream.
Only when the “free market” approach to health is abandoned and life-saving drugs are wrangled from the corporations can a comprehensive approach to health care and pandemic prevention be adopted.
From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40818
Mexico: Swine flu, health and profits
Rachel Evans & Lauren Carroll Harris, Mexico City
2 May 2009
Streets that bustled only two weeks ago are eerily quiet.
School playgrounds and university lecture halls are deserted. Museums, cinemas, libraries and many restaurants are shuttered.
And most people — from children playing in the streets to workers going about their business — are wearing the ubiquitous blue surgical masks.
Yet another international health emergency has emerged: swine influenza.
Type A H121 influenza, swine flu, resists human immunity, has no vaccine, and sprouted in an underdeveloped country with struggling health services.
Now that international air travel allows people to cross the world in a matter of hours, it seems that pigs really can fly: countries as far apart as Peru, New Zealand, Austria and the US have reported cases of swine flu.
Although swine flu is undoubtedly a real danger, it can be prevented when simple protective measures are taken. It can be adequately treated with antivirals such as Tamiflu when treated within the 48 hours of infection.
This has not stopped the Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who won the 2006 elections through massive voter fraud, from using the outbreak to decree authoritarian laws. Health authorities have been granted emergency powers to detain any person suspected of being infected with swine flu. Authorities also have the right to enter any shop or home.
This occurs in a context of already increased militarisation. The military is already mobilised on the streets in the name of the “war on drugs”. This latest move appears to be taking advantage of the swine flu outbreak to extend state powers.
The media are whipping up a hysterical frenzy over swine flu. Yet, there is no mention of the World Health Organisation estimate of the between 250,000-500,000 people who die each year from seasonal influenza.
The outbreak has highlighted the importance of strong state health systems and government responses.
The real problem facing Mexico is not an uncontrollable epidemic, but that its health system, run down by governments following neoliberal prescriptions set out in the US-enforced North America Free Trade Agreement, risks making the situation much worse than it needs to be.
This latest health emergency points to the need for well-maintained public health systems, global access to generic drugs, proper regulation, infrastructure for surveillance of public health issues, food industries and livestock diseases.
The Third World, with its high-density populations, dilapidated health-care systems, weakened or non-existent social services and poor populaces, is acutely vulnerable to wide-scale health problems. It will suffer more from this outbreak.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund actually mandated the privatisation of many Third World countries´ health systems as part of structural adjustment programs. Implementing such programs are a condition for poor countries receiving needed loans.
The impact of swine flu has already impacted on the lives of Mexico’s people, half of whom live in poverty. The outbreak has diminished work for the millions of people in Mexico City’s informal sector , who rely on income from street stalls.
The AFP said on April 30 that flu-related closures are costing Mexico US$57 million per day.
The swine flu outbreak has also drawn attention to the corporate practices of agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, which routinely place business over health.
The pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on global health prevents swift and efficient measures from being taken in the event of health crises. Third World governments are forced to rely on pharmaceutical companies to supply medicines. The needed prescription flu treatment Tamiflu is produced by the Roche corporation.
Already, giant drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline’s stock prices have increased by 8% since the announcement of the swine flu outbreak.
Health care is out of our control. Giant drug manufacturers profit from privatised health systems that prevent patented drugs from being distributed en masse in generic formats to those who need them.
A profound health crisis already exists in the world. This is not a screaming headlines and surgical masks- type crisis. It is largely silent.
For the 3 billion people who live on less than $2 per day, decent health care is a distant dream.
Only when the “free market” approach to health is abandoned and life-saving drugs are wrangled from the corporations can a comprehensive approach to health care and pandemic prevention be adopted.
From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Musings on Homophobia
This blog is appearing to be a tad myopic in its focus.
In large part, due to the fact I am doing an assignment on homophobia in Mexico.
As a result, my brain is focusing. Here is a little more.
I think there are six main manifestations of homophobia within a country. I have listed them here, they will not follow any order of importance.
1) Violence towards gays, lesbians and transgender people (LGBTI) - ‘hate crimes’ and police harassment as well as police inaction on hate-crimes.
2) Laws - anti-homosexual mentions within legal codes, lack of legal equality - marriage/ civil unions/ no anti-discrimination laws, lack of affirmative action
3) Lack of safe-sex education that includes same-sex loving and relationships. Lack of readily available contraception. Prevalence of of HIV/ STI’s within the LGBTI community that is not enacted upon by the government. Lack of free health care
4) Sacking of lesbians, gays, transgender people from work. Workplace discrimination
5) No separation of church and state, church’s interference in politics
6) Government leaders in powerful public positions making homophobic statements
In large part, due to the fact I am doing an assignment on homophobia in Mexico.
As a result, my brain is focusing. Here is a little more.
I think there are six main manifestations of homophobia within a country. I have listed them here, they will not follow any order of importance.
1) Violence towards gays, lesbians and transgender people (LGBTI) - ‘hate crimes’ and police harassment as well as police inaction on hate-crimes.
2) Laws - anti-homosexual mentions within legal codes, lack of legal equality - marriage/ civil unions/ no anti-discrimination laws, lack of affirmative action
3) Lack of safe-sex education that includes same-sex loving and relationships. Lack of readily available contraception. Prevalence of of HIV/ STI’s within the LGBTI community that is not enacted upon by the government. Lack of free health care
4) Sacking of lesbians, gays, transgender people from work. Workplace discrimination
5) No separation of church and state, church’s interference in politics
6) Government leaders in powerful public positions making homophobic statements
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Mexican Lesbian Rally Document
Central Document – Pronouncements and Demands of the 4th Lesbian March,
Organising Committee (COMLa) of the 4th Lesbian March, Mexico 2009,
21st March, 3pm within the Zocalo.
