Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community

UUJEC Mexico Cross Border Trip, February 2004 In early January I picked up the mail for the Social Justice Committee and found an announcement from the UUJEC about a "Mexico Cross-Border Reality Field Trip" in mid-February. At the head of the announcement was an excerpt from the UUA statement of conscience on economic globalization: "UU's are concerned about the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a corporate elite who are dictating the terms of major economic and social parameters throughout the world". It took me all of 30 minutes to decide I would join the trip. The UUJEC trip provided me the opportunity to continue to explore global production issues I think are important. On February 15, I joined 6 other UU's from the east and west coasts, including two ministers and one ministerial intern, in Mexico City. Our host, Erick Quesnel, is one of four national coordinators for the Frente Autentico del Trabajo, better known as FAT. Most unions in Mexico are controlled by either the government or the employers. The FAT was formed in 1960 as a democratic alternative for workers. "FAT's vision includes a worker managed society with the direct participation of workers and civil society and a democratic political and economic system whose decisions begin in grassroots organizations - the factory, the cooperative, the peasant organization, the neighborhood and social organizations - and remain democratic at the local, regional and national levels." During the week in Mexico City I developed a strong sense of solidarity with the people we met. For me, two sources of solidarity were the Bread and Roses strike of 1912 in Lawrence, MA and the impact of events of 1968 in both Mexico and the U.S.. When we walked into the FAT offices on February 16, the first image I saw was a mural which included Emiliano Zapata, a hero of the Mexican revolution, and Albert and Lucy Parsons, one of the founders of the IWW. The IWW helped to organize the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence. Albert is holding a rose and Lucy is holding a loaf of bread. For the organizers of the FAT, the Bread and Roses strike is a symbol of their struggle. Once Erick knew I had a Lawrence connection, I was introduced as the trip member from Lawrence. From the trip and my reading I learned that the economic situation for workers in Mexico became more difficult in the 1980's, as a result of structural adjustment, imposed by the IMF and World Bank. Under NAFTA it has gone from bad to worse. Those who supported NAFTA may have hoped that some of the harmful aspects of restructuring and "globalization" could be mitigated by the inclusion of side agreements to set standards for environmental practices and protect the rights of workers. However, the proposed environmental and labor protections were either not included or not implemented and today, after ten years of NAFTA, Mexican workers and the environment are worse off. While productivity has increased in the maquiladoras, the salaries of workers have not. I emphasize this, because most people I have talked with since my return think that NAFTA resulted in a loss of U.S. jobs, but left Mexican workers better off. Wealthy owners and corporations in Mexico have benefited, especially from privatization of national industries, such as banking and telecommunications, pushed by international financial interests, just as wealthy owners and corporations in the U.S. have profited from increasing globalization, but workers in both countries have been the losers. Now that production is moving to China, where environmental protections and the rights of workers are even weaker, the situation will get worse unless decision makers in the international community agree to value citizen's rights and the environment over capital and develop a regulatory environment to protect those rights. Then we met with indigenous people from Chiapas and Oaxaca at La Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, a non-governmental organization, and listened to their stories. Sophia is from the state of Oaxaca. She and her husband live in a town of indigenous fishermen, farmers and merchants, with a population of about 15,000. The water along the mangrove shoreline is clean and used for fishing while the community uses the fields for crops. It is a self sustaining community and the land is held in common. About 3 years ago a company tried to take over the land to build a shrimp processing factory. The shrimp company began to clear the land without preparing an environmental impact statement, required by Mexican law. This company planned to clear about 1500 acres, destroying the livelihood for about 400 families. The community organized, researched the impact of other industrial shrimp projects and learned they pollute the local fishery. They learned the president of the town council was also the treasurer of the shrimp company. The government had given permission without following its own regulations. The project was stopped. Then the company changed its name, filed the required environmental impact statement and requested permission to use the land again. Agrarian law prohibits sale of communal land unless everyone in the community gives written permission. The community stopped the company again. Sophia went on to describe the conflict the community had with the local officials, who