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July 7, 2012 - No. 27 Layoffs and Shutdowns of Enterprises Both Public and Private Necessity for a New Direction for the Economy Layoffs
and
Shutdowns
of
Enterprises
Both
Public and Private Layoffs and Shutdowns of Enterprises Both Public and Private Necessity for a New Direction for the EconomyLayoffs and shutdowns of enterprises both public and private are a nightmare for workers and their communities. Workers and their communities suffer the insecurity, chaos and disruption to their lives and well-being from enterprise collapse, layoffs and cutbacks in social programs and public services. Unemployment is a major wound on the society. It must be resolved through practical politics led by the working class. Guaranteed livelihoods for all requires a new direction for the economy and arrangements that take into account that workers are not passive pawns at the ready disposal of capital. The human factor/social consciousness must assume its proper place at the centre of the economy.
In 2005 even before the current series of economic crises began, Statscan writes, "Total business sector employment lost due to business exits was 1.6%." The number of workers losing their employment from "business exits" was around 181,000 for the year. This number does not include layoffs at private or public businesses that do not exit the economy but rather downsize, outsource or move within the country. In official economics, the toll on workers is rarely acknowledged as a problem that must be addressed and not allowed to occur. A change of outlook towards the human factor/social consciousness would require rejecting the excuses of capital-centred apologists that human thought and conscious planning should not be allowed to "interfere" with the socialized economy. The Workers' Opposition contends that the fate of the human factor must come first, which demands an entirely new human-centred pro-social outlook and conscious direction for the economy.
Canada now has just over 14,000 mid or medium-sized private enterprises. They represent 12 per cent of Canada's annual gross domestic product and 16 per cent of livelihoods within the socialized economy. The loss of 527 mid-sized enterprises during that period represents a decrease of 3.6 per cent of the total number of medium-sized companies and a certain loss of livelihoods. Statistics Canada does not report or trace the eventual fate of the "lost companies." Each company would have to be investigated to find whether it had been taken over by a larger monopoly, closed indefinitely or moved to another country. The national unemployment rose continually from 6 per cent in 2007, reaching 8.3 per cent in 2009, leveling off and declining slightly to 7.5 per cent in 2011 and 7.2 per cent in June 2012 dropping recently according to Statscan mainly because the participation rate of eligible workers in the labour market has weakened. During the same period, the number of large-sized companies (500 plus workers) fell from 3,075 enterprises in 2007 to 2,835 in 2009 and then rose to 2,965 in 2010. The disappearance of 240 large firms over such a short period has been a disaster for workers, their communities and the economy. During the same period, the number of small-sized companies employing from 1 to 99 workers rose from 956,000 to 983,000. Self-employment also increased reflecting the desperation of many Canadians oppressed with a mantra of "fend for yourself" while living in a socialized economy of industrial mass production. The statistics indicating a loss of medium and large-sized companies and apparent destruction of many livelihoods are aggregates and do not reveal the disorder in the economy caused by the recurring one in ten "exits," one in ten "entries" of companies and downsizing. Small companies are particularly vulnerable to bankruptcy and "exit" having the highest rate of both disappearances and start-ups. In response to the BDC study, the Globe and Mail published an item "Vanishing act: Where did Canada's mid-sized companies go?" Typically, the Globe's entire concern focused on the disappearance of capital in the form of companies and not on the workers who became unemployed and lost in many other ways. Of course, the Globe article refused to suggest that a new direction for the economy was necessary, one that would mobilize the thinking and consciousness of the working class to both renew the economy and modernize relations of production based on the recognition of the rights of the working class to guaranteed livelihoods and security of their well-being. For the Globe and its official economics, workers are nobodies without rights whose suffering holds no significance. The torturers and their apologists do not feel the pain of the tortured. Canada's permanent unemployed labour force is now approaching one and a half million workers yet official economics speaks of "not enough" workers presenting themselves and their labour capacity for sale in the labour market. How those unemployed workers or those who have withdrawn themselves from the labour market are surviving is of no concern to official economics; the pressing concern for capital and its allies and apologists is to have large numbers of unemployed workers competing to sell their labour capacity in the labour market.
