http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-09-17.htmWhat is going on? Why the panic?
Not much mystery. The U.S. and Canadian governments have issued travelers warnings advising against coming to Oaxaca City because of the supposed danger. And the commercial media in these countries, and in European countries as well, have dramatized to fearful proportions an amazingly peaceful struggle that began as a 26-year-old ritualized mid-May strike and occupation of the city center by state education workers. On June 14 the governor sent state police to attack and drive the campers (primarily teachers) out of the city center, an attack that failed. The angry citizens of the state responded by forming a massive civic organization and mounting huge protest marches, demanding removal of the governor and replacement of the political structure running the state by a system of popular assemblies, similar to traditional indigenous customs of self government. An account of the first three and a half months of the struggle is in a paper, “Incipient Revolution in Oaxaca”, at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-08-29.htm, first published in a text-only version titled “From Teachers’ Strike Towards Dual Power: The Revolutionary Surge in Oaxaca”, at
http://www.counterpunch.org/salzman08302006.html .
The newly-constituted civic organization leading the struggle is the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO). Despite its absolute commitment to militant non-violent civil disobedience as its mode of struggle, the governments and corporate media have consistently depicted the conflict as a violent, almost on-going riot led by APPO and supposed armed revolutionary groups that associate themselves with APPO. I believe that the nature of the rebellion does in fact pose a potential threat to the entire neo-liberal project of U.S.-led trans-national capitalism in the Americas. That explains, I think, the ferocity of the lying misrepresentation being consistently promoted by the governments and their closely-allied corporate media. They are doing their utmost to prepare public support for an eventual military crackdown to smash the Oaxaca revolt.
In contrast to their frightening depiction of conditions in Oaxaca City, the situation is one of hopefulness, hope that the ruling PRI/PAN alliance in Mexico City will not carry out a bloody suppression here and that somehow a peaceful way will be found to resolve the conflict. At this time I think it’s accurate to say that the so-called constitutional government of Oaxaca has completely lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the vast majority of Oaxaqueños who are at all politically aware. And, that much the same is true for the national government of Mexico, as is to a considerable extent also the case for the U.S. government in the eyes of its citizens. It appears that the Oaxaca government was told by the federal government to stop its clandestine terrorist night-time attacks some three or four weeks ago. Since that time the nights have been quiet and the total known deaths (all caused by government agents and their hired thugs) has not gone above the previous five or six. So far as I know, not a single foreigner has been even so much as hurt or threatened.
The last couple of days, a reign of ‘anarchist-inspired terror’?
Two nights ago, on 15 September, Mexicans celebrated The Cry of Hidalgo, an event that took place in the early morning of 16 September 1810, signalling the start of the armed struggle for independence. Here in Oaxaca APPO did not allow the governor to make the customary cry from the balcony of the government palace, in fact they had ordered him to leave the state of Oaxaca some days before, and the ceremonial “Cry” was given by the popularly-chosen mayor of the town of Zaachila, one of the numerous defiant towns in Oaxaca that has acted to replace the so-called constitutional town government. There were some tourists in the Zócalo that night, not many. I took a few pictures of the prevailing state of ‘anarchy’ in the heart of this city shortly before the anticipated ceremony, and a few more the next day, when the festivities continued. Here's a sample.
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