Governor threatens people’s movement

Confrontations continue in Oaxaca, Mexico, between local state police and extra-legal gangsters hired by local capitalists and officials on one side and a coalition of popular organizations representing striking teachers, peasants, women and their supporters—and much of the population of Oaxaca—on the other.

Oaxaca’s state governor, Ulises Ruiz, has threatened violence to crush the unarmed but broadly popular movement known as the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). The Human Rights Net work and Amnesty Interna tional have reported on the regime’s attacks on human rights and the danger of a bloodbath. (Aug. 27, La Jornada)

APPO arose after police made a violent raid on June 14 on a rally of people supporting a teachers’ strike that had occupied the central plaza of the city of Oaxaca. APPO supports the teachers’ demand that Ruiz resign.

Some of the popular demonstrations supporting APPO and the teachers, who began their strike May 22, have been as large as 800,000 people. The state of Oaxaca, one of the poorest regions of Mex ico, has a total population of about 3.6 million, about half of whom are Indi genous. The right-wing Institutional Revolution ary Party (PRI) has run Oaxaca’s state government for the past 71 years and is known for its corrupt connections with the local ruling class and electoral fraud.

One can argue with justification that APPO is an alternative government with far more popular support than Ruiz’s regime.

A group of about 500 women activists in APPO had seized a television station on Aug. 1 for six hours to break the big capitalists’ monopoly on the media by showing a home video of police attacking demonstrators. Following another police attack on APPO during which a teacher was shot, the popular assembly then sat in at another television station and a dozen radio stations. As of Aug. 27, the movement had to cede five of the radio stations.

La Jornada reported an incident that illustrates the nature of the class conflict in Oaxaca. A movement leader addressing a march of Indigenous peasants toward the city of Oaxaca asked the farmers to “raise their arms.” They held up their hoes, machetes, pieces of wood and their newspapers—mainly their instruments of work. The speaker emphasized that this was a mass, peaceful movement.

But this also showed that the state authorities and the still-reactionary national regime have a monopoly on force and violence.

Armed groups have attacked groups of APPO supporters during demonstrations but especially in the hours between 2 and 4 a.m. At least four APPO activists have been killed or wounded and some of the leaders have been arrested by the police.

The struggle in Mexico’s southwestern state of Oaxaca takes place while the battle throughout Mexico over the July 2 national election continues. Progressive candi date Andrés Manuel López Obrador has refused to concede to the electoral fraud of the government party, the PAN, and its candidate, Felipe Calderón. Even with the regime’s manipulation of the ballot boxes, Calderón’s official lead was only 0.6 percent and this diminished after a tenth of the ballots were recounted.

The electoral commission said it would announce results of ballot challenges on Aug. 28. López Obrador has insisted on a complete recount and further mass pro tests are expected on Sept. 16.

Regarding Oaxaca, López Obrador has spoken out against the state authority’s repression and the governor, while Cal derón has attacked APPO.

Meanwhile, in another poor and 30 percent Indigenous southern state, Chiapas, where the Zapatista uprising took place in 1994, the electoral commission awarded the governor’s seat to a candidate from López Obrador’s party following another very close election. The right-wing PRI and PAN—the National Action Party—have refused to recognize this victory, which they lost by 1 percent of the vote even though they had most control of the ballots.

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