My friend Juan Jose Leon Guillen reports that there was unusually high voter turn out across Mexico for the June 1st Mexican elections. I will quote him here. Please forgive his imperfect English.
"There was a participation of 68% of people who voted had always been 35 to 40% of voters, where I voted there were long lines of people voting, I had never seen so much participation."
Juan Jose and his family have been campaigning for progressive causes in the State of Chiapas since I met them in 1996. At that time they were part of a group called the Civil Zapatistas and they, and hundreds of others - including me, were occupying the town square in their home community of Comitan de Dominguez.
When I last visited with them, in 2016, they had just hosted a campaign visit from Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, now the President-elect of Mexico. Needless to say, they are ecstatic about the election of Lopez Obrador. Over the years they pointed out to me that the ruling party, the PRI, either suppressed the vote or bought it. There was a half true joke that they repeatedly shared with me about the PRI buying the votes of the extremely poor in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and other states.
"Tim, it used to be that they would buy people's votes by giving them a pair of shoes," they would say to me. "Now they give the people only the right shoe and tell them they'll get the left some after the election."
The joke reflected a deep cynicism about the electoral process. But AMLO (Lopez Obrador) and the MORENA movement spent years organizing and educating. This is the result:
"I and Estrella took 2 hours in line to vote. The PRI and PAN bought some money but could not buy all because there are people aware."
So we, in Minnesota and the US, need to look to Mexico as and example and an inspiration.
The MORENA victory up and down the ballot is particularly inspirational. Listen to this:
"Tim on July 1 won the democracy in Mexico. AMLO and his party Morena won almost all public office, the Mexican parliament will be the majority of Morena, Chiapas and other states will govern Morena, Comitan will govern Morena. The next president AMLO is the founder of Morena."
The news reports in the US focus on how AMLO's election will effect the US, especially on trade issues and other macro-economic matters. That's normal but somewhat tedious and self centered.
What seems to me to be more important is how the election of AMLO will effect the daily lives of ordinary Mexicans.
Juan Jose, his sister, and his brother in law, are all teachers. His parents are retired teachers. In Mexico school teachers are federal employees. As such there is a national union for teachers. For decades the ruling PRI has worked diligently to corrupt the teachers union. In Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, and some other southern Mexican states a fiercely independent union has evolved.
Each year teachers in Oaxaca go on strike as part of their negotiating strategy. I was there in 1998 and it was an exhilarating experience to see the organizing efforts of the teachers. Generally, the government gave some concessions and the teachers went back to work. But under Pena Nieto, the current president, the government has gone to great lengths to weaken public education and thus to weaken the independent teachers union. In 2016 the strike in Oaxaca turned into a government war against the teachers. Teachers from Oaxaca were killed by the police and the strike spread across the country. The government refused to back down and the strike finally collapsed. The 2018 elections, however, are one result of the governments viciousness towards its teachers.
One example of that weakening of the constitutional commitment to free public education are rural schools that have no teachers -- only television monitors. Another example is the commitment by the government to eliminate technical education at the beginning of the 2019 school year. Juan Jose teaches agriculture so he will lose his job soon.
Juan Jose believe a MORENA government will restore his job as an agricultural instructor. But more importantly, he believes MORENA will reverse the trend of dumbing down Mexican education and the country's young people. A better educated Mexican population will mean a more prosperous Mexico. That in turn, will Mexicans at home and not looking to the US for opportunity.
"There was a participation of 68% of people who voted had always been 35 to 40% of voters, where I voted there were long lines of people voting, I had never seen so much participation."
Juan Jose and his family have been campaigning for progressive causes in the State of Chiapas since I met them in 1996. At that time they were part of a group called the Civil Zapatistas and they, and hundreds of others - including me, were occupying the town square in their home community of Comitan de Dominguez.
When I last visited with them, in 2016, they had just hosted a campaign visit from Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, now the President-elect of Mexico. Needless to say, they are ecstatic about the election of Lopez Obrador. Over the years they pointed out to me that the ruling party, the PRI, either suppressed the vote or bought it. There was a half true joke that they repeatedly shared with me about the PRI buying the votes of the extremely poor in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and other states.
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"Tim, it used to be that they would buy people's votes by giving them a pair of shoes," they would say to me. "Now they give the people only the right shoe and tell them they'll get the left some after the election."
The joke reflected a deep cynicism about the electoral process. But AMLO (Lopez Obrador) and the MORENA movement spent years organizing and educating. This is the result:
"I and Estrella took 2 hours in line to vote. The PRI and PAN bought some money but could not buy all because there are people aware."
So we, in Minnesota and the US, need to look to Mexico as and example and an inspiration.
The MORENA victory up and down the ballot is particularly inspirational. Listen to this:
"Tim on July 1 won the democracy in Mexico. AMLO and his party Morena won almost all public office, the Mexican parliament will be the majority of Morena, Chiapas and other states will govern Morena, Comitan will govern Morena. The next president AMLO is the founder of Morena."
The news reports in the US focus on how AMLO's election will effect the US, especially on trade issues and other macro-economic matters. That's normal but somewhat tedious and self centered.
What seems to me to be more important is how the election of AMLO will effect the daily lives of ordinary Mexicans.
Juan Jose, his sister, and his brother in law, are all teachers. His parents are retired teachers. In Mexico school teachers are federal employees. As such there is a national union for teachers. For decades the ruling PRI has worked diligently to corrupt the teachers union. In Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, and some other southern Mexican states a fiercely independent union has evolved.
Each year teachers in Oaxaca go on strike as part of their negotiating strategy. I was there in 1998 and it was an exhilarating experience to see the organizing efforts of the teachers. Generally, the government gave some concessions and the teachers went back to work. But under Pena Nieto, the current president, the government has gone to great lengths to weaken public education and thus to weaken the independent teachers union. In 2016 the strike in Oaxaca turned into a government war against the teachers. Teachers from Oaxaca were killed by the police and the strike spread across the country. The government refused to back down and the strike finally collapsed. The 2018 elections, however, are one result of the governments viciousness towards its teachers.
One example of that weakening of the constitutional commitment to free public education are rural schools that have no teachers -- only television monitors. Another example is the commitment by the government to eliminate technical education at the beginning of the 2019 school year. Juan Jose teaches agriculture so he will lose his job soon.
Juan Jose believe a MORENA government will restore his job as an agricultural instructor. But more importantly, he believes MORENA will reverse the trend of dumbing down Mexican education and the country's young people. A better educated Mexican population will mean a more prosperous Mexico. That in turn, will Mexicans at home and not looking to the US for opportunity.
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