Deepest Red
10-08-2006, 05:34 PM
What your brainwashing fox news in yankee land isn't showing :)
http://www.freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/enoaxaca1.jpg
Every year in May, on “Teachers’ Day” in Mexico, teachers in the southern state of Oaxaca set up a plantón (encampment) in the zócalo (town square) of the state’s capital city for a week or two, demanding better work conditions and improvements to the decrepit educational system in what is effectively a strike. In past years, they’ve gotten a small raise and returned to work. This year their strike continued for several weeks, with the teachers’ refusing to leave the zócalo until their demands were met.
On June 14, Oaxaca’s governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, backed by the state legislature which is made up of members of the three main political parties (PRI, PRD and PAN), ordered the forceful destruction of the teachers’ plantón.
At dawn, while the teachers and their supporters slept, thousands of heavily armed members of the police stormed the zócalo, while others dropped pepper grenades from helicopters flying overhead. The police beat strikers and their supporters with clubs and fired canisters or tear gas while destroying the tents that made up the encampment. They effectively forced most of the people from the town’s square, but it wouldn’t last for long.
Soon after, the 3,000 or so people dispersed from the zócalo returned with thousands of supporters – more teachers, college students and other workers and farmers – from the surrounding area. This reorganized force, armed with only sticks and stones, heroically recaptured the zócalo from the strike-breaking police in a long and bloody battle. By the end of the day, hundreds of people had been seriously injured, and a new encampment was being set up.
Those occupying the town square began to arm themselves and construct barricades in the streets in preparation of another attack.
On June 17, the Oaxacan local of the Mexican National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE), which represents most of the teachers, held the first “Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca” (APPO). The Assembly was attended 170 people representing 85 organizations as well as union members, political activists, human rights organizations, parents, poor farmers and workers from around the state.
APPO added to the list of demands the immediate and complete ouster of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO), and they made it clear that they were serious. In its strike negotiations with the teachers, the federal Department of the Interior refused to even discuss the ouster of URO, since it “isn’t an educational issue.” The teachers refused to accept anything less.
After negotiations hit a dead end, APPO announced that they would create their own government, and have since done exactly that.
APPO effectively became the governing body of the city of Oaxaca and some surrounding areas. It is a truly democratic body, made up of local workers and farmers – including members of many different unions and political organizations. Decisions are reached after discussion, debate and approval by the members. For the first time in Oaxaca, real majority rule exists.
APPO also demanded the freedom of all political prisons, and pledged to fight for the ouster of the leaders of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the state government.
Not long after the formation of APPO, the teachers and their growing number of supporters took over several buildings in the city, including police stations and government buildings. At one point, thousands of women, fed up with the lies of the media, marched on the Oaxacan Corporation of Radio and Television on August 1, and took control of Channel 9. “We know that through this media, they misinform the people and never give voice for people to speak the truth about the reality we live in,” they said. For several weeks, the channel operated as a tool of the working and farming majority, instead of in the interests of the rich elite that controls capitalist society. A number of people came or called in to talk about the poor conditions in which they live, and to denounce the government and the exploitative economic system they live under. The station also ran a documentary showing the terrible conditions the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation. The government, which like all capitalist governments talks about “free speech” all the time, moved quickly to destroy it when it actually came into being. On August 20, government forces and right-wing mercenaries launched an attack on the station and its antenna, making sure it could no longer broadcast. In response, APPO called for increased resistance, and for the reinforcement of the encampment.
Another government attack on August 22 prompted a strong response. The barricades were extended further from the city’s center, fireworks were set off, and people got into position to defend themselves. They threw rocks and bricks and police who circled the city in armored cars and made burning barricades of trees and tires. After a few hours, the courageous workers and farmers seized 12 radio stations. They were able to retain control of 2 of the station, which they are still broadcasting from today.
Workers and farmers from in and around the city brought, and continue to bring food and other necessities to those maintaining the encampment. The teachers and their supporters have also taken necessities from passing tractor trailers.
Throughout late August and early September, several demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people took place across the state and country in defense of the struggle in Oaxaca.
