How to Break the Cycle of Massive Teacher Strikes in Mexico Christian Bracho - The Christian Science Monitor
go to original October 7, 2013

Riot police position themselves near the Zocalo on Sept. 13. Minutes after a late-afternoon government deadline for teachers to leave the plaza, where they camped out for weeks, riot police moved in, firing tear gas and ducking hurled rocks in a confrontation ending weeks of protests against education reform. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP)

In the Netflix series "House of Cards," Washington’s politicians scramble to deal with a chaotic national teachers strike that threatens the new president’s agenda, leaves children with nowhere to go, and pits citizens against each other. It’s hard to imagine a strike of that magnitude actually happening in the United States.

But in Mexico, this fictional narrative is not just a reality. It is a tradition. The only way to end this disruptive practice is for the national government and the union to stop pointing fingers, and for each side to make concessions.

This summer, teachers in Mexico’s southern states, including Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Michoacan, took over the streets of the Mexican capital multiple times, setting up a tent city, blocking roads, and creating chaos as they protested the new president’s education reforms. The protesting teachers – in the tens of thousands – form a dissident faction of the national teachers union, and have been using these kinds of tactics in their home states for decades.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

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