If you are in New York City, join the Friends of Brad Will this Wednesday, November 1st, for a Bike Ride in Solidarity with the People of Oaxaca!
We are meeting this Wednesday at 1 pm at 40th St & West Side Highway (12th Ave) and will be riding to:
- Expose the commercial media’s distortion of the current situation in Oaxaca.
- Raise awareness about the capitalist forces in our city that are benefiting from the continued repression of the people’s movement.
- Highlight the hypocrisy of the Mexican government holding a seat on the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.
If you are not in New York City, we are calling on people from around the world to join the Zapatista call for November 1st actions in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca (see the call below) by organizing a Bike Ride for this Wednesday or As Soon As Possible!
BACKGROUND
Since the middle of June, the people of Oaxaca have been organizing to force their corrupt and repressive governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, to step down from office. The Popular Movement of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) is an explicitly non-violent movement and has fought to exercise their constitutional right to change their government. Their non-violent mobilization has been met with repeated violence that has led to approximately 20 deaths over the past four months.
On Friday, October 27th, New York City independent journalist Brad Will, striking schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián, and Oaxaca resident Eudocia Olivera Díaz were murdered by people connected to the state government of Oaxaca.
Brad’s death was used by the Mexican government to justify the brutal occupation of Oaxaca by federal forces on Sunday, October 29th that led to the death of four more people, including a minor, and the arrest of over 50 Oaxacan civilians. The police chief and several representatives of the Oaxacan government who were photographed when they killed Brad, however, have not been arrested. The Mexican federal police are in Oaxaca to defend the corrupt government, not to end the conflict.
On Monday, October 30th, over 200 New Yorkers shut down the Mexican consulate to protest the use of Brad’s image as a smokescreen for the killing of more Oaxacan civilians.
Join us this Wednesday in organizing bike rides in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca!
ZAPATISTA CALL FOR ACTIONS
Urgent Call to Action in Support of the APPO for November 1st and 20th
(hasty) translation by zapagringo.com
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
October 30th, 2006
To the People of the World
To our Compañeras who are adherents of the Zezta International
From the Intergalactic Commission of the EZLN
Sisters and brothers.
Compañeras y compañeros.
To the people of Oaxaca who are calling on us, and because of this we are also making a CALL. We should show our commitment to each other in our actions. They are not alone. Just as the compañeras of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca are showing us their dignity in struggle.
The call is to create peaceful actions. The occupation of embassies, blockades, marches, encampments, meetings, and protests everywhere in the world on the 1st of November 2006 and again on the 20th of November of the same year. Let us create this global mobilization together on November 1st and November 20th.
Because yesterday [Mexican President] Fox and the government of the rich of Mexico entered with their Federal Police and their helicopters with Mexican soldiers to make an unjust war against the town of Oaxaca, this is what Fox calls dialogue.
There are dead, wounded, incarcerated.
Because of this our call is for:
- The immediate departure of the Mexican army and federal preventive police.
- Immediate freedom for our detained compañeras.
- Justice for our murdered compañeras and the punishment of the murderers.
- Immediate departure of the murderer Ulises Ruiz.
We demand the freedom of our compañeras political prisoners of the town of Atenco.
Our strength brothers and sisters, because we are the poor of the world, is that we fight together.
The people of Oaxaca are counting on us.
Intergalactic Commission of the EZLN.
Insurgent Lieutenant Colonel Moisés.
