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."
   [1]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.
   [2]http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=31334&group
   =webcast

References

   1. http://mexico.indymedia.org/
   2. http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=31334&group=webcast