Some of the recently unemployed have worked for one company for a long time such as many of the workers of the disappeared 527 mid-sized companies. The shock of job loss turns workers' lives upside down causing enormous personal material and emotional distress not to speak of the stress on their communities. Besides the individual hardship, the existence of a huge permanent army of unemployed is an enormous irrational drain on the socialized economy. Coupled with the hardship and loss of individual wealth and potential added-value is the constant material wrecking and prolonged waste of the productive forces through bankruptcy and economic crises. A growing number of workers experience the loss of their livelihoods at more than one enterprise during their working lives. The instability of the capitalist economy is cause for concern and leads workers to discuss and demand a new direction for the economy. Discussions are underway throughout the country, which focus on the issue of conscious participation of the actual producers in acts to find a way forward. Such a way forward would put their rights in first place, giving a new pro-social direction for the economy that would include stability and security of enterprises, guaranteed livelihoods for all, continuous public education to provide all workers the ability to advance their skills and overall productivity so as to elevate both themselves and the socialized economy, and equilibrium in relations of production based on recognition of the rights of the working class. A social environment must be created where every worker is guaranteed a livelihood and no such thing as unemployment or a surplus workforce is allowed to exist. How can such a new direction for the economy be brought into being and what social force is capable and willing to do so? Certainly not owners of capital who complain bitterly if a vast pool of unemployed is not sitting in the labour market ready for their work capacity to be bought. Can stability, economic self-reliance, full employment, security, increased productivity without causing unemployment, recognition of rights and equilibrium be achieved within the economy without the working class taking a leading position in all aspects of Canada's political and economic affairs? The direct experience of the working class within the capitalist economy suggests a new pro-social direction cannot be found or achieved without the working class having its own voice heard and expressed in the practical politics of the country and its brains mobilized to give a new pro-social direction to the economy. And that requires conscious participation of workers themselves in acts of finding out how to manage the political and economic affairs of the country. They are the only force capable of nation-building and vesting sovereignty in the people in the modern era.
Workers within the socialized economy are viewed as just another productive factor that capital manipulates for its own narrow ends. If fewer workers are required at a particular worksite due to increased productivity, no consideration is given to the fate of those workers deemed "surplus." Workers suffer the negative consequences of a capital-centred economy that refuses to accept the conscious control of the actual producers. The actual producers are deprived of their right to deal with the contradictions and problems of the socialized economy. They are deprived of their right to an ownership structure harmonized with the economy's socialized nature of collective industrial mass production and provision of services. They are denied the right to sit in their collectives to discuss and think about the problems as they pose themselves. They are told black is white and even though they are the actual producers and providers of services, they are abused as a negative cost to those who do not produce anything or provide any service but merely move money around, amass personal fortunes, wreck the economy and constantly bad mouth the working class. Can you imagine? Owners of capital (these obsolete relics of the nineteenth century who somehow still consider themselves relevant in a now totally socialized economy) who would starve if workers did not work have the audacity to tell the actual producers who provide the goods and services that they are a negative drain on their profits and that they had better take a drop in their standard of living and face the insecurity of layoffs and loss of social programs and public services so owners of capital can continue their destructive merry way! That is the world workers face and that is the world in need of a new direction. Official politics and economics refuse to begin with a human-centred aim and conscious intervention in the economy to assure livelihoods for all, recognition of the rights of the working class and a pro-social self-reliant diverse economy that serves the actual producers, their communities, regions and country. The human factor/social consciousness is banned from politics and economics, and workers must resolve to remove that ban. On all important political and economic matters, workers must begin to think for themselves and refuse to allow officialdom to tell them what they should know and do. An organized working class opposition must deprive the ruling oligarchs of their power to deprive the working class of its right to think for itself, its right to a say and control over the socialized economy and the political affairs of the country. The aim of owners of capital is too narrowly fixated on their own private interests in opposition to the public interest, too narrowly focused on their rate of return on invested capital in opposition to the laws and needs of the socialized interconnected and cooperative economy. Owners of capital, their allies and apologists are not about to consider another direction for the economy that resolves its internal problems and contradictions and assumes a human-centred aim in opposition to a capital-centred one.
