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While the Mexican government tries to play host to the G8+5 Gleneagles
Dialogue on Climate Change, it is mounting a massive violent attack on
the people of Oaxaca. Apparently the Mexican government thinks it can
cleanse the country of its growing pro-democracy rebellion while laying
out a red carpet to world politicians including the G8 Energy Ministers.
The neoliberal project of corporate globalization and fossil-fuel-based
"energy security" that causes global warming is built on massive
violence, from armies to riot police to militarized borders, to turn the
global south into its sweatshop and repress the uprisings for justice,
democracy, and sustainable livelihood of the people in Mexico and other
countries.
While the neoliberal model of industrial "development" sees the
remaining indigenous and "undeveloped" lands of the Earth as territories
for capitalist exploitation of natural resources and human labor, the
schoolteachers leading Oaxaca's popular pro-democracy strike have a
different vision. By taking direct action to shut down the tyrannical
rule of their state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the people of Oaxaca are
teaching that another world is possible.
On Sunday, October 1, 2006, a headline in the Mexico City daily Milenio
proclaimed, "Preparations for war in Oaxaca," while Mexico City's El
Universal newspaper reported that helicopters, planes and 15 troop
trucks had assembled in Huatulco, a Pacific tourist getaway and military
hub a short flight â but a long and difficult drive â from Oaxaca city.
According to the independent news website Narconews.com, which has been
covering the Other Campaign of the Zapatistas, on Sunday, October1,
2006:
"The Mexican Navy carried out a reconnaissance operation over the
buildings and public spaces occupied by the Popular Assembly of the
Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials). Two MI-17 helicopters
and one CASA C212 Navy airplane with registration number AMP-118 flew
over the streets of the city â where opponents of Governor Ulises Ruiz
Ortiz have maintained several encampments over the past 130 days â for
about 40 minutes."
"The zocalo, or central city square, the Oro and La Ley radio stations,
the state government building, the Brenamiel and El Rosario radio
antennas, as well as the Department of Finance building â all places
where the rebels have installed protest camps â were reconnoitered by
low-level flights of military aircraft. As they passed over the Radio
Oro facilities, the two helicopters were fruitlessly "attacked" with
fireworks that teachers of the National Education Workers' Union local
Section 22 launched from Conzatti Garden. The airplane then made four
more passes over the areas around the zocalo and returned to the
airport, where five other military aircraft were stationed. At 5:30 that
afternoon, the naval surveillance plane and two AMHT-202 and AMHT-205
helicopters landed on a city airstrip and let out 18 soldiers in
black-and-grey camouflage, bulletproof vests, helmets and firearms."
"Lino Celaya LurÃa, state secretary of Citizen Protection, confirmed
that the objective of the military flights was to "reconnoiter" the
scene of the conflict, but claimed not to know if this was the prelude
to an eventual federal operation to remove the protesters. The state
official limited himself to saying: "We were informed that a flight
would occur over the areas where the dissidents are present. We believe
this is to obtain field information on the situation."
"Meanwhile, from the occupied radio stations, the rebels again declared
a maximum alert in the face of what they imagine could be the beginning
of a removal/eviction operation against the popular and teachers'
movement."
Over half of the Oaxaca's 3.2 million people, most of whom are
indigenous, live in poverty, and 21.5 percent of those over 15 are
illiterate, while the average number of years of schooling is 5.6 years
-- almost two less than Mexico's national average. Many students in
Oaxaca's rural schools lack books and desks. In May, tens of thousands
of teachers seized the capital's leafy central plaza to demand wage
increases and improved school conditions. The following month, Governor
Ulises Ruiz sent police to attempt to retake the heart of the city.
Since then, radical social movements of workers, peasants, students,
women and others have joined the striking teachers, building street
barricades and taking over radio and television stations. They demand
that Ruiz resign, alleging that he rigged the 2004 election and uses
paramilitary gangs to attack dissidents. A total of five "megamarches"
were organized with the largest reaching the astonishing number of
around 300,000 people, or one out of ten people who live in the state.
During the protests, as many as six people have been killed in violent
incidents which apparently involved irregular armed groups linked to the
Ruiz administration and the police, according to human rights
organisations. A number of demonstrators have also been arrested and
injured, and further assaults perpetrated against them by organized,
unidentified gangs of thugs have been reported.