During the same period, municipal town halls across the state of Oaxaca were taken over by workers and farmers inspired by the events in the city of Oaxaca. In San Blas Atempa, where a popular uprising occurred earlier in the year, local workers and farmers once again took over the municipal building.
On September 3, APPO, by then made up of 193 delegates of different organizations, declared URO banned from the state of Oaxaca. He has not made his whereabouts public since.
A few weeks later, the Oaxacan State Congress drafted a call to Mexican President Vicente Fox demanding that the army be brought out to smash the uprising and “restore law and order.”
Around the same time, local businesses closed their doors and demanded that the federal government end the strike with force. Their move backfired, and served only to anger the resisters. The workers and farmers maintaining the plantón promised to burn down every business in the city if the local bosses interfere with their struggle.
In the last days of September, President Fox and Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, announced that, after consultation with Felipe Calderón – who was recently “elected” president in a fraudulent election – they are ready to send the Federal Preventive Police into the city of Oaxaca to “reestablish order, open up the highways, and guarantee free movement” if required. The Mexico’s Central Intelligence Agency (CISEN) has also suggested it could move into the city and arrest the leaders of APPO.
All of this, along with recent reports of sightings of armed men and low flying police helicopters, point to the direct possibility, and serious threat of an even bloodier attack on the heroic Oaxacan brothers and sisters than the one that occurred earlier.
There have also been reports that a group of people calling themselves guerrillas have emerged in the mountains, and have handed out leaflets saying they are ready to start an armed struggle in support of the struggle in Oaxaca. APPO has denounced these so-called guerrillas, pointing to their brand new camoflauge clothes, boots and weapons – things most workers and farmers in the area couldn’t afford – and saying they are most likely agents of the government who are trying to create justification for an attack by the army.
The Oaxaca Commune
The form the popular struggle has taken, and the creation of APPO, have drawn comparisons to the world’s first real uprising of workers and farmers: the Paris Commune; and to one of the precursors of the creation of the USSR: the St. Petersburg Soviet. And rightly so!
The Paris Commune was created by an uprising of the workers within Paris after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War. The workers wanted to be self-governing, and they wanted a more just way to create and distribute goods.
They created a council of 92 delegates who conveyed the wishes of the people who elected them. These delegates came from a number of political outlooks, from communism to anarchism to reformism – just like APPO. They abolished rent, interest on debts, long work hours and the death penalty. They created free public schools, public eating places and first aid stations.
After only one week of existence, the Commune came under attack from the army. After two months it had been destroyed, and most of those who participated in it were tortured, murdered or both. Over 30,000 people were massacred.
Karl Marx, the “father” of modern revolutionary communist theory recognized that the Paris Commune was an example of socialism – real democracy, based on the rule of the working majority, with an economy organized to meet human need instead of creating profits for a handful of business owners – but he was also critical of some of the Communards’ actions, which lead to their eventual defeat.
Mainly, Marx said that the Communards should have seized the gold from the bank (which they never touched) and that they should have extended their struggle to the rest of the country, instead of allowing the President and the rest of the government to flee to another city and regroup.
The St. Petersburg Soviet (or workers’ council) was born of the ill-fated 1905 anti-Czarist revolution that took place in the Russian Empire.
It was in many ways similar to the Paris Commune, but it also had its own unique characteristics.
It was originally created to coordinate workers’ strike activities, but it, along with several other soviets that arose, soon grew into a legitimate governing body of working people, rivaling the rule of Nicholas II.
The St. Petersburg Soviet was eventually crushed by the Russian army, and its leaders were imprisoned.
After the overthrow of the Nicholas II in the revolution of 1917, the soviets were reestablished, leading to the eventual establishment of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
It should be noted that the Paris Commune lasted 64 days and the St. Petersburg Soviet lasted about 50 days, while, so far, the Oaxaca Commune has lasted over 140.
Roots of the rebellion
The roots of the uprising in Oaxaca lie in the extreme suffering of the workers and farmers there, and in the new awakening of the oppressed people of the world, which is expressed in popular struggles emerging everywhere.