Us, lesbian feminists members of the COMAL, we meet one more time, to take to the streets about the space visible for them to meet us, understand us, and reclaim publicly the rights that historically, have been denied to us.
The patriarchal and capitalist system continues with voraciousness the war and deprivation of life in both. By means of its ideological apparatus of the state, segregate and divide the population imposing their neo-liberal ideas conservative and fascist, obligating them to live submitted and repressed and exploited, under economic systems that only generate ecological devastation, about the population, extreme poverty and misery void of possibilities of a full life full of dignity, continuing the untenable capitalist system.
The lesbians have disobeyed the mandatory heterosexual obligation according to the capitalist patriarchal system that has served to make us invisible and isolate us until we ignore our sexual autonomy. For it, our organised presence in the streets is an act of visibility more strong in front of the patriarchal ideology, already that we demolish the prejudices, the sexism, the misogyny and the lesbian-fobia manifested publicly in the love between women.
The Lesbian march maintains the spirit that was within its origins our social movement, particularly from feminists and lesbian feminists, and our just reclaiming for the liberty maternal and voluntary against the violence towards women, for the free self-determination, sexual liberty – demands that in no manner have been resolved, repression against us that has not diminished, on the contrary, it has intensified, already that the discussion of that has of the pseudo-inclusion and equality creates a fictious reality that confuses and repeats the segregation, for to maintain one more time the practice of double discrimination, redressed for now with a guise of gender equality forcing us to be where all is false and a lie, it is an imposition and continues to be intensified already that the discussion of the pseudo-inclusion of the feminine body to continue to fortify that woman are equal to men.
We are continuing to feed the movement for women and we push the lesbian-feminist to be our guide political for our movement, reclaiming that the personal is political and the road to return to is feminism for the women and the women for feminism.
We question and criticize the commercialization of the what is to be “gay” already that with their voracious consumerist practice, alienate and confuses the lesbian community presented with the option of development of our new sexuality with shame, a continuation of the sexual roles and stereotypes of gender, consumption of alcohol and commercial drugs, sexual commercialization, between these and other factors, that have generated the demobilization, the lack of consciousness, the propagation of individualism and consumerism that has translated into juicy profits for the repressed groups oligarchs that, in , collusion with the false leaders have translated betrayed the first principals that we gave to the marches and the our movement of lesbians and the sexual rights movement in Mexico.
This movement of Lesbian Feminists, does not intend to accommodate, adapt nor integrate to the patriarchal, capitalist system, out proposal is another – it is behind feminism of its coherence, of its ethic, of the revolution liberation of the women that we intend a profound world-wide transformation without wars or violence.
We are fighting because the lesbians, the women and the people of México, we will be able to live without fear, exercising with dignity our rights to take to the streets and demand from the Mexican state guarantees the absolute respect and unquestionably, the freedom of elections, our civil rights and individual freedoms.
In Each Kiss, A Revolution
Pronouncements
The PAN led government is the primary enemy of the Mexican people, of them we only received fraud, robbery, intolerance, insecurity, restrictions on human rights and poverty. It is clear that the people, we are not able to win the claim: resign
They do not respect human rights in Mexico evidenced by the repression against activists and the social movements we demand respect our lives and peaceful rallies. No more criminalization of the social movements!
Enoe Uranga (present candidate to deputy) does NOT represent us, she does not have our votes.
Demands
The life of the lesbians is not able to be defined by the state like a public policy. The state, only should guarantee the human rights, respecting our public and private life.
The Political Constitution of Mexico, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention about the Elimination of All the forms of Discrimination Against Women should be applied and respected by local and federal governments without restrictions or conditions. We demand the decriminalization of abortion in all the territories Mexican as well as free access to anti-contraceptive methods!
To guarantee the health of women we demand the creation of a National Advice of the Fight against and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Uterus Cancer, with branches in the 31 states.
The Society of Convenience is not any breakthrough, it is a record of the people in this country who are treated in a discriminatory manner, for this we demand complete rights on par with heterosexual people, the right to marry, access to the pension and social security of the same sex couples, to acquire Mexican nationality in the case of bi-national couples, adoption and freedom to have children and educate our children.
We demand the respect to the secular education, that begins in the first years of primary school with openness and unbiased information in the books about abortion, methods of anti-contraceptives no discrimination about sex, lesbian sexuality and homosexual sexuality so that people live in freedom and can take responsibility for their sexuality.
To the D.F Government
We demand the urgent application, based on the Law of Access to Women to a Life Free of Violence, from the Affirmative Action in favor of the female and lesbian population, that until now, has not been realized and that remains as a dead letter.
The access to all systems of health, assisted reproduction for women and lesbians that whom that they ask for.
The modification of the specific Manual procedures in prisons, in terms of guaranteeing lesbian women in prison access to intimate visits with her partner, in the same way that heterosexual couples exercise this right. We demand the prompt implementation of sensitivity in al the instances of government and to the personal of the social services of health that contain clear information respecting lesbians and their particular health needs.
Recognition of the specificity of the lesbian sector already that attend to the gay men and transgender, it is not attending to lesbian women.
Real sanctions administrative against the family judges who, making use of their discretional faculties, they take lesbian sexual orientation as reason to take guardianship and custodianship of our children, based on prejudicial sexist discrimination, violating the Constitution, the international treatment and local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination.
