IN FACE OF THE DISASTER AND THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT, WE MUST GO FROM SPONTANEOUS SOLIDARITY TO THE ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION OF THE MEXICAN PEOPLE!

Statement of Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (Mexican Section of the RCIT), 23 September, 2017, https://agrupaciondeluchasocialistablog.wordpress.com/

September 19 has become a date of double mourning for the Mexicans as a result of the earthquakes and the ambition of the government and real estate companies. Thirty-two years after the earthquake of 1985, Mexico City-CDMX, now, along with Morelos, Puebla and Edomex tremble with a seism of 7.1 degrees, which so far resulted of 295 people deceased, the majority in the capital of the country, but also thousandsomes and buildings devastated in all affected states.

Although the earthquake this year was 10 times less strong than that of 1985 and caused less damage than the last one, it continues to  show that we are not prepared in terms of infrastructure to withstand this type of disaster due, mainly, to the corruption of the authorities which allowed the buildings which were damaged in 1985 to be occupied again without restoration or this was done without complying with the norms. At present, we see how the corruption of civil servants of all levels increases, which, in collusion with the big real estate companies, builds with the people's money works that endanger the population, such as Guardería ABC, the hole in the ground as it is in Paso Exprés de Cuernavaca and, now the Primaria Enrique Rebsamen.

The cynicism has reached such a point that the governor of Morelos, Graco Ramirez, stated in Jojutla that the people rescue phase was over and the debris removal and reconstruction phase has began, less than 24 hours after the earthquake! Surely they already have business dealings with the real estate companies - who are urged to collect insurance and leave no trace of their corruption. The head of government, M. Angel Mancera along with the federal government, is doing the same in the CDMX; in the third day of the earthquake has menaced to putting machinery for the removal of debris regardless of the statements of rescuers and relatives that there were still people under the ruins and that probably many of them were still alive. The federal government, instead of helping the victims, has only dedicated itself to repressing the solidarity of the people through the navy, the army and the local police to isolate the affected areas, to evict the volunteers, even by force, as they intended do it in the Obrera colony where a textile factory where women - mostly migrants - labored, but where the volunteers managed to stop the repressive forces and continue the rescue work. We called to resist reinforcing the guards, the disaster sites where police and other law enforcement bodies were trying to move to civilian volunteers and impose "order" by force and even put heavy machinery in places where there is still chances of finding people alive, or where it is necessary to remove the bodies, likewise, the places where they intend to demolish buildings without the consent of its inhabitants!

At Rebsamen School, the pressure from rescuers, volunteers and the general population also succeeded in getting the government to reverse the machines to continue the rescue work. However, in the colony Roma and other parts of the city, the government had already put its machines in front of the astonished eyes of relatives and friends of the victims trapped. It was a murderous act of these governments in cleaning the affected areas for the real estate companies that intend to raise their buildings on the bodies of the victims!

Together with the government, the television stations have had a deplorable role, first with calling the people to stay in the house in the day of the tremor, a kind of message that, fortunately, was not complied by the population and then, putting a show with the non-existent Frida little girl in the Rebsamen primary school to distract the population, and the media also has hidden the solidarity of the population and tried to rebuild the disastrous image of the government and its military forces. This did not manage to calm down the rage of the population against the officials of all levels who were not offering any support, or on the contrary, as is the case of the presidency of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia del Estado de Morelos-DIF that retained the provision of solidarity that was to go towards the communities of the entity but the population was organized to rescue this essential goods provisions and to take control of its distribution!

In several places, volunteers and affected residents has expelled out the authorities when they only came to take the photos, like the Secretary of the Interior, Osorio Chong, in the Obrera colony, and the delegate of Xochimilco by MORENA, Avelino Méndez. In its voracious ambition, the government is provoking even more the anger of the people who, by itself, already distrust the government and its parties. Undoubtedly, the cynical performance of the rulers authorities and the parties are putting all the conditions so that the elections of 2018 occur in an atmosphere of high tension, instability and complete discredit to the regime and its institutions. People are asking that the money budgeted to the parties and electoral institutions for the campaigns is intended for the thousands of families of the victims, otherwise, the political cost will be high! Also ask the electoral campaigns that were canceled, since the citizenship has already known in its own flesh the action of each of the parties before this tragedy!

In short: what immediately revealed this disaster were two things: a) once again the enormous inability and disinterest of government institutions to deal with the disaster and b)the massive and solid solidarity of the population that had became millions of volunteers for the rescue, gathering and distribution of collection, most of these young enthusiasts who from the minutes after the earthquake and for 4 days, continue in the work of support. Exemplary and combative youth fighting for their people!

However, there is also a great disorganization and disinformation resulting mainly from the inefficiency and secrecy of the government and that even they have promoted themselves through false messages and the diversion or retention of support through Civil Protection in the municipal head offices. On the other hand, because there is no central local that centralizes information and organization for a better distribution of supporting the brigades according to the specific needs of each disaster area. In contrary to the case of Oaxaca where section 22 has played a fundamental role due to its moral weight and the strategic presence of the teachers that has allowed them a better attention of the earthquake of 7 of September. For example, there are places like the capital CDMX center that overflowed with aid and food; while other more remote areas or states such as Morelos and Puebla lack of support. The magnitude of the disaster requires us to move from spontaneous solidarity to organized and continuous support as reconstruction work will take weeks or months!

It is necessary to convene a General Coordination of Brigadistas and Settlers Affected of the metropolitan area that elaborates a general diagnosis by colony, municipality and affected state to detect the primordial necessities and distributes thus the specific brigades. It requires the formation of committees or neighborhood assemblies in the affected areas that participate in this diagnosis that administer food and resources for contingency and participate in the reconstruction of their communities.

In the middle of the disaster, the government intends to return to "normality" and is already calling for a return to class students from next Monday, 25 September, as well as many companies whose establishments have visible damage have irresponsibly forced their workers to back work in these buildings, under penalty of dismissal, violating clearly the minimum security conditions. Faced with this as Agrupación de Lucha Socialista we demand that there be no return to school until all schools at all levels have been reviewed by independent commissions of experts and the safety of school communities is guaranteed. Likewise, workers should form assemblies in their work centers to oppose the return of work until safety conditions are guaranteed in their work centers and to oppose unjustified dismissals for absenteeism!

Also, three years after the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa normalists, let us turn the mobilization of this September, 26, into a great protest for the humanitarian, social and economic disaster provoked by this neoliberal political-economic regime as well as the whole of its institutions and parties that have been overtaken and have shown signs of paralysis, ineptitude and shamelessness in face of the tragedy that shakes our country; extend the claim to the government!

* OUT WITH EPN AND INCOMPETENT GOVERNORS OF CDMX, MORELOS, EDOMEX AND PUEBLA AND ITS DELEGATES AND MUNICIPAL PRESIDENTS!

*JAIL ALL OFFICIALS, OWNERS OF REAL ESTATE COMPANIES AND CORRUPT BUILDING COMPANIES GUILTY OF THIS TRAGEDY!

*ALL CAMPAIGN MONEY TOWARDS REPAIRING THE DAMAGE AND COMPLETE RECONSTRUCTION OF THEIR HOUSES TO ALL DAMAGED FAMILIES!

*FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A GOVERNMENT OF THE RURAL AND CITY WORKERS THAT TRULY ATTEND AND RESOLVE THE NEEDS OF THE MEXICAN PEOPLE!