education
Notes on the War Against the Teachers in Resistance (The Hour of the Police 3)
Notes on the War Against the Teachers in Resistance
(The Hour of the Police 3)
June 2016
From the notebook of the cat-dog:
—We don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Chiapas those above are losing the media war.
We have seen entire families support the teachers, in the rural areas as well as the urban. And we aren’t talking about support of the “we see your raised fists” type, or that of “the people united will never be defeated” and other slogans that continue to be the same despite distances in calendar and geography because below solidarity continues to be a basic principle. But if in previous mobilizations among the rebellious teachers, the “citizens” (a term that hides inequality) were bothered and fed up, now things have changed.
There are more and more families helping the teachers, donating support for their trips and marches, becoming anxious when they are attacked, offering food, drink, and refuge. They are families who, according to the taxonomy of the electoral left, have been “dumbed down” by television, or are “sandwich-gobblers,”(i) “deranged,” “sheep,” “people without conscience.” But it seems that the outsized media campaign against the teachers in resistance has failed.
The resistance movement against the education reform has become a mirror for more and more people-people (meaning, not social and political organizations, but ordinary people). It is as if the resistance has awoken a collective sense of urgency in the face of the coming tragedy. It is as if every swing of a police baton, every canister of tear gas, every rubber bullet, and every arrest warrant were eloquent slogans: “today I attack her, him; tomorrow I’m coming for you.” Perhaps that is why, behind every teacher there are entire families that sympathize with their cause and their struggle.
Why? Why does a movement that has been fiercely attacked on all sides continue to grow? If they are “vandals,” “slackers,” “terrorists,” “corrupt,” and “opposed to progress,” then why do so many people below, no small number in the middle, and even a few above salute the teachers, even if sometimes in silence, for defending what anyone would defend?
(Español) Movimiento magisterial y la reforma educativa
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En los últimos tiempos el movimiento magisterial contra la reforma educativa ha adquirido fuerza en muchas partes del país, sobre todo en Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero y Michoacán, pero también en otros estados como Tabasco, Sinaloa y Chihuahua. La reforma educativa fue una de las primeras acciones del gobierno de Peña Nieto, aprobada en sólo 12 días, y ha enfrentado un rechazo cada vez más fuerte, con un paro de labores que dura ya un mes, marchas, bloqueos carreteros, plantones y otras acciones, en las que participa no sólo el magisterio, sino estudiantes y padres de familia, organizaciones campesinas, diversos movimientos sociales y mucha gente común. La respuesta del gobierno ha sido una creciente represión, la criminalización y una completa cerrazón a la negociación. Al mismo tiempo, se ha desplegado una fuerte campaña mediática de desprestigio al magisterio.
En este reportaje, entrevistamos a una maestra y un maestro, ambos con más de 20 años de docencia y muy activos en el movimiento magisterial de Chiapas. Los maestros explican los motivos de la resistencia, la reforma educativa y la situación actual del movimiento.
