Facing down repression in Oaxaca: Change is coming to Mexico

author : Rochelle Gause topic : Oaxaca

by Rochelle Gause

The sounds of gunshots echo through the streets of Oaxaca and bounce off the mountains that surround the city. It's 3:00 am, and the members of the movement  --  who are camped out in the streets, huddled under tarps, armed only with rocks and pipes  --  are facing these bullets from government forces. Church bells begin to ring to signify where the attack is occurring and to call for support. This movement, which began with teachers camped out in Oaxaca City's main square, has now grown to a full-fledged popular struggle including farmers, union members, street vendors and social leaders camped 24 hours at all major government buildings, road blockades, twenty rural town halls and radio stations.

On August 1 a 3000-strong women's march moved through downtown, clanging pots and pans and calling for the resignation of the state governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. After the march ended in the main square, a contingent of 500 women decided to take over Channel 9 cortv, a statewide television station, and its two affiliated radio stations. After a few hours the women got the channel back on the air. They began to express many reasons for the takeover: to continue the pressure for the governor's resignation, to reclaim the space for the community, to air the news that is not getting covered, and to use the mode of communication for organizing and spreading word of the needs of the movement. One woman expressed that they will not let those " . . . from high society intimidate us by calling us tortilleras (women who sell tortillas in the street)." Another exclaimed "it is time to wake up, time to stand up and say enough."

Community radio has been a very significant part of this mobilization, giving new voice to the voiceless. May 2005 marked the beginning of the annual strike and encampment of Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers to call for pay raises, desks, books and breakfasts for their students. The teachers created a pirate radio station called Radio Planton that communicated the situation for the teachers encamped in the main square and much more. During the June 14 repression, now known as the "desalojo," the station was destroyed. In response, students from the Autonomous University of Benito Juarez reclaimed their radio station, Radio Universidad, and it became communication for the movement. It too was shot into by government goons, and acid was poured on the transmitter, destroying the station. On August 21, police and government goons attacked the transmitter control room for Channel 9, taking it and the two affiliated radio stations off the air. A contingency plan had been created and within hours eleven radio stations were under the control of movement members, many of them women from Channel 9.

The movement seems so strong and widespread, it feels unstoppable. However, at the same time that Governor Ulises Ruíz Ortíz speaks on mainstream news about creating a "dialogue for peace," plainclothes cops and paramilitaries appear at night and fire into the encampments. Two movement members guarding radio stations have been killed this week, bringing the total deaths to four. In response to Wednesday night's shooting, a teacher explained, "In truth after last night we are afraid, even though we don't say so. No one wants to be exposed, but we are aware that we have to go forward until this is finished. The consensus without a doubt was that we go together to the end." Arrest warrants have been issued for fifty movement "leaders," including members of the teachers union. Four have been abducted from the street by unmarked vans; photos of one, a biologist severely beaten, were seen in the local news. Last week, with one day's notice, a march against repression was held; 20,000 attended. Halfway through the march to Channel 9, government goons shot into the crowd, killing José Jimenez Colmenares, a mechanic and husband of a teacher.

The movement faces these acts of repression with resilience. I have watched two caskets carried through a sea of raised fists in the main square with thousands in attendance. The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, APPO  --  the main organizing structure made up of a coalition of the striking teachers and 150 social organisations  --  seems to advance daily with announcements of new actions and strategies to shut down the government of Oaxaca. On August 16 and 17 they held a forum entitled "Building Democracy and Governability in Oaxaca," with sessions covering the design of a new state constitution, creating democracy from below, and movement inclusion and respect for diversity. Oaxaca may be one of the poorest states in all of Mexico but the people are aware of why and the direct role neoliberalism plays in their lives. On August 18, APPO called for a statewide general strike and 80,000 people participated. Banks and wealthy businesses have been blockaded. APPO is organized into various committees, including security, which is currently blockading many streets and trying to protect the encampments from the nightly attacks by government forces.

There are clear connections between this movement and the ongoing national battle to reclaim democracy, as the right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderón, with the help of the conservative Federal Electoral Commission, comes closer and closer to stealing the presidential election through fraud. Change is coming to Mexico, and it is the unity, organization, sacrifice, courage, creativity and perseverance found in this grassroots struggle that has the potential to end to the rampant inequality fostered by so-called free trade and the other exploitative policies that have ruled Mexico throughout history. The Former Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruíz García, a long-time advocate for the poor and indigenous communities, attended the APPO forum. In the closing ceremonies he stated, " . . . it might be that we are standing in two time dimensions: the past and the future. In these days we are living something that we are leaving, and cement is being placed beneath something that doesn't come automatically but is the result of working together, of our construction."

Rochelle Gause is a former resident of Olympia and delegate of the Olympia --

Rafah Sister City Project.