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Solidarity actions in Mexico
May 2006 issue of Socialist Action newspaper
Workers throughout Latin America watched the build-up to
May Day closely, nowhere more so than in Mexico. Unions raised slogans at
May Day rallies in Mexico City in solidarity with immigrant workers in the
United States. A call also went out to boycott all U.S. products and
U.S.-owned stores on May Day.
Waving signs saying, "Don't Buy Gringo Products,
Long live the Boycott," 3000 electrical workers blocked a major
highway. The boycott meant not only staying away from McDonald's, Burger
King, and Starbucks, but also boycotting Mexico’s largest employer, with
140,000 workers—Wal-Mart. In second place with 70,000 workers is auto parts
maker Delphi Corp., which on May Day itself told a judge to void its UAW
contracts in the U.S.
Thousands gathered outside the U.S. Embassy, including
Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos. Said one demonstrator, Fernando Vazquez
Herrera, a former bracero: "We gave our blood to build capitalism in
North America."
The intimate tie between NAFTA-imposed poverty and
emigration is clear to Mexicans, and the link was shown on May Day. Unions
raised their own demands against President Vicente Fox, who has eagerly
implemented Washington-dictated “economic reforms.” The protests took on
added heat because of the government’s attempt to impose a hand-picked
leadership over the national union of mine and metal workers.
Fueling the boycott was also
long-standing resentment at racist, sometimes murderous, treatment of
Mexicans by U.S. customs officials and border officers.
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