Oaxaca

Notes from Oaxaca

The following collection of articles on Oaxacan radical movements between January and September 2008 was translated from a number of different sources and posted to libcom's forums. They provide a number of useful insights into the situation in the volatile Mexican region.

The background:

In 2006 the Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least eighteen deaths and the temporary occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).

To Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes

Two years on from your murder, this movement continues forward, despite all the differences and finds its way by means of honest and faternal dialogue. It is in this way, through that brotherhood and honesty of which you were an example, that we believe we have found a clear and solid form of linking together the different resistances and of constructing alternatives to this dominatory system that keeps Oaxaca and the entire world under its yoke.

“The true man goes to the roots.

To be radical is no more that this: he who goes to the roots.

He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself radical.

Nor that man who does not aid the security and speech of other men.”

José Marti

Compañero Lorenzo San Pablo:

Oaxaca: Overcoming the Fear. The long struggle for dignity

Article analysing the Oaxcan social movement from within, looking at its history, present and future and identifying obstacles to be overcome. Written by activists intimately involved with grassroots organisation and struggle.

(This article was prepared for a special edition of the magazine “La Guillotina” dedicated to the topic “Re-thinking the Left in Mexico”)

“This is not a movement of leaders, but of bases”

The APPO two years on: Where now for Oaxaca's social movement?

"They will only see us on our knees when in front of the graves of our dead we can tell them...'We won.'"

Two years later what is left now in Oaxaca? Has the APPO been reduced to a memorial mechanism to commemorate its fallen? Is it accurate, as URO keeps insisting with epileptic vigor, that, "nothing is happening" here? Or are we seeing a movement in chrysalis, reconsolidating only to reemerge just as vibrant, but even smarter, than before?

This fall in Oaxaca marks a season of commemorations. Already marches for fallen APPO members Jose Jimenez Colmenares and Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes have woven their ways through the streets of the city, pausing at the spots they were murdered in 2006, holding ceremonies at the Cathedral. Twenty-four more such processions await Oaxaca in the coming months.

Anarchism and libertarian currents in the Oaxaca insurrectionary movement

Article examining the influence of libertarian ideas in the recent uprisings in Oaxaca, Mexico.

SERGIO DE CASTRO SANCHEZ
Originally published in Spanish on oaxacalibre.org and in Rojo Y Negro, newspaper of the CGT
Translated by a comrade of Capital Terminus Collective

Oaxacan teachers reach agreement with their union and local government

Sección 22, the radical Oaxacan section of the Latin American education workers' union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en la Educación (SNTE), has finally signed deals with both the SNTE hierarchy and Oaxacan local government. However, the strike will continue until this weekend.

The strike (previously reported on Libcom here and here), a contrast of almost blanket support from union members and almost blanket condemnation

Mexico: teachers' strike spreads up the Pacific coast while Oaxaca cautiously holds firm

In for the long run: rainy season and 24 hour open air occupations

The annual teachers' strike in Oaxaca has been bolstered by soldarity strikes of other sections of the Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores en la Educación (SNTE) stretching up and down the Mexican Pacific coastline, while in Oaxaca itself, occupations and blockades continue apace in support. Most analysts however have already doomed the strike to failure.

On Friday 30th, the strike by the Oaxacan SNTE local (Sección 22, around whose strike coalesced the 2006 revolt) entered its 12th day, with more motorways blocked, more tollbooths closed down and more education buildings occupied throughout the state.

Oaxaca in revolt again: the Zócalo reoccupied, motorway tollbooths "liberated", roads blockaded

Oaxacan teachers occupy the city's [i]Zócalo[/i]

A 21 day series of strikes and occupations by the radical Sección 22 in Oaxaca of the Mexican teachers' union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en la Educación kicked off in earnest on Tuesday. As of Thursday, the strike appears to be spreading - with popular support, solidarity and an increasing volume of activity.

The teachers' strike has various demands, although it's mostly calling for the freedom for all political prisoners, an end to the arrest orders and ongoing intimidation by the judicial authorities against the movement, new elections within the SNTE, and the handing over of all Oaxacan schools controlled by the pro-government Sección 59.

Broken Barricades: The Oaxaca Rebellion in Victory, Defeat, and Beyond - Collective Reinventions

Oaxaca street barricade, 2006

An analysis of the 2006 Oaxaca rebellion and its contradictions. Its diversity encompassed workers, indigenous groups, Stalinists, anarchists and others. Its weapons and tactics included general assemblies, strikes, barricades, mirrors and fireworks.

Mexico: Oaxacan teachers occupy secondary school

Schoolteachers affiliated to the Sección 22 branch of the education union SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en Educación) - the main protagonists behind the Oaxaca revolt of 2006 - have occupied a secondary school in eastern Oaxaca under the control of the Sección 59 scab union branch.

The occupation started as of yesterday (15 February) and is a preliminary attempt to reclaim all the schools organised by the 5,000-strong Sección 59, created by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) Oaxacan state government and the SNTE leadership in Mexico City in an attempt to defeat the strikers in Sección 22 and thereby the 2006 uprising.

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