The working class cannot afford to be complacent on matters affecting their lives, their communities and the political and economic affairs of the country. Just because they have no legal ownership rights does not preclude workers from having a say and demanding control over the political and economic affairs of the country. Besides, ownership rights are overblown, as life itself suggests that the largest and most powerful monopolies exercise a dictatorship over ownership rights when it comes to their overriding private interests. Ordinary ownership rights are no obstacle or impediment to monopolies having their way. Besides, many small businesses exist within niches that are either too insignificant at this time to interest the big monopolies or involve functions such as retail, franchising or subcontracting that serve the monopolies. But watch out if small businesses stand in the way of monopoly right and their empire building. Their ordinary ownership rights evaporate before the juggernaut of big business. Small businesses operate within the socialized economy and cannot be aloof from its structural problems and the overwhelming power of the monopolies, as those issues directly affect the success or failure of their businesses. For many small businesses, the working class is their client and driving down the standard of living of workers forces small businesses out of business. Greece is an example where the rule of Europe of the monopolies has destroyed the standard of living of the working class and driven small businesses out of business. Small business owners should think about a new pro-social direction for the economy and sit down with the working class to sort out modern relations of production and how the economic and political affairs of the country can be put on a direction that serves the public interest, the stability of the economy and general interests of society and not the narrow private interests of the big monopolies, which are proving to be so disruptive to the lives of the majority of Canadians.
Reference MaterialThe following graph shows the insecurity of workers within the existing chaotic capital-centred economy. While examining the graph it should be remembered that Canada's population during the same period grew by over one million people from both births and immigration requiring greater business activity. The graph does not indicate the actual fate of a disappeared business nor the turnover of businesses through "entry and exits" but only the aggregate result.
The abstract of a Statistics Canada document called Small, Medium-sized and Large Businesses in the Canadian Economy: Measuring Their Contribution to Gross Domestic Product in 2005 says, "The paper estimates the contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) made by small, medium- sized and large businesses in the Canadian [private] business sector for 2005. The contribution of large businesses with 500 or more employees to business-sector GDP was 45.7%. Small and medium-sized businesses, including unincorporated businesses, accounted for the other 54.3%." The paper concludes, "The large-sized business share of GDP varied across the components of GDP. Large businesses accounted for the majority of operating surplus [mainly enterprise and interest profit] and supplementary labour income, but for less than half of overall labour income and indirect taxes less subsidies. The share of GDP accounted for by large businesses varied widely by industry. Large firms had a substantial presence (more than 50% of GDP) in utilities (91.4%), information (81.2%), mining and oil and gas (74.5%), manufacturing (62.9%), and transportation and warehousing (52.4%), while they had little presence (less than 10% of GDP) in construction, other services, education, health, and agriculture, forestry, and fishing."
The results are misleading in that they do not take into account monopoly sub-contracting to small businesses. The value produced by company subcontracted workers is not considered added-value to the monopoly but a cost of production and therefore does not register as its own GDP. The GDP is attributed to the small contractor business yet without the activity of the monopoly, the subcontractor would not exist unless the sector were reorganized without the private monopoly at the centre. The employees of the subcontracted company are considered to be working for a small business and not the monopoly. The sum of labour income, profits and taxes of the smaller subcontracted company is calculated as GDP of the smaller company not the monopoly. Under the present direction of the economy, the work of the smaller company evaporates when the monopoly no longer requires its services. This has been particularly evident and painful during the recurring crises in the forestry sector during the last decade, where entire communities have been crippled with the closure or downsizing of a monopoly-controlled mill. The monopolies in the forestry sector have not started any other economic activity in the communities with the revenue from forestry when it was coming in and they have not considered building any other community businesses or developing new Canadian self-reliant forestry activity. Their mills mostly just disappear such as those of AbitibiBowater (Resolute Forest Products) in so many communities from coast to coast.
Industry Canada Statistics on Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMEs)
"In 2007, a little over four-fifths of SMEs (85 percent) operated in the services sector. The remaining SMEs were distributed among the goods-producing sector (15 percent) and the resource-based sector (11 percent) (see Table 1)." Note that Industry Canada reports far more SMEs than the Business Development Bank for the same year 2007. BDB uses figures from Statscan's Business Registry while Industry Canada uses a Survey on Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises from Statscan. No explanation for the large discrepancy could be found. Table
1:
Distribution
of
SMEs
by
Sector
in
2007
"The distribution of SMEs by size of firm (number of employees) varies considerably across different industries. Figure 2 reveals the distribution of SMEs by size and sector. Those in the agriculture/primary and professional services sectors are typically self-employed (0 employees) or are micro-enterprises (1 to 4 employees). By comparison, SMEs in the manufacturing, wholesale/retail and accommodation and food services sectors tend to have a higher percentage of firms in the larger size categories."
