International Solidarity With: SME Urgently Needed

On Oct. 10, the government of Felipe Calderon in Mexico, served by police and army, occupied the installations of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC), which provides electric service to 25 million users in Central Mexico, and ordered its “extinction.” Some 44,000 workers were left unemployed, and 21,000 pensioners were left helpless—in an open violation of the constitution, the Federal Labor Law, and basic human rights.

The pretext is that the enterprise is ineffective or insolvent—caused by the government for years, but with the real goal of destroying the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and its collective agreement, and to advance privatization of the electric industry. A huge demonstration of popular support for SME, in which more than 350,000 people participated, was held Oct. 15. And the National Civic Strike carried out on Nov. 11, involved about 2 million people. The government and its media apparatus have ignored these actions and continue their slander campaign against SME.

The regime seems prepared for repression, while the SME is ready to take its defense to the end. The coming weeks will be critical. This is why we are making a call for trade unions, social and civil rights organizations in the world, and also to defenders of workers, labor and human rights and democratic freedoms, to:

• Participate in International Day of Solidarity with the SME on December the 3rd, performing protest acts in Mexico ’s embassies in your country.

• Send international missions in order to testify about what happens in our country in this chain of injustices against the electrical workers and the people of Mexico , to spread this in your countries and to plead for a just solution. You could join United States and Canada trade unions that are coming in the first days of December, or instead come about December the 14th, the day on which the SME is celebrating its 95th anniversary and there will be acts of great importance.