Teachers fightback and retake the plaza

POLICE ATTACK TEACHERS IN OAXACA,
BUT FAIL TO BREAK STRIKE
[snip]
The Police Attack and Aerial Bombing

At 4:30 in the morning on June 14 police from several different state riot police corps marched into the central plaza of Oaxaca and attacked teachers, many of them with their children, sleeping in make-shift tents and shelters of the plantón in the historic city center of Oaxaca. While the police moved in swinging their clubs, other police threw tear gas canisters down on the crowd from a hotel window. A police helicopter also flew over the plaza dropping tear gas canisters on the teachers. Some police reportedly fired 38 caliber and 9 millimeter pistols at the demonstrators, though the governor claimed the police were unarmed.

Police then moved to attack the headquarters of SNTE Local 22. There they destroyed the broadcasting equipment of the union’s radio station, Radio Plantón, and arrested several teacher leaders and activists.

Teachers Re-take the Plaza

Within a couple of hours the teachers had regrouped, armed themselves with clubs and pipes and commandeered a number of buses and they moved to retake the plaza from the police. The teachers, chanting, “You’re going to fall, Ulises, you’re going to fall.” succeeded in defeating the police, retook the plaza, and took several police and government intelligence officers prisoner. By 10:00 a.m. the teachers, supported by university students and social activists, were once again in control of the center of the city.

The following day, June 15, the Oaxaca state government and Local 22 negotiated with the mediation of the federal government Secretary of the Interior (Gobernación). Ulises Ruiz now called for a “lessening of tensions” and the two sides negotiated an exchange of prisoners, the state government released 10 teachers and suspended (but did not drop) criminal charges against 25 teachers. In exchange, Local 22 released several police and intelligence officers. The state government agreed to pay for damages caused by the police, including the destruction of Radio Plantón and to find more funds for teachers in Oaxaca. The Oaxaca authorities also called upon the Federal government to “re-classify” the teachers, so that they would receive higher base salaries.

www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna_articles.php

videos on www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/20/18281602.php