[act-ma] Mexico Solidarity Network Speaker: US/Mexico Border Dynamics 10/18

[Corry Banton]

Mexico Solidarity Network Presents:
Spotlight on US-Mexico Border Dynamics
Saturday, October 18th
7pm
Lucy Parsons Center
549 Columbus Ave.
 
Mexico Solidarity Network Speaker Veronica Leyva, a native of Ciudad Juarez , will speak about maquiladoras, immigration and  struggles for land along the border, with particular emphasis on the Lomas de Poleo struggle.  Veronica is the MSN staff person in Ciudad Juarez .  She worked for seven years in maquiladoras and six years as a labor/community organizer before joining the MSN staff in 2004. She will discuss:
 
-       Labor conditions in the maquiladoras
-       Social consequences of Neoliberal globalization
-       Violence, Narco-trafficking and the Femicides
 
 $5 suggested donation to fund the work of the Mexico Solidarity Network
www.mexicosolidarity.org
No one turned away for lack of funds.
 
 
Overview: The land struggle in Lomas de Poleo dates back five years when the US and Mexico announced the construction of a new international bridge.  Previously ignored desert land on the Mexico side, where 53 families settled decades ago, suddenly became strategically valuable land.  One of Juarez ’s richest families is trying to claim ownership of the land, and has built a fence around the community with only one entrance controlled by guards.  Guards killed two community members, one a child who died when they burned down a resident's house.  The struggle is exemplary of the overall struggle for land rights in the neoliberal era.
 
Immigration is a fact of life for many Mexican families, particularly rural families.  Ciudad Juarez is both a destination, as workers look for jobs in the maquiladora sector, and  a transit point, as workers come to the US as undocumented workers.  Today more than 60% of Juarez residents are immigrants, living in hastily constructed shanty towns without water, electricity or sanitation.  In many ways, Juarez is the prototype urban area in the neoliberal era, boasting industrial parks with modern highways and city services, surrounded by bleak, dusty neighborhoods that house more than 400,000 workers typically earning around five to seven dollars a day.


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