Airborted In an astonishing victory for the residents of San Salvador Atenco, the Mexican government last week confirmed that they were abandoning plans to build a new international airport smack on top of the small farming community just outside of Mexico City. The whole saga began last autumn when Mexican President Vicente Fox's government approved plans to build a six-runway, $2.3 billion airport that would gobble up much of San Salvador Atenco's farming land. In October, a federal ruling offered villagers a mere 40 pence a square yard for the land - the land that served as the farmers' main source of food, income, and security. The residents of Atenco and the surrounding villages quickly dismissed this slap-in-the-face offer, and immediate protests and marches were organised. Over the next 9 months, farmers mobilised themselves with few results - but things began to change on Thursday, July 11th, when a demo was organised to protest an official government announcement affirming the airport plans. Farmers travelling in a peaceful caravan to the demo were attacked by police with clubs, tear gas, and live ammunition. Thirty protesters were injured, fifteen arrested, and five hospitalised-one of whom, Jose Enrique Espinoza Juarez, died in hospital two weeks later. This brutal show of force inspired supporters in nearby Atenco to take immediate and radical direct action. Over the next few days, five police squad cars were burnt and used along with other seized vehicles (including some Coca-Cola trucks!) to block the nearby national highway. Thirteen government and police officials were taken hostage, and the Atenco farmers used these hostages as bargaining tools in their struggle with the authorities. On July 14, the last hostages were released in return for the release of all arrested farm workers. It has taken the government another three weeks to cancel plans for the airport altogether, but with last week's announcement; the Atenco workers' victory became certain. Many people feel that the Atenco struggle has been a vital test of the ability of a community-based movement to stop projects that only serve the interests of a few, powerful and wealthy businesses. The administration of President Fox has a plethora of such projects, including the lofty Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a plan to privatise the energy industry and support the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The PPP is President Fox's crown jewel economic project, which seeks to transform south eastern Mexico into an industrialised factory centre where maquiladoras (sweatshops) can thrive, producing yet more raw materials for the developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The plan involves massive construction projects and generous factory building incentives in an attempt to attract more foreign investment from multi-national corporations. But the PPP cuts right through the heart of a lot of indigenous land and territory in the poverty stricken southern Mexico State of Chiapas and beyond. Roberto Rivera, a student involved in a recent Atenco solidarity march, sees the protests in Atenco as "an important turning point, because the proposed airport is the first integral step in the process of implementing the Plan Puebla Panama . . . if the plans to build this new airport in Atenco are stopped, it will be a major blow to the PPP." The events of Atenco have indeed sent a clear message to multi-national companies and the governments that seek only to protect their interests. "Even if they gave us all the gold in the world," said one Atenco woman, "We wouldn't leave our land because that is all we have." http://mexico.indymedia.org/
Another much smaller but still encouraging win was in Melb this week when the successor to Wackenhutt,Group 4,lost validation from the RMIT.Grassroots action.
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