We must bear in mind that no government,
honest as it is, can decree the abolition of misery.
It is the people themselves, the hungry,
the disinherited, who have to abolish misery.
– Ricardo Flores Magón (Regeneration, Nov. 19, 1910)

Once again, the indigenous peoples are forgotten in the oblivion; There is not a single security measure by governments to protect us, and the indigenous women are triple violated.

Both before COVID-19 and now, our battle as indigenous women continues to be for our rights, against violence, and for life. Our heartfelt claims have been for health, work, education, justice, and security, to which the governments have ignored. Health has been turned into merchandise, a great business, just like our territories, from which they loot our water, minerals, animals, plants, knowledge, traditions, and people. Indigenous peoples, and especially women, already have to suffer their greed, contempt, and death. And now we suffer another of their diseases created by this capitalist system: the global Coronavirus pandemic.

This year on March 8th, International Women’s Day, hundreds of indigenous Magónista women took to the streets of Oaxaca City to denounce the terrible conditions in which we live in our communities: we live without security, without justice, without work, without basic services, without water, without electricity. We spent three days sleeping and demonstrating in the streets of Oaxaca City and blockading access to government offices. But even then, the government did not turn to see us as indigenous women.

Then this pandemic arrived in Mexico and the difficulty of our situation was multiplied. In our communities, there is no health system. You can only leave your community to receive medical attention if you have money. But if you don’t have money, you just wait for death. Some illnesses we can cure with our traditional medicines, but we have no remedies for this new virus. If they infect us with COVID-19, what awaits us is death.

In our communities we’re trying to organize ourselves as we best can. Meanwhile, the only thing the three levels of governments (municipal, state, and federal) have done is to tell us to lock ourselves in our houses. They want us locked up in our communities, but they don’t ask us what is happening to us or how they could support solving the needs that this pandemic causes.

Instead, they announce their great support programs and the credits they’re giving to their companies. The high level officials speak of the millions they will give to the most vulnerable. But for years they’ve abandoned the health system, polluted the lands, exploited the natural resources, and favored the richest, and now they want to cheat us with their programs. Their health system is in terrible condition because they fell silent while they were eating, dressing, and enjoying life on their official salary, silently complicit with those who made big profits. All the while, we have taken to the streets to demand better living conditions in the midst of repressions.

The governments and the rich are fighting amongst themselves in the name of our people’s health and life, but nothing is being done about the companies that raise product prices and make a business out of everything. Small establishments in the community that supply everyday items and groceries have already started to raise the prices on basic products. In some places an egg costs 5 pesos, while it others it only costs 3 pesos for ten. Where the sugar was worth 14 pesos, it is now 24 pesos. The managers of these stores argue they have to raise prices because the shopping centers where they buy their products are increasing their prices and they have to pay more transportation charges than normal.

My compañeras and compañeros, we have to face the situation: most of us are in constant anguish. We already fear that the harvest will be affected by climate change. And now, because of COVID-19, even if our harvests are successful, there is still no way to sell them since the sale of our products requires us to leave our community in search of a market in other municipalities or regions or for buyers to come to our communities. The low payment for our products is consequence of the capital economy. Some of us dedicate ourselves to crafts, but we also can’t go out to sell these goods nor is there a market for them now. In the tourist centers, like Huatulco, the bosses have fired our compañeras and compañeros. They send them home without a salary. They tell them to stay in their houses. But how are we going to feed our families while we also have to pay rent? In Huatulco, there is only land for the rich and the foreigners, while we, the indigenous to the land, have to continue to also pay for our electricity and water so they don’t cut them off. If we don’t have money, how can our children continue their online education? They say that educational programs continue, but in remote indigenous communities there is not even a telephone signal.

In other words, for the indigenous and the poor there is no justice. There is no equal opportunity. This is yet another form of extermination, because in the face of this Coronavirus pandemic those that are going to survive are those who have access to the health system, who can afford to stay home to protect themselves, who have the internet and electricity necessary to continue their education, and who have enough money to buy food, even if it’s expensive. It is very clear to us, the exploited and poor people of Oaxaca, that governments and their policies will do nothing for us. The governments make the earth sick with viruses and diseases and aggravate our already precarious situation.

So today we call on the people to not just stay locked up in indigenous and non-indigenous communities, but to organize and unite ourselves and demand a true health policy for the peoples and that resources be given to support our access to health, food, and work, and not to megaprojects or the army.

