The teachers's strike led by the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) has entered its second month amidst what the labor militants have called a "military offensive" launched by the government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. However, despite police repression and the enforced disappearances of union leaders, the militant teachers, students, parents, and supporters have pledged to hold a spirited mass mobilization of nationwide forces in Mexico City on Friday, June 17, 2016.
On Thursday, a convoy of 32 buses with more than a thousand CNTE teachers from Chiapas were detained by police when they tried to enter the capital to reinforce the protests against the neoliberal education reforms. Students and their parents have joined the teachers, as did telecommunications and oil workers and professors from UNAM, Latin America’s largest university.
The kettling of teachers comes days after what the CNTE claims were "kidnappings" and "enforced disappearances" carried out against key leaders attending a national convention of union representatives in Mexico City.
The CNTE are fighting for the suspension of the nationwide reform, which includes far-reaching privatizations that unfairly hurt students by shifting the cost of education to parents and families. In a statement by Oaxaca's CNTE Local 22 Executive Board, the teachers stated that "the government may try to incarcerate all Mexican teachers in an attempt to stop their struggle, but the citizens of our country and the parents of our students are joining our struggle. Nobody will stop this movement because the people and the parents will continue mobilizing against repression!"