Mexican govt vs electricians

Road to nowhere

Last Saturday night, the Mexican president Felipe Calderon sent the army and the police into all the offices of Luz y Fuerza, forcing workers off the night shift.  Luz y Fuerza, one of the two biggest electricity companies in Mexico was being liquidated, the government announced: it was inefficient and had no place in a country in economic crisis.

On Wednesday 45,000 redundancy cheques were ready for collection, but less than 100 people picked theirs up.  The SME, the electricity workers’ union, was planning resistance, and a demonstration was announced for Thursday afternoon.  Booksellers in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, packed up their things as their International Book Fair tents were quickly dismantled to make way for the crowds.

The SME was at work all Thursday.  Buses and taxis drove painted-on SME support slogans all around town.  Each train on the metro had one carriageful of activists, complete with loudspeaker and banners, urging people to turn up at the Angel de la Independencia at 4 o’clock.

The Angel is the starting point for all demonstrations in Mexico City.  Thousands of people were there well before 4. They chanted their way to the Zócalo, carrying banners saying  ‘Felipe Calderon – liquidate your mother’.  When they got to the Zócalo they were met by a series of speakers – mostly union leaders – condemning the government for breaking the law, making comparisons between Calderon, Hitler and Mussolini, and threatening civil war if the government did not give Luz y  Fuerza workers their jobs back.

Hundreds of riot police shielded the heavily-shuttered government buildings and waited round corners for trouble.

All the unions were out backing Luz y Fuerza, as was every leftie group imaginable.  Giant flag-portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin fluttered high above their Communist owners.   A masked and dignified Zapatista contingent walked past pavements full of photographers and wellwishers.  300,000 people are said to have attended the march, and one of the biggest city squares in the world was crammed.

While the protestors were protesting, the government issued a statement that they would enter into talks with the SME.  This happened yesterday, and today almost every front page reads, “7 hours of talking, 0 results”.  The government will not back down.

For all the SME’s promised action, the feeling is that any talks Calderon holds are just an attempt to diffuse a bit of anger, and that eventually the Luz y Fuerza workers will have to accept it and fetch their cheques.