We, from the sierras, mountains, and hills, have to prepare ourselves to be able to face the consequences of the policies of the bad governments. We are going to organize ourselves while we continue to sow our corn and beans with mutual support; the tequio (communal work) will be the force to face and solve the problem.

We will take to the streets of the city of Oaxaca to demonstrate and demand our rights. The indigenous women of the CIPO-RFM call on all older women, young people, girls, and adults to train in the place where they already are. By whatever means necessary, the Women’s Council can find places to talk and share what we feel in our hearts and how we are suffering at this time. We can organize ourselves and together find the forms of struggle that allow us to maintain our health and the possibility of remaining alive with justice and without violence.

For the reconstitution and free association of our peoples,
Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magón”
CIPO-RFM
Magónista Women’s Commission.
Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca. Mexico on April 29, 2020.

To support CIPO-RFM’s communities’ access basic survival necessities and ability to take care of themselves, donate to the ongoing CIPO-RFM Coronavirus Mutual Aid Fund. Donations will be sent monthly to CIPO-RFM.

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In the memory of Brad Will

murdered in Oaxaca

by Mexican police and

government officials

The Oaxacan People’s Insurrection for Dignity By Korinta Maldonado written in 13 November 2006

On the dawn of Friday, October 27, 2006, news about the assassination of the New York independent media reporter Brad Will by paramilitary forces in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico reverberated throughout the world. This day marked the beginning of the direct state-sponsored offensive towards the Oaxacan people who had tired of the repression and corruption of the governor Ulises Ruíz. For almost six months they have peacefully organized to remove him from office. Ruíz has been the subject of an escalating conflict. He was elected in August 2004 through fraudulent means and since then has persistently used brute force against social and political organizations. The repressive tactics of the governor have sharpened the conflict.

Yet that Friday, six barricades across the city of Oaxaca were under attack at the same time by paramilitary forces including the barricade where Brad Will lost his life reporting. The results of these premeditated attacks were three dead and 23 members of the popular movement injured (see oaxacalibre.org). But even worse, the death of Brad Will would serve as the perfect excuse for the federal government to enter Oaxaca with all its repressive might despite almost six months of neglect amidst the plea of civil organizations and the people of Oaxaca to intervene in the conflict.

The Teachers Struggle for a Dignified Education

The conflict between the state and the Oaxacan people began May 22 as thousands of teachers belonging to section 22 of the teachers union initiated a strike pleading for a raise of their wretched $460.00 monthly salaries, as well as a monthly bonus for teachers living mostly in the tourist areas where the cost of living is disproportionately high in comparison with the rest of the state. There are 15 more demands related to funding for school materials, children’s uniforms and free school breakfasts.

Every year, the teachers strike for such demands and until 2006 negotiations would occur. This time around, Ulises Ruiz’s government first threatened the teachers and later brutally evicted them from the town plaza where the governor’s headquarters is located. Haunted by the nightmares of recent state violence in Atenco, Mexico, where peasants sympathetic to the Zapatistas stopped the development of an airport, 300,000 inhabitants of Oaxaca poured into the streets, outraged. They protested the state violence and marched through Oaxaca demanding the governor’s immediate resignation, perhaps, one of the biggest civil protests in Oaxacan history. During the march the previously evicted teachers would once again reclaim the central plaza. This event would unite dispersed and divergent organizations and groups into one organization the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca. Their goal: the immediate resignation of the state governor Ulises Ruiz.

Ya Basta! (Enough!): The Formation of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca

On June 17, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO by its Spanish acronym) was born. It would challenge the state government through pacifist means, with words, ideas and most importantly dignity. Local unions, peasants, students, women and environmental organizations, indigenous communities, teachers and whole families from across the state united to form this radical organization. Their collective process of decision-making and political action has a long tradition among Oaxacan indigenous towns and after the Zapatista armed uprising it has been further revitalized.

On July 5, as the Mexican people contested the election where rightist Felipe Calderon was declared victorious, the APPO reclaimed the government headquarters situated in the central plaza of the city and declared itself as a parallel government of the state of Oaxaca. Recently, governor Ruiz had transformed this headquarters into a museum due to the all too frequent protests of “dirty” Indians, rural teachers, and all those from below. Oaxacans were infuriated watching the governor cynically respond to the interests of foreign investors and tourists. During July and August, the APPO also reclaimed the Guelaguetza —a yearly celebration where the 7 regions of Oaxaca represent through performances their culture— that had was one of the main tourist attractions. It had become a corporate enterprise guided by the leading businessmen of Mexico. They would also reclaim the local media, 12 radio stations and for small periods of time the local TV station. They reclaimed what was, in their words, of and for el pueblo.

