Workers and Development

This week, from the 16^th to the 18^th April, in Vancouver, Canada, the National Policy Conference organised by United Steelworkers (USW) is taking place. On 52 occasions this exceptional meeting has brought people together to analyse and discuss important issues such as global strategic alliances, business and the economy, the challenges of corporate power, the comprehensive review of what we have learnt from the past and what the future will bring for a new generation of unionists and politicians.

A considerable number of leaders were invited make official speeches, including Leo W. Gerard, international president of USW; Ken Neumann and Steve Hunt, national directors for Canada and district 3 of USW respectively, and hosts of this meeting; Jyrki Raina, secretary general of the world’s biggest union, IndustriALL Global Union with 50 million members; Thomas Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party and leader of the opposition in Canada; myself as president and secretary general of the Mexican mining workers, metalworkers and steelworkers, and other political and union leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Peru, and from across five continents.

The messages and opinions that we have heard have lead us to reflect deeply on the future of society, the working class, inequality and injustice, the risks implicit in social peace such as excessive ambition and greed, the lack of awareness of the impact on coming generations, ignorance, irresponsibility and unchecked exploitation. Of course it would have been impossible to leave specific issues of jobs, security, the environment, health, and working conditions out of the passionate discussions, and they were tackled with great intelligence. No room was left for doubt about how we can be better prepared to face up to the challenges of brutal capitalism, to improve labour harmony and tranquillity, as well as how to project a new and fresher image of the world union movement.

This conference will draw to a close today. It has been a real success for the almost one thousand delegates, and it will have to grow and expand and cast its message wide because these forums must provide the best solutions for reducing marginalisation and deprivation, and strategies that will allow faster progress in the construction of a better world in which there is more respect, justice and equality. These qualities generate greater stability, peace and progress for everyone, not just for a few.

In Mexico we will have to review and assimilate the conclusions that will allow us to change the direction of politics more profoundly and efficiently, and thus move towards a new stage of development, building on the foundation of our membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) together with Canada and the United States. All of us, workers, government, businesspeople and society in general, must take note of the conclusions of this meeting, which are framed by demands for equality and fairness, because none of the three countries, although they have very different levels of development, can pretend to have resolved the deep social inequalities that exist within their borders. That is why we have proposed that the Free Trade Agreement to which we have signed up should become a real plan for cooperation and development between the three countries.

Only in this way will it be possible to turn the international cooperation that is implicit in the NAFTA, but which today remains incomplete, into a solid tool for the economic and social development of the three nations. We cannot and must not ignore the fact that the United States and Canada are facing difficult social challenges, despite a lopsided and biased message that in those counties there is no poverty or destitution, because there is. In the particular case of Mexico it is important to develop this new vision of international cooperation through which, while maintaining respect for the sovereignty of each nation, we will be able to channel the resources and efforts that are currently concentrated solely on commercial activity therefore do not press the buttons of real economic progress, namely equal opportunities and respect for the rights and interests of all sectors of each one of the countries involved.

The first step to take in this direction must be in the area of labour cooperation between the three countries, because here agreement on the issue between the signatory governments has been practically dead letter. Workers in Canada, the United States and Mexico, facilitated by miners, have contributed a wealth of ideas about how to turn the labour cooperation agreement into a genuine commitment to social development. This should, by all means, serve the interests of employers, but it must also have a substantial parallel focus on how to resolve issues of well-paid work, fair settlement of labour disputes and respect for the freedom and autonomy of union organisations. Such an initiative will eliminate the increasing employment instability and inhuman forms of exploitation that are proper to the brutal capitalism practiced in all our nations, but which is thrown into clearer relief in Mexico than in the other two.

Mexico’s new government has the opportunity to enter into this new vision of international development efforts. The two previous National Action Party governments were deaf and blind to the demands of genuine economic and social development in Mexico, and they completely turned their backs on the possibilities offered by international cooperation for development.

Interpol: An Instrument of Political Persecution

In recent years, the Mexican government has devoted itself pursuing the people who it considers its enemies. Those people are considered to be enemies because they oppose the government’s interests or because they have fought to defend democracy with their ideas, strategies and principles, and to usher in a welfare system that is fairer and more balanced for the most vulnerable groups, among them the working class.

