Responsible: the capitalists and all their subservient governments
On the night of Monday the 3rd, the horror at the images of the accident swept the country and the world. Popular indignation grew as the first figures of dead and wounded were made public. But these figures are growing and are far from being definite.
By Intersindical México
Since the train crash on Line 1 at Tacubaya station and the fire at the PCC, explosions and other serious malfunctions have been very frequent in the STC-Metro. This time we witnessed the most serious catastrophe in the Metro since its creation in 1969. And it is a long-foretold tragedy. Many “saw it coming” and not a few of us warned that the Metro was and is a time bomb. But those in power continue to affirm that “it is safe” in the now routine press conferences. In these conferences, the businesswoman and director of the Metro, Florencia Serrania, and the head of the CDMX government, Claudia Scheinbaum, attend with mourning faces infront of the cameras and microphones, to lament the victims and to say that “an international expert panel” will be commissioned to determine the causes of the accident. And now, when asked “if it could be a case of sabotage”, their answer was that “nothing can be ruled out”.
The real “sabotage” is the transportation privatization
Faced with such cynicism on the part of those directly responsible, we say: Not only “nothing is ruled out”! On the contrary, no international expertise is necessary to know what the main causes and who the responsible parties are. Of course, it is not the Metro workers, who have for years been removed from the Line 12 track maintenance, due to the fact that this work was contracted out to a private French company, TSO. This line, ironically called “Gold line” “was built by the consortium ICA, CARSO of Carlos Slim and the French Alstom during the government of Marcelo Ebrard (current Chancellor). It started out defective and would remain that way for life, so the Metro system had to spend resources every year, destined to contain and mitigate the failures caused by the incompatibility between the tracks and the trains, which were designed by Spanish company CAF”. The victims are the inhabitants of the Tlahuac area, who from the beginning of the construction works warned and denounced the intention to build a heavy viaduct for the elevated train, over a muddy terrain with known seismic displacements.
After the 2017 earthquake, the CDMX government stated: “There is damage in the heart of this structure located in the Nopalera-Olivos section, which weakens its integral functioning in weight support and elasticity.”
And they did not repair it! The main responsible parties are the governments that contracted and still contract works and private companies, which continue to buy the silence of the eternal union charros, who to this day continue to collude with all those governments. Currently the corrupt “officialists and opponents” of yesterday and today are engaged in electoral campaigns and “throw the ball” to each other. For them “anything goes” to win votes, even corpses. All these bosses’ politicians try to wipe their faces before a country outraged to the point of disgust.
But we are not fooled anymore! All, all governments are part of the same political regime, of the same economic system of capital, all are equally responsible for the deaths and irreparable damages. All those criminals, politicians and businessmen were traveling together in the same inaugural Gold Line carriage in 2012: Felipe Calderón, Marcelo Ebrard, Mario Delgado, Carlos Slim… Y the businesswoman director Serrania was already in charge of the Metro when AMLO was head of government of Mexico City. Fernando Espino has been secretary general of the National Union of the Metro for 40 years and shared in silence all those shady business deals. The victims of the Line 12 are due to the same causes as those of the covid-19 pandemic. We all suffer because of the disregard for health and life in favor of profits of local capitalists and foreign corporations.
Today those hypocrites give solemn condolences to the relatives, and their governments place the “flag at half mast”. All of them are well known and share the blame. That is why they must share punishment for the damage caused. And it will not be the “international experts” who will determine with certainty these fraudulent responsibilities. That is why we demand a truly independent investigation by democratically elected commissions, made up of Metro workers and users, and not by charros and businessmen or their pandering politicians.
Let no one go unpunished for the crime that this disaster represents. Many STC Metro coworkers feel the burden and helplessness, in the face of the recurrent tragedies and threats of new ones. And the worst thing is that they suffer the worst persecution and sanctions when they denounce the abandonment of the Metro or reject the terrible working conditions, like the Atlalilco track service comrades and others. Several comrades have courageously come out to denounce the situation and its culprits, and to rightly demand the resignation of Director Serrania. She should not be in charge long time ago!
But who supports Serrania? Why do the head of government and President AMLO keep her on? The problem is higher up and that is in AMLO’s privatization policy. This government, like the previous ones, does not want state investment in a public service under the control of its workers. Its conception is public transportation as a private business. And not only in the Metro but also in Pemex and the CFE, outsource the works to local and foreign private contractors. In addition, we have already seen that the government in these situations only trusts the military. Yesterday they totally displaced the workers from the rescue tasks, and it was the Army and Navy who took the trains to the workshops. We must reject this disregard, and take into our own hands the rescue of the STC-Metro as public state transportation, safe and accessible to the workers who are the main users. It is necessary and urgent to rescue the Metro from the privatizing claws of the government.
Enough of massacres and impunity!
Independent investigation and punishment of those responsible!
Statize the STC-Metro, under the control of its workers and users!
Corriente Intersindical de Trabajadores del STC-Metro
May 4 2021
The Foretold Tragedy of Metro Line 12
