Mexico: Armed siege of steel mill reveals escalating class war

[IndianaGreen]

Police kill strikers

Mexico: Armed siege of steel mill reveals escalating class war

By Rafael Azul
25 April 2006

The killing of two young metalworkers in a military siege against strikers at a steel mill in Mexico signals a sharp escalation in the class struggle in Mexico.

Two young workers were shot to death, and more than 30 others were injured on Thursday, April 20, following an armed assault by Mexican security forces seeking to put an end to a strike at the Sicartsa steel mill in the city of Lazaro Cardenas, in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan.

Workers who spoke to the Mexican Daily La Jornada described the attack as a wanton assault in which state and federal security forces — one thousand strong — fired indiscriminately on picketing miners, who resisted fiercely.

Eyewitnesses reported that after killing the first worker, 19-year-old Mario Alberto Castillo, a cop put his boot on Mario’s bleeding head and dared the strikers to rescue him. A second worker, Hector Alvarez, 36, was killed shortly thereafter. The New York Times and a Mexican daily, La Crisis, reported that a third person may have been run over and killed by a police vehicle.

Two of the injured miners — Cirilio Quiñones and Luis Alberto Vargas — are listed in very serious condition and were transported to a Mexico City trauma center.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/mexi-a25.shtml

[Dunvegan]

1. Well, if Mexican workers organize unions...

...they'll be beter off than our corporate fiefdom-decimated Wally-World America.

The Wobblies started out small and with many violent skirmishes...but eventually laid the foundation for the middle-class in America.

Be careful what you wish for "anti-immigrant wall-builders": That wall at the Rio Grande might be blocking the illegal worker stampede over the border...from the union-busted/minimum-wage stalled/gasoline gouging USA *to* unionized wage-protected Mexico.

[madrchsod]

3. they are unionized

[madrchsod]

2. killing steel workers is nothing new

as a former member of the steel workers union and steel mill worker i never forgot that my working conditions and my union were built on the blood of those before me. those who resort to murder to force workers to give up their dignity have a special place reserved for them in hell.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/wkrs-a23.shtml
Workers Struggles: The Americas

http://www.probeinternational.org/probeint/OdiousDebts/OdiousDebts/part2.html
Odious Debts

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/17mittal.htm
The extraordinary story of Mittal Steel

"sorrowful angels wept into their wings"

[Selatius]

4. Many police forces are descended from capitalist muscle men

Ever heard of the Pinkertons? They were notorious as hired muscle to break strikes back in the 1800s. Robber barons held workers in contempt and would hire Pinkers to smash workers who tried to strike, and the confrontations were often violent if not deadly. Back then, asking for dignity could result in death.

[400Years]

5. The primary function of policing is to protect the ruling class.