Dear Colleague, I am writing to ask you to sign a letter of support for my colleague and co-researcher, Mexican intellectual and trade union activist, Edur Velasco Arregui, who has been expelled for political reasons from the SNI (National System of Researchers) in Mexico. This expulsion has many severe consequences for Edur (financial, job security, and health coverage) and is part of the effort of the Mexican government to intimidate those who oppose by actions as well as words its authoritarian, repressive and neoliberal path. Edur’s history of opposition to the regime, his academic record, and circumstances surrounding the case are presented in the accompanying attachment, “Political Retaliation against a Mexican Intellectual: The Case of Dr. Edur Velasco Arregui.” The text of the letter is below. Initial signers of the letter include Noam Chomsky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Ariel Dorfman (Chilean novelist and playwright, Duke University), José Raúl Vera López (Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico), Marcel van der Linden ( Research Director, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam), Leo Panitch (Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science, York University), Nelson Lichtenstein (MacArthur Foundation Chair in History & Director, Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy, University of California, Santa Barbara), Porfirio Muñoz Ledo (Mexico’s Secretary of Labor from 1972-1975 and Mexico’s UN Ambassador 1978-1985), and Stephanie Ross (President, Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies). A full list of initial signers is appended to the letter. Please let me know if you would like to sign the open letter, and provide your institutional affiliation, profession, or other way of identifying yourself as well, if you like. We will indicate that institutions are for identification purposes only. We will present the letter to: Dra. Julia Tagüeña Parga [ Directora Adjunta de Desarrollo Científico, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Deputy Director of Scientific Development, National Council for Science and Technology)] José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores de Mexico [Mexican Foreign Minister] To sign, please send an email to me at , with your name and your institutional affiliation (for identification purpose only), and any comment(s) you wish to add. Please also indicate whether or not we may publicize your name in print and/or on the internet. Thank you! Richard Roman, Ph. D. Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto Associate Fellow, Centre for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean, York University Founding Fellow, Senior College, University of Toronto Co-author of Continental Crucible: Big Business, Workers and Unions in the Transformation of North America (2013) [http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/Continental-Crucible/] http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/handbook4.htm#ROMAN