Political Report # 1348 “Never Again Can There Be a Mexico Without Indigenous Peoples:” Recovering Native Languages in Mexico

By Daniela Pastrana, Toward Freedom

(IPS) - Ángel Santiago is a Mexican teenager who speaks one of the variations of the Zapotec language that exists in the state of Oaxaca, in the southwest of Mexico. Standing next to the presidential candidate who is the favorite for the July elections, he calls for an educational curriculum that “respects our culture and our languages.” Juan José García Ortiz, a teacher who is also mayor of Guelatao, a small town in this southwestern state, speaks in Zapotec and Spanish about the problems of education in Mexico, and ends with a message: “Never again can there be a Mexico without indigenous peoples.” So does the poet Irma Pineda López, who reads the commitments drafted by the country’s best-organised teachers’ union, from Oaxaca, the state with the largest indigenous population in Mexico and where 418 of the 570 municipalities have a majority indigenous population and are governed by native customs. The presidential candidate, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, nods. Next to him is Susana Harp, a prominent international singer of traditional Zapotec music, who is a candidate for the Senate for the presidential candidate’s party, Morena. Behind them is Esteban Moctezuma, who López Obrador plans to appoint as minister of education if he wins the Jul. 1 elections. This scene took place on May 12 in the town where the only indigenous president of Mexico, Benito Juárez (1858-1872), was born. On this occasion, López Obrador presented his proposal to reform education in the country and, remarkably, all the participants spoke first in their native mother tongue and then in Spanish. One of the candidate’s campaign pledges is to establish bilingual schools in all regions with an indigenous majority. The event in Guelatao is a sign of a new phenomenon that has begun to slowly emerge in the country: the recovery of native languages. More speakers In the last decade, according to the population census conducted every five years by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), the number of speakers of indigenous languages in Mexico increased 20 percent, practically at the same rate as the population growth. In fact, for the first time in 80 years, the downward trend in the population of speakers of native languages has stopped.

Political Report # 1321 Betsy DeVos is Helping Puerto Rico Re-Imagine Its Public School System. That Has People Deeply Worried

By Rachel M. Cohen The Intercept

Puerto Rico, in the midst of the chaos and instability following Hurricane Maria, is moving quickly forward with plans to institute a wide swath of education reforms, with the help of the aggressively ideological federal education department, helmed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Puerto Rico's governor and education secretary have expressed openness to the concerns raised by parents, teachers and community members, and stress they are not looking to implement an extreme version of privatization. Yet at the same time, they have stoked fears by pushing forward a notably vague charter law that does little to address what people are most worried about. This "trust us" mentality has not been helped by the engagement of DeVos, nor by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's recent visit to a notorious charter chain in Philadelphia last week - a prime example of the kind of low-performing, fiscally reckless charter that school advocates warn about. At a time when the island is starved of investment and inching slowly through a storm recovery, many Puerto Ricans worry that the government is treating this more as an opportunity to disrupt education, rather than stabilize it - while also potentially opening the doors for supercharged corruption.

Exclusive, Oaxaca in Crisis: An Interview with Victoria Tenopala Juárez

As the school year starts, teachers in the highly indigenous Mexican state of Oaxaca are revving up their struggle against neoliberal education reform – two months after federal police massacred protesters near the town of Noxichtlán. The radical National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) has recently called for continuing road blockades and has pledged to continue its strike, and the freeing of political prisoners has been one aspect of their continuing negotiations with the Mexican Secretary of the Interior.

The following is an Aug. 4 interview with Victoria Tenopala Juárez, a member of the Council of Oaxacan Autonomous Organizations [COOA], who discusses the state of the movement as well as the case of her husband, the indigenous political prisoner César León Mendoza.

On June 19, eight Oaxacans were killed when federal police attempted to dislodge protesters’ highway blockade at Noxichtán, which they had maintained to pressure the government to undo the federal education reform, first fully enacted in Oaxaca in 2015. The independent journalist León Mendoza had long worked to support and document the movements against this and other neoliberal reforms, and was arrested in late 2015. He currently faces four charges, including attempted homicide. He was originally held at a state prison in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, 2.5 hours from his family. Direct action campaigns in February 2016 in Oaxaca led to his transfer to the Ixcotel prison, in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, which is closer to his family and support networks.

This interview was conducted in Spanish by Eric Larson*, who translated it and edited it for length.

Political Report # 1165 Popular Uprising Backs Striking Teachers in Southern Mexico

The fight for teachers' rights has blossomed into a movement against education privatization. This sign at a July 6 march says, "We parents support the teachers against the education reform." Photo: Valeria Méndez (CC BY-ND 2.0) By Emily Keppler, Labor Notes

In Chiapas, Mexico, what started as a fight for teachers union power has exploded into a popular movement against the privatization of public education and the entire public sector. Fifty thousand teachers, students, parents, and small-business owners marched at sunset July 11 through the streets of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital city of Chiapas-in just one of at least 10 protests across five states. Meanwhile an hour east, in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, parents, students, social justice organizations, and members of civil society were gathering for the 15th night of their highway blockade. The protests came as representatives of the CNTE, the dissident caucus in the teachers union, met with federal representatives in Mexico City for their third dialogue on the controversial education reform. The teachers have been fighting this reform since 2012, when the Mexican Congress passed the measure. It's being imposed gradually, region by region. But in the last few months, as the reform has encroached on the more militant southern states, the fight for teachers' rights has attracted more allies and blossomed into a movement against education privatization.

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution by Gary Prevost

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution 
by Gary Prevost
Gary Prevost has been Professor of Political Science at St. John’s University since 1977.

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent. How did the Cuban Revolution survive that shock, and how is it now coping with the illness of Fidel Castro and the transfer of power to his brother, Raúl?

The Municipal University Centers: Past, Present, and Future by Jorge González Corona

The Municipal University Centers:  Past, Present, and Future
by Jorge González Corona
Translated by Mariana Ortega Breña
Jorge González Corona is Professor of Political Science at the Manuel Bisbé Municipal University. Mariana Ortega Breña is a freelance translator based in Canberra, Australia. 

The development of education in Cuba since January 1, 1959, has gone through several phases. The 1960's witnessed the National Literacy Campaign of 1961, the implementation of universal access to elementary education, the adult post-literacy programs, the massive training of teachers, and the University Reform of 1962. In the next period, 1970–1980, universal access to secondary education was achieved, as was a nationwide university network. These efforts were accompanied by substantial investment in the creation of the necessary material base for education and the accelerated training and upgrading of teachers and professors.

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution by Gary Prevost

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution

by Gary Prevost

Gary Prevost has been Professor of Political Science at St. John’s University since 1977.

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence

at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent.