WE ARE PREPARING TO RESIST
(Interview with Joaquín Gómez Coutiño)
Tomás Oropeza Berumen
The huge concrete slab of the Zocalo in the sun burns on Saturdays. Under the canvas roof that serves as this tent of workers' resistance, there are ten beach chairs and several of the tents used by Boy Scouts during their excursions. Men and women spend the night there electricians cold nights in Mexico City, just steps from the National Palace, under the giant flagpole. There is also a portable table on an electric grill and a scraping machine to make all the flavors that are sold to passersby near which melts a large block of ice. Across the street
the metropolitan cathedral bells thunderous shot into the air. Despite the noise the electrician Coutiño Joaquin Gomez, a former assistant foreign agent regular at Luz y Fuerza del Centro, where he earned 207.00 pesos a day when the PAN candidate Felipe Calderon unjustifiably dismissed the company I had 19 years of work, stay calm.
has about 90 days in the plants of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) and will soon be completed, along with more than 16 000 partners 20 months to defend their claims, resisting the neoliberal barbarism de facto government.
wearing jeans and red shirt The logo of the EMS, we get attention when we commented that we are teachers of the Faculty of Economics, UNAM, Labor Economics Workshop, and we want to know what workers think of the situation in the country, the struggle hold and prospects.
tells us that so far the government has refused to meet the demand for setting up a company to replace that removed illegally (the subject of work continues to exist) to substitute employer hires more than 16 000 electricians who have rejected the settlement.
- What is the current state of their movement, after last March Judge Maria Adriana Mayo, of Special Meeting 5 of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration (JFCA), which was holding a decision on the demands of his union refused to recognize the legal representative of his organization, saying that the EMS could not prove the affiliation of workers?
- The judge depends on the Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Alarcón and has the slogan of delaying the litigation about unfair dismissal, payment of back wages and rehire a substitute employer. He said that we had not credited our legal status as such. Illogical thing because we have evidence that workers are actually even got fired, to say goodbye because they had warned us the company that we would be fired. And the art work has not disappeared.
- The location of the EMS says the fight on three fronts, the legal, legislative and political, as expressed. And he has been seeking to convince lawmakers from the PRI, PRD and PT that support in Congress for approving this item. As the PRI the majority party could say that you have to convince the deputies of the party that support them, but from what I have seen these legislators have submitted proposals very anti-labor, as the draft Law on National Security and reform of the LFT. What do you expect?
- What we are doing as a union is lobbying with the members, principally those of the PRI, which are the majority that would define the creation of new agency to provide electricity in the Midwest. We have much work to do to convince them with our arguments to vote in favor of the initiative presented to the Energy Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
- Can you say that you are in the hands of members of the PRI? Do not think resorting to mobilization, or other forms of extra-parliamentary pressure?
- I've done dozens of events and we plan to do other actions that would have to agree in our assemblies, but right now we are acting through the legal and legislative means. And in the legislation we are seeking to fill the legal gap that occurred in the time Calderon decreed the extinction of L and FC.
- Sunday May 8 this socket was filled with people silently marched against violence and Peace with Justice and Dignity. The EMS participated in the march led by the poet Javier Sicilia. Now organizations that made this mobilization are calling for a march which will begin in Cuernavaca on June 4 to reach CD. Juárez 10 and sign a covenant between those below the federal government demanding the demilitarization and the end of Calderon's drug war. The EMS you participate in that march?
-SME participation in all social movements on principle. Our movement is not only the SME, this has already become a social movement. We saw that neoliberal policy is focused on the workers. And as for the failed war on drugs not know what to think of our union. But from my point of view I think it's an excuse to militarize the Calderón government and bring the country to perpetuate their party in power. I think Calderón will try to give a coup at the end of his term to remain in power. This relates to the reform the Security Act because if we are right now and getting used to seeing the Army and Federal Police everywhere, if passed this law we will have the army over a lifetime.
- Calderon decretazo Before he disappeared the CL and F to privatize it, you had been involved in activism?
- We become social activists from October 10, 2009. Our union is very active. We can not get away from the political union, because we have elections every year, which elects half of the central committee. There are always trade union political activity in the SME, we can not be removed from participation.
- How been done to support themselves?
"My wife is retired and we stand by me and our son. We went to work in 1975, but I went out and I went back in 1990.
- What impact has had on you and your family is hit (the teacher asks Guillermo Padilla, an economist and retired electrician, editor of the transformer)?
"It was a hard blow. We had problems even with our own families they left to visit, because following the dismissal of many relatives we recommended that we charged the settlement, which really is a waiver, and we refuse. And so many families moved away thinking we were doing wrong, we should have taken that money and do some business, rather than resisting.
- And his wife is also on the resistance?
"Yes, she is the one we're holding me and our son, who was an electrician in the CL and F. Of course, after having three salaries, now we only have one. We lowered our standard of living to a minimum and we are going there wearing. We subsist to resist.
- Are you currently engaged in economic activity that you report any income?
"I was working in Airlines, then I switched to foreign agencies and taught me to work electricity. And when you need some electrical work and then do we make of resources.
- In your opinion what is needed in the country so that workers have what they need for a dignified life?
A change of economic policy, because that is handling the current government is wrong, it has not worked. Because the policy of "employment" Calderon is leading to increased poverty. There must be a radical change. He adds: "Many people thought that changing the PRI for the PAN would cause a radical change, but change was against the people and for the oligarchs."
"Everything seems to indicate that soon it will not be a solution to your motion and will have to hold until after the 2012 elections. Are you prepared to withstand up to define who becomes president?
We are not ready, but we are determined to reach the last consequences and resist as long as necessary. And I say that we are not prepared because we have never experienced a situation like this, but we are adapting to resist.
Thus, in a calm voice, he concludes that man's face hardened. And I think Calderon is not going to achieve and beat the electricians because despite its campaign of lies they maintain high morale and willingness to fight. As the Vietnamese when they clashed with U.S. soldiers, who defeated because they were defending a just cause.