Figure 2:
Distribution of SMEs by Employment Size and Sector in 2007
Source: Statistics Canada, Business Register, December 2008 (Industry Canada calculations). Note: Figures may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Table
1:
Business-sector
gross
domestic
product
by
size
of
business,
The following material is from Statistics Canada: "Economic Insights — Firm Entry and Exit in Canada, 2000 to 2008"
"Entry and exit patterns over time "In every year during the 2000-to-2008 period, almost one firm in 10 had either just entered or was about to exit. Calculated in terms of the number of firms, the average yearly entry and exit rates were 10.8% and 9.0%, respectively. Although entrants and exiters are numerous, they account for a much smaller percentage of employment than of the total number of firms. The average entry and exit rates over the period when calculated as a percentage of total business sector employment were 1.9% and 1.6%, respectively. The difference between rates based on the number of firms versus employment reflects the relatively small size of entrants and exiters."
Total business sector employment lost per year due to business exits is 1.6%. The number of workers losing their employment on average per year through business exits is around 181,000. This number does not include layoffs for various reasons such as downsizing at businesses that do not exit the economy including the public service and public enterprises.
Industry Canada: Key Small Business Statistics - July 2009 "Statistics Canada defines a business enterprise as ‘a family of businesses under common ownership and control for which a set of consolidated financial statements is produced on an annual basis.' Statistics Canada's Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) covers employer businesses in Canada and reports the number of employees at the enterprise level. "Self-employed persons who are not on a payroll are not included in these figures, nor are employees in the following industries: agriculture, fishing and trapping, private household services, religious organizations and military personnel of defence services. Firms are grouped into seven size categories: those with fewer than 5 employees, from 5 to 19, from 20 to 49, from 50 to 99, from 100 to 299, from 300 to 499, and 500 and more employees." [Note: SEPH does not cover public enterprises or the public service. A companion survey called Public Sector Employment provides data on employment (number of employees, wages and salaries) in the public sector, i.e. the federal, provincial, territorial and local general governments, health and social service institutions, universities, colleges, vocational and trade institutions, school boards, and government business enterprises.] "According to SEPH data, on average in 2008, just over 5.2 million employees on payroll, or 48 percent of the total private sector labour force, worked for small enterprises (those with fewer than 100 employees) as shown in Table 5. More than 1.7 million, or 16 percent, worked for medium-sized enterprises (those with 100 to 499 employees). In total, therefore, SMEs employed just over 6.9 million, or 64 percent, of private sector employees covered by SEPH."
The following table shows the number of private sector
employees by
industry and firm size for 2008. Small businesses account for more than
two-thirds
of employment in five of the 18 industries. Table
5:
Number
of
Private
Sector
Employees
by
Industry
and
"Note: Compare with Labour Force Survey June 2012: Public employees — 3,609,000
"* Industries in the goods-producing sector. They account for 26.0 percent of total employment in the private sector and 24.3 percent of employment in small businesses. "The distribution of employment by size of firm varies considerably across industries. As shown in Table 5 and Figure 4, small businesses account for over two thirds of employment in five industries: the (non-institutional) health care sector (89 percent), other services (75 percent), the construction industry (74 percent), forestry (70 percent), and accommodation and food (65 percent). In three other industries, at least half of the workforce is employed by small businesses. Lastly, in terms of the total number of employees, industries that had the largest number of employees working for small firms were, in order of magnitude, retail trade (820,000), accommodation and food (700,000), construction (620,000), manufacturing (580,000), professional services (450,000) and wholesale trade (400,000). These industries alone accounted for 68 percent of all jobs in small firms in Canada.
Figure
4:
Number
of Private Sector Employees by 
"This figure depicts the data from Table 5. It is a bar graph showing the number of private sector employees by industry and firm size. Small businesses account for more than two-thirds of employment in five of the 18 industries."
"SME Perspective: Canadian Rural-Based Entrepreneurs", Small Business Quarterly, November 2007, vol. 9, no. 3, Industry Canada
"In 2004, rural-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represented 28 percent of the estimated 1.4 million SMEs in Canada, somewhat higher than rural Canada's proportion of the overall population (20 percent in rural areas versus 80 percent in urban areas) . Six percent of rural-based Canadians owned an SME compared with 4 percent of urban residents. The Prairie provinces had the highest share of rural-based SMEs (36 percent), followed by Quebec (24 percent), Ontario (21 percent), the Atlantic provinces (11 percent) and British Columbia (8 percent)."