Furthermore, the radio stations would become the heartbeat of the APPO, through which they would organize across Oaxaca, calling people to regional and general meetings, and to inform the people of local agreements, mobilizations, road blockades, food and first aid needs. In August, that is how they organized the takeover of the city of Oaxaca. The radio would also serve to inform human rights organizations if violations were committed. Many of us following the movement from afar could access the Oaxacan radio broadcast through the web and international supporters could mobilize almost instantly.

Although the struggle of the APPO is rooted in the local politics of Oaxaca, they have clearly bridged it with anti-globalization and social justice movements across the nation and the world. The lived experience of fraudulent electoral politics in Oaxaca fueled a rather strong sentiment against the presidential elections. The people would chant vociferously: “Ya cayo, ya cayo Ulises ya cayo. Si no hay solución también caira Calderon” (“He fell, he fell, Ulises fell and if there is no solution so will Calderon”).

The effects of the conflict on the lives of the Oaxacan people are very complex: the salaries of the approximately thirty thousand teachers in the struggle have been cut off, many small businesses in the region have no customers, vendors of local produce have not sold one piece of corn or squash, many members are jobless due to the conflict. Yet, they are able to resist because the people draw upon years of experience of autonomous collective organizing visible in the forms of everyday resistance. The indigenous communities, the peasant communities, the popular neighborhoods and other supporters of the APPO deliver daily to the barricades and encampments tortillas, stews, water, hot coffee and chocolate. At the same time, representatives of organizations come and go in groups from all over the state of Oaxaca, some people travel up to 12 or so hours to get to the city. They come with banners supporting the groups and with musical instruments from their local towns. They take turns guarding the barricades, the radio stations, the government headquarters, and the main roads to the city.

Members of the APPO speak many different languages; they come from the 16 indigenous groups that make up the state of Oaxaca. There is also representation from the Afro descendant communities from the coast. Thus, they all come from different experiences of struggle, from different social positions, and therefore, from different experiences of oppression. As a woman said on Radio Universidad, “nosotros no somos maestros, somos pueblo, mirenos, somos pueblo, somos pueblo los que estamos luchando por nuestros derechos…hasta que Ulises se vaya no vamos a parar” (“We are not teachers, we are the people, look at us, we are the people that are struggling for our rights…until Ulises steps down we are not going to stop”).

A Oaxacan Cry for a National Peaceful Insurrection

On October 30, the federal government ordered the federal police to enter the city of Oaxaca. With full armor, thousands of federal police forces entered the city accompanied by tanks and bulldozers to crush the barricades. Simultaneously, police helicopters flew throughout the city. Oaxacans were expecting them. Days before rumors of the police takeover had spread throughout the highlands, cities and coast of Oaxaca. Groups of people from every corner of Oaxaca had come to the city to defend it from the government forces. The barricades were reinforced. School buses were placed in the middle of streets. Tires, chairs, pieces of wood, doors, anything and everything was used to stop the federal government’s repressive forces to enter. At the same time, however, the radio announcers coordinated the resistance and desperately called for a national peaceful insurrection to stop the government offensive. The Oaxacan people had agreed to resist peacefully, so as the tanks entered they would gather at each entrance by the hundreds trying to intimidate the police activity. Some would burn tires in order to prevent the visibility of the helicopters. Some would fearlessly jump on the tanks and spray paint on the windows to disable them. Many times they were successful, many times they were not. The tanks rolled over the streets spraying high-pressure water mixed with chemicals to knock down the thousands of protesters. Many photos and video show young kids, women, students, peasants, mothers and elderly trying to stop the police forces with their bodies. At the end of the day, dozens were imprisoned and taken to the army headquarters, dozens disappeared, many were injured and at least four were found dead. The police forces secured the center plaza displacing all the resistance to the Autonomous University of Oaxaca where legally the state could not enter.

A few days later, on November 2, in an attempt to demolish the university radio station, the organ of resistance and organization, the police forces once again confronted the Oaxacan people. On the radio, nationally and internationally we followed the resistance. We heard the Oaxacans battling, calling for reinforcement, for vinegar and coke to wipe the tear gas from their faces, for solidarity across the globe. This time however, after hours of confrontation, the police forces withdrew. Elated, thousands of Oaxacans celebrated what seemed impossible: the unarmed resistance for a government of the people and for the people. We heard through the radio a shrill scream of a woman saying, “Comrades today we are filled with glory. There are present a million people. We defeated them. We defeated them. We want Ulises Ruiz to leave Oaxaca right now and never to return because we will kick him out like we did today with the police forces.” The APPO’s demand is not only for the governor to resign, but also for dignity. They will not stop until the illegitimate government of Ulises Ruiz steps down from office. Additionally, APPO’s initiative of nationalizing the movement has already been taken up by many organizations through out the country, including the zapatista communities.

