Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Mexican Labour Activist Attacked

No Sweat | 21.01.2004 16:43 | Globalisation | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Martin Barrios, Coordinator of the Human and Labour Rights Commission of the Tehuacan Valley was attacked and brutally beaten by an unknown assailant. Info and call for action.

MEXICAN LABOUR ACTIVIST ATTACKED - URGENT ACTION ALERT
On December 30, at 9:30 a.m., Martin Barrios, Coordinator of the Human
and Labour Rights Commission of the Tehuacan Valley was attacked and
brutally beaten by an unknown assailant. Barrios was about to enter his house, which also serves as the Commission office, when he heard a voice
behind him, turned and saw a man coming at him with a brick. He was
brutally beaten on the face and head, but managed to throw off the
attacker who fled to a taxi driven by an accomplice that had been parked
outside the house. Barrios suffered serious injuries to his face and
skull as a result of the attack, and has laid a formal complaint with
the local authorities.
It appears the attacker had been waiting for Barrios to return home, and
that the attack had been planned ahead of time. The attacker made no
effort to enter the house or to steal anything from Barrios. The
Commission believes the attacker was paid to carry out the assault in
order to intimidate Barrios, his family and other members of the
Commission.
During the past year, the Commission has defended the rights of hundreds
of workers who were unjustly fired from various blue jean factories
owned by the Los Angeles-based Tarrant Apparel Group as well as workers
from other smaller Tehuacan maquilas. It has succeeded in pressuring
Tarrant and local labour authorities to ensure that fired workers
received severance payments that are at least close to what is required
by the Mexican Federal Labour Law. The Commission in Tehuacan and the
Worker Support Centre (CAT) have both been working on the Tarrant
campaign, covering different sites owned by the company.
Last year the Commission and the MSN released a joint publication, "Blue
Jeans, Blue Waters and Worker Rights," exposing the systematic
violations of workers' rights and environmental standards in Tehuacan's
blue jean industry. This features the, quite literally blue river that
the No Sweat study group visited that flows from the Mexmode factory
into the local village, taking carcinogens and poisons with it into the
homes and water supplies of local workers.
The Commission believes that the attack and threats that had been made
against Barrios previous to the attack are part of a campaign by maquila
owners to silence Barrios and other Commission members and discourage
them from continuing to expose worker rights violations and defend
workers' rights. According to the Commission, the attack on Barrios
should be added to the list of recent attacks on human rights activists
in the State of Puebla, including the murder of lawyer Griselda Tirado
Evangelio in Huehuetla and threats and abuse against members of CADEM in
Cuetzalan, and threats and intimidation against the CAT and members of
the independent union at the Tarrant Ajalpan facility.
Representatives of No sweat met Barrios outside the gates of Tarrant and
we want to make sure he doesn't think that we have forgotten him - TAKE ACTION AT:
 http://www.nosweat.org.uk/article.php?sid=755&mode=thread&order=0

No Sweat
- Homepage: http://www.nosweat.org.uk/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech