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Public school teachers in Mexico City carried out their first day of an indefinite strike Tuesday announced a couple of days ago by leaders of the dissident CNTE teachers union as a measure to protest the education reforms imposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
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Striking teachers from the Section 9 of the SNTE — who support the CNTE — also took part in the mega-march held in central Mexico City, where they joined some parents and colleagues from the southern states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero.
In an official statement the assembly of the Section 9 called on teachers in Mexico City to also join the blockades that protesters have been maintaining over the past months to demand the government discuss the reforms.
However, the government of Peña Nieto has shown little openness to dialogue and instead, teachers have been repressed by security forces. The government violence escalated to fatal levels in Oaxaca, where federal and local police repression has claimed the lives of at least eight people and has left dozens injured, with many arrested during the ongoing protests.
Protests began in 2013 when Peña Nieto introduced a total of 11 neoliberal structural reforms during his first 20 months in government, with education being the first. But the protests and the general strike resumed last May after the government refused to negotiate with teachers, who reject the evaluation process contained in the law that so far has led to the dismissal of nearly 10,000 people.
The government plans to layoff tens of thousands more teachers and has also threatened those who are attending the massive protests. The CNTE union, established as a militant alternative to the SNTE, has more than 100,000 members and numerous local unions, and groups have joined the general strike in Tabasco, Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
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