In order to achieve this objective, those in government have used threats, repression, corruption and even the cruellest and most sinister dententions and assassinations that a modern society could imagine. Particularly in the period between 2000 and 2012, the PAN (National Action Party) governments led by Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón devoted themselves to deforming the state of law and perverting the application of justice. This was coupled with major inefficiencies in public administration and increased corruption which completed our country’s collapse. This was marked by: worsening marginalisation and poverty, a lack of honesty and transparency, insecurity, the loss of jobs and opportunities, the handing over of the country’s resources to foreign hands, the shameful subjugation to the country’s most conservative and hypocritical corporate groups, and the xenophobic and demented repression of democratic and independent union organisations.

With this corrupt mentality they politically pursued their adversaries using all sorts of arbitrary actions, illegal means and abuses of power. One of these methods, favoured due to its inherent perversity and cowardice, has been the manipulation of Interpol in order to threaten their opponents and confine them one place in which they are forced to remain so as not to run the risk of being arrested without justification, thereby eluding the hatred of their pursuers who have employed the media to manipulate and shock them by threatening the use of Interpol’s Red Notices for the purpose of detention and eventual extradition.

In my particular case, for the last seven years they have absurdly and unfoundedly attempted to maintain a Red Notice based solely on manipulation and deception, basing it on lies and slander and through public attacks by corrupt media and journalists. To their disgrace, these attacks are totally ignored outside Mexico. Fox, Calderón, Marta Sahagún, as well as their partners, employees and complicit businesspeople, have deceived themselves into thinking that the rest of the world shares their dirty, perverse mentality.

They corrupted judges and media, and shameless, abject, mercenary lawyers with no ethical criteria, who set themselves up as the dross of the noble legal profession, and of course they corrupted unscrupulous individuals recruited from the scum of the union movement. To their humiliation and frustration, none of this helped achieve their disgraceful aims.

From the start, the Canadian government rejected all this unfounded rubbish based on untruths, and instead they offered me better protection and gave me a home in this great country, which has one of the most noble and correct justice systems, and higher levels of education, of security, of social wellbeing, of solidarity and of respect anywhere in the world. The Mexican government’s slanderous and maligning theatre collapsed and was swept away into ridicule and disgrace, before the indifference of those in power.

At the same time, distinguished, brave and honest judges and magistrates whose decisions salvage the little honesty and confidence that remain in the Mexican legal system, unanimously resolved in the First Collegiate Tribunal in Criminal Matters of the First Circuit that Interpol Mexico and the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PRG) violated the Constitution when they imposed that unfounded Red Notice which was motivated only by their morbid political persecution. This dignified decision in my favour makes it clear once more that although there are judges, magistrates and ministers of the Court who are merely taking orders, there are others who are honest and brave who will not let themselves be pressured, corrupted or intimidated, and they save the image of Mexican Judiciary Power.

The excellent decision from the First Collegiate Tribunal in Criminal Matters, which is based on the principles on justice and respect for democracy and human rights, as well as the wise strategy of the Los Mineros legal defence, exposed the most serious aspect of this situation, which must be analysed in depth by jurists and political scientists as well as by the current government itself. Interpol Mexico has no representation or legal validity given that when it was created as a dependent directorate of the PGR and was affiliated to International Interpol, it did so without the legally required approval or ratification from the Senate of the Republic.

What is more, Interpol Mexico maintained that Red Notice entirely illegally, that is to say, for the last three years they were in violation of the Constitution, knowing that the illegitimate arrest warrants had already been removed precisely because they were unconstitutional.

Enrique Peña Nieto’s government now has before it the huge task of applying justice correctly so as to act honourably and improve the image of Mexico abroad, because readers can be sure of one thing: if this had happened in Canada, or in any developed country, the civil servants who acted outside the law, like Fox and Calderón and their crowd of collaborators and complicit businesspeople, would not only have lost their jobs, but they, the real criminals, would have been imprisoned and would still be in prison today.