The state of Oaxaca is the second poorest in Mexico. Almost 80 percent of the people of Oaxaca live in extreme poverty. Over 66 percent of families survive on less than 8 U.S. dollars a day. The state’s numerous indigenous people are victims of hundreds of years of racism. In a recent visit to Oaxaca, the International Federation of Human Rights found that the courts there regularly “criminaliz[e] those in the social opposition by fabricating evidence [against them].” The state is also plagued with regular election fraud and extremely high levels of government corruption. The rest of Mexico isn’t much better. After years of neocolonial exploitation and plunder, close to 40% of the total population is forced to dwell in poverty, and the recent presidential elections where a complete and total sham.
Today, workers and farmers from Venezuela to the United States, from China to France are fighting for their liberation at a level not seen in decades. The Oaxacan rebellion is a continuance of that fight.
Defend the Oaxaca Commune, extend the struggle!
The workers and farmers of the Oaxaca Commune must learn from the victories and defeats of the past.
Some steps have already been taken. For instance, a march from the city Oaxaca to Mexico City began on September 21, with the aim of both defending the uprising and spreading it to the rest of the country. APPO has also correctly tied their struggle in with the struggle of the oppressed Palestinian people. These are positive steps, but they alone aren’t enough.
The Oaxaca Communards must arm themselves and continue to prepare to for self-defense. At the same time, they must do everything in their power, including sending delegates to other cities and building for a nation-wide general strike, to popularize their struggle and ferment other similar uprisings. Every commune that is created in Mexico gives the Oaxaca Commune more room to breathe, so that it can more firmly establish itself.
The Communards must also learn from the Paris Commune, and approach this fight with a thoroughly revolutionary outlook. Most of the Communards know that the capitalist system of exploitation cannot be reformed in a way that will end the poverty and misery of Oaxacan workers and farmers. The only way to this end human suffering is to overthrow the capitalist system itself, and build a new, socialist system on the basis of the newly formed Communes. This will require a life or death struggle, but as the last few months have shown, victory is possible! And this is already a life or death struggle, because allowing the Commune to be defeated may very well mean a slaughter of thousands of workers and farmers, similar to the massacre that took place after the defeat of the Paris Commune. Any illusions of a possible victory without the overthrow of this oppressive system and the government that represents it must be rapidly done away with.
All three major parties in Mexico, the PRI, PAN and PRD, have in one way or another worked to smash this popular struggle. The workers and farmers have created their own governing body in APPO, and this must strengthened and improved.
As well, workers and farmers around the world must see that this struggle is a struggle of all workers, and we must take action accordingly! The Oaxaca Commune was born of a strike by teachers for better work conditions and to defend and improve public education. Similar strikes have taken place recently in Detroit, Michigan and Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania in the U.S. As working people, our fights against the bosses are all related, and we must realize that!
In the U.S., demonstrations and pickets of Mexican consulates have already taken place in Los Angeles and New York, in defense of the Oaxacan teachers and their supporters.
The Free People’s Movement calls for more pickets, and for unions and other groups of working people to pass resolutions in defense of the Oaxacan workers and farmers who are struggling for a better tomorrow. It must be made clear that any attack on the Oaxacan Commune will result in action being taken by working people all over the world. We also call for workers from Mexico and around the world to create workers’ defense guards to help stave off attack in the city of Oaxaca, and wherever else in the country similar communes arise.
Committees to publicize the Oaxacan struggle and fight for its defense should also be formed. The FPM seeks to unite with our working and farming brothers and sisters around the world to create such committees.
The Oaxacan Communards must do everything they can to extend their struggle to the rest of Mexico, and across the borders into the U.S. and Central America. The extension of the struggle to the Mexican populations of the Southwestern United States, or to the workers and farmers of Guatemala or Belize would be a major victory for all workers. Those of us outside of Mexico must do everything we can in defense of the Communards, while working to establish real democracy in our own countries.
