CNTE TO CONTINUE MEXICO CITY MOBILIZATION
Teachers have been occupying Mexico City’s Zócalo for over 20 days, seeking to finally end neoliberal education reforms and privatized pensions.
Teachers have been occupying Mexico City’s Zócalo for over 20 days, seeking to finally end neoliberal education reforms and privatized pensions.
The CNTE maintains the Mexican government is refusing to negotiate, making the same proposal over and over again to striking teachers.
The national strike, initiated by the CNTE but joined by other public workers, is not a mobilization of workers against a political party, but against the neoliberal model that is still unfortunately in good health.
The government’s offer to striking teachers did not include repealing the 2007 ISSSTE law, although today President Sheinbaum found time to meet billionaire Carlos Slim, who this week proposed scrapping the pension system and retirement age.
The document presented to the CNTE includes a declaration in which the federal government expresses its respect for their organization and methods of struggle.
Teachers’ pensions provide private banks massive profits in the form of commissions, they fund the investments the banks make in their own businesses, and the profits the banks make from usurious activity with other people’s money. What public benefits would there be if the system was de-privatized?
Mexican teachers face the enormous power of finance capital and a neoliberal retirement system, owned by major banks, the true right wing of this country, which the government refuses to touch with even a single tax.
While AMLO repealed some of the worst elements of neoliberal teaching reform, underlying demands have not been fully addressed & worse, certain sectors close to Morena have replicated the narrative of the past, presenting the CNTE as an irrational and intransigent pressure group.
“The average real salary of a teacher is between 14 and 15 thousand pesos per month ($725-$775USD), which is totally insufficient to support a family.”
President Sheinbaum made the comments amid the striking teachers’ blockade of the National Palace prior to the morning press conference.