The Fight Against Corruption

In Mexico, following the current government’ symbolic first 100 days, we are entering the phase of achieving goals, although there seems to be an endless supply of such goals. Various reforms are on show and we needn’t go into them because they have been well publicised. Key issues have been energy and education, as well as tax and treasury policy. These are not lightweight issues, rather each one is loaded with importance for the country’s immediate future.

One of the fundamental issues, which I discussed in my previous article, is that of the new strategy for fighting corruption. Contrary to what is mistakenly said in certain circles, Mexico is not a country full of corrupt individuals, nor do crooks predominate. If that was the case, the country would have gone to the dogs. In our country, despite how widespread antisocial behaviour has been, there is a strong core of honesty and integrity. The country’s small and medium-sized communities show this unceasingly, even though those places have the highest levels of marginalisation and neglect. This shows that a lack of honesty is not bred by poverty but by exploitation and discrimination. The Mexican people who live in these communities, who are in the majority, are honourable and willing to fight against corruption when their leaders and those in government firmly and credibly strike out along that path, setting a strong, efficient example.

An important gap in the aims of the Pact for Mexico is without a doubt this, the fight against malpractice. It is not a case of applying cosmetic remedies to the situation, with simple words or nothing more than intentions, as was the case under previous governments; rather it is time to develop a real strategy which will allow the country to reduce those terrible practices as far as possible, coupled with profound changes in the education system. Many honest efforts from government, which have always been present, are smothered by the scepticism about their existence, particularly when they are not evenly applied but are selective or motivated by a clearly obsessive and unhealthy political persecution that is not applied to businesspeople or politicians.

Democratic and independent unions, including the miners’ union, have been hindered in part due to this negative image projected by other organisations that do not espouse the principles of honesty or dignity. We have been the victims of a kind of malign and perverse complex that applies the same label to different groups, in a fierce attack on the unions and the working class in general, without pausing to study each individual case with the truth and the facts to hand.

A campaign was recently launched against the miners’ union, which attempted to invent a supposed collaboration with the legal defence of a teachers’ union leader against the criminal accusations she is facing. It must be made clear that it is not the miners’ union nor its leader who have embarked upon this collaboration, but simply the lawyer, who defends us efficiently; he has taken on the case because it fits with his professional interests. Thus miners’ fight is not contaminated by other situations.

Anti-corruption efforts at all levels and in all sectors should have a dedicated section in the current government’s programme. How can it be that the miners’ union has been politically pursued for over seven years, and to date there are no signs of change in this demented aggression? Such aggression is promoted by certain unscrupulous individuals who have made their fortune from mining and who attempt to conjure away the accusations of their own corruption by attributing it to the miners. This absolute minority of businessmen, however, do not represent the opinions nor the political will of the huge majority of companies who operate in this sector, which is strategic in the country’s economy.

The current government must urgently turn its back on escapist approaches and face the problems of the mining, metalwork and steelwork sector head on, above all when we see that certain people in this sector will not desist in their new judicial and eternally shameful persecution of the miners’ union and its leaders, and when a biased judge decides to artificially revive an apprehension order which now tens of judges and tribunals have declared unfounded on more than four occasions on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.

Despite this political persecution the miner’s union has repeatedly been highly successful in its reviews of wages and benefits at the companies with which it maintains labour relations. This, along with the recognition its leader enjoys from workers and the great majority of the sector’s companies, should be proof of the union’s honesty and transparency. So far in 2013 there have been 10 wage or contractual revisions, and in all of those the miners’ organisation has obtained increases across the board of an average 14 percent, well above the rate of inflation and a lot higher than the increases obtained by other unions. This continues the trend of the last seven years.

The judge’s latest accusation, surely motivated by interests that are neither legal nor professional, means that corrupt of mining barons, who have got rich through unchecked exploitation, are cynically and defiantly trying to intimidate the current government so that it will not attempt to impose legal order on the situation in the mining sector and bring justice to the miners and their union organisation. This is a new illegitimate pressure that today’s government must resist and not give in to. By doing so they will show that the strategy for the fight against corruption is a firm goal.