Mexican Election Election Results Contested in the Face of Massive Irregularities and CorruptionThe official count in Mexico's July 1 presidential
election, carried out by
the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), concluded Friday. According to
these
results, presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto of the
Revolutionary
Institutional Party (PRI) got 38.21 per cent of the votes, some 6.6 per
cent
more than Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Progressive
Movement, who
received 31.59 per cent of the votes cast. The official result, based
on some
50.3 million ballots deemed valid, are said to include a
ballot-by-ballot recount
at more than half the polling stations. The voter turnout was reported
to be more than 60 per cent.
López Obrador reaffirmed that because of the
evidence of massive
irregularities and corruption on the part of the PRI, he will mount a
legal
challenge of the result, with an appeal to be filed next week. He said
he would
prove that illicit money was used to buy votes and secure Peña
Nieto's victory.
He gave the example of the PRI paying for votes with gift cards for the
Soriana supermarket chain. News agencies report that numerous videos
have
emerged of people claiming they received credit in exchange for voting
for the
PRI. The Progressive Movement also cites some 800 polling
stations where more
than 100 per cent of voters cast ballots, other polling stations that
never
opened and protests by voters who sold their votes to the PRI but were
not
paid. It is calling for investigations of any polling station with a
greater then 80 per cent turnout. A BBC correspondent pointed out, "It is not just Mr Lopez Obrador's team who are pushing for alleged irregularities to be investigated. There is a broad spread of people, not necessarily from the left, who feel that votes in their parts of Mexico were tampered with." In a July 6 interview with the Progressive Movement's publication, Regeneración, López Obrador said, "We are working to prove seriously and precisely how many votes they bought, where and how money was involved in this immoral and fraudulent operation." He emphasized the importance of "cleaning up the election, defending democracy, defending citizens' votes and not accepting any falsification of the elections." At a press conference shortly after the elections, where the IFE claimed that the preliminary results showed Peña Nieto had won, López Obrador made it clear that the election results need to be challenged because of the many irregularities that occurred during the campaign and on polling day itself. He pointed out that Peña Nieto campaigned using more than 5 billion pesos ($450 million) and the concerted support of the monopoly media and the oligarchy. (Agencies) Mass Actions Repudiate Election and Imposition of Peña Nieto as President Tijuana, July 4, 2012 Protests against electoral fraud are taking place across Mexico after the release of the "official" results of the July 1 presidential elections by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which declared Enrique Peña Nieto of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) the winner. A mass march is planned July 7 in Mexico City to express the people's rejection of the IFE and the Mexican oligarchy's imposition of Peña Nieto as the country's president. On July 2, the day after the election, more than 40,000 young people took to the streets to unequivocally repudiate the election results. Called by the student movement Yo Soy 132, thousands of young people marched through the capital and several other cities. Their chants included, "Peña Nieto, Out!"; "Mexico has voted, Nieto has not won!"; "Peña can you hear? The people do not want you!"; and "No to fraud!" In Mexico City, tens of thousands of young people marched through the capital's business district, and to the offices of the PRI and the IFE to denounce the electoral fraud orchestrated by the PRI, the mainstream media and the economic and political elite with the complicity and assistance of the IFE in various intrigues. Yo Soy 132 is calling on the youth to take actions to oppose the fraud and Peña Nieto's taking of the office of President this December. For its part, the movement will hold several consultations during the coming days and adopt its plan to fight for this purpose. Similar actions are taking place worldwide, including actions in support of the Mexican people in Montreal, Washington, D.C. and at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Montreal
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Enterprise collapse
compounds the wound of unemployment with
disruption of the local economy and wrecking of existing value and loss
of potential added-
value. Statistics Canada reports that one in ten enterprises of all
sizes "enters" the economy every year and almost one in ten "exits" the
economy per year. (The
official statistics for the period 2000 to 2008 show average yearly
entry and exit rates were 10.8 per cent and 9.0 per cent respectively.)
Such chaos can only
occur in a dehumanized social environment where the aim of the economy
is not to serve its members and large numbers of workers are constantly
unemployed
and at the ready disposal of capital.
A recent study of the
Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a
federal government enterprise, reports that during a four year period
from 2007 to
2010, 527 medium-sized companies that employ between 100 and 499
workers disappeared from Statistics Canada's business register of
private enterprises.
Sudden unemployment, which has happened to many
workers during the
current crises is dreadful, a form of shock and awe against the entire
working class.
