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They lack infrastructure and services like electric power, transportation, sewers and potable water

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for November 14. See original article here.]

By Gabriela Romero Sánchez

More than three million people in Mexico City live in 550 colonias (neighborhoods) in areas categorized as highly or very hightly marginalized. They lack drainage, potable water, paved streets, lighting and public transportation and live on less than the minimum wage.

Due to the lack of sewers, they dig septic tanks in their yards. They go to the nearest well for water, in many cases more than a kilometer away, or they buy 20-liter jugs for 15 pesos to fill jars or tanks. (more…)

Calderón government one of the three worst in history, electrical workers say

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for May 2.]

by Patricia Muñoz and Georgina Saldierna

During the International Workers’ Day march on May 1, 2010, independent unions of the country characterized the Felipe Calderón government as one of the “three worst” in the history of the country, equal to those of Antonio López de Santa Anna and Victoriano Huerta; declared their unanimous rejection of PAN [Partido de Acción Nacional – National Action Party] labor reforms; condemned the massive impoverishment of Mexican workers; and voted by show of hands for the “immediate departure” of Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano Alarcón.

The mobilization featured the presence in the Zócalo of the 72 members of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electicistas (SME – Mexican Electrical Workers Union) who are on hunger strike; the unanimous repudiation of the administration’s labor policies, declared by dozens of labor organizations on picket signs, posters and t-shirts; and the absence of members of what is usually one of the most militant contingents in this kind of observation, that of Social Security workers. (more…)