The New Strategy

In deciding to arrest the leader of the National Education Workers’ Union, the current government has shown its determination to change the country, starting by establishing a policy of combating corruption and impunity. This is the clear message of one of the decisions that has most shaken up our country of late. However, this should not be indiscriminately directed at unions, which have faced the brunt of the basest instincts, but also at innumerable politicians, businesspeople, journalists and media, judges, magistrates and ministers, lawyers’ offices, priests, chambers of commerce and others besides.

The President is taking such action because he made a promise to a nation tired of injustices, inequalities and a lack of rights, heading for failure, just as John F. Kennedy and Barack H. Obama have both made promises to the people of the United States at certain critical times. Moreover, Mexico has no other alternative and the worlds of politics, work, finance and culture are watching it. Confidence is gained by raising the moral standards of a society and its government, and by correctly interpreting and applying justice, which must be transparent.

Their ineptitude and corruption have meant that the PAN (National Action Party) governments led by Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón have been condemned to oblivion and mediocrity. This new government has a unique historic opportunity, and by absolutely no means should it follow the path of the persecution and attacks on the working class and their honest, democratic leaders. They need stronger principles and ethical values than those of many of the people who are attacking the teachers’ union. The message must be clear. It is not a question of political vengeance, but rather of a strategy to control runaway ambition and insulting opulence. As well as this, they must develop strategies, in other ways and in other spaces, to correct the irrational exploitation of the nation’s natural resources through concessions and permits, blackmail, privileged information and trading in influence, which are only accessible to those close to the inner circles of power.

Justice must not be selective because then it is not justice. Therein is crux of the case of some corporate groups that have previously been named here, which pay little or no taxes, as exposed by the data published here in La Jornada by the distinguished columnist Carlos Fernández-Vega in January 2010 when he clearly identified a tax debt from 42 companies amounting to 223,707.9 million Pesos. This includes certain companies from the mining sector like Germán Larrea’s Grupo México with a debt of 11,939.1 million, Alberto Bailleres’ Grupo Peñoles with 6,124.14 million pending payment and Alonso Ancira Elizondo’s Altos Hornos de México which to date owes 6,666 million.

It would be very easy for the Treasury Ministry to demand the payment of these debts, which in many cases are confirmed frauds, going even as far as the non-payment of taxes upon the sale of businesses. Furthermore, some of these same consortiums have received hundred of mining concessions and other sinecures, to the extent that more than 25 percent of the national territory has been given away in concessions to Mexican and foreign companies. That is to say, the hypocrisy of some businesspeople and certain media outlets has turned the strategy of media coverage and social attacks into a web of complicity in business and political influence, in both cases founded on the manipulation and confusion of the population. The truth is that very few of these assailants would pass the test of transparency and social scrutiny, because their hands are stained.

Some of these businesspeople are so cynical and high-handed that they talk about the politicians who are in power disdainfully and sarcastically, and they manipulate them to their own ends. They still take the liberty of announcing big investments that benefit them, so as to impress improvised and superficial politicians who when it comes down to it have no notion or feeling of how to identify and resolve social needs because they are only concerned with power and profits and spare no love for Mexico. They are sinister characters who in one article I called bodies without souls. In the political sphere we have seen the cases of barefaced corruption in recent PAN governments, led by Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, as well as some led by other parties.

As things currently stand, a single sector of society has been demonised: the working class. Many people forget that the unions have in fact, despite their flaws, been a force for balance, stability and social peace for many decades. They conveniently forget that workers have the right to act in accordance with the Constitution, the Federal Labour Law and Agreement 87 of the International Workers’ Organisation, and that union leaders are workers, just as the heads of companies are shareholders.

Mexico hopes that this high-profile case will be the start of a process of real change to eliminate or combat impunity and ensure that the state of law is respected, and not an isolated case. It is the political moment to establish a visionary strategy for the State, one that avoids unleashing persecution and the worst instincts of Mexicans whose frustration and impotence cause them to react in that way, faced with what is perceived as the lack of a better future for our country.