Thanks for continuing to stop by my blog. I have taken some time off to spend the holidays with my family. But I will be back in 2-3 days with continued updates and analysis about Oaxaca. I am starting to plan for my return to Mexico, even though it feels like I just got back. I am wondering about the friends I made in Oaxaca. I hope everyone is doing well.
Archive for December, 2006
In solidarity with the EZLN and the “Other Campaign“, APPO held a march on December 22nd to reinforce their demand for the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz and the freedom of all political prisoners. Similar demonstrations were held throughout the country and in other parts of the world as an international day of solidarity. The PFP have left the Zócalo, but city and other preventive police surrounded the zócalo with barbed wire to prevent any violence. The march was led by the recently released prisoners. While chanting for the removal of Ulises, the protestors also called the leader of the Educator’s Union Section 22, Rueda Pacheco, a traitor to the movement. The talk of the creation of a new local section, Section 59, has the potential to divide the organization. However, a representative of the APPO organizations, Juan Sosa Maldonado, stated that this movement is made of bases, not of leaders. Florentino López MartÃnez, another representative of APPO stated that Ulises Ruiz is trying to divide APPO and the teachers by encouraging the creation of Section 59 of SNTE, however MartÃnez claims that the teachers in this new group represent a small minority.
The Noticias reports that painter Francisco Toledo confirms the existence of a “black list of repression” of the Attorney’s office of Justice of the State of Oaxaca. The list includes the Principal of the Autonomous University of Benito Juarez in Oaxaca (UABJO), Francisco MartÃnez Neri, and other university professors. They are accused of promoting violent action during the APPO movement. Neri states that the constitution guarantees the right of the people to have free expression and assembly, but that by accusing the activists of engaging in violence, they are suppressing their rights.
Toledo states that the Patronage For Defense of the Natural and Cultural Patrimony of Oaxaca (PRO-Oax) will meet on Christmas with the former prisoners of Tepic and their relatives to show them that the people are with them.
This story is related to the recent events on December 18th. Three members of the APPO state council were arrested, abused, and subsequently released. Florentino López MartÃnez, a media representative of APPO and two other APPO members were taken from their car by plain clothed men and put in an unidentified vehicle. In a press conference yesterday, MartÃnez said that the men were police officers who are doing the bidding of Governor Ulises Ruiz. The APPO men thought they were going to die throughout the interrogation.
You can catch me on the radio today. I will be discussing my research in Oaxaca.
I will be interviewed live on KCSB news at 5pm. If you live in the Santa Barbara area, you can tune into 91.9FM, but if you are out of the area you can listen to the webcast at www.kcsb.org.
Below is a repost from the Women of Color Blog about the International Day of Solidarity with Oaxaca on Dec. 22nd.
Day of Internet Solidarity with Oaxaca…
Posted by brownfemipower on 17 Dec 2006 at 08:52 am
As many of you may know, there is a call for solidarity with the people of Oaxaca on December 22. From Subcomandante Marcos:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3896367614775368767December 2 of 2006
To the people of Mexico:
To the people of the world:Brothers and Sisters:
The attack that our brothers, the people of Oaxaca suffered and suffer cannot be ignored by those who fight for freedom, justice and democracy in all corners of the planet.
This is why, the EZLN calls on all honest people, in Mexico and the world, to initiate, starting now, continual actions of solidarity and support to the Oaxacan people, with the following demands:
For the living reappearance of the disappeared, for the freedom of the detained, for the exit of Ulises Ruiz and the federal forces from Oaxaca, for the punishment of those guilty of torture, rape and murder.
We call to those in this international campaign to tell, in all forms and in all places possible, what has occurred and what is occurring in Oaxaca, everyone in their way, time and place.
We call for these actions to come together in a worldwide mobilization for Oaxaca on December 22, 2006.
The people of Oaxaca are not alone. We have to say so and demonstrate it, to them and to everyone.
Democracy!
Freedom!
Justice!By the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.Insurgent Subcommander Marcos.
Mexico, December of 2006So I’ve been thinking–what could those of us working mainly through the internet do to show solidarity with the people of Oaxaca–the people who are just like us: poor, working class, teachers, mothers, daughters, artists, union members, students, fathers, sons, feminists, social justice activists, spiritual, and under attack by the government.
What can we do?
I will be blogging in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca that day–and I invite you to do so as well. If you don’t know much about what is happening in Oaxaca, look around a bit, read my archives, read through Narco News or your indymedia news source, and blog about how Oaxaca is connected to your world. Write about what struck you deeply and why, write about what you never knew, or just let your readers know where to send emails of protest to. If you participated in a day of solidarity in the real world, write that up! If you found a way to connect the imprisonment of citizens in Mexico to the imprisonment of citizens in the U.S.–write about it.
In some way, all of us have experienced the violence that Mexico is perpertrating against the people of Oaxaca, whether it be the sexual abuse of female prisoners, extreme poverty of school children, the disappearances of loved ones, random murders of neighbors, extreme neighborhood police presence, anti-Union targetting–we’ve just experienced it at the hands of the U.S. government.
