Rev. Mike Mulberry on an emergency delegation to Oaxaca,
Mexico
February 9, 2007
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I recently participated in an emergency delegation to
Oaxaca,
Mexico. Since the state police force tried to brutally
break up a
teacher's strike in June, the situation in Oaxaca had
become
increasingly more violent. Oaxaca, and in particular the
state capital, had become a police state.
Our delegation came together from all over the United
States to provide international observation, and,
hopefully, a calming presence. We also went to learn the
larger framework of events that led to the state and
federal government killing, imprisoning, and torturing
its own people.
I was not surprised to learn that a new Wal-Mart and
Sam's Club were
going to be constructed just outside the state capital.
Archer Daniels
Midland and Cargill were pouring cheap corn into the
Oaxacan economy right around harvest time. And a new,
modern housing development was soon to be constructed
right over the richest aquifer in the area.
The first lesson I learned in corporate law is that
corporations are
formed to avoid personal responsibility. In particular,
multinational
corporations continue to act with impunity and lack of
accountability.
For these actions in pursuit of profit, our governmental
representatives hail multinational corporations as
saviors.
Labor laws are stripped. Environmental protection is
discarded. Public institutions and commonly held
interests are strangled. All of these
actions are taken to provide freer access to economic
powers which, in turn, consume and devour the resources
of communities and countries.
Slowly but surely we have handed the reins of the
republic over to a corporate oligarchy. And that
corporate oligarchy is destroying communities-nationally
and internationally.
In Oaxaca, Mexico, individuals are responding to the
destruction of
their communities by emigrating north. One hundred and
fifty thousand people a year are now leaving Oaxaca.
Others in Oaxaca are responding to the destruction of
their livelihood, public schools, and their environment
through a populist protest and the re-creation of their
communities-all started by a teacher's strike.
In a community like ours, filled with educators, we
would do well to
learn from the Oaxacan people. |
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