Are DUers following the teachers' strike in Mexico

[malaise]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/13/teachers-on-strike-clash-with-police-in-mexico-city-protest/
<snip>
Anti-riot police raided Mexico City’s historic center to remove striking teachers on Friday, using water cannons and tear gas to clear the area while protestors responded with firebombs.

Hundreds of officers flooded the Zocalo square after some 200 protestors disobeyed a deadline to vacate the area to make room for the nation’s independence day celebrations this weekend, AFP correspondents said.

The teachers, many armed with sticks and wearing masks, had set trash on fire and placed metal barriers in adjoining streets to block the police from entering the Zocalo, home to the National Palace, Aztec ruins and the city’s cathedral.

Police cleared the Zocalo within half an hour, an AFP photographer said.

But clashes continued on side streets with television images showing police using water cannons, while thousands demonstrated in one of the city’s main boulevards.

Thousands of teachers had been occupying the Zocalo for the past three weeks, but most had left the plaza before the deadline, leaving plastic tarps and trash behind. Police put out several small fires. Local businesses had shut their doors before the raid.
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This new President is a scumbag

[blkmusclmachine]

1. .

.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I wasn't aware of it.

People across the world need to come up with a new tactic for protests. Unless their numbers are really huge, it's hard to make much of an impact with the usual marching in the streets and carrying signs. It isn't disruptive enough, protesters are too easily dispersed, and the mainstream media usually ignores it. We're going to have to come up with something truly disruptive that no one can ignore and is very difficult or impossible to stop. We need new tactics for the 21st century if we are going to change things.

[Igel]

3. No, but having spent a little while reading up on the reforms ... Good.

The idea of no certification test or review process for teachers, old or new, is ludicrous.

The idea of hundreds of thousands of union workers, people whose only job is to report to the union and do as the union says, being wholly salaried by the state is also ludicrous.

The idea of 1/2 of all new teachers being hired directly by the union is ludicrous.

The very idea that a retiring teacher "owns" his or her teaching spot and can sell it to whomever s/he wants or give it to a relative is beyond ludicrous. Esp. if there's no certification requirement. It's a life-time sinecure with rights of bequest.

Putting hiring of teachers under state control, giving new teachers 2 chances to pass the certification exam (and existing teachers 3 chances) seems reasonable. And saying that union employees really should be paid by unions also seems reasonable.


And people are against these things? I can see a union that likes being in charge, esp. in a reasonably corrupt state, fighting for the rights of the corrupt and incompetent. But this system is *not* set up for the children, has done a lousy job, and I don't see it doing a better job. Actually, it's pretty much only one union against these things.


The one point I don't like is merit-based pay. There's no independent evaluation of the students to say what student progress actually means, so it's like saying we'll evaluate chefs on their ability to produce veal cordon bleu. Chef A gets high quality veal, prime bacon, and everything he needs. Chef B gets young beef and breakfast beef, plus the other necessary ingredients. Chef C gets ground turkey and turkey bacon, plus the other necessary ingredients. Even in the same kitchen with the same staff, Chef A has a head start and Chef C is pretty much doomed. Yet the taste test is blind, and Chef C will be held to the same standards as B and A.

[Starry Messenger]

4. K&R

[liberal_at_heart]

5. Good for them. Teachers here are beginning to get fed up enough to protest too.

It's only just beginning but it is there. Class sizes are ridiculous and teachers are pissed that they are being punished for not forcing these children to learn faster than what their little brains can handle. We parents are fed up as well. It is small right now. It is only beginning but there is something in the air. I can feel it.

[gopiscrap]

6. Go teachers fuck privatization