Owners of capital and their political representatives are using the
recurring crises and failure of capitalism to demand a significant
lowering of the Canadian
standard of living.
Every analysis of the
economy originating in universities,
think-tanks, Statistics Canada or official politics is centred on the
fate of capital and its owners.
Officially recognized economists begin their research from a hypothesis
based on the fate of capital. Success and failure are predicated on the
fate of capital
while all other factors are collateral and an alternative direction is
never considered or discussed.
The modern socialized mass
industrial economy requires a broad aim
that does not begin from the particular private interests of owners of
capital in
competition with other private interests and in contradiction with the
public interest, the actual producers and general interests of society.
The economy is too
complex, diverse, socialized and interrelated for the narrow aim of
owners of capital who are obsessed with the biggest and fastest
possible return on their private
investment.
 Mexico City, July 5, 2012: "Institute of Electoral Fraud -- you are the real danger to Mexico!" |
Furthermore, polls were manipulated to create the perception of a massive victory for Peña Nieto. Article 41 of the Constitution says that the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) is required to provide the assurance of legality, independence, objectivity and impartiality in the election. None of this happened in the 2012 elections. In reality, the IFE is an instrument of control to ensure that the PRIAN (PRI and PAN) maintain power. The IFE acted as an instrument of the PRI and PAN through commissioners selected by the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house, dominated by the PRI and PAN) who acted in a manner to promote Peña Nieto and weaken López Obrador using fraudulent poll results which showed Nieto had an overwhelming lead in the campaign.
Crimes committed by the PRI during the election are coming to light. Vote-buying took place in the following ways: Gift cards worth 1,000 pesos at the Soriana supermarket chain were distributed in the State of Mexico, as were telephone calling cards valid as of June 28 with a balance of 100 pesos, which required callers to listen to a message from Nieto. Monex cards, a form of electronic currency, were provided in varying amounts by the PRI to some of its party's representatives. The cards could be redeemed for building equipment or cement, paving stones, household effects and groceries.
In the State of Mexico, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Oaxaca, people denounced the distribution of groceries and other goods with the intent of influencing the vote. In Baja California, the Progressive Movement discovered three trucks: two filled with bags of groceries and one with goods yet to be bagged. In Lerma, State of Mexico, a truck loaded with more than 500 boxes of school supplies to be distributed by the PRI in the municipality of Chapultepec was reported to authorities. In San Pedro Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, vehicles carrying PRI propaganda, tins of sardines, cooking oil, soup and milk, along with a box containing 200 ballots were intercepted. Also in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, PRI members stopped by supporters of the Progressive Movement were caught with three truckloads of ballots, along with building materials and groceries. These are but a few examples. This massive buying and theft of votes was done throughout the country.
The election was organized by the PRI to ensure Peña Nieto's triumph at any cost, without any concern for violating the law. Their strategy, known as "Operation Briefcase," was orchestrated by the PRI to buy votes by calling on each of their supporters to convince 10 people to vote for the PRI candidate in exchange for groceries or building materials. "Operation Agora," carried out with support from the National Union of Teachers and its leader Elba Esther Gordillo, involved the payout of $12 million for the manipulation and falsification of votes to guarantee five million votes for the PRI candidate. Operation Agora was carried out by more than 28,000 people.
Many anomalies were reported in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata in the state of Tabasco. An unidentified woman handed over pre-filled ballot papers to Pedro Sala, the host of the radio program "Caminando por mi Pueblo." The woman explained that these ballots were to be used by the PRI.
On June 8, duplicate ballots were found in Oaxaca by representatives of the Labour Party, amongst papers corresponding to District 8.
On June 9, more duplicate
ballots were discovered in Tlacolula de
Matamoros, Oaxaca, corresponding to District 4. Missing ballots have
been
reported from other bundles in the same district.
On June 12, residents of San Pedro Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, discovered 100 ballots already marked for the PRI's Senate candidate Fidel Fernández in the districts of Serdan and Ajalpan in the candidate's car.
On June 13, counterfeit ballots were found in the State of Mexico, and in District 2 in Zacatecas and Sonora.
On June 15, 5,000 counterfeit ballots were found in District 5 and 122,000 in Tabasco.
On June 17, other counterfeit ballot papers were found in the town of Jerez, Zacatecas and Querétaro.
On June 18, counterfeit ballots were found in the municipality of Cadereyta.
On June 21, 35,000 more counterfeit ballots were found in Oaxaca and Puebla.
