The Other Campaign Takes Over Juárez-El Paso International Bridge in Solidarity with Oaxaca

The San Antonio Express News reports today, based on accounts from the Spanish-language wire service, that:

MATAMOROS, Mexico — A San Antonio-based labor rights activist led a protest of about 100 people here Saturday [Nov. 4] at an international bridge. They yelled out in support of the striking teachers in Oaxaca and against a border wall, Notimex reported.

Part of the group crossed into Brownsville via the Gateway International Bridge ....

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, hundreds of people from both sides of the border followed Zapatista Subcommander Marcos to the middle of the Stanton/Lerdo international bridge connecting Juarez and El Paso to also raise a voice of protest against the oppression in Oaxaca, the planned border “wall,” and to reaffirm solidarity with the struggles for social justice across the Americas.

Mexican police and U.S. law enforcers and military were out in force during Delegate Zero’s symbolic act of protest on the bridge. The bellicose display included a Customs and Border Protection helicopter packed with armed men buzzing the crowd of listeners and media folks.

A similar display of muscle also appears to have been on hand in Brownsville, Texas.

The Express News report continues:

… According to the Notimex report, the crowd of protesters was led by Marta Ojeda of the San Antonio-based Coalition for Justice in Maquiladoras, which had a conference in Matamoros since Wednesday.

"We crossed and protested 'over there,'" Ojeda said. "Because as maquiladora industry workers, we are migrants and we are bothered by the construction of this barrier that we consider a criminal act."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounded up the demonstrators who traveled about 50 feet across the border and generally kept order, according to the report.

Going forward, our fearless leaders of “order” should keep a basic law of political physics in mind along the border. They can build a wall along the grand river, but they can’t stop the current of that river, not with a dam made of guns and helicopters.

Eventually, the force of the current will cause the dam to give way and the waters of the great river will overflow all barriers. In that light, it would be wise for them to respect the fury of that current and to build more bridges between the people on both sides of that river.