Spread the word–let your readers know that what is happening in Oaxaca is connected to what is happening here in the u.s. And let the people of Oaxaca know that the world is watching, and the world cares.
If you can read spanish, I recommend the following opinion piece written by Gustavo Esteva in today’s edition of La Jornada. Gustavo is a scholar activist who has worked closely with APPO. He offers below an analysis of what APPO really is, its problems and its possibilities. He explains that APPO has gone through many transformations and misunderstandings. It started as a group to help the teacher’s union Section 22. It soon grew into an organization led by the leaders of about 30 organizations. However, much of the constituents of these organizations were not really spoken for in the APPO council. Overtime, the people of the APPO organizations and pueblos began to force the organization to listen to their issues and complaints. Some in the council believe that they are the true leaders, even though their small group can hardly make decisions. Their weakness appears to be the weakness of the organization in general, which pleases the government. APPO is an organization of negotiations at every step. The marches, barricades, and meetings are a negotiation of leaders, farmers, indigenous groups, angry youth, and more. The APPO council does not vertically control all of the organization, and likewise can not control all that is done in its name. Gustavo says that APPO needs an APPOlogy but that it also needs to be understood for its complexities and possibilities. The organization is continuing to reinvent itself and grow, despite the state repression and incarceration of many of its members.
APPOlogía
por Gustavo Esteva.A pesar de su inmensa visibilidad, la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) sigue siendo un misterio. ¿Qué clase de organización es ésta? ¿Cuáles son la naturaleza y alcances de este peculiar animal político? Propios y extraños la siguen tratando como a cualquier organización política. Suponen que, como casi todas, tiene la mirada puesta en el Estado y reproduce la estructura del aparato que querría encabezar. Como él, sería vertical y jerárquica. Como los funcionarios elegidos o designados, sus dirigentes caerían a menudo en corrupción y protagonismo.
Conforme al prejuicio de que la gente no puede tomar iniciativas por sí misma, se sigue buscando la mano que mece la cuna de la APPO. Además de imaginar un personaje, grupo o partido que tiraría las piedras y escondería la mano, se intenta identificar o construir un líder o grupo que serían los responsables de manipular a las masas dóciles.
Este tratamiento habría sido plenamente justificado si se hubiera aplicado a la APPO recién nacida cuando nadie le daba mayor importancia. La sección 22 del sindicato magisterial es una organización vertical y jerárquica, cuyos dirigentes son frecuentemente acusados de protagonismo y corrupción. Ellos invitaron a dirigentes de organizaciones amigas, de características similares a las suyas, para crear la Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca (en singular) el 20 de junio. No tendría más función que apoyar la lucha del sindicato. En el acto fundacional, la APPO era muy poco más que esos dirigentes que habían traído a sus huestes. En las siguientes semanas se incorporaron a esa APPO dirigentes de organizaciones diversas, por lo general sin consultar a sus socios o “bases”. Se trataba, por tanto, de una especie de coalición de dirigentes sociales y políticos, articulada por una Coordinadora Provisional de 30 personas que pasaba buena parte de su tiempo dirimiendo sus grandes contradicciones internas.
Pero se produjo una mutación. Poco a poco, al principio, y luego en avalancha, la gente y las organizaciones empezaron a tomar iniciativas por su cuenta bajo el manto de la APPO, que cambió su nombre al actual. La Coordinadora tenía que andar averiguando por dónde quería ir la gente, hacia dónde conducía el proceso y cómo era posible dar cauce al descontento y a los impulsos de transformación profunda. Empezó a mandar obedeciendo, como en los pueblos.
Las colonias populares fueron siempre un acertijo. El tejido comunitario generado desde la migración indígena se combinó con múltiples anarquismos ideológicos o vitales. Los colectivos de barricadas defendieron ferozmente su autonomía, a veces con propósitos aviesos y una carga de violencia difícil de encauzar, dada la previa acumulación de agravios desde el poder.
Los pueblos indios tardaron en hacerse presentes, pero lo hicieron con paso firme y decidido, dando nuevo cariz al movimiento, cada vez más sesgado hacia el espíritu autonómico y asambleario, que también se dejó sentir al aparecer en las regiones.
Algunos concejales parecen pensar que el Consejo es la APPO y que sin ellos ésta desaparecería. Los concejales afiliados a organizaciones locales o nacionales con su propia agenda política parecen desencantados porque no logran poner a la APPO al servicio de esa agenda. Otros más, sobre todo de la camada inicial, preparan nuevas estrategias protagónicas para el caso de naufragio de la APPO. Algunos, por último, buscan nuevos acomodos fuera y empiezan a atacarla.
Los concejales que de vez en cuando pueden reunirse, unos 50, deciden lo que pueden decidir, que no es mucho. De ahí surge la sensación de debilidad que produce satisfacción en las autoridades federales, triunfalismo en las filas de Ulises Ruiz y desesperanza en mucha gente.