One example of neoliberal "development" in Mexico with major
implications for Oaxaca is Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a transnational
"mega-infrastructure" project that would transform the region's
geography and economy if implemented. While claiming that one of its
main goals is to improve the conditions for the people of the region,
PPP is stealing land from indigenous people for infrastructure projects
to move resources more quickly into the hands of multinational
corporations and commodifying their culture for the tourist industry.
One of the projects affecting Oaxaca is the creation of a super highway
at Mexico's skinniest point, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in order to
move resources more readily across the land from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. This transportation corridor will be surrounded with
sweatshops, maquiladoras, operating without labor and environmental
protections. For all of these objectives, neoliberal control over the
government of Oaxaca is key to the realization of the PPP project.
Mexico has an ugly history of military repression that coincides with
major world gatherings occurring inside the country. 38 years ago today,
October 2nd, the Mexican military massacred hundreds of student
protesters at Tlatelolco, just days before the 1968 Olympic Games began
in Mexico City. If military violence against the pro-democracy
protesters of Oaxaca occurs before, during or after the G8 meeting in
Mexico, the G8 leaders as well as the Mexican military must be held
accountable for the injuries and death. To prevent this, we demand that
the G8 officials who are meeting this week in Mexico must publicly speak
out to condemn the possibility of another Mexican massacre at Oaxaca.
We demand that the G8 end its support of destructive "carbon trading."
The G8 is composed of the leaders of the richest 8 countries in the
world, who are responsible for the policies of war, criminalization of
cross-border human migration, and massive environmental destruction.
While they claim to be meeting to solve the climate change crisis, they
are in fact discussing carbon trading agreements that will allow
corporations to profit while exporting their pollution to the global
south. Carbon trading threatens to turn countries like Brazil into a
"carbon sink" for the global north while ignoring the underlying
capitalist ideology of endless growth and boundless consumption that is
creating massive climate change.
Help us stop the G8 by slowing the propaganda systems that the G8+5 and
the Mexican Government will be using during the meetings and the attacks
to spread disinformation about their actions. As in our previous
actions, people from all around the world will make their virtual
presence manifest on the doorstep of the G8+5 and the Mexican
Government.
To join the action, click here:
 http://sdhacklab.org/oaxaca
More news and updates about the unfolding situation in Oaxaca at
http://narconews.com
More information on resistance to the G8+5 meeting in Mexico City at
http://contrag8.revolt.org
 Homepage:: http://sdhacklab.org/oaxaca
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Wikipedia defines an Internet Troll as: "either a person who sends messages on the Internet hoping to entice other users into angry or fruitless responses, or a message sent by such a person." San Diego IMC strives to provide both a grassroots media resource as well as a forum for people to contribute to a meaningful discussion about local issues. Please, when posting comments, be respectful of others and ignore those trying to interrupt or discourage meaningful discourse. Thank you.
-- San Diego Indymedia volunteers
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In addition to the virtual sit-in on the websites, you can also manifest
your virtual presence via email or telephone:
Write to:
Vicente Fox Quesada
(Presidencia, Los Pinos)
Telephone:
011 52 (55) 2789 1100
011 52 (55) 18 7501 Atencion Ciudadana
Fax: (55) 52 77 23 76
email:  vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx
Dear President Vicente Fox,
Please do not authorize the use of Federal force to resolve the current
social and political dispute in Oaxaca.
Sincerely,
If you use email, please send copies to:
President Elect Felipe Calderón Hinojosa: felipe@felipe.org.mx and
Secretary of Government: Carlos Abascal: segob@rtn.net.mx
UPDATE: As of 10:50pm sunday night, there were reports that the attack had
begun and that members of the PRI forces had begun attacking barricades
which were defending radio antennas.
