Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas September 15, 2017
Dear compañeros and compañeras:
On Friday, September 15, in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas (Mexico), 75 trade union and peasant leaders and activists, as well as women’s and youth’s rights activists from different regions of the country came to together to form a Mexican Organizing Committee to promote the Binational Conference Against NAFTA, Against the “Wall of Shame,” and For Labor Rights on Both Sides of the Border.
Participants came from the states of Baja California, Tabasco, Mexico City, and Chiapas, representating the oil workers’ movement, healthcare workers, teachers, upper secondary education workers, youth, and independent women candidates for local and state offices.
In our day-long gathering, each participant voiced his/her own opinion and underscored the immense need to form Action Committees in Mexico in defense of national sovereignty, for the renationalization of all the public services and enterprises that have been privatized, against the privatizations of the public sector, against NAFTA and the external debt, for the repeal of all the structural “counter- reforms,” for the promotion of labor rights in all sectors — linking the national demands with the local ones.
Having read the Appeal for the Binational Conference signed by 100 labor and community leaders and activists from both Mexico and the United States, we all agreed on the urgent need to build a common struggle across borders against the destructive policies aimed at the U.S. and Mexican workers and peoples. And we unanimously agreed to form the Mexican Organizing Committee of the Binational Conference.
In this regard, we voted to support the first session of the Binational Conference at CSU-Dominguez Hills (Carson, Calif.) on December 2. We also approved the election of delegates from each sector represented in this gathering to attend the first session of the Binational Conference in the United States.
Likewise, we voted to submit to you the concrete proposal that we hold a second session of the Binational Conference on February 3-4, 2018, in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. We make this proposal with the understanding that, given the
visa restrictions for Mexican being able to travel to the United States, we will want to hold a second session in which our compatriots can attend in large numbers.
In the middle of our gathering, it was proposed to draft and adopt a statement in opposition the intervention of the U.S. government. in Venezuela and the role of support for the U.S. interventionist policy by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto; we unanimously voted to approve this declaration in defense of the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.
Let us then move forward – should you agree with our proposal — to organize the two sessions of the Binational Conference Against NAFTA, Against the “Wall of Shame,” and For Labor Rights on Both Sides of the Border.
Fraternal greetings
Alan Benjamin and Luis Carlos Haro
Binational Campaign 