La APPO real, mientras tanto, ese pueblo organizado en múltiples encarnaciones, parece llena de vigor. A pesar del terrorismo de Estado, que generó horrores que apenas se están haciendo visibles, la gente sigue tomando iniciativas inesperadas y promisorias y avanza en su reorganización.
El Consejo no controla verticalmente a la APPO ni puede asumir responsabilidad por cuanto se hace en su nombre, pero podría dar cauce y concertación eficaces a la fuerza popular desatada por el movimiento. Es el interlocutor apropiado para evitar la confrontación violenta y realizar las transformaciones cuya necesidad todo mundo reconoce. Pero debe ser tratada como lo que es, sin manías o prejuicios, sin atribuirle rasgos que sólo conservan algunos de sus integrantes.
A pesar de su corta vida la APPO merece ya una APPOlogía, un estudio riguroso de lo que es. Merece también una apología, un discurso que celebre sus notables hazañas, que apenas han empezado aunque muchos, incluso en su interior, quisieran ya darla por muerta.
Based on the protest yesterday of merchants against the Secretary of the Government, some would argue that the damage done by the presence of the PFP and the APPO protests is irreversible. Some of the merchants based in the historic center are facing bankruptcy and many are angry at the economic downturn of the past six months. The government is offering some financial credits to the merchants affected, but only if they started suffering in the past six months. The merchants feel deceived by this rule, because some had problems past six months ago but were unable to recover BECAUSE of the economic and social struggles of Oaxaca. They lost the economic upturn that comes during summer tourism and the tourism brought in by Día de los Muertos.
This is a situation with more than one victim, more than one to blame, and an uncertain future. Businesses large and small, unschooled children, teachers, political prisoners, and the poor, all suffered as a people…but not necessarily united in the movement.
I became friends with a couple from Australia that invited me on a last-minute tour to some of the neighboring villages. This happened on the same day that paramilitary groups were attacking Radio Universidad. As we drove around we could see helicopters hovering over the campus. Over the radio, we could hear the reports of tear gas being dropped from the helicopters. Barricades were being set up around the city so we were unable to go to all of our destinations. I was with a group of women from Texas who spoke fondly of their knowledgeable tour guide who was able to listen to the radio to figure out our way around the barricades. One of the women told me that she was irritated that she was forced to listen to the radio because she would rather just enjoy being a tourist. I squirmed in my seat for the rest of the trip. I nearly got out several times and found my own way home. Her group is a good example of the ability for tourists to continue a fairly normal trip throughout troubled times. For me, I was uncomfortable being a tourist if it meant ignoring the reality of Oaxaca.
There has been much written on the connections between class privilege, racism, and tourism, but it takes on a twist when dealing with social unrest. Ignoring human rights abuses, poverty, and violence (be it from citizens or government officials), does not help the community that you are visiting. Asking questions and learning about the daily lives of the people who serve you food and make the authentic crafts you buy allows us to tell others about those lives.
Esto video tiene testimonios de los familiares de personas desaparecidos en Oaxaca. Es un video de La Jornada Television (solamente por la internet). Los hijos de estas personas son presos de la marcha de la 25 de Noviembre. Algunos de estas personas son heridas y los padres dicen que sus hijos son inocentes. Creo que este asunto está acerca de derechos humanos. Su creencia acerca del movimiento Oaxaceno no es importante. Nosotros no podemos ignorar la infracción de derechos humanos, el tormento de presos, y de la amenaza a personas viven.
This video (in Spanish) has interviews with families of “disappeared” people in Oaxaca. The Network for Human Rights has told some of them that their children have been taken to prison. This video is from La Jornada Television and is only available on the internet. The children of these people are prisoners of the march on November 25th. Some of the people are injured and the parents are stressing that their children are innocent. I believe that this issue is about basic human rights. Your beliefs and feelings about this movement are unimportant in regards to this issue. We can not ignore the violation of human rights, the torture of prisoners, and the threat to people’s lives.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6670459757702308280&hlI am back in California, home sweet home. But I do miss my home-away-from-home in Oaxaca. I won’t be here for long, though. I will be returning to Oaxaca in January to continue my research. But don’t fret, I will maintain this blog while I am here too. I still have ideas for blogs and critiques that have been building up for weeks, just waiting to get out. I will continue to read the local Oaxacan newspapers and report on the current situation. I want to thank those who have helped me get this blog rolling in just a few weeks. The support has been phenomenal for my photos and analyses. I also appreciate your concern for my safety. Many people may not realize this, but there is a wonderful community of researchers, students, activists, and ex-patriots in Oaxaca that are extremely supportive of eachother and are quick to lend advice. I thank them for their help.
Last night I was on a local public access television program called Third World News Review. You can listen to it on the radio through a webcast on KCSB today (Tues) at 7pm. It will also be replayed a few times this week on channel 17 (Wed at 7am and Noon, Thursday at 3pm, and Sunday at 8am and Noon). I spoke about the APPO movement and my ideas on the role of the media in the movement.
Recent Comments