On Strike

A little girl walking in downtown Oaxaca last week bumped into a rope tethered across the cobblestone street. It was supporting a tarp hung over camping tents that covered the road, and several blocks more.

Her stride cut short, the girl took a step back, regained her balance, and kept walking alongside a woman I presumed to be her mother. It wasn’t serious, and it wasn’t shocking, either. People have gotten used to ducking and weaving around the encampment of public school teachers on strike in what is normally the hub of tourist and government activity.

Around 80,000 teachers across the state of Oaxaca belonging to the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) began an indefinite strike last week, thousands camping in Oaxaca’s Historic Center.

They’ve left an estimated 800,000 public school students without classes, one month before the school year is slated to end. I asked a friend who has a school-aged son what he’s doing, then. “Well, he’s not going to school,” my friend said with a shrug. What can they do?