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March 17, 2006
International march in defense of the right to water
The opening day of the WWF was marked by a massive protest march through the streets of Mexico City. In the early evening of March 16th more then 20,000 mostly peaceful demonstrators braved a gauntlet of riot police and a 6.5 kilometer march route in the first ever international march in favor of the human right to water. From the Angel of the Independence in the trendy Zona Rosa neighborhood to the Banamex Center where the WWF was having it opening session, the march grew increasingly diverse and increasingly militant. Families, workers’ unions, popular organizations, sectarian groups, and international activists marched together chanting and singing through the streets in a demonstration that the question of access to water is not a marginal issue in this city of 26 million in a country known to be suffering from water scarcity and water stress. This was very much a march of the people.
Among the workers and families marching, hundreds of youths with masks, sticks, and other black-block accoutrements taunted the police and several small scuffles broke out leading to the arrest, and eventual release of 26 youths allegedly armed with Molotov cocktails.
What the press focused on, not without reason, was the ecstatic destruction of a police car, which represented the entire march on many of front pages the next morning.
(I have a number of good photos from the March, including the violent incidents, but due to technical difficulties, posting the photos will have to wait.....)
Some of the more forceful and creative chants of the march are worth sharing here, in approximate translations:
“El pueblo se cansa
de tanto pinch tranza!”
“The people are tired
Of so much fucking corruption”
“Policia, idiota, a ti tambien te explotan!”
“Police, you idiot, they are exploiting you too!”
And a special favorite, when passing restaurants in the street:
“Mesero consciente, envena el presidente!”
“Waiter of conscience, poison the president!”
Earlier in the day, an event of a very different tone: a group of Hopi Indians had run from their homeland in Arizona all the way to Mexico City, and at noon they arrived in front of the National Museum of Anthropology where they were welcomed by a festive group of Nahuas, Aztec dancers and other indigenas and no-indigenas from all parts of Mexico. The Hopis initiated a ceremony celebrating the sacred nature of water, where indigenous people from many regions had brought water from their homelands and mixed it together in a blessing for all the world’s water.
After the ceremony I interviewed Angel Martinez, a member of the Union of National Water Workers – la coordinadora en defensa del caracter publico del agua. Some of what he shared with me:
“The quality of water service in Mexico is terrible, and you can see it in the high indices of water-borne illnesses and even cancer in every state in Mexico. Apart from diarrheal diseases – the main cause of death in children in every state, we are finding high rates of cancer from heavy metals in the water in quantities that you Gringos would find terrifying…The President of the National Water Commision – CONAGUA – earns $130,000 pesos a year, he lives in a giant house in a wealthy neighborhood, and he has the nerve to tell us ‘the people have to pay a higher price for water services if they want higher quality water.’ Well, if we lower his salary and move him to the neighborhoods where most of us live, we could also improve the quality of water.
The struggle over water between 1918 – the Mexican Revolution – and 1988 was very hidden. The PRI [the government party that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century] has always used water to divide the people and advance its political agenda. For example, the local PRI government would give one part of a municipality a public water utility ‘for PRIISTAS’ and then tell the rest of the people, ‘if you want water, you can have it, just vote for the PRI.’
“With President Fox the situation remains the same – everything is for sale, and if you want to be part of the power structure, it’s simple – just go along with the politics of selling everything…”
The Coordinadora [Water Worers’ Union] has tried to raise awareness of the water issue by organizing workshops and for a. This January we organized the first Assembly in Defense of of Land and Water and Against Privatization. What is it we hope to achieve? We want to make it known that our water is being privatized in a silent, underground way. It is not lie electricity or oil, where the entire system is simply sold off in the light of day to private companies. In the case of water, CONAGUA gives concessions to industries as part of their manner of working – this is seen as absolutely normal. They will concession a local water utility or a water source to the beer industry, the paper industry, the textile industry and others, and these are not short term concessions – these are concessions that last from 20 to 70 years. Also, the tourist industry, the bottled water industry and others always take precedent over public water utilities.
"The World Water Forum is an event that is attempting to privatize water. The organizers of the WWF think they are coming here to tell Mexico how to privatize water. But what is going to happen is that the Mexican government is going to say, no, let us show YOU how it’s done, without people even realizing!”
Posted by jeff at March 17, 2006 06:29 PM