borderlands hacklaber
Mientras que el gobierno mexicano juega a hospedar el Diálogo en Cambios
Climáticos del G8+5 Gleneagles, está organizando un violento ataque contra la
gente de Oaxaca. Aparentemente, el gobierno mexicano cree que puede eliminar
del país su creciente rebelión prodemocrática cuando, al mismo tiempo, extiende
la alfombra roja a los políticos internacionales, incluyendo los Ministros de
Energía del G8. El proyecto neoliberal de globalización corporativa y
“seguridad energética” basado en los combustibles fósiles que causan el
calentamiento global está construido sobre violencia masiva, desde ejércitos a
policía antimotines hasta fronteras militarizadas, que busca convertir al
hemisferio sur en su súbdito y reprimir sus levantamientos en favor de la
justicia, la democracia, y condiciones de vida sostenibles para la gente de
México y otros países.
borderlands hacklabber
Hi. I'm guessing that your comments on what the internationals are doing may be accurate, but as a US born (hippie) resident of Oaxaca your interpretation of what is happening there seems off.
"Apparently the Mexican government thinks it can
cleanse the country of its growing pro-democracy rebellion"
I don't think there is a rebellion of the people here in Mexico. Nor are those who are monkey-wrenching actually democratic. They (APPO, Obrador) don't want the majority to rule, they want themselves to rule. Since they have "leftist" slogans, they are considered to be democratic, by leftists. But their techniques are authoritarian. It's the same old power-play approach. Remember that PRI the authoritarian ruling party of past has "revolutionary" in their name.
Those now bidding for control by force ("power by temper-tantrum" my Zapoteca wife says) don't care what the majority wants. I contend that majority wants to live on in peace- make a living, feed their family, have their kids go to school -what little school the teachers actually attend!
The rest of APPO, I honestly don't know who they are, nor do most Oaxacans. Their website is VERY slick but reveals almost nothing. Marcos and the Zapotistas are keeping away from them. APPO seems to be everybody who had a beef, was looking for more attention or power and came out of the woodwork to jump on the 22 syndicate's bandwagon. The more the merrier.
Make no mistake. APPO and Obrador have little to do with your agenda (
whatever it is) though they encourage your belief and will accept your support. It is a power play and NOT democratic.
By the way, the teachers in Oaxaca are not all bad, but many are fake teachers who buy their way into jobs with the corrupt sydicate. The teachers barely attend classes and the kids are sent home constantly because the teacher has other things to do These teachers, who average maybe 20 hours a week over the whole year, make more than a mason who works all day in the hot sun- year round. Much of the reason for poor education in Oaxaca is due to the stranglehold the 22 has on education. It's their turf and they administer it for their own gain, not the kids, for sure!!! Nobody I know in Oaxaca thinks they need a raise. It's the city peope from afar and the foreigners who have that reaction "poor teachers"
The syndicate is so powerful that the teachers havn't taught a day of class for months and months and were still receiving their salary as of September. The Mexican government a WAY more tolerant than ours would be of such behavior. We were in Veracruz last weekend and were told that the people of Veracruz started a program to adopt Oaxacan kids into their schools so their education can continue. They are encountering severe resistance from APPO who does not want any Oaxacan children to be able to go to school until they say so.
From my observations, following the events for years, and conversations with many, many Mexicans, Mexico has been on a path towards Democracy since well before Fox won the popular vote and started the long process of wresting control of Mexico from the PRI. The elections are getting cleaner and cleaner (Ruiz was a big local exception, who really did enter via fraud most believe) and slowly but surely, the idea of a multiparty government and not just a "good-ol-boys" mafia running the state is gaining power.
These movements are threatening the move towards democracy, not supporting it. RUIZ and his kind must go the way of the dinasaur, but by democratic means, not in a power play coup. Or else we will "meet the new boss- same as the old boss"
In sum, please do not confuse the issues with WTO, world bank etc, with Oaxacan/Mexican power struggles. It is a dangerous over-simplification and helps no-one.
Steve Lewis
 e-mail:: seaweedsteve@gmail.com
I myself am mildly leery of the involvement of a dubious group of Marxist-Leninist guerillas in the situation that is unfolding in Oaxaca. The so-called Revolutionary Popular Front, just like their name implies, seems to be a front for a bunch of Leninists making a power grab.
That said, if the numbers of people who are coming out in support are true there must be some semblance of popular support, regardless of the ideologues claiming that they're "leaders" of the movement.
Sean S.
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