By Dan La Botz

June 15, 2015 -- New Politics, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission -- Despite widespread disillusionment with the political system, an organised attempt to prevent the election from taking place in a few states and continuing economic doldrums, President Enrique Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were the big winners in Mexico's June 7 election, followed by the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Both parties are committed to continuing the deepening of the country's neoliberal, free-market economic reforms.

By Nevin Siders Vogt, Mexico City

June 22, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – With the growing intersection among the campaigns for justice for the 43 disappeared students and the resistance movements’ struggle against the privatisation of natural resources and nationalised industries, the rhythm of resistance activities has not slackened over the last year, despite the mid-term elections. This is why the People’s and Worker’s Political Organization (OPT) sees the urgency to taking stock and projecting what immediate steps to take. This report is based on the gathering Mexico City’s OPT branch in Tlalpan organised preparatory to the campaigns it will participate in for the latter half of the year.

Elections

The world press covered the elections held throughout the country on June 7. Governors of half of the states were contested, along with half of each chamber of the national legislature and a large number of local officials in all jurisdictions. The capital, Mexico City, is demarcated into 16 districts (Delegaciones), and all 16 district heads changed.

A Juventud Anticapitalista canta mientras espera la llegada de la Caravana yaqui.

[English at http://links.org.au/node/4444.]

Nevin Siders Vogt

Mayo 30, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- El pueblo autóctono yaqui organizó una caravana que atravesó el país con el propósito de defender del agua, tierra, trabajo y vida. Culminó en México, D.F., el jueves 21 de mayo.

El autor de este artículo participó en una de las ceremonias de bienvenida ese día: la que celebró la llegada a la Delegación Tlalpan en el sur de la Ciudad; él tomó las fotos.

Al pueblo yaqui se les despojaron en incrementos a lo largo de los siglos desde la conquista española, hecho que aumenta con la dominación norteamericana. Organizaron la Caravana como una aportación en aumentar la unidad entre los que resistan el neoliberalismo depredador.

Como se aprecia en las fotos, la solidaridad expresada por la ceremonia en Tlalpan emprendió la Organización Política del Pueblo y los Trabajadores, la Juventud Anticapitalista y el Sindicato Mexicana de Electricistas. De igual forma el Sindicato de Trabajadores de Transporte de Pasajeros del Distrito Federal prestó su camión para la carvana.

Anticapitalist Youth await Yaqui caravan.

Article and photos by Nevin Siders, Mexico City

May 26, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The indigenous Yaqui people held a caravan that crisscrossed the country to defend of water, land, work and life. It culminated in Mexico City on May 21. I participated in one of the welcoming ceremonies that day, in Tlalpan district in the south of the city.

The Yaqui people have been dispossessed by degrees over the centuries since the Spanish conquest, which has only increased since domination by the United States. They organised the caravan as a step toward increasing unity among those who resist neoliberalism and its predatory practices.

As the photos attest, solidarity in the Tlalpan ceremony was organised by the People’s and Worker’s Political Organization (OPT), the Anticapitalist Youth (JA) and the Mexican Electricians’ Union (SME). Use of the caravan bus was donated by the Union of Passenger Transportation Workers in Mexico City (STTP-DF).

By Dan La Botz

January 8, 2015 -- New Politics -- Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto, who had been so successful in advancing his fundamentally conservative economic program during his first year and a half in office, suddenly faced a serious challenge beginning in September 2014 when police, apparently cooperating gangsters, killed six students, injured at least 25 and kidnapped 43 in the town of Iguala in the state of Guerrero.

Protest demonstrations demanding that the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College be returned alive, led by parents, students and teachers quickly spread from Guerrero to Mexico City and around the country. An international solidarity movement has also developed, with demonstrations at consulates in several countries.

By Nevin Siders

January 5, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The People’s and Worker’s Political Organization (Organización Política del Pueblo y los Trabajadores, OPT)  held its first national congress in Mexico City on the weekend of December 12 and 13, 2014.

Since its founding in 2011, the party has grown to have local units registered in 16 of Mexico’s 32 states. According to convention organisers, 200 members attended the convention held in the headquarters of the Mexican Electricians Trade Union (SME), which was the protagonist for its founding in 2011 and has continued to press for it as an alternative to the parties of capital and their hangers-on.

By Dan La Botz

November 29, 2014 -- New Politics, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- The Mexican government confronts a major political crisis on two fronts. The first is as a result of the massacre and kidnapping that took place on September 26 when police and other assailants in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero killed six, wounded 25 and kidnapped 43 students.

Since the massacre and kidnapping, there have been demonstrations in Guerrero, Mexico City and several other states, some of them massive and some violent. Mexicans are appalled at the abduction of these young people and indignant at both the involvement of local officials and police and the national government’s failure to deal with the issue.

By Patrick Bond

April 10, 2014 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Jim O’Neill – the Goldman Sachs banker who in 2001 coined the idea of Brazil-Russia-India-China or “BRIC” serving as “building bricks of the 21st century world economy” – has another bright idea. [With South Africa this bloc is now known as BRICS.] He recently announced a new fascination with the Mexico-Indonesia-Nigeria-Turkey (MINTs) countries, which “all have very favourable demographics for at least the next 20 years, and their economic prospects are interesting”.