By Katy Jensen,
Emory University
This week was an exciting week for the MG students at CEMAL! Thursday, we packed our bags for a weekend travel-seminar. Destination: Mexico City and San Salvador de Atenco.
During our time in Mexico City, we had the unique opportunity to tour the Pascual factory, maker of the popular Mexican juice drink Boing! There, we learned about the workers who came together in solidarity to form this cooperative that is proud to be 100% Mexican-owned. Pascual is an important Mexican company because not only did the workers form it, but also because it supports other local social movements and co-ops. For me it was fascinating to hear about how workers came together to buy up the company and to have the ultimate say-so in how it is run. After hearing about the history, we got to tour the factory and watched as the juice was being made and bottled. It was such a sight to see as juice boxes whizzed by on the assembly lines.
Friday night and all day Saturday (April 9-10) we spent in San Salvador Atenco learning about the local solidarity movement against the government trying to seize local land to build an airport. In class, we watched a movie about the fight and imprisonment of the people of Atenco in 2006 during the struggle to protect their land. For me, it was interesting to see the real-life repercussions of this event that still endure almost four years later. In Atenco, we listened to the daily challenges that people face there as their family members and friends remain imprisoned.
Saturday, we had a chance to visit the actual fields on which the government wanted to build the airport on, and the Atenco land board explained that today the fight to protect the land continues. We noticed that while we were visiting the campo there were surveyors eager to acquire the land for a new project under the auspices of CONAGUA. Although this new project promises to make good use of the land, Atenco citizens are on edge, because this is similar to how the government went about acquiring land for their the airport project, under false pretenses. The people of Atenco will not back down in the fight to protect their land; they believe that “la lucha sigue!”
All in all, this was a very didactic week. Through our field experience, we got to apply what we learned in class and make connection to real-life events. Ultimately, we learned the value of standing up for what you believe in, in order to preserve your identity, history, and autonomy. The people we encountered at both the Pascual factory and the city of Atenco were willing to do whatever it took to fight for their freedom. For the juice company, this meant group autonomy, thus working as a cooperative. Similarly, the people of Atenco continue their fight to protect their land and liberate their compañeros from prison. The spirit and unyielding strength of the people in Atenco was truly inspiring. Although four years have passed, they still have hope for the future.
We have a lot to learn about the power of perseverance and solidarity, especially from the people of Atenco. When we join together, anything is possible. Although we may continue to struggle alone, together we are victorious.
Looking back on this week, I wonder: What is it that I would fight for? What do I value most in life? Is there anything that I would stop at nothing to defend? These thoughts pervade my mind as I recall the stories from Atenco and the Pascual factory. What matters most in life? What are my priorities? It is interesting to put these things in perspective and apply these experiences to my own life.
Photos: At top, students pose with Profesor Judy Shevelev outside of the BOING! plant; at left, students pose in the campo in Atenco.
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarKaty,
ResponderEliminarAfter visiting the boing factory, I agree that Pascual is a very important company. Not only because of their support of other local social movements, but also because of the example they are setting. They are proving that a local business that treats it employees extremely well and makes healthy products, can grow into and sustain a very successful company. All this while having to compete with multi-national corporations like Coke.
In regards to our trip to Atenco. I thought it was fascinating and disturbing that we arrived on Atenco's land, at the time that the surveyors were there, without permission, and how they left shortly after our group arrived. It's easy to see why the people of Atenco are "on edge," like you said, when these unannounced visits happen. As well as the "confidential economic benefit" that is contained in the ecological project outlines. This too makes me think of what I am willing to fight for as hard as the people of Atenco are having to fight just to keep what is already theirs.
Andy
Katy,
ResponderEliminarI think its awesome that you get a chance to learn in class about an issue and then actually see it in real life perspective out in the field, which is similar to what we do in CIEE Thailand. It's amazing to hear that a strong community group can ban together and create its own cooperative and factory. I think that is what the world needs more of to create better livelihoods, accountability, sustainability, and sense of community. I think many villages in Thailand have that potential to create a cohesive group that takes a proactive approach in bettering their communities. We have encountered several that have already made strong organizations and we have met with some that are still in the process of forming a group or campaign. After taking several community organizing classes last semester, and then coming here to Thailand, I think the most important thing for any community is for them to realize their strength and power and really tap into their potential to determine what they as a community need and how they are going to achieve it. I think that people's movements are some of the most important strategies in achieving a change and creating accessibility and equality in this world. This 100% Mexican owned company can be a model for other communities and countries to know that they can do it without relying on other countries: they are strong and have the potential.
Just yesterday, the CIEE Thailand students visited a village near the northern Thai/Lao border. The villagers we talked to were pretty worried because a company has proposed to open a copper mine close to their homes. The villagers are very cleverly fighting to protect their land, because even though the copper mine would not be located on their land, it would very strongly affect their livelihoods via water contamination and destruction of the forest which they depend upon for food and natural resources.
ResponderEliminarThe villagers know not to trust the government to listen to the villagers’ concerns so they have taken their own measures – including physically blocking a group of students from entering the village to conduct an environmental impact assessment (no project can be started without an EIA) and ordaining (a religious act) trees all around the proposed mine site to prevent them from being cut down. Listening to these villagers’ clever ways of fighting for their land was really inspiring and we were all very impressed with the tactics they came up with and the level of awareness they had about the government’s lack of desire to really help them.
Steph Liu, Norteastern University
Katy,
ResponderEliminarIt's strange and silly, this fight that plays out repeatedly between the government and an "average" group of people affected by a government/ corporate project. The same story occurs over and over again. The state has a structure that it has decided would be beneficial to reproduce across the country, whether that be a damn, a eucalyptus forest, or an airport. The project damages the livelihoods of the communities surrounding the project, and the two parties square off until the local community earns some compensation that is less than the outcome they were fighting for. I am baffled as to why the government keeps assuming this position as their own peoples' enemy rather than having a long dialogue with these communities about whether these projects are necessary. At the same time, each struggle is unique. The structures of social organization are rapidly changing, and perhaps with each campaign, bonds between distant communities that were not formed in the past are being realized. People are really putting their sweat and tears into working with each other and sharing knowledge, which results in a new order of equality rather than hierarchy. I just hope that this struggle transitions from one where two parties are pitted against each other, falling into some tragic, media-constructed narrative, to one where all parties realize the roots of common sense that are currently obscured, and create a new, logical structure, of cooperation.