Letter to the Workers of the IMSS

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Mexico

October of 2005

To the Workers of the IMSS:

To the Other Campaign:

To the People of Mexico:

Compañeras and Compañeros:

We are sending you our greetings and respect. We are writing in order to tell you that we are supporting you in your struggle to prevent Vicente Fox's government from achieving the privatization of public health and for the defense of your rights and social achievements. We know quite well that there have been many attacks against you and that you are now, as previously, the object of a media campaign to discredit you and to set the Mexican people against you. That is why we want to tell you that we know quite well that the lies they are saying against you conceal the truth about the big business which the federal government, headed by the National Action Party (PAN) has been turned into.

We know that your struggle, against management, against the government and against the pro-management unions, is not just to defend your rights as workers, but it is also to defend the union victories of all workers, and it is also for the right of the people to health care.

We know of your decision to not surrender and to not sell out, and that you are willing to go as far as mounting a strike. That is why we want you to know that the men, women, children and old ones of the EZLN will help you in any way we can, and we will be alert to see that no evil is done to you, because strikes are a right of the worker and should be respected.

We are calling on the people of Mexico to not let themselves be deceived by the lies spoken about those workers, because that is just what the powerful do, when someone rebels against injustice, they invent crimes and falsehoods so they will be left by themselves, without the help of the humble people.

We are making a special call to all the compañeros and compañeras of the "Other" campaign, to mobilize in support of these compañeros and compañeras, workers of the IMSS, in the ways and times they establish; to disseminate true information about the IMSS and their workers; and that we carry out joint actions so that these compañeros know they are not alone.

Lastly, we are telling the workers of the Mexican Institute of Social Security that they can count on us, the Zapatistas of the EZLN, to be as we, in fact, are: as compañeros and compañeras of struggle.

Democracy!

Liberty!

Justice!

By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Mexico, October of 2005