International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

International Women's Day in Mexico

Heather Dashner Monk — 2020-03-08T06:58:14Z

Women in Mexico have been carrying out activities around March 8, International Women's Day, for several decades; and some years ago, we revived the tradition of holding marches in various parts of the country on this day. With the new worldwide rise of the feminist women's movement, a response to the worsening conditions of oppression and exploitation resulting from patriarchal, neoliberal capitalism, and in Mexico in particular, also to the growing violence against women simply because they are women, this year united activities are being planned in many cities around the country.

- IV542 - March 2020 / Women, Mexico

How Does a Teachers' Union Keep a Government in Check for 90 Days?

Heather Dashner Monk — 2016-08-19T10:31:39Z

Mexico's teachers' strike began April 15, Teachers Day, and has kept up the momentum throughout the summer vacation. Classes are due to start Monday, August 22, and despite negotiations with the government, the teachers have not agreed to go back to the classroom, maintaining their militant tactics of blockades of major highways and railroad tracks, demonstrations, etc. Clearly, the movement's ability to continue and force the government to negotiate, when what it would prefer â€”and has threatened several timesâ€” is just to repress it, has to do with multiple national and international factors. But one of them is the strength and significance of the teachers' union itself in Mexico.

- IV499 - August 2016 / Trade unions/workplace organizing

Feminism to the tune of the cumbia, corrida, tango, cueca, samba . . .

Heather Dashner Monk — 2013-08-12T09:15:10Z

This long article was published in International Marxist Review Vol 2, Number 4 in 1987. It was the background work for the resolution adopted at the 1991 World Congress Dynamics of mass movements and feminist currents-Latin American Women's Liberation after extensive travel around Latin America by the author.

- Sexual politics / Marxism, Women, Latin America, Sexual politics, Features

Mexican women - then and now

Heather Dashner Monk — 2010-09-22T15:45:54Z

Mexican women's lives â€” their work, their family life, their educational opportunities, the health care they can expect, their social standing, and political participation â€” have changed over the hundred years since the Mexican Revolution. The country has gone from being overwhelmingly rural to mainly urban; between 1930 and 2000 average life expectancy rose from 34 to 75 years; the conditions in which women do housework and care for children and the sick â€” still almost exclusively their responsibility â€” have changed enormously: the majority have running water, gas for cooking, indoor toilets, and homes with flooring.

- IV428 - September 2010 / Women, Latin America, Mexico