We demand spaces in public transport that are exclusively to guard the security of the women to be guarded and limited strictly only to women, already that there is no control about this and the Mexican city-dwellers that thy have faced harassment in the everyday from all types of men including the old men and disabled men, already that these people have not learnt still that women are not objects.
We demand the immediate application of the Diagnostic for the Human Rights for the D.F realized in April 2008, and that they apply the recommendations of the Commission of Human Rights within DF in favor of lesbians.
Organising Committee (COMLa) of the 4th Lesbian March, Mexico 2009,
21st March, 3pm within the Zocalo.
Us, lesbian feminists members of the COMAL, we meet one more time, to take to the streets about the space visible for them to meet us, understand us, and reclaim publicly the rights that historically, have been denied to us.
The patriarchal and capitalist system continues with voraciousness the war and deprivation of life in both. By means of its ideological apparatus of the state, segregate and divide the population imposing their neo-liberal ideas conservative and fascist, obligating them to live submitted and repressed and exploited, under economic systems that only generate ecological devastation, about the population, extreme poverty and misery void of possibilities of a full life full of dignity, continuing the untenable capitalist system.
The lesbians have disobeyed the mandatory heterosexual obligation according to the capitalist patriarchal system that has served to make us invisible and isolate us until we ignore our sexual autonomy. For it, our organised presence in the streets is an act of visibility more strong in front of the patriarchal ideology, already that we demolish the prejudices, the sexism, the misogyny and the lesbian-fobia manifested publicly in the love between women.
The Lesbian march maintains the spirit that was within its origins our social movement, particularly from feminists and lesbian feminists, and our just reclaiming for the liberty maternal and voluntary against the violence towards women, for the free self-determination, sexual liberty – demands that in no manner have been resolved, repression against us that has not diminished, on the contrary, it has intensified, already that the discussion of that has of the pseudo-inclusion and equality creates a fictious reality that confuses and repeats the segregation, for to maintain one more time the practice of double discrimination, redressed for now with a guise of gender equality forcing us to be where all is false and a lie, it is an imposition and continues to be intensified already that the discussion of the pseudo-inclusion of the feminine body to continue to fortify that woman are equal to men.
We are continuing to feed the movement for women and we push the lesbian-feminist to be our guide political for our movement, reclaiming that the personal is political and the road to return to is feminism for the women and the women for feminism.
We question and criticize the commercialization of the what is to be “gay” already that with their voracious consumerist practice, alienate and confuses the lesbian community presented with the option of development of our new sexuality with shame, a continuation of the sexual roles and stereotypes of gender, consumption of alcohol and commercial drugs, sexual commercialization, between these and other factors, that have generated the demobilization, the lack of consciousness, the propagation of individualism and consumerism that has translated into juicy profits for the repressed groups oligarchs that, in , collusion with the false leaders have translated betrayed the first principals that we gave to the marches and the our movement of lesbians and the sexual rights movement in Mexico.
This movement of Lesbian Feminists, does not intend to accommodate, adapt nor integrate to the patriarchal, capitalist system, out proposal is another – it is behind feminism of its coherence, of its ethic, of the revolution liberation of the women that we intend a profound world-wide transformation without wars or violence.
We are fighting because the lesbians, the women and the people of México, we will be able to live without fear, exercising with dignity our rights to take to the streets and demand from the Mexican state guarantees the absolute respect and unquestionably, the freedom of elections, our civil rights and individual freedoms.
In Each Kiss, A Revolution
Pronouncements
The PAN led government is the primary enemy of the Mexican people, of them we only received fraud, robbery, intolerance, insecurity, restrictions on human rights and poverty. It is clear that the people, we are not able to win the claim: resign
They do not respect human rights in Mexico evidenced by the repression against activists and the social movements we demand respect our lives and peaceful rallies. No more criminalization of the social movements!
Enoe Uranga (present candidate to deputy) does NOT represent us, she does not have our votes.
Demands
The life of the lesbians is not able to be defined by the state like a public policy. The state, only should guarantee the human rights, respecting our public and private life.
The Political Constitution of Mexico, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention about the Elimination of All the forms of Discrimination Against Women should be applied and respected by local and federal governments without restrictions or conditions. We demand the decriminalization of abortion in all the territories Mexican as well as free access to anti-contraceptive methods!
To guarantee the health of women we demand the creation of a National Advice of the Fight against and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Uterus Cancer, with branches in the 31 states.
The Society of Convenience is not any breakthrough, it is a record of the people in this country who are treated in a discriminatory manner, for this we demand complete rights on par with heterosexual people, the right to marry, access to the pension and social security of the same sex couples, to acquire Mexican nationality in the case of bi-national couples, adoption and freedom to have children and educate our children.
We demand the respect to the secular education, that begins in the first years of primary school with openness and unbiased information in the books about abortion, methods of anti-contraceptives no discrimination about sex, lesbian sexuality and homosexual sexuality so that people live in freedom and can take responsibility for their sexuality.
To the D.F Government
We demand the urgent application, based on the Law of Access to Women to a Life Free of Violence, from the Affirmative Action in favor of the female and lesbian population, that until now, has not been realized and that remains as a dead letter.
The access to all systems of health, assisted reproduction for women and lesbians that whom that they ask for.
The modification of the specific Manual procedures in prisons, in terms of guaranteeing lesbian women in prison access to intimate visits with her partner, in the same way that heterosexual couples exercise this right. We demand the prompt implementation of sensitivity in al the instances of government and to the personal of the social services of health that contain clear information respecting lesbians and their particular health needs.
