Mexico’s Two Presidents / Landless Workers Movement (IRC)
Mexico’s Two Presidents
By Laura Carlsen
On September 16, over one million people voted to recognize center-left leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the “legitimate president” of Mexico. These delegates to the National Democratic Convention (NDC) agreed to inaugurate their president on November 20--ten days before the inauguration of the officially recognized candidate, Felipe Calderon. After months of protesting fraud, the convention represented a change in direction. The distinction between the demand for a fair vote count and the need to redress deeply felt social wrongs has been subsumed into a general movement for fundamental reforms.
Lopez Obrador has offered an alternative through anti-poverty measures and a rejection of hardline neoliberal policies. His plan is far from radical, but it has drawn the fire of powerful business interests at home and abroad. Even if Calderon were miraculously able to consolidate power over the coming months, a broad movement calling for major institutional reforms will be on the political scene for a long time to come.
Laura Carlsen is director of the IRC Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. The Americas Program is online at www.americaspolicy.org.
See full article online at:
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3529
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Landless Workers Movement: The Difficult Construction of a New World
By Raúl Zibechi
The campesinos of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, for the Portuguese initials) dreamed for years of reclaiming their land, believing that it would solve all their problems: food for their children, a dignified life of hard work on the farm, education, health, and housing. However, the reality would prove much more difficult, for surprises they had never imagined lay ahead.
The Filhos de Sepé settlement, a 6,000-hectare (23-square mile) municipality in Viamao, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Porto Alegre, faces its share of problems, mostly derived from the global crisis of the small farmer competing with the powerful expansion of agribusiness pushed by large multinational corporations.
Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of the Montevideo weekly Brecha, is a teacher and a researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina, as well as an adviser to several social groups. He is also a monthly contributor to the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org).
See full article online at:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3547
By Laura Carlsen
On September 16, over one million people voted to recognize center-left leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the “legitimate president” of Mexico. These delegates to the National Democratic Convention (NDC) agreed to inaugurate their president on November 20--ten days before the inauguration of the officially recognized candidate, Felipe Calderon. After months of protesting fraud, the convention represented a change in direction. The distinction between the demand for a fair vote count and the need to redress deeply felt social wrongs has been subsumed into a general movement for fundamental reforms.
Lopez Obrador has offered an alternative through anti-poverty measures and a rejection of hardline neoliberal policies. His plan is far from radical, but it has drawn the fire of powerful business interests at home and abroad. Even if Calderon were miraculously able to consolidate power over the coming months, a broad movement calling for major institutional reforms will be on the political scene for a long time to come.
Laura Carlsen is director of the IRC Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. The Americas Program is online at www.americaspolicy.org.
See full article online at:
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3529
+++++++++
Landless Workers Movement: The Difficult Construction of a New World
By Raúl Zibechi
The campesinos of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, for the Portuguese initials) dreamed for years of reclaiming their land, believing that it would solve all their problems: food for their children, a dignified life of hard work on the farm, education, health, and housing. However, the reality would prove much more difficult, for surprises they had never imagined lay ahead.
The Filhos de Sepé settlement, a 6,000-hectare (23-square mile) municipality in Viamao, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Porto Alegre, faces its share of problems, mostly derived from the global crisis of the small farmer competing with the powerful expansion of agribusiness pushed by large multinational corporations.
Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of the Montevideo weekly Brecha, is a teacher and a researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina, as well as an adviser to several social groups. He is also a monthly contributor to the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org).
See full article online at:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3547
posted by robin reichhardt at 10:22 PM
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