Today, popular assemblies are emerging throughout Mexico and the United States. This past October in Los Angeles, California, various indigenous groups, like the Mixtecs, the Zapotecs, the Mixes, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB), together with the Mexican and Mexican-American organizations like Unión del Barrio y UCLA Raza Graduate Students formed a transnational APPO. Likewise, the Zapatistas have called for a nationwide shut down on November 20 during the national celebration of the Mexican Revolution in solidarity with the Oaxacan struggle.

Today this movement is the largest grassroots movement in Mexico since the 1968 student movement and promises to grow as different social movements across the nation adhere to it. We look once again to the South, where dignity infuses the global struggle for justice.

For more information:
www.asambleapopulardeoaxaca.com
www.mexico.indymedia.org
www.narconews.com (English)

the article appeared in:

http://www.ucimc.org/node/372

for more info about the death of Brad Will you can read the article
Mexico Presents Flawed Theory in Shooting Death of American Journalist
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dd99p3r5_6g7fzs5k8&revision=_latest

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ΤΟ ΚΕΝΟ ΔΙΚΤΥΟ (Θεωρία, Ουτοπία, Συναίσθηση, Εφήμερες Τέχνες)

ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΖΕΙ

OAXACA

ΤΟ ΠΟΡΤΡΕΤΟ ΜΙΑΣ ΕΞΕΓΕΡΣHΣ
ΠΡΟΣΩΠΙΚΗ ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ ΜΙΑΣ ΕΜΠΕΙΡΙΑΣ

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ THΣ CALAMITY PELLER

ΟΠΤΙΚΟΑΚΟΥΣΤΙΚΟ ΠΕΡΙΒΒΑΛΟΝ

S L I D E S H OW

V I D E O S

Η CALAMITY PELLER ΣΥΜΜΕΤΕΙΧΕ ΣΕ ΑΝΑΡΧΙΚΕΣ ΚΟΛΛΕΚΤΙΒΕΣ ΣΤΟ ΜΕΞΙΚΟ ΤΑΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΑ 4 ΧΡΟΝΙΑΚΑΙ ΕΖΗΣΕ ΑΜΕΣΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΜΠΕΙΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΞΕΓΕΡΣΗΣ ΣΤΗΝ OAXAΚA ΣΥΜΜΕΤΕΧΟΝΤΑΣ ΣΕ ΑΥΤΗΝ. ΘΑ ΜΙΛΗΣΕΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΖΩΗ ΣΤΑ ΟΔΟΦΡΑΓΜΑΤΑ,ΤΗ «ΛΑΙΚΗ ΣΥΝΕΛΕΥΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΟΑΧΑΚΑ»(ΑPPO)ΤΙΣ ΔΟΛΟΦΟΝΕΙΕΣ ΤΩΝ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΩΝ ΑΓΩΝΙΣΤΩΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΑΡΑΚΡΑΤΙΚΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΣ ΕΞΑΦΑΝΙΣΕΙΣ,ΤΗΝ ΑΠΑΝΘΡΩΠΗ ΑΣΤΥΝΟΜΙΚΗ ΚΑΤΑΣΤΟΛΗ, ΤΗ ΔΙΕΘΝΗ ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΜΕΛΛΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΞΕΓΕΡΣΗΣ ΣΤΟ ΜΕΞΙΚΟ
Η ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ΚΑΙ Η ΣΥΖΗΤΗΣΗ ΘΑ ΠΕΡΙΛΑΜΒΑΝΟΥΝ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΒΙΝΤΕΟ ΤΗΣ CALAMITY ΚΑΙ ΑΛΛΩΝ ΣΥΝΤΡΟΦΩΝ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΣΤΟΝ ΤΡΟΜΟ ΤΟΥ ΚΕΝΟΥ ΘΑ ΠΛΑΙΣΙΩΣΟΥΝ ΤΗΝ ΒΡΑΔΥΑ ΜΕ ΕΙΚΟΝΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΗΧΟΥΣ

ΠΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΗ 22 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ 2007 9.00μ.μ.

[NOSOTROS] θεμιστοκλέους 66 ΕΞΑΡΧΕΙΑ

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