Mexico: Dissident Teachers Launch New Round of Protests

Mexico's dissident teachers' movement has stepped up its protests in recent days against President Enrique Peña Nieto's education reforms. The National Teachers Coordinating Committee (CNTE) charges that the reforms, which many believe were hastily implemented under pressure from corporate interests, are a step toward privatizing education and undermine teachers' labor rights. Authorities had suspended the controversial standardized teacher evaluations, which critics charge fail to take regional differences and development and poverty levels into account, right before the June 7 mid-terms elections so as to defuse the movement to boycott the vote, and immediately the following day reinstated them. The teachers movement, meanwhile, has broadened its demands and outlook to encompass an overall vision for remaking Mexican society. Clayton Conn reports from Mexico City. teleSUR