Recognition of the specificity of the lesbian sector already that attend to the gay men and transgender, it is not attending to lesbian women.
Real sanctions administrative against the family judges who, making use of their discretional faculties, they take lesbian sexual orientation as reason to take guardianship and custodianship of our children, based on prejudicial sexist discrimination, violating the Constitution, the international treatment and local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination.
We demand spaces in public transport that are exclusively to guard the security of the women to be guarded and limited strictly only to women, already that there is no control about this and the Mexican city-dwellers that thy have faced harassment in the everyday from all types of men including the old men and disabled men, already that these people have not learnt still that women are not objects.
We demand the immediate application of the Diagnostic for the Human Rights for the D.F realized in April 2008, and that they apply the recommendations of the Commission of Human Rights within DF in favor of lesbians.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Political Latino Music
Manu Chua, obstensibly from France, but with Spanish lyrics are performing in Mexico. They came out against state repression which occurred in Atenco, a city north of Mexico City, in 2006. The same year, massive state repression happened in Oaxaca.
In Atenco's case, many women were sexually violated. Many men, women and children jailed. The struggle was over the right to sell products on the street. The local government wanted to "clean" up the town.
So Manu Chua had a press conference and condemned the repression. Then got threatened with being thrown out cos the Mexican constitution has a section in it about foreigners not being involved in politics. Then they cancelled some shows, then Peter Gabrial, who is also here performing, joined in and condemned the Atenco repression and the Calderon (president) government for threatening Manu Chau with deportation.
Then Calderon backed off and agreed to a meeting with Peter Gabrial and other artists/ performers! There is a picture of Calderon (who never smiles) and the group of artists having it out. Great stuff. Manu Chua got to stay and perform some more. Of course, Calderon muttered niceties about getting more evidence about what happened in Atenco and if, it did, doing something. I think nothing concrete will come out of the Calderon government on Atenco. Elections are coming up, so Calderon had to placate the musicians who have heaps of influence over the youth. The real victory here was the back down over the deportation, and the solidarity and politics shown by the musicians. That, and the fact Atenco and the crimes of Calderon and co. are being raised once again.
Nice.
Peter Gabriel, below, looking splendid.
Which gives me a nice segue into listing some good political latino/ vasco bands.
Molotov - anarchistas de EU y México
Kortatu - del país Vasco
Fabuloso Codillacs - Argentína
Todos Tus Muertes - hiphop, Argentína
Aterciopelados - Columbiano
Los Prisioneros - Chile
Panteón rocoró - México, ska music
Quilopayan: Chile
Calle 13: Puerto Rico - regattron, política y pro-feminista
Cafe ta Cuba
Orishaz: Cuba - hip hip
Ruben Vladez
Kandela: Cuba feminista, hip hop
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Violence in Mexico and the economic downturn
Narco-trafficking violence is destroying many lives in México. 4000 people were killed by it (official figures) and 1000 have already been killed since January 2009. A "Merida Initiative" is being discussed - which is US government 'help' with border control. Many a calling in Plan Columbia - just in México. Plan Columbia, was a huge monetry hand out to Columbian dictator Uribbe to 'obsetibly' cotnrol the drug trade. In reality, it was US help to the dictator to kill more unionists and lefties. Protests are taking place against the US and Calderon proposal, as Méxican soverignty is at stake.
On the economic crisis, 6000 Mexicans are losing their jobs per day.
Here are some articles which shed some light on both topics. They are not written by me, and I do not endorse all the political sentiments or proposals within.
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2009/0311_mexican_economy_chat/0311_mexican_economy_chat.pdf
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/03_mexico_drug_market_felbabbrown.aspx
On the economic crisis, 6000 Mexicans are losing their jobs per day.
Here are some articles which shed some light on both topics. They are not written by me, and I do not endorse all the political sentiments or proposals within.
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2009/0311_mexican_economy_chat/0311_mexican_economy_chat.pdf
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/03_mexico_drug_market_felbabbrown.aspx
Monday, March 23, 2009
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 deman
d 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.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Militant Mexican Homosexual and our plan of action
This is a translated article from a magazine titled "Gay Pride, Why this?"Consultorio Sexual, Edicion No. 7, enero 2009, D.F México, Editor: Germán Flores Trujillo.The article is "The Militant Homosexual and our plan of action - Petitions and Demands," and is about the gay rights movements demands in Mexico.
"The militant homosexual and our plan of action"
The gay movement is facing distinct obstacles to be recognised and we consider that there will be interest and have ilustrated these points
We want to have a life the way we are in front of the eyes of society and that no-one rapproaches us or shows us nothing but respect.
There is exists a strong campaign that we are carrying out within the media of communication, in the government and within the laws and even in the same system of education in the United States.
Its important to give a count of the gay groups there are very well organised and in the state environment and we exersise a political influence very strong and at a national scale. This ferocious militant activity is possible should that we are capable of collecting millions of dollars annually in the first world for political activities.
The 25th APril, 2003, the homosexual movement carried out till the end, a gay muach of pride in Washington and thousands of couples of gay men and homosexual women they got married with the help of Reverend Troy Perry, who founded a church for homosexuals, as he is, that has extended from California to all the United States and reached 15 other countries, including México, Peru and Argentina.
Also participating were 100s of transvestities and transexuals. During the march, the activists for the rights of homosexuals, they raised seven general demands, around which they grouped 55 other specific demands.