Long live the Oaxacan workers’ and farmers’ heroic struggle! Long live APPO! Defend the Oaxaca Commune, and extend the fight to the rest of Mexico, and the world! Create two, three, many Oaxacas!
http://www.freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/enoaxaca1.jpg
Every year in May, on “Teachers’ Day” in Mexico, teachers in the southern state of Oaxaca set up a plantón (encampment) in the zócalo (town square) of the state’s capital city for a week or two, demanding better work conditions and improvements to the decrepit educational system in what is effectively a strike. In past years, they’ve gotten a small raise and returned to work. This year their strike continued for several weeks, with the teachers’ refusing to leave the zócalo until their demands were met.
On June 14, Oaxaca’s governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, backed by the state legislature which is made up of members of the three main political parties (PRI, PRD and PAN), ordered the forceful destruction of the teachers’ plantón.
At dawn, while the teachers and their supporters slept, thousands of heavily armed members of the police stormed the zócalo, while others dropped pepper grenades from helicopters flying overhead. The police beat strikers and their supporters with clubs and fired canisters or tear gas while destroying the tents that made up the encampment. They effectively forced most of the people from the town’s square, but it wouldn’t last for long.
Soon after, the 3,000 or so people dispersed from the zócalo returned with thousands of supporters – more teachers, college students and other workers and farmers – from the surrounding area. This reorganized force, armed with only sticks and stones, heroically recaptured the zócalo from the strike-breaking police in a long and bloody battle. By the end of the day, hundreds of people had been seriously injured, and a new encampment was being set up.
Those occupying the town square began to arm themselves and construct barricades in the streets in preparation of another attack.
On June 17, the Oaxacan local of the Mexican National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE), which represents most of the teachers, held the first “Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca” (APPO). The Assembly was attended 170 people representing 85 organizations as well as union members, political activists, human rights organizations, parents, poor farmers and workers from around the state.
APPO added to the list of demands the immediate and complete ouster of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO), and they made it clear that they were serious. In its strike negotiations with the teachers, the federal Department of the Interior refused to even discuss the ouster of URO, since it “isn’t an educational issue.” The teachers refused to accept anything less.
After negotiations hit a dead end, APPO announced that they would create their own government, and have since done exactly that.
APPO effectively became the governing body of the city of Oaxaca and some surrounding areas. It is a truly democratic body, made up of local workers and farmers – including members of many different unions and political organizations. Decisions are reached after discussion, debate and approval by the members. For the first time in Oaxaca, real majority rule exists.
APPO also demanded the freedom of all political prisons, and pledged to fight for the ouster of the leaders of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the state government.
Not long after the formation of APPO, the teachers and their growing number of supporters took over several buildings in the city, including police stations and government buildings. At one point, thousands of women, fed up with the lies of the media, marched on the Oaxacan Corporation of Radio and Television on August 1, and took control of Channel 9. “We know that through this media, they misinform the people and never give voice for people to speak the truth about the reality we live in,” they said. For several weeks, the channel operated as a tool of the working and farming majority, instead of in the interests of the rich elite that controls capitalist society. A number of people came or called in to talk about the poor conditions in which they live, and to denounce the government and the exploitative economic system they live under. The station also ran a documentary showing the terrible conditions the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation. The government, which like all capitalist governments talks about “free speech” all the time, moved quickly to destroy it when it actually came into being. On August 20, government forces and right-wing mercenaries launched an attack on the station and its antenna, making sure it could no longer broadcast. In response, APPO called for increased resistance, and for the reinforcement of the encampment.
Another government attack on August 22 prompted a strong response. The barricades were extended further from the city’s center, fireworks were set off, and people got into position to defend themselves. They threw rocks and bricks and police who circled the city in armored cars and made burning barricades of trees and tires. After a few hours, the courageous workers and farmers seized 12 radio stations. They were able to retain control of 2 of the station, which they are still broadcasting from today.
Workers and farmers from in and around the city brought, and continue to bring food and other necessities to those maintaining the encampment. The teachers and their supporters have also taken necessities from passing tractor trailers.
Throughout late August and early September, several demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people took place across the state and country in defense of the struggle in Oaxaca.
