Oaxaca’s people stand firm

The struggling people of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, one of the most impoverished and Indigenous parts of the country, now face an imminent military threat from the national government headed by Vicente Fox, the outgoing president.

Teachers march to Mexico City from Oaxaca, Mexico, on Sept. 21.

Reports in the Mexican dailies La Jornada and Prensa Latina indicate that as September ended, national police and military forces as well as military equipment—including helicopters, troop transport planes, armored personnel carriers, all-terrain vehicles and command vehicles—were being amassed at the Oaxacan coastal towns of Huatulco and Salina Cruz and at the city of Oaxaca’s airport.

In addition, as of Sept. 30, military helicopters and other surveillance aircraft had begun low overflights of the city of Oaxaca, focusing on the city’s central plaza, where hundreds of protesters remain encamped.

For months now, the workers and poor of Oaxaca have stood in solidarity with the Oaxacan teachers’ union and against Oaxaca’s Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose resignation they are demanding. Organizing themselves into the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), they have effectively had control of the capital city since June 14, when police attacked a rally where teachers were demanding higher wages.

A La Jornada report on the sudden military buildup referred to the peoples’ organization as “the Oaxaca Commune,” recognizing, perhaps, that it is functioning as a peoples’ grassroots government.

In response to the developing military threat, an APPO leader, making use of a radio station controlled by the people, called for solidarity brigades from all over the country to come to Oaxaca to form security belts around the city. He also suggested that city residents use mirrors to reflect sunlight from their rooftops to show defiance of the military overflights.

APPO is also trying to strengthen the barricades defending the city. A leader of the women’s movement in Oaxaca called on the people of Mexico City to respond immediately to any repression in Oaxaca with an occupation of the Mexico City Zócalo (central plaza) for the purpose of initiating actions of resistance and to denounce President Fox and his successor Felipe Calderón as the people responsible for the violence.

APPO is also demanding that the national government begin discussions with APPO on its “Pact on Governability, Peace and Development of the State of Oaxaca.” The alternative to negotiations, APPO is pointing out, will be the blood of the people on the hands of Fox and Ruiz, because “the people are going to respond” to the threatened repression.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the progressive Mexican presidential candidate who has refused to accept the July 2 election results widely viewed as fraudulent, and who has vowed to set up a parallel government, denounced the military moves against Oaxaca. He said his electoral opponent, Felipe Calderón, and the Institutional Revolutionary Party that backs the governor of Oaxaca would bear full responsibility for any bloodshed in Oaxaca.

Meanwhile, the national teachers’ union in Mexico City is planning a huge reception for the caravan/march of Oaxacan teachers currently en route to the capital from the city of Oaxaca. They are due to arrive on Oct. 9.