The first demand is to abolish all the laws which prohibit gay unions and that legalise all the types of sexual, intimate activity. This demand implies the changing of the laws of consent, to permit relations with people of the same sex and already what is acheived in other places, gay marriage.
The second demand is that to be also more common that we do not spend our own money to pay for operations to change sex.
The third demand chosen is the legalisation of marriages of members of the same sex in all countries and adoption of babies.
The fourth demand chosen requires a full participation of us, lesbians, homosexuals, bi-sexuals and transexuals in programs of education within childrens preschools and school orientation in general.
The fifth demand chosen requires that the anti-contraceptives are disposed to all people and included regularly those with few resources.
The sixth demand chosen is the open availability of artifical insemination of lesbians and bi-sexuals and prohibition of expression of worry about homosexuality that is based in religion.
The seventh chosen demand is organisations like Boy Scouts accept a gay patrol as director.
These demands are part of the objectives of all the homosexual groups, those which want the acceptance of homosexuality as a human right more and that protect that conduct in all the mexican states, beggining with the cities, until reaching a national level.
In fact, the demands mentioned are part of a project of federal law about the cvil rights of lesbians and homosexuals that the gay groups acheived to have introduced in Congress in the United States.
In the last years, certain homosexual organisations have united to organisations such as the Family Planning Federation of the United States, to ask that they offer more extensive sexual education.
They ask that sex education be included in the education about the body and the illnesses, other theme that the homosexual activists use is to promote a new style of in the schools, in the universitys and medias of communication.
In all of this pro-homosexual campaign we find to open the mind of society to create this the majority acceptability for all the homosexual and lesbian groups.
Already we have acheived in some places in the US, but to acheive it in the 3rd world like Mexico, we know this will be very difficult.
Also, in various of the universities, more prominent of the countries of the third world, and now we have begun in UNAM, already we have introduced courses, conferences, and until they have created centers of study about homosexuality and lesbianism, presenting them like styles of life so perfectably acceptable like the heterosexual.
We are able to see, by travelling through this road, that the gay movement lacks a lot. The most difficult thing is to be able to convince the society that we are born here and to avoid that the people think that we have returned thus on account of an unfortunate event that a great trauma caused us.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Essay in Spanish, Bolivia, friend
Para mi clase espanol,
_____________________________________
Bolivia, amiga
No era un día como los otros. Yo estaba en una cuidad pequeña, a las afueras de Bolivia. Yo visitaba Bolivia, buscaba Argentina. En Argentina, esta cuidad fronteriza tiene calles trazadas, caminos más rectos y árboles más verdes que Bolivia. La comida era más sabrosa.
Bolivia, tiene los colores del país brillante, gente con orgullo, historia fuerte, me parece como una mujer con experiencia, sabia pero aún joven. No llevaba un vestido, sino una armadura con colores rojo, verde fuerte, amarillo radiante, violeta luminoso, azul resplandeciente y rosa como flores. Colores de los indios de la América Latina.
Al llover, el cielo sobre Bolivia está llorando, Bolivia lleva paraguas grandes con un dibujo grande del sol. Los paraguas cubren a toda la gente Boliviana, aún aquellos que viven en el este del país, y quien no lleva o viste ropa con colores luminosos. Las piel es más blanca en el este, los edificios más grandes, la relación con el norte es más fuerte. Los paraguas cubren a toda la gente boliviana, pero alguien no los quiere.
Bolivia, aunque pobre, tiene una hermana, Haití, en una situación más grave. Para los habitantes de Haití no hay camisón, muñecas, anillos, portafolios ni corbatas porque sus alcancías están con un hermano muy poderoso, malo-animado, glotón y sin alma. El hermano, se llama 'el Banco Mundial', tiene una personalidad cruel.
Pero ahora Bolivia, tiene regalos de rico y sabroso chocolate, mascotas lindas y cariñosas, carteras con más dinero, y una chamarra o dos para el tablado del mundo. Para las mujeres bolivianas con confianza en este tablado del mundo, con colores del arco iris, hay minifaldas. Regalos de hermanos amable - Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba y Nicaragua. Regalos de hermanos con poder de la gente.
La personalidad y la psicología de Bolivia ha cambiado. Antes, la mayor parte de la vida fue dolorosa. Los cuerpos tenían dolor. Pero ahora la gente tiene una sonrisa firme y orgullosa, sin reserva.
_____________________________________
Bolivia, amiga
No era un día como los otros. Yo estaba en una cuidad pequeña, a las afueras de Bolivia. Yo visitaba Bolivia, buscaba Argentina. En Argentina, esta cuidad fronteriza tiene calles trazadas, caminos más rectos y árboles más verdes que Bolivia. La comida era más sabrosa.
Bolivia, tiene los colores del país brillante, gente con orgullo, historia fuerte, me parece como una mujer con experiencia, sabia pero aún joven. No llevaba un vestido, sino una armadura con colores rojo, verde fuerte, amarillo radiante, violeta luminoso, azul resplandeciente y rosa como flores. Colores de los indios de la América Latina.
Al llover, el cielo sobre Bolivia está llorando, Bolivia lleva paraguas grandes con un dibujo grande del sol. Los paraguas cubren a toda la gente Boliviana, aún aquellos que viven en el este del país, y quien no lleva o viste ropa con colores luminosos. Las piel es más blanca en el este, los edificios más grandes, la relación con el norte es más fuerte. Los paraguas cubren a toda la gente boliviana, pero alguien no los quiere.
