On October 9 in New York City, I joined a rally at the Mexican consulate with several members of my college faculty and staff union (PSC-CUNY), along with school teachers in the UFT, and many others. We were there to protest the murderous ambush of activist students from the Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
The students had come to the town of Iguala to raise money for school supplies, since their college is woefully underfunded. The Iguala police attacked the students, spraying their bus with machine gun fire, killing six people, wounding dozens more and kidnapping 43 students. The students may have been handed over to a local drug gang. As of today, we don’t how many of the 43 were murdered, but a mass grave has been discovered in the area with a couple of dozen bodies. The students have been missing since September 26, and the outlook is grim.
Nearly one hundred of us picketed for an hour, loudly chanting, “Protest the Massacre of Mexic-an Students,” and “Workers United Will Never Be Defeated.” The nervous consulate staff quickly closed their entrance, as they heard our message. After picketing, we held a rally at which CUNY students and faculty, among others, spoke and delivered the same message: we stand with our brothers and sisters in Mexico. We demand that kidnapped students who are still alive be released and we demand that those responsible for the killings be severely punished.
Over the last few days, tens of thousands of workers in Mexico have marched in Mexico City, Guerrero, Vera Cruz, and Oaxaca, carrying signs declaring, “Fascist government, assassin of teachers.” Teacher unions are reportedly calling for school walkouts to protest the outrageous killings.
The teachers college of Ayotzinapa has been training teachers, and producing activists, for many decades. The school calls itself “the cradle of social consciousness” and its students — many of whom are from poor families and work in the fields behind the school — are renowned for their social activism. These students and teachers have allied with farm workers against those who abuse them. Recently they joined a struggle to demand that the mayor of Iguala provide fertilizer to poor farmers. This militancy has earned them the wrath of local politicians, cops and the drug lords they work with.  The same mayor, who is now a fugitive from the law, is accused of recently murdering a popular leader of a reform group.
October 2 was the 46th anniversary of the notorious Tlatelolco Massacre, in which the Mexican military shot and killed nearly 300 student demonstrators, hoping to destroy the massive protest movement ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics opened in Mexico City. Students from the Rural Teachers College had been planning to join commemoration protests in Mexico City last week.
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