During the same period, municipal town halls across the state of Oaxaca were taken over by workers and farmers inspired by the events in the city of Oaxaca. In San Blas Atempa, where a popular uprising occurred earlier in the year, local workers and farmers once again took over the municipal building.
On September 3, APPO, by then made up of 193 delegates of different organizations, declared URO banned from the state of Oaxaca. He has not made his whereabouts public since.
A few weeks later, the Oaxacan State Congress drafted a call to Mexican President Vicente Fox demanding that the army be brought out to smash the uprising and “restore law and order.”
Around the same time, local businesses closed their doors and demanded that the federal government end the strike with force. Their move backfired, and served only to anger the resisters. The workers and farmers maintaining the plantón promised to burn down every business in the city if the local bosses interfere with their struggle.
In the last days of September, President Fox and Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, announced that, after consultation with Felipe Calderón – who was recently “elected” president in a fraudulent election – they are ready to send the Federal Preventive Police into the city of Oaxaca to “reestablish order, open up the highways, and guarantee free movement” if required. The Mexico’s Central Intelligence Agency (CISEN) has also suggested it could move into the city and arrest the leaders of APPO.
All of this, along with recent reports of sightings of armed men and low flying police helicopters, point to the direct possibility, and serious threat of an even bloodier attack on the heroic Oaxacan brothers and sisters than the one that occurred earlier.
There have also been reports that a group of people calling themselves guerrillas have emerged in the mountains, and have handed out leaflets saying they are ready to start an armed struggle in support of the struggle in Oaxaca. APPO has denounced these so-called guerrillas, pointing to their brand new camoflauge clothes, boots and weapons – things most workers and farmers in the area couldn’t afford – and saying they are most likely agents of the government who are trying to create justification for an attack by the army.
The Oaxaca Commune
The form the popular struggle has taken, and the creation of APPO, have drawn comparisons to the world’s first real uprising of workers and farmers: the Paris Commune; and to one of the precursors of the creation of the USSR: the St. Petersburg Soviet. And rightly so!
The Paris Commune was created by an uprising of the workers within Paris after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War. The workers wanted to be self-governing, and they wanted a more just way to create and distribute goods.
They created a council of 92 delegates who conveyed the wishes of the people who elected them. These delegates came from a number of political outlooks, from communism to anarchism to reformism – just like APPO. They abolished rent, interest on debts, long work hours and the death penalty. They created free public schools, public eating places and first aid stations.
After only one week of existence, the Commune came under attack from the army. After two months it had been destroyed, and most of those who participated in it were tortured, murdered or both. Over 30,000 people were massacred.
Karl Marx, the “father” of modern revolutionary communist theory recognized that the Paris Commune was an example of socialism – real democracy, based on the rule of the working majority, with an economy organized to meet human need instead of creating profits for a handful of business owners – but he was also critical of some of the Communards’ actions, which lead to their eventual defeat.
Mainly, Marx said that the Communards should have seized the gold from the bank (which they never touched) and that they should have extended their struggle to the rest of the country, instead of allowing the President and the rest of the government to flee to another city and regroup.
The St. Petersburg Soviet (or workers’ council) was born of the ill-fated 1905 anti-Czarist revolution that took place in the Russian Empire.
It was in many ways similar to the Paris Commune, but it also had its own unique characteristics.
It was originally created to coordinate workers’ strike activities, but it, along with several other soviets that arose, soon grew into a legitimate governing body of working people, rivaling the rule of Nicholas II.
The St. Petersburg Soviet was eventually crushed by the Russian army, and its leaders were imprisoned.
After the overthrow of the Nicholas II in the revolution of 1917, the soviets were reestablished, leading to the eventual establishment of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
It should be noted that the Paris Commune lasted 64 days and the St. Petersburg Soviet lasted about 50 days, while, so far, the Oaxaca Commune has lasted over 140.
Roots of the rebellion
The roots of the uprising in Oaxaca lie in the extreme suffering of the workers and farmers there, and in the new awakening of the oppressed people of the world, which is expressed in popular struggles emerging everywhere.