Bolivia, aunque pobre, tiene una hermana, Haití, en una situación más grave. Para los habitantes de Haití no hay camisón, muñecas, anillos, portafolios ni corbatas porque sus alcancías están con un hermano muy poderoso, malo-animado, glotón y sin alma. El hermano, se llama 'el Banco Mundial', tiene una personalidad cruel.
Pero ahora Bolivia, tiene regalos de rico y sabroso chocolate, mascotas lindas y cariñosas, carteras con más dinero, y una chamarra o dos para el tablado del mundo. Para las mujeres bolivianas con confianza en este tablado del mundo, con colores del arco iris, hay minifaldas. Regalos de hermanos amable - Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba y Nicaragua. Regalos de hermanos con poder de la gente.
La personalidad y la psicología de Bolivia ha cambiado. Antes, la mayor parte de la vida fue dolorosa. Los cuerpos tenían dolor. Pero ahora la gente tiene una sonrisa firme y orgullosa, sin reserva.
El Salvador, Puebla, Rallies
The great news of the weekend is the Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) won the presidency of El Salvador, with lefty journalist candidate Mauricio Funes.Wooohooo!
In the 80s up to 75,000 people were disappeared in a brutal period of the small countries history. El Salvador is a small country in Central America. Only 4.2 million people were eligible to vote. Almost 2.5 million Salvadoreans live in the US. Millions of Salvadoreans fled the country in the 80s. ARENA, the US- backed party, was in power in the 80s, and 'led' El Salvador through the dictatorial times. La Jornada, the left-wing paper here, quotes Funes as saying he likes the PT in Brazil, and the work of Lulu, the PT candidate. Lulu is in the "centre" here in Latin America, and has clamped down on workers and student protests.
The tactic used by ARENA to try and discredit Lunes, was to run "he's a communist scare campaign" with TV ads in the lead up, with pictures of Lunes, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. The mass of people in El Salvador saw through it, and voted for the formerly armed FMLN.
Within La Jornada, Lunes distances himself from the "Bolivarian revolution, " but talk
s of guarrenteeing jobs, human rights and all things progressive. He had a cordial chat with Obama, and with Chavez, according to La Jornada. Time will tell. And hats off to the people of El Salvador who have endured so very very very much.A good vid to see is Romeo - all about the lefty Archbishop who was brutally murdered by the death squads in front of his congregation cos he fought against them. He was a liberation theologist who fought for heaven on earth. Top dude.
Oscar Romeo also reinvigorated a quote from Dom Helder Camara, a priest of yee olde time ago, who said “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
Another good background article on the elections -
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/787/40509
The weekend that passed I visited Puebla, an old city 2 hours out from Mexico City (D.F). There are gay bars there, and people dancing within them, plus loads of museums and very large and ostentatious churches. 100 plus in the 3 million people strong city. I have never SEEN so much gold. I hold dear, respect to each and every persons religious beliefs, and there are a lot of beleivers in Latin America, but the amount of gold in the central church was obscene. When 36% of households in D.F are only covered by cardboard, its an effing waste of resources.
A rally is approaching this weekend, a March for Lesbians. Its the 4th one held here in D.F and is mostly about dyke pride. There are no rally demands raised against the government, and the poster says "In each kiss - a revolution".
Unfortunatley, it takes a bit more than that.
Nonetheless, its pretty good to see a dyke specific rally taking place. The week after that, there will be a massive country wide rally for a People's Economy.
Again, hats of to the couregeous people of El Salvador.
Protests target banks
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/787/40508
This was printed in Green Left Weekly,
On March 3, thousands rallied outside the headquarters of the Association of Mexican Banks (AMB), in the centre of Mexico City, to denounce speculation, bank fees and the national government´s response to the economic crisis.
This was printed in Green Left Weekly,
Mexico: Protests target banks
Rachel Evans, Mexico City
13 March 2009On March 3, thousands rallied outside the headquarters of the Association of Mexican Banks (AMB), in the centre of Mexico City, to denounce speculation, bank fees and the national government´s response to the economic crisis.
The rally was called by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). It is part of a two month “people’s economy” campaign, which will culminate in a mobilisation of people from across the country in the centre of Mexico City.
Lopez Obrador was the PRD’s presidential candidate in 2006, who was robbed of victory by a widely acknowledged large-scale fraud. He is popularly known as the “legitimate president” and the movement against the theft of the 2006 presidential elections was one of the largest in Mexican history, with demonstrations involving as many as 2.5 million people.
In front of a spirited crowd at AMB, Lopez Obrador denounced President Felipe Calderon, arguing that his cabinet should receive awards for ineptitude. He claimed the auction of more than US$20 million by the Bank of Mexico to stop the fall of the peso was “for the sake of powerful merchants”.
The decisions taken by the government, he argued, “benefit bankers, big businessmen, traffickers and corrupt politicians who for their voraciousness are destroying this country”.
The economic crisis is badly affecting working people in Mexico, with as many as 6000 workers losing their jobs per day.
Lopez Obrador and the PRD have been calling for the Calderon government to establish an emergency fund to address the crisis by reducing $200 billion of waste presently within the government.
Measures to eradicate waste include include reducing top government, administrative and judicial functionaries salaries by half, and eradicating the exorbitant pensions granted to ex-presidents.
The rally demanded four matters be addressed by the Calderon government and AMB. Firstly, a thorough-going investigation into the people, companies and banking institutions that buy cheap international reserves from the Bank of Mexico.