subsequently misappropriated funds from the state needed for public works projects. The community demanded new elections, but the state government refused. The town went without an elected local government for a year. People involved were killed, when police shot at a protest gathering. Their legal counsel was killed in 2003. Sophia's husband was arrested and put in jail for seven months until efforts of Amnesty International and other international organizations resulted in his release. They are still at risk. The next morning our group met at RORAC, a communal association about an hour from Mexico City. RORAC has developed projects in agronomy, education and small business. After background information in the morning we went with one of the RORAC leaders to Caseria de Cortes, where RORAC is assisting a group of women to start up a bakery. The bakery will meet a need in the community and provide the women with some income. The community, with a population of 5000, is up a steep hill on agricultural land sold by a private owner to potential homeowners without water, sewer, electricity or any other infrastructure. The residents organized and were able to get the government to install electricity and a service to bring water by truck, but they still have outhouses. RORAC is training five women to work together as a team to operate the bakery, which was built with donations. They bought land and constructed a cement block building and an oven. The women all come from difficult circumstances and one of the challenges is learning how to work together. Their husbands are threatened by the notion they will have an independent source of income. On Wednesday we visited, Alfonso, a small farmer working his share of an ejido, about 5-10 acres on a steep hillside. On one side of a dirt road we looked out to Popocateptl, an active volcano, and were told that the ejido land extended to the national park in which the volcano is located. On the other side Alfonso raises fruit trees, vegetables, rabbits, geese, sheep and chickens. A burro was tethered nearby. RORAC is working with small farmers to help them develop new crops as an alternative to maiz (corn), the primary agricultural crop in Mexico. Under the terms of NAFTA, imports of maiz from the U.S. have grown (while the U.S. agricultural market has remained protected) and small farmers are not able to compete. Interestingly, one of the largest sources of "export" income is the money Mexicans working in the U.S. send back to Mexico, estimated at $13.4 billion in 2003, 80 percent of the income received for oil exports. Globalization has resulted in the export of Mexican labor to the U.S., almost as a commodity. My last story is about workers we met who were on strike for better pay and working conditions at the five public bathrooms in the central market in Mexico City, probably the largest produce market in Latin America. Rather than shut down the bathrooms, which would have alienated the farmers in the market, they took them over and continued to clean them. Prior to the takeover, people had to pay 2 pesos to use the bathroom. Now, instead of charging users 2 pesos, the workers collect donations to fund replacement of the supplies they need. After we spoke with the workers at the first bathroom Esperanza, one of the leaders, took us for a tour of the market. I needed change and decided to buy flowers for Erick's wife, as I knew we would visit his home the next day. Remembering the Bread and Roses strike I bought a dozen yellow roses, as a symbol of our visit. As I walked the market with Esperanza we told the story of the Lawrence strike to the workers at each bathroom and left one rose at each location as a sign of our solidarity with their struggle. Esperanza's name means Hope. I hope I will hear when the workers succeed. The challenges in Mexico go beyond the impact of "globalization". Growth in the labor force requires more than one million new jobs a year while only 300,000 new jobs are produced. The Mexican government has not supported the interests of workers, small farmers or indigenous people. The government has succumbed to pressures from international capital and privatized many national companies. Privatization has advanced wealthy private and corporate interests, both Mexican and international, without benefit to workers. In Mexico, the average worker is not as well off as he or she was in 1980. In the U.S. the gap between rich and poor has been steadily growing since 1969, when the country experienced its most equitable income distribution. Mexicans must work on their own political and economic institutions, but if "UU's are concerned about the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a corporate elite who are dictating the terms of major economic and social parameters throughout the world" then we must insist on fair trade, where the rights of workers and the environment are protected, not just free trade, where the rights of capital have been allowed to supercede all other interests. What can we do? My daughter suggests the U.S. pass no more trade agreements until NAFTA is fixed to include real protections for workers and the environment. CAFTA and the FTAA are on the agenda. Strongly encourage congressional representatives and senators, including John Kerry, not to approve any new trade agreement that does not include strong protections for workers and the environment. by Susan Stott