Thread: Are We next?

Judy--below is the post about NCOSH that I posted last week:
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:28 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I put in on Google--"North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health PROJECT", it pulled up the AFL-CIO website and listed a bunch of different states with similar organizations. I think anything can be named "North Carolina...." and not actually be a state agency. I looked under state agencies and didn't find a thing that resembled that.

Check it out

I think the thing that caught my eye about that name was the fact that it did NOT say NCOSHA. It was NCOSH. I then even contacted the woman who wrote the letter to the Editor of the Durham Sun protesting the arrests and she wrote me back--twice. She is NOT a North Carolina employee.

The name of this group was North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health PROJECT--NOT DIVISION!!! VERY misleading.

Well done Brian. Gee Corruption in the Mexican Government. What a Big Surprise.

Found a couple of more good articles on this event.


news.pacificnews.org

Reporter From Beseiged Mexican Newspaper Describes Union Attack

Pacific News Service, News Report, Eduardo Stanley, Jul 21, 2005

Editor's Note: Workers at an independent and feisty Oaxacan newspaper who still managed to publish despite a weeks-long blockade have been attacked by a union loyal to the local ruling party.

FRESNO, Calif.--One of Oaxaca, Mexico's two major newspapers suffered a violent attack by a group of union enforcers in what some say is a part of the state government's attempt to shut the paper down.

Just after 8 p.m. on July 18, about 100 members of a union known as the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Laborers (CROC) stormed the Noticias newspaper's building and dragged out 31 employees who had been in the building since June 17, when the same group barricaded them in.

The conflict first erupted in June when David Aguilar -- president of the CROC union and a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- claimed he was representing the newspaper's workers and initiated a strike. His group surrounded the building June 17 and trapped 31 of the paper's employees.

Noticias staff said none of the newspaper's 102 unionized employees were involved in the union raid. They have denied any affiliation with the group and say they do not support what CROC has done.

But Aguilar told the New York Times that 56 Noticias employees had joined his union's strike, although he would not identify any of them. "They are afraid," he said. "They have been threatened."

CROC was created in 1952 by the PRI, which, after 71 years of reign, was ousted by President Fox's party in 2000. In Oaxaca, where the state government is still dominated by the PRI, the party retains its presence and some unions are still used by politicians. Historically, the CROC has only supported candidates who belong to the PRI, and CROC has been used by the PRI as a forceful intimidator in the past. The union has about half a million members at the national level, though membership numbers vary.

"What happened on Monday was savagery," Raciel Martinez, a veteran reporter who has been with Noticias for 13 years, said by phone. "They went in violently, and not only did they hurt our colleagues, they stole their things and destroyed part of the paper's operating system. But despite it all, we have continued and will continue to publish the newspaper. A lot of people have supported us."

Martinez was not trapped inside when the paper was first taken over in June and has been working with other employees to ensure Noticias' ongoing publication.

According to Martinez, who is from Oaxaca, the mob arrived Monday with police cars and local police who were dressed in civilian clothes. Soon after the attack, state police arrived to "see what was happening."

Oaxaca's state government -- which is composed mostly of PRI party members -- has never hidden its disdain for Noticias, one of the only large, independent media organizations in the state and a longtime government watchdog. The PRI's old guard -- known as the "dinosaurs" in Mexico -- is notorious for its intolerance of any opposition and using any means necessary to eliminate it.

"Now the state government says that we're committing a state offense because the paper is on strike. But none of the Noticias employees belong to the group of supposed strikers," said Martinez. "The incongruent part of all this is that the Council of Reconciliation and Arbitration, which is supposed to reconcile disputing parties, has declared that the strike is legal."

Employees of the newspaper haven't been the only victims in the ordeal. Newspaper vendors have also been attacked. Last week the vendors union in Oaxaca denounced members who continue to sell the newspaper. "We have an actual recording from the governor [Ulises Ruiz], who declared during his electoral campaign that Noticias would not survive six months while he was in office," Martinez said. But despite the pressure, many advertisers continue to buy ads in the paper, and this has allowed Noticias to keep publishing, Martinez said.

The newspaper is 29 years old and prints 15,000 copies daily. Numerous international organizations -- including Amnesty International, the Inter-American Press Association, and Journalists Without Borders -- have expressed concern and outrage over the situation in Oaxaca.

"This attack is a desperate attempt by the government, which is irate because we continue to publish and because it is now being scorned by the national and international community," Martinez said. "Gov. Ulises Ruiz has five years and four months left to complete the threat he made to finish us off. But we have an entire lifetime to continue to do what we believe is right."


news.pacificnews.org


The Kidnapping of a Newspaper
News Report, Eduardo Stanley,
Pacific News Service, Jul 01, 2005

Editor's Note: Thirty-one people -- many of them journalists -- have been trapped in their Oaxacan newspaper's building for nearly two weeks. PNS contributor Eduardo Stanley explores the standoff.