Secondly, Lopez Obrador denounced the abuses by the financial institutions against bank-users, and announced more support should be given to victims charged excessive rates on credit cards and mortgage rates.
Thirdly, Lopez Obrador condemned the fact that currently “banks do not perform a function that assists the development of the country”.
On the contrary, “they charge commissions and interest over and above international standards, do not award credit to productive sectors and devote themselves to speculative behaviour and living off the treasury”.
Finally, Lopez Obrador denounced the banks for “destroying to the country”.
Lopez Obrador was the PRD’s presidential candidate in 2006, who was robbed of victory by a widely acknowledged large-scale fraud. He is popularly known as the “legitimate president” and the movement against the theft of the 2006 presidential elections was one of the largest in Mexican history, with demonstrations involving as many as 2.5 million people.
In front of a spirited crowd at AMB, Lopez Obrador denounced President Felipe Calderon, arguing that his cabinet should receive awards for ineptitude. He claimed the auction of more than US$20 million by the Bank of Mexico to stop the fall of the peso was “for the sake of powerful merchants”.
The decisions taken by the government, he argued, “benefit bankers, big businessmen, traffickers and corrupt politicians who for their voraciousness are destroying this country”.
The economic crisis is badly affecting working people in Mexico, with as many as 6000 workers losing their jobs per day.
Lopez Obrador and the PRD have been calling for the Calderon government to establish an emergency fund to address the crisis by reducing $200 billion of waste presently within the government.
Measures to eradicate waste include include reducing top government, administrative and judicial functionaries salaries by half, and eradicating the exorbitant pensions granted to ex-presidents.
The rally demanded four matters be addressed by the Calderon government and AMB. Firstly, a thorough-going investigation into the people, companies and banking institutions that buy cheap international reserves from the Bank of Mexico.
Secondly, Lopez Obrador denounced the abuses by the financial institutions against bank-users, and announced more support should be given to victims charged excessive rates on credit cards and mortgage rates.
Thirdly, Lopez Obrador condemned the fact that currently “banks do not perform a function that assists the development of the country”.
On the contrary, “they charge commissions and interest over and above international standards, do not award credit to productive sectors and devote themselves to speculative behaviour and living off the treasury”.
Finally, Lopez Obrador denounced the banks for “destroying to the country”.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Mexico: Social and political struggles and the state of the left
Mexico: Social and political struggles and the state of the left An article published in LINKS http://links.org.au/node/912
Peter Gellert is a US-born, long-term activist, now Mexican citizen. He is a leader of Mexico's Movement for Cuban Solidarity. Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal’s Rachel Evans spoke to Gellert in Mexico City.
Februa
ry 18, 2009 -- Inside Peter Gellert´s small apartment books of history, politics and art, line groaning walls. Meticulously framed Cuban posters monopolise the remaining space. Three turtles climb over each other in a fish tank that gurgles sporadically.
'NAFTA destroyed Mexican agriculture'
"Mexico signed onto the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 which meant greater subordination of Mexico to United States’ (US) interests", began Gellert. "NAFTA destroyed Mexican agriculture.
ation, are now in the
"
"The count
ryside is in a massive crisis”, stated Gellert. "The average wage earner in the countryside is earning 40 pesos or less a day. The minimum wage has increased by 4% per year, but inflation has seen prices mushroom. As a result, there has been massive immigration from the Mexican countryside to Mexican cities and from the countryside to the
"The economic crisis has seen everything rise in price. Unions can strike, but it is a long and complicated process. And while
o ini
tia
lly pay for their job! Some get no wage, and only survive on tips or stealing. Twenty-five-gallon cars get charged for 30 gallons. It's a huge issue”, explained Gellert.
"The current Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, is from the National Action Party (PAN). This government has wanted to open the oil industry up to private national and foreign investment, and the unions and social movement have forced a partial retreat. Manuel López Obrador, who was the presidential candidate of the
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 2006, has been crucial in this campaign against privatisation. Obrador
was robbed of the presidency in the fraudulent elections of 2006”, Gellert reported. 
2006 elections
"In these elections, more than 30% of polling stations recorded discrepancies between the number of ballots received and the number of ballots cast. In response to these stolen elections, there were the biggest mobilisations in
"Obrador was popularly known as the legitimate president. He led the National Democratic Convention, which declared a shad
ow, legitimate government.
At one stage 2.5 million people marched against electoral fraud. For 40 days there was a seven-kilometre occupation of the major road in
"In working-class neighbourhoods Obrador had overwhelming support, as well as some support in middle-class areas", said Gellert. "The support for the PRD and Obrador w
as immense. For example, in the working-class neighbourhoods adjacent to where I live, the PRD beat Calderon 8 to 1.
"In reality, the shadow, legitimate government that Obrador initiated could not do much. In fact, to a certain extent, it has been overshadowed by the campaign to defend the government-owned oil industry, headed up by Obrador. There are thousands of 'grassroots brigades' or campaign units in local areas of
Workers and unions
"Every worker has to join a union – this is
obligatory in
Social security workers
"Another site of struggle has been the social security workers union contract”, said Gellert. "The government pays low wages to this sector, but they provide good benefits. There is
a Christmas bonus that is obligatory for all companies to pay. Private sector workers get a bonus of at least 15 days, while in government it is at least 30 days. Social security workers get a three month Christmas bonus. Mind you, the Mexican government does not provide unemployment benefits or student benefits. But the government has been trying to whittle away collective bargaining agreement provisions, and this has resulted in big battles”, remarked Gellert.
