On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, in All Souls Reidy Hall, Miguel Ángel Vásquez de la Rosa spoke on how NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, has further impoverished the people of Mexico and, thereby, increased migration to the United States. This program was sponsored by the Peace Task Force and Witness for Peace. Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa is one of the founders of EDUCA (from the Spanish initials for Services for an Alternative Education), a nongovernmental organization that advocates for indigenous peoples in the state of Oaxaca, helping small farmers and women to have fair elections and cope with the judicial system. He was introduced by Ben Beachy, regional organizer for the mid-Atlantic region of Educa, which was sponsoring Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa's tour.   

    Mr. Vásques de la Rosa spent thirteen years in the Oaxaca countryside, studying the effects of NAFTA. Oaxaca reflects the crisis simmering in other underdeveloped nations: more poverty; social, political, and economic exclusion; and authoritarian rule. This Mexican state has a population of 3.5 million, with several distinct ethnic groups, making it -- as he said -- the "indigenous conscience of Mexico." Despite its great natural wealth, it is the second poorest state in Mexico, with 76 percent of its people living in extreme poverty and producing only 1.5 percent of Mexico's GDP. Under NAFTA, small farmers find themselves competing against agribusiness and inevitably lose out.   

    Moreover, free trade has resulted in a decline in the production of basic grains and fruits: now, for example, the citizens of Oaxaca may eat apples from California, not from their own orchards. Furthermore, their water has become contaminated, as are many of the seeds for corn they receive – in an area where corn originated; or the corn is genetically modified.

    People have two choices: whether to face the crisis individually or collectively. The individual way is migration: hence, the some 15 million Mexicans in the United States today, whose remittances to their families are, along with tourism and coffee, one of the three main sources of income in Oaxaca. The collective way is by organizing.

    In the spring of 2006, a social crisis exploded in Oaxaca, with the strike of the 70,000-member teachers union, who were demanding not only increased wages but more money for educational supplies and support for poor students. We were shown pictures of the government's brutal suppression of the strike and of the social movement APPO, or Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, a coalition of over 300 local and state organizations that developed in response to the government's repression. Over many months of violence, people were shot, beaten, killed. "Now," said Mr. Vásquez, "we have a government that rules by an iron fist."

    What happened there, he said, could happen anywhere, even here in the United States.
In the question period, it was established that:

• About 70 percent of Oaxacan communities gained political autonomy.
• The Mexican government may not be held accountable for its harsh repression of the teachers strike. Mexico's judicial system is far behind that in the United States: the branches of government are not clearly separated; nor are the resolutions of such international organizations as Amnesty International binding.
• In respect to the role of the Catholic Church, one sector of it is committed to justice; its members are openly involved and thus likely to be imprisoned. The hierarchy, on the other hand, says the Church is neutral and does nothing.
• As for criticisms of the teachers strike – such as that it kept children out of school and the teachers were anyhow earning more than other folks – they come from government disinformation. Truth is he first thing to be lost in an authoritarian government.
• To face trouble, we need to unify, to engage in solidarity. "Solidarity is the kindness, the gentleness that there is between people."
• To practice solidarity as North Americans, we need to learn the truth about such situations. Then communicate that truth, pass it on to others. After this talk, go out and blog on the internet. Or get people to talk about the issues, how they relate to immigration. Or go to Oaxaca, live there, see what's going on; join the delegation going there in March 2008, 3/1-3/9/08. Or write your congresspeople to vote against free trade for Peru and Colombia and against "Plan Mexico," the multimillion-dollar military aid package, which is being promoted by the administration as being only an "anti-drug" plan.

    At the conclusion of the presentation, a member of the audience, Tami Gold, gave us with a video "Land Rain and Fire: Report from Oaxaca," of which she is one of the producers. It is now in the Peace Task Force's library.