Mexicans refuse to pay electricity charges
Two women from the Civil Resistance in Chiapas visited Ireland in
August. Chiapas in Mexico is known to many people because of the
armed rebellion of the EZLN. The women are involved in co-ordinating
a state-wide boycott of electricity charges. On hearing about the
successful campaign against the Water Charges here they were eager to
share experiences. This article is based on notes made from a
discussion between them and two members of the WSM active in the
anti-water charges campaign in Dublin.
The exchange was a fascinating one because we found that we had
faced many similar situations. For instance because the Electricity
company in Chiapas is State owned (i.e. taxpayer funded) and because
the high bills include VAT the communities opposing them describe the
high charges as a double taxation. While here the government tried to
get people to pay the water charge by offering a limited addition to
their tax free allowance, in Chiapas the bribe they tried was a 20%
reduction if you paid your bill. In both cases most people laughed at
this bribe.
On the other hand there are also startling differences. Many of
the people in Chiapas live by subsistence farming in small
communities in mountainous jungle. They are extremely poor, it is
estimated that 19,000 people (mostly children and old people) die
every year of preventable diseases. Whereas in Dublin we defeated the
government in three years without suffering arrests or more serious
repression; in Chiapas many, many people have been jailed. A special
police force accompanies cut-off crews called 'Force and Reaction'
and when they arrived to cut off the office of an education
collective they were also accompanied by fourteen lorry loads of
soldiers.
Despite this repression the people of Chiapas are, if anything,
more determined to win. When the company has disconnected people they
have re-connected them, when they have taken the power lines leading
to communities they have bought and erected new lines, with retired
electricity workers training the communities to do this work. They
were surprised to hear how many people had drifted away from the
Dublin campaign now that this was won saying such a victory in
Chiapas would have led to more people becoming involved in the next
issue they need to fight on.
The government in Mexico has also refused to implement the first
stage of the San Andres accords on Indigenous people's rights. This
led last August to the EZLN pulling out of the peace talks. Because
many of the communities are faced with a similar situation of a local
government that refuses to seriously negotiate a 5 peso flat rate
they have decided that until the government also implements the first
phase of the San Andres accords they will not pay electricity or
water charges.