Privatisation of education
"For all intents and purposes, public universities are free, with the government charging minor tuition fees. But the quality is not the best. The private university system is better quality and very expensive. Companies are starting to hire only private university students. However, education privatisa
tion has been fiercely contested.
"A massive student-led fight arose in 1999, as the government tried to introduce upfront fees. To put this fig
ht in context -- free education was one of the victories of the 1910 Mexican revolution -- a historic moment in Mexican history. Tuition had not been raised since 1941. This big campaign in 1999 was run through large democratic assemblies -- with everyone, students and professors alike -- participating. Fortunately, the campaign had enough momentum despite many ultraleft excesses to, in essence, win its demands. Public university education is still basically and for all intents and purposes free”, emphasised Gellert.
History of struggle
"There has been a consistency of major campaigns from the heady 1960s in
apatistas in
"Currently", continued Gellert, "the electricity workers’ union is fighting against privatisation and government attacks on labour laws. At the moment, that sector has a rather advanced union contract. In Mexican labour legislation, there is no hourly pay – only monthly pay. Additionally, it's hard
for the bosses to lay people off as they have to pay redundancy. Hence, they want more flexibility. The miners’ union has also been struggling hard against government intervention in their union. But it is the campaign to defend the oil industry that is the biggest and broadest campaign to date."
Social disintegration
"In international news there is coverage of kidnappings taking place in
alaries are so minimal. Horribly low. Sixty per cent of police agents are said to be on the pay of drug traffickers.”
The Mexican left
"There are huge social movements in
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/
"The electoral left is also very strong. They control
-- which is the political centre of
"Additionally, within
ty much collapsed here”, explained Gellert.
Political parties
"The government rules by repression and cooption. Repression is a constant factor in Mexican politics. At the cooption end, there are numerous former leftists in government. Former activists are even to be found in the ruling National Action Party (PAN) government, arguing that if they were not there, PAN would be worse. They are lured by high salaries, and the excitement of power.
"The PRI got ousted by PAN in the 2000 elections, and is weakened – but it is planning a come-back. The Green Party here is in a permanent alliance with the PRI, and is utterly and completely discredited. Its main platform is the reintroduction of the death penalty! Something not even the PRI bothers with. In fact, even PAN and PRI are opposed to the death penalty”, explained Gellert.
"PAN, formed in the 1920s, is linked to the Catholic Church and is anti-abortion and thoroughly neoliberal -- very conservative. PAN wants more links with the
"The PRD, founded in 1989, is going through a major crisis and Obrador, currently, is looking at the minor parties to see if a broad ele
ctoral front can be registered using their ballot status instead of running on the PRD ticket. This possibility he has left open.”
The Party of Democratic Revolution
"There is a strong likelihood there will be a split in the PRD after the coming elections in 2009. The possible split is not over being in government; insofar as there are political issues at stake -- the internal conflicts usually take the form of disputes over posts, candidacies and the huge amounts of money coming from the state subsidies, rather than party program or orientation. Rather, a possible split would involve the degree of subordination to the parliamentary rules of the game versus more of an orientation toward the mass movement and more of a frontal opposition toward the Calderón administration", explained Gellert.
"The PRD was born after the 1988 elections, following a left-wing split from the PRI, with election fraud leading to mass mobilisations. The PRD allows tendencies to exist within its organisational structure, but these tendencies tend to be centred on personalities, not a political program. This exacerbated some of the worst aspects of Mexican culture – such as the use of acarredos, whereby the leader of a social organisation basically corrals the ranks into participating in marches and rallies.
"Obrador has been dealing with internal tensions within the PRD over positions by leading mass mobilisations. Obrador does not describe himself as a socialist, but he is building up grassroots committees around defending the oil industry, while not neglecting work with parliamentary deputies. Obrador is not depending on parliamentary politics and is broadly considered to have won the 2006 elections."
Zapatistas
"In
"They won't turn up to rallies if any political party speaks, or involves themselves in anything with political party involvement. They consider parties part of the 'power structure'. They see unions in the same light. They tend to be Chiapas-centred. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) developed a political wing -- the Zapatista National Liberation Front -- as it understood the need to relate to civil society. But it dissolved this group a few years after its formation when it was clear that it wasn't going anywhere.
"For example, in 2006 there was a massive movement against electoral fraud; there have been struggles in defence of the electric power industry, of the miners’ union and for an increase in education funding and teachers’ salaries in
"The movement led by the Zapatistas had everything going for it -- they put indigenous rights on the front burner in
Left unity
"At the moment, there is little movement for a left socialist party project. There is agreement in abstract for 'unity', yes, there is some movement for that -- but there is no issue that is forcing that move”, reflected Gellert.
"The PRD is in a crisis. It is the social left – hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are involved at different levels but in terms of a unity party project, so far, nothing. In 2009 there will be elections... After the elections there is a strong possibility of a split as a result of infighting over control, finances and candidacies. It is very bad, and gives the left a bad reputation.
"We will see who, among the left groups, can take advantage of the economic crisis and use it to grow.
``The rejection of the
"
"Fidel told the world Fox had asked him to do this, which Fox denied. Fidel -- who had taped the conversation -- proved this to be an utter lie. Fox was very embarrassed. In
Conclusion
"This economic crisis will cost PAN. The divided left has a bad reputation here among the Mexican people, with the PRD crisis playing out in public -- it is not a private discussion. Obrador has consolidated, however, through his involvement with, and support of, the oil defence campaign, in particular", concluded Gilbert.
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