The state of Oaxaca is the second poorest in Mexico. Almost 80 percent of the people of Oaxaca live in extreme poverty. Over 66 percent of families survive on less than 8 U.S. dollars a day. The state’s numerous indigenous people are victims of hundreds of years of racism. In a recent visit to Oaxaca, the International Federation of Human Rights found that the courts there regularly “criminaliz[e] those in the social opposition by fabricating evidence [against them].” The state is also plagued with regular election fraud and extremely high levels of government corruption. The rest of Mexico isn’t much better. After years of neocolonial exploitation and plunder, close to 40% of the total population is forced to dwell in poverty, and the recent presidential elections where a complete and total sham.
Today, workers and farmers from Venezuela to the United States, from China to France are fighting for their liberation at a level not seen in decades. The Oaxacan rebellion is a continuance of that fight.
Defend the Oaxaca Commune, extend the struggle!
The workers and farmers of the Oaxaca Commune must learn from the victories and defeats of the past.
Some steps have already been taken. For instance, a march from the city Oaxaca to Mexico City began on September 21, with the aim of both defending the uprising and spreading it to the rest of the country. APPO has also correctly tied their struggle in with the struggle of the oppressed Palestinian people. These are positive steps, but they alone aren’t enough.
The Oaxaca Communards must arm themselves and continue to prepare to for self-defense. At the same time, they must do everything in their power, including sending delegates to other cities and building for a nation-wide general strike, to popularize their struggle and ferment other similar uprisings. Every commune that is created in Mexico gives the Oaxaca Commune more room to breathe, so that it can more firmly establish itself.
The Communards must also learn from the Paris Commune, and approach this fight with a thoroughly revolutionary outlook. Most of the Communards know that the capitalist system of exploitation cannot be reformed in a way that will end the poverty and misery of Oaxacan workers and farmers. The only way to this end human suffering is to overthrow the capitalist system itself, and build a new, socialist system on the basis of the newly formed Communes. This will require a life or death struggle, but as the last few months have shown, victory is possible! And this is already a life or death struggle, because allowing the Commune to be defeated may very well mean a slaughter of thousands of workers and farmers, similar to the massacre that took place after the defeat of the Paris Commune. Any illusions of a possible victory without the overthrow of this oppressive system and the government that represents it must be rapidly done away with.
All three major parties in Mexico, the PRI, PAN and PRD, have in one way or another worked to smash this popular struggle. The workers and farmers have created their own governing body in APPO, and this must strengthened and improved.
As well, workers and farmers around the world must see that this struggle is a struggle of all workers, and we must take action accordingly! The Oaxaca Commune was born of a strike by teachers for better work conditions and to defend and improve public education. Similar strikes have taken place recently in Detroit, Michigan and Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania in the U.S. As working people, our fights against the bosses are all related, and we must realize that!
In the U.S., demonstrations and pickets of Mexican consulates have already taken place in Los Angeles and New York, in defense of the Oaxacan teachers and their supporters.
The Free People’s Movement calls for more pickets, and for unions and other groups of working people to pass resolutions in defense of the Oaxacan workers and farmers who are struggling for a better tomorrow. It must be made clear that any attack on the Oaxacan Commune will result in action being taken by working people all over the world. We also call for workers from Mexico and around the world to create workers’ defense guards to help stave off attack in the city of Oaxaca, and wherever else in the country similar communes arise.
Committees to publicize the Oaxacan struggle and fight for its defense should also be formed. The FPM seeks to unite with our working and farming brothers and sisters around the world to create such committees.
The Oaxacan Communards must do everything they can to extend their struggle to the rest of Mexico, and across the borders into the U.S. and Central America. The extension of the struggle to the Mexican populations of the Southwestern United States, or to the workers and farmers of Guatemala or Belize would be a major victory for all workers. Those of us outside of Mexico must do everything we can in defense of the Communards, while working to establish real democracy in our own countries.
Long live the Oaxacan workers’ and farmers’ heroic struggle! Long live APPO! Defend the Oaxaca Commune, and extend the fight to the rest of Mexico, and the world! Create two, three, many Oaxacas!