Translated by Daffodil Altan and Peter Micek

FRESNO, Calif.--Since 2000, 16 journalists have been assassinated or "disappeared" in Mexico according to the organization Journalists Without Borders. Five of those cases have occurred this year. But on the morning of June 16, a new wave of aggression against the press took shape when a Oaxacan newspaper was violently taken over by a mob of people pretending to be striking workers from the paper.

"More than 100 plain-clothes police officers, street-fighters and others participated in the assault," said journalist César Morales, a reporter for the besieged newspaper Noticias.

The takeover trapped 31 press workers -- among them reporters, graphic designers and administrators -- inside their newspaper's building. The group has been stranded inside for nearly two weeks, without permission to leave or to receive visitors or food.

"This is a unique situation worldwide -- not even Al Jazeera lived through something like this after the North American invasion of Iraq," Morales said by phone. "The extraordinary part about this is that the people who have taken over the building are protected by the state police and they are constantly threatening that they will set the building on fire." Many believe that the mob is taking orders from a local politician who is both a representative in the state legislature and union boss.

Noticias is Oaxaca's biggest newspaper, publishing nearly 20,000 copies a day and employing 102 unionized workers in addition to dozens of administrative positions. Employees of the paper and human rights groups say action against the paper was taken because of the independent outlet's critical reporting on local and state government, which is comprised largely of members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Fox's party defeated the PRI in the 2000 election, but the PRI remains powerful in many parts of Mexico.

"In Oaxaca, perpetual repression against organizations and activists is common, and what is happening with Noticias is part of the PRI's political coercion," said Leocencio Vásquez, a member of the Coalition of Binacional Organizations, headquartered in Fresno.

"There is no doubt that this is the school of the PRI -- repressive and brutal," said Mireya Olivera, who is Oaxacan and the editor of Impulso magazine in Los Angeles.

Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico. It is also marked by a massive migrant exodus. Waves of people leave Oaxaca yearly in search of work in other parts of Mexico or in the United States. With nearly 3.5 million inhabitants and 16 indigenous groups, Oaxaca has the highest rates of illiteracy in the country and 95 percent of the state's budget comes from the federal government. The state government rarely publicizes its management of federal funds.

The decisive attack against Noticias - and the murky sequence of events following -- began when a PRI congressperson intervened during the paper's labor negotiations. After negotiating a new labor contract, where workers had accepted a 5 percent salary increase, the PRI's Oaxacan state congressman, David Aguilar, said he represented the workers and denied the agreement. He demanded an immediate 25 percent increase and staged a strike, but none of the "strikers" work at the newspaper. A few days ago, Aguilar announced that he would let the Noticias workers go if the paper stops publishing.

"The Mexican federal government refuses to intervene, arguing that it is a local problem," Morales says. "Nevertheless, the assailants have high-caliber weapons and this is kidnapping."

On June 19, the newspaper's electricity and telephones were cut, but services were later restored.

"This is an attempt to silence a critical, independent media, something that the dominant PRI bosses cannot accept," said Genaro Altamirano, sub-director of Noticias and one of the sequestered journalists.

Surprisingly, Noticias is still publishing daily. "We work from inside and those on the outside also do their work," Morales said. "Everything is sent to another place where it is printed and distributed." He did not give any more details.

"In Oaxaca, journalists feel a lot of pressure, and the government wants to control what is said," says Olivera, who worked in print and radio in his home state before immigrating to California. "In many cases, the press censures itself -- it's part of our culture of ideological dependence."

In last year's elections, Noticias supported candidate Gabino Cué of the opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), who lost under suspicious circumstances -- the votes were not tabulated and a local judge decided the result. This, critics said, accelerated the PRI's attempts to eliminate the newspaper. In Oaxaca, traditional political bosses still dominate, and the PRI's hierarchy is part of the intimate circle of the party's 2006 presidential candidate, Roberto Madruzo, who has been criticized for corruption and manipulation.

On June 22, almost 10,000 people marched in Oaxaca City in support of the sequestered journalists. The following day, the Inter American Press Association asked Mexican national and state authorities to guarantee the security of the workers. On June 27, Amnesty International sent a global Urgent Action request with the same objective. But the federal government has not responded. On June 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz to end the newspaper blockade.

"This is not a simple political skirmish, it is an attempt by the [state] government to erase the independent and critical press," Olivera said. "It is a war."