At Least Strikers in America Don't Get Shot

EDITORIAL

Translated By Karen Hoffmann

May 2, 2006

Mexico - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish)

Yesterday was a day of exceptional work. In Mexico, a great number of workers from different unions expressed their demands for the resignation of Labor Secretary Francisco Javier Salazar, to heal relations between the government and unions, and to demand an explanation for the deaths of two unionists during a government assault on striking steelworkers in Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan, on April 20.

Almost at the same time, in major American cities where the presence of Mexicans is remarkable, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas, millions of Hispanic workers sought to vigorously reiterate their presence in the political, social, and economic life of the United States. It was a victorious day.

The demonstrators there didn't try to put the brakes on the powerful U.S. economy, which is something impossible to achieve in a single day; nor was it their intention to damage their own movement; but they were able to focus people's attention on their demand which is as simple as it is just: Since they already participate on the job in the nation's productivity, and since the only inconvenient issue is that they are not legal immigrants, then just legalize them. After all, the only thing they want is to work in peace.

Authorizing their stay legally will contribute to order and security, and would put them in a position to demand complete respect for their labor and human rights. It would also help avoid the deaths that occur when the migrants enter the United States through the desert or in trucks locked closed by voracious and criminal traffickers.

The gesture of the Day [Without] Work was significant, and received the support of Mexicans near the Mexican border and the rest of the country, who agreed to stop consuming "Made in USA" products for a day.

The demonstration was also successful because it allowed us to see a sustained will to definitively bring to a close a problem that all politicians have expressed concern over, and which was prevented from being solved just when they were on the verge of coming to an agreement.

In defense of the United States, it must be said that at least it is possible in that country for laborers, when questioned by immigration authorities, not to be penalized; they can speak freely and request in a loud voice that they want their labor or residential visa, without the consequences being bloody.

In Mexico, on the contrary, legally recognized workers cannot choose the leaders they desire, and must avoid the unjust and abusive interference of federal authorities, who are legally authorized to decide which unions to recognize and which are their leaders.

And if a strike affects a business too much, like the Siderurgica Lazaro Cardenas-Las Truchas [a steelmaking company in Lazaro Cardenas], the military police show up and fire on the strikers, backed up by intelligence transmitted from official helicopters, which [on April 20] killed two and injured thirty, without anyone being reprimanded over it.

Laborers want to work in peace and have complete autonomy in their union decisions. This seems a lot to ask of a government that six years ago made many promises for a return to union support. Today we see a landscape very different from those promises, which is absolutely lamentable.