The teachers' protest camp in downtown Oaxaca City

The Sección 22 union local representing public school teachers in Oaxaca announced today that it will maintain its strike through Friday, June 3rd. The strike began on May 23rd and is part of what has become a ritual in budget negotiations with the state government.

Oaxacan teachers have used the tactic of camping out in the streets during May negotiations for nearly three decades now. While it’s effectiveness as a pressure tactic is questionable given its repeated use, it is a common ground for teachers from around the state to meet and it establishes a certain cohesion among the union’s membership.

The camp itself is massive, taking up around 20 city blocks in the state capital, including the central plaza, known as the zócalo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c3shwwNJbI

This video shows the teachers’ protest camp on May 27, 2011. It was mostly filmed in the zócalo, which is a jumble of teachers’ tents, street vendors, and occasional cultural events. At the time of the filming, a student band from the Ixtlán district was giving a live concert, complete with the tradition of tossing fruit and other edibles at the audience.

Opinions about the teachers’ regular work stoppages are often polarizing. It’s become common for the local media and business groups to blame the teachers for economic losses and scapegoat them for social ills. A cursory social network search of the terms “maestros” and “Oaxaca” produces multiple results of thinly-veiled calls for the use of violence against the striking teachers.

At the same time, there seems to be little space for constructive criticisms of the union’s actions. Many activist groups appear to have a stake in defending the teachers perhaps because the union has become de-facto the largest and most influential activist organization in Oaxaca. Another reason could be that the usual criticisms tend to be so negative that rejecting them has become the knee-jerk reaction.

Parents unhappy with missed school days rarely address the issue in open meetings, although they will grumble amongst themselves. The union presents its strike actions as measures by which to “defend public education”…but Oaxaca’s public education system consistently ranks last in Mexico-wide evaluations. While the criteria used to create rankings can also be questioned, the fact that Oaxacan public school students receive far fewer classroom instruction hours than their counterparts elsewhere in Mexico is without dispute.

School days missed to “union activities” are not recuperated.

Private schools proliferate across the Oaxaca City area and they are not just for the children of the well-to-do. It’s common for working class people of certain means – market stall vendors for example – to make sacrifices so that their children can attend schools where classes predictably follow the Secretary of Education’s calendar. The frequent cancellation of classes has the effect of pulling students into private schools – ironically, as the teachers’ union carries out actions under the banner of fighting the privatization of public education.

The situation is complex and this post makes no pretense of hitting all the bases. Teaching is one of the few middle-class career options in Oaxaca – something worth consideration when taking into account the larger interests associated with maintaining unionized positions in one of Mexico’s poorest states. Teaching is also a field that has traditionally been more open to women than others. The Sección 22 teachers’ union local has a membership of 70,000, making it a significant sector of the state’s economy.

What’s long overdue is an open, earnest, critical, and constructive conversation among the principal stakeholders in Oaxacan public education: the students, parents, and classroom teachers.

[dewplayer:http://www.fsrn.org/audio/download/6913/20100614SY.mp3]

(sound: barricade bottle rockets and chants)

The day of action kicked off at 4am local time with chants, bottle rockets, and barricades around the central plaza of Oaxaca City. While this has become an annual occurrence here, this year’s protests come just 3 weeks ahead of the elections to replace the governor the 2006 movement tried to oust.

During a pre-dawn rally in the central plaza, union representative Jose Alfredo Martinez, stopped short of calling for a punishment vote against the ruling party, but said the teachers’ union must continue to demand accountability for the political murders committed during the 2006 conflict.

Jose Alfredo Martinez: “We have to push for the political trial and imprisonment of the assassin of the people of Oaxaca. And we have to tell our rank and file membership regardless of whoever wins the state gubernatorial race, if we teachers of Oaxaca can’t deliver on our list of demands, the absence of accountible government will continue.”

(sound: mega-march chants)

The mega-march called by the teachers union today was miles long and drew at least 100,000 people. Due to its strength, the teachers’ union has the support of many of the state’s social and activist organizations. But the movement also has its critics.

An estimated 1.4 million schoolchildren miss class whenever the teachers mobilize en masse. Another common complaint is the vehicular chaos provoked by the frequent marches and blockades. Businesses in the downtown area often report losses whenever the teachers set up protest encampments in the central square.

Mr. Fernando, who runs a small sandwich stall in the center of the plaza says that his sales have declined by 30 percent since the protest encampment began 2 weeks ago. He just wants both sides to reach an agreement so he can recover economically.

Mr. Fernando: “We ask the authorities and the government to resolve this quickly. This always ends in an arrangement, but it always comes after they’ve been here awhile and they get tired or after the government says ‘fine, we’ll give you this much’ and they pick up their things and leave. So, why not do all this beforehand without dragging this all out and waiting for each side to wear down before negotiating?”

But negotiations between the teachers’ union and the state and federal government have stagnated. The teachers have announced they will triple the size of their protest encampment in the city center as of Tuesday morning.