Facing Violence from the President,  Eleven Women Workers from the SME Begin a Hunger Strike
 
They warn that they will not give up unitl Calderon gives them an answer.
 
By Guadalupe Cruz Jaimes
 
Mexico City, Nov. 23rd.-- More than 40 days after the closing of "Luz y Fuerza del Centro" (LFy C), eleven women electricians begin a hunger strike in protest of the presidencial decree that closed the semi-nationalized electricity company and left four thousand women and forty thousand men without employment.  The women warn that the strike will not end until the federal government offers them a solution.
 
"This will be our new home until the federal government gives us a solution" said Mónica Jiménez, the coordinator of the Women Electricians in Resistance Movement,  in the entrance to the Federeal Electricity Comission (CFE). She was accompanied by dozens of workers from the LFyC, including Martín Esparza, the director of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, SME (Mexican Electricians Union).
 
The Women Electricians in Resistance encampment was created in front of the offices of the Federal Electricity Comision, located on the corner of Insurgentes and Paseo de la Reforma, in Mexico City.
 
"Women on Hunger Strike for Dignity" said the signs that were hung from entrance to the offices.  "We are ready for anything, even the worst consecuences," said Mónica Jiménez during a protest that was held before the women entered the offices.
 
It is important to note that this past October 11th, the president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, dcreed that LFyC be disappeared as a "short term fix" to the economic crisis, which terminated nearly 44 thousand jobs in Mexico City, the state of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, and Hidalgo.
 
In the protest, nearly 300 electricians shouted to the women with one vioce "You are not alone! You are not alone!".  Mónica Jiménez explained that their protest would be completely peaceful and that any repression or violence would be from the police and the federal government.  She also put the responsibility on the president for any harm done to the health of the women, who will begin the strike at 2:00pm today.
 
"We are not leaving until Calderon gives us an answer!" They claimed that "it was not possible" that nearly 40 days after the begining of the conflict, the president continues to refuse dialogue and resolve the conflict with the workers, whose principal demand is the resistitution of their jobs.
 
Martín Esparza called the efforts of the women a "dignified" move and a "sacrifice" in defense of the company and "a brave example in our historic struggle."

Cecelia Figueroa, one of the leaders of the Women Electricians in Resistance Movement, declared that women workers (las Smeitas) would have a presence at the offices 24 hours a day in order the guard the women on strike.  The workers organized morning, afternoon, and night guard shifts.

Figueroa also announced that workers will stay in two houses in front of the offices of the Electricity Comission in order to serve the needs of the "brave" women on strike, which begun just hours before the federal legislative decides whether or not to intervene and change the presidents decree.

She also announced that in commemoration of the international day to stop violence against women (November 25th), the women would hold a protest outside of the offices to denounce the violence from the federal government.

"Can a government be any more violent to women than by firing four thousand women, including women are the heads of their families?" Figueroa asked in front of dozens of women and men members of the SME.