From the Coffee Farms of Chiapas to the Shrimp Farms of the Sinaloan Coast, One Common Struggle

By Kristin Bricker
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Sinaloa

October 11, 2006

After its five-month suspension, the Other Campaign is underway once again in the coastal state of Sinaloa. The first stop in this state was the municipality of Escuinapa, where fishermen are fighting for their right to work, their dignity, and their very survival.

As in many parts of Sinaloa, fishing and shrimping is the way of life in the town of Teacapan, Escuinapa. Its significance was underlined during lunch, when Teacapan adherents to the Other Campaign treated the caravan to a local specialty: shrimp tamales (something quite strange for many of us who are used to bean and chicken tamales). Because fishing is so culturally important in Sinaloa, it is a pivotal political organizing focus. In a country were many of the workers’ unions are still run by the state, Sinaloan fishermen’s union representatives have been democratically elected since 1981 (when the Institutional Revolutionary Party still held Mexico in an iron grip).

According to Joventino Ramos, a member of the Regional Fishing Front, about 400 ships catch about 1,200 tons of fish daily in the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican government uses this over-fishing by large corporations to impose strict limits on small fishermen and their cooperatives. Since 1991, “Law 02” has made it difficult, if not impossible, for them to obtain permission from the government to fish in the very same waters they’ve fished for over 100 years. Law 02 prohibits fishing and shrimping by ships that weigh less than ten tons because their smaller size puts the fishermen’s lives “at risk.” But Ramos argues that rather than protecting fishermen, the government acts as “an accomplice to the huge fishing companies, the private sector, and the bourgeoisie.” Escuinapan fishermen note that they were never consulted about their supposed wellbeing, and that the government ignores their need to provide food for their families.

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