International Capitalist Financial and Economic Crisis
Hits Mexico Hard
On the road to this year´s Annual Meeting of NGOs linked to the United Nations, a trip to Oaxaca, in southern Mexico made sense. How is southern Mexico doing in the capitalist economic crisis? The annual meeting was in Paris last year, commerating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th anniversary. This year the theme is Disarmament and Arms Control and will take place: Sept 9 through 11, 2009 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Treveling South.
Oaxaca City, in the State of Oaxaca, has about 1 million residents. The State of Oaxaca is right next to the State of Chiapis. Oaxaca is 4 hours, by bus, south of Pueblo City in the State of Pueblo. Pueblo has about 4 million residents. This is by bus travel.
Pueblo is 2 hours south, by bus, of Mexico as its called in Mexico, not Mexico City. Mexico City has about 23 million residents.
Bus travel, unlike the USA, is very comfortable and inexpensive.
And, Mexico City is 2 hours south of the Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
The airfare from NYC to Mexico City is the same as the Airfare from Mexico City to Oaxaca. The air time of the former is about 5 hoursñ the latt is just 45 minutes.
I point this out since on commercial, for profit, airlines contols these routes. A monopoly and very high prices.
Mexican History
Ever since the 1700s and early 1800s the fate of those living south of the Rio Grande was tied to the territory of Texas that was in the US. This history of Mexico is a long one which everyone should become familiar with. The Spanish and French had that hands in long before the U.S. they all shared the desire to control and exploit the great natural resouces of the country.
When Texas separate from Mexico, north of the Rio Grande, around 1848, the fate of Mexico became dependent upon the whims of the powers of the U.S. government. The Mexican revolutions of the early 1900s and the wave of revolutionary movements in the 1920s didn´t change the relationship.
The revolutoinary movements in Mexico are heroic and live on today.
NAFTA
It was not until, however, with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, that the economic, political and social cultural fate of Mexico suffered its greatest defeat at the hands of the U.S. government, i.e., imperialism in its rawest form. Democratic Party leader Bill Clinton defied many in his own party and the popular and labor movement in the U.S. by pushing through the law.
Since then all the predictions came true. The economy of Mexico became tied to the greed of the US capitalists, Wall Street. The exploitation of Mexicn farm labor continued. But, with NAFTA, whole Mexican industries were destroyed and tens of thousands of Mexican people were forced to migrate to where there were jobs. That meant the U.S. Mexican national industries that remained became subject to trade laws that only favored the USA.
The vile, anti immigrant rants of the ultra right and the compliance of too many liberals have kept this situation raw and unyielding.
New features like requiring visas to travel to the U.S. by Mexicans are hated in Mexico, especially since U.S. people are not required to have visas to visit Mexico.
The new administration is Washington promises changes. Remember the NAFTA discussion inthe US primaries?
Drugs and H1N1
Two recent develops increased the exploitation by the U.S. over Mexico.
The rampant drug trade where organized crime aided and abetted by too many banking and corporate interests in the U.S. is beng blamed on the Mexicans. The killings along the Mexican border are highlighted on U.S. Television regularly.
The pandemic of the H1N1 flu also known as the "Swine Flu" may have gotten its started at a U.S. multinational Pig Farm in Mexico, the Smithfield Industry. the sanitary conditions at the plant were extremely dangerous. It had been shut down and reopened many times. But, imperialism prevaled. the blame was placed on Mexico and not the U.S. corporation.
Continued Migration
The great need for jobs has not abetted. Poor and working class Mexicans being denied work in their own country, are seeking work where they can. This is part of the worldwide migration of workers to find work. U.S. right wing politicians and media ranters are attempting to take advantageof this.
This is expecially true given the crisis in the U.S. over jobs.
The growing size of these three cities andothers like Monterrey, are linked to the economic crisis and migration from rural to urban cities.
Oaxaca
In Oaxaca, a town that has a university and medical school the crisis is gripping the population. Tourism is its many generating of money. Righjt now, the streets of bare of visitors from the U.S and Europe. It could be fear of the flu or drug trafficers, but the main reason is the capitalist crisis.
Oaxaca has not fully recovered by the violent actions by the Mexican state government of Oaxaca against striking teachers and angry workers and women against years of anti worker, anti people policies. these took place 3 to 4 years ago. Nothing is safer than the streets of Oaxaca, today.
Walking through the vendors and shops you see some very advanced things. For example, every street stall nd shop only uses circular, screw in lights that are environmental safe.
But the economic problems, stemming from the international capitalist financail and eocnomic crisis has his Oaxaca.
Street vendors who would make a few hundred pesos a day or more are now own making a few pesos, if anything.
State budgets in Mexico are being cut. That means that federal jobs will be cut.
The mining for precioius metals continues. Gold and silver mines are working hard. And, the bad working conditions are even worse today.
U.N. Session
The upcoming United Nations session taking place in Mexico City, September 9 11, 2009, will be addressing the great need for Disarmament and Arms Control, but, the underlying capitalist econonmic crisis will be on everyones mind.
Afterall historically, when an international financial and economic crisis hits, the theat of war increases dramatically.
Watch for reports as they happen.
Stay tuned.