On June 27, a van belonging to the PRI was found transporting ballot boxes and IFE election materials in Arandas, Jalisco.
 Tijuana, July 4, 2012: "Peña is not my president!" |
On June 30, ballots in favour of Peña Nieto were discovered in Cancun.
Peña Nieto was imposed as president in one of the dirtiest elections ever held, where the PRI engaged in all manner of intrigues. The NGO "In a Democracy Everyone Counts" has documented 180 violations of electoral law and presented them to the authorities concerned. The violations concern the buying of votes in exchange for access to government programs and the use of public funds for electoral purposes.
This dirty campaign took place without any attempt by
the IFE to stop it.
Instead, the television station Channel 11 broadcast unattributed
advertisements
from June 24 to 27, which claimed that six out of ten Mexicans would
not
vote for López Obrador. The station's communication director
said that the
spot in question had been sent to it by the IFE along with a note
requesting
that it be broadcast.
Mexican youth hold demonstration outside the offices of television network Televisa in Mexico City, July 5, 2012.
Threats were also used to violate peoples' right to freedom of expression. Goon squads were used in various regions of Mexico to force the population to support the PRI and to quell dissent. Before the elections, the movement Yo Soy 132 denounced 22 cases of intimidation against its members.
 Mexico City, July 5, 2012: "Total repudiation of electoral fraud!" |
In the face of these fraudulent activities, it was as if the IFE neither saw nor heard anything. Furthermore, on June 11, IFE trainers were caught distributing PRI and Peña Nieto propaganda inside the Council Chamber of District 14 of Mexico City. This came to light because they were reported by several citizens who were working as polling station staff.
Vote manipulation also took place in many workplaces. At the Federal Electricity Company in Hidalgo, workers reported threats of dismissal for not voting for the PRI.
In a further brazen violation of the electoral law, text messages were sent out across the country on election day inviting people to vote for Nieto and Green Party candidates. Some messages mentioned the party name while others referenced promises made during the campaign such as medical coupons, indefinite imprisonment for kidnappers, etc.
On the day of the vote, every aspect of the process was filled with irregularities, from the installation of polling stations, the subsequent counting of votes and the transport of ballot boxes to the district councils. In many cases the ballot boxes were submitted open and unsealed, with variations in the number of votes registered by the IFE. All of this clearly means that the results released are not reliable.
Finally, with less than 10 per cent of votes counted by the IFE's preliminary election results program, Leonardo Valdés Zurita, President of the IFE, announced victory for Peña Nieto on national television with great fanfare. This was based on the results of preliminary poll numbers that differed from those on the IFE's official site. Subsequently, outgoing President of Mexico Felipe Calderón was quick to congratulate Peña Nieto who the media immediately presented as the elected president, despite not actually being so.
By the time 42.85 per cent of ballots had been counted, 36.74 per cent of the votes were awarded to Peña Nieto, versus 33.19 per cent for López Obrador. This difference of 3.55 per cent was very different from the seven per cent difference in the preliminary count reported by Valdés Zurita.
There is no doubt that López Obrador and the Progressive Movement were much stronger and better organized by the end of this campaign than in 2006 as evidenced by the spectacular mobilization of the youth on the final day of the campaign. In particular, the youth movement Yo Soy 132 has been in constant action during the campaign and since the announcement of the election results on July 2.
 Tijuana, July 4, 2012: "Effective suffrage! No to the imposition [of Peña Nieto]!" |
All of the society is yearning for a democratization of
the media and
public life and as a result, a large movement has developed in Mexico
not only
to oppose the election fraud but also for the exercise of truly popular
sovereignty. Step by step we have advanced, overcoming many obstacles.
We
are living in a crucial time in which the future of Mexico is at stake.
The
Mexican people must step up their organizing and mobilization in order
to
achieve the kind of transformation that the country requires. It's time
to
redouble our efforts and not fall into pessimism. Change has begun. Our
consciousness and organization have made us stronger as has the
involvement
of the youth. The struggle continues!
On June 27, 2012, some two million people marched to the Zocalo, Mexico City's central square, to demand profound changes to the country's social and political arrangements and to express their support for the presidential candidate of the country's democratic and progressive forces, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
* Pablo Moctezuma Barragán is editor of Mexteki and spokesperson for the Congress of Sovereignty.
(Translation from the Spanish by TML. Photos: MaloMalverde, Psicoloco)
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