“The EZLN makes a call to the Other Campaign in México and to the north of the Río Grande so that this 1st of November of 2006 there are mobilizations wherever possible, and that streets, highways, tollbooths, bus stations, airports and all types of means of communications are closed entirely, partially or intermittently, be these closures real or symbolic.”
EZLN Call for November 1st Actions and Solidarity with Oaxaca
Mexican Consulates in the U.S. & Canada
Call to Action Across the US Against Mexican Consulates
(Greece, Athens: Oct. 31st Solidarity demo to the people of Oaxaca – photos)
Oaxaca Solidarity Demonstrations in the US on Wednesday, November 1st
Austin: Solidarity encampment at Mexican Consulate (corner of Brazos & 9th)
austin.indymedia.org
Los Angeles: 5pm Demonstration at Mexican Consulate (Park View & 6th St)
Los Angeles: 7pm Cuauhtemoc Mexica Dance at Mexican Consulate (Park View & 6th St)
New York City: 1pm Bike Ride for Oaxaca! (40th St and the West Side Highway)
Portland: 4pm Dia de los Muertos at Mexican Consulate (1234 SW Morrison St)
San Diego: Ongoing Protest at Mexican Consulate (1549 India St Little Italy)
San Francisco: 7pm Reportback and film screening (3030B 16th St)
Phoenix: 11am Protest at Mexican Consulate (19th Ave and Camelback)
arizona.indymedia.org
————-
Oaxaca solidarity:
San Jose: Protest in Support of the People of Oaxaca / Protesta APPOyo de pueblo de Oaxaca
Dia De Los Muertos – Marcha, Protesta y Vigilia en Appoyo de Los Martires de Oaxaca
EN MEMORIA DE LOS MARTIRES
El 1 de Noviembre 2-7 pm
“DIA DE LOS MUERTOS”
MARCHA, PROTESTA Y VIGILIA
EN CONSULADO DE MEXICO
La Marcha Comiensa y Termina enfrente de los Consulados Mexicanos de San Jose: 115 4th y St. John, (2 pm) y en 540 N. 1st St. (3 pm)
CONTACTO: 408-885-9785 (ingles/espanol)
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/01/18325479.php
Saturday November 04
Gratis: Peliculas de Oaxaca en San Jose – Free: Oaxaca Film Series San Jose
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/01/18325478.php
Today in El Paso Texas and Juarez Mexico we met La Otra Campagna on the bridge between the two sides and initiated a blockade for up to an hour and a half. U.S. military police tried to disrupt the meeting by flying close to the bridge in a helicopter and kicking up a lot of dirt. They failed of course and the blockade continued. I have pictures if you want them.
¡YA BASTA!
New England Day of Action in Solidarity with Oaxaca
Thursday. November 2. 4pm.
Boston Mexican Consulate
20 Park Plaza
Near Columbus Ave & Charles St
Transportation & rideshares below
As we write this, the people of Oaxaca are under attack by Mexico’s federal police, army, and paramilitary forces. This is a decisive moment for movements of resistance everywhere.
More than a dozen Oaxaqueños, and now our friend, compañero, and activist journalist Brad Will, have been murdered in the streets of
Oaxaca. People across the hemisphere are saying ¡ya basta!
Join us on Thursday, El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), for a massive show of solidarity at Boston’s Mexican Consulate.
Join us to protest the killings, remember the fallen, and demand that the Mexican government immediately cease and desist in its invasion and terror against the people of Oaxaca.
Spread the word. Bring friends, blockmates, classmates, coworkers. Bring signs, noisemakers, candles, pictures, whatever you’ve got.
From Boston: Green Line T to Arlington Stop
From Southeastern Mass: camiloviveiros (at) yahoo.com
From Western Mass: valeoftheoaks (at) hotmail.com
From Worcester: teo (at) riseup.net
From Providence: ellientta (at) yahoo.com
Electronic blockade: http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/oaxaca/Start.html
To learn more about the situation in Oaxaca and global solidarity:
http://www.indymedia.org
http://www.narconews.com
oaxacarevolt.org
asambleapopulardeoaxaca.org
Oaxaca Solidarity Nov. 1
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/348426.shtml
Tucson – March and Bike Ride for Oaxaca – 11/1
arizona.indymedia.org
5 Arrested at Oaxaca Solidarity Demonstration in St. Paul Minnesota
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/78438.html
photos:
twincities.indymedia.org
Santiago, Chile: Fotos Mittin en memoria de Brad Will y Oaxaca
santiago.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/60266.php
Solidaridad con Oaxaca y por la salida de Ulises Ruiz en todo el mundo
vientos.info/cml/?q=node/5842
OAXACA NO ESTÁ SOLA :: jornada de lucha del 1 de noviembre.
laotrachilanga.blogspot.com/2006/11/oaxaca-no-est-sola-jornada-de-lucha-del.html
Lawrence Kansas Solidarity Action
Lawrence, KS Stands in Solidarity with the People of Oaxaca and answers the call set out by the EZLN
On Nov 1st, in Lawrence Kansas between 15 and 20 people from the local community used a nearly 40 foot long banner reading “Justice for the People of Oaxaca; Governor Ruiz and Troops Out” to blockade the road across the street from the local corporate news source the Lawrence Journal World’s offices. They held the street for between 45 minutes to an hour in answer to the international call put out by the EZLN for “completely, partially, at intervals or symbolically shutting down the major artery roads, streets, toll booths, stations, airports and commercial media.” in an effort to show “that the people of Oaxaca are not alone: They are not alone!” The group in Lawrence chose the location to highlight the lack of information or the blatant dis-information coming from the Lawrence Journal World on the continued resistance of teachers and other workers against the PRI-controlled government of the State of Oaxaca.
Flyers being passed out by those on the sidewalks to passerby’s stated 4 demands. They were 1-Government forces out of Oaxaca, 2-Governor Ruiz step down, 3-Direct negotiation with the Oaxacan people, 4-All assassins be held accountable, and finally that the “Lawrence Journal World tell the truth about Oaxaca!” There was little interaction with the police besides Police Chief Ron Olin making an appearance to personally get pictures of all those involved in the action.
By Jordan F. Scritch (at) riseup.net
source and photos:
https://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/78662.html
One Arrested at Vancouver Demonstration in Support of Oaxaca
The demonstration began at the Mexican consulate on Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver. The demonstrators drew chalk drawings and messages on the sidewalk in front of the consulate. They also painted “Oaxaca Mexico – No More Deaths” on the sidewalk.
source:
vancouver.indymedia.org/?q=node/2763
Peacefully Demanding Justice in the Face of Violence from Oaxaca to Vancouver
November 1st, Vancouver BC, Canada. Coast Salish Territory. Vigil in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca results in the arrest of one community activist.
source and more information:
vancouver.indymedia.org/?q=node/2767
OAXACA: UPDATE AND PERSPECTIVES
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
This past weekend, the government of Vicente Fox sent in federal troops to tear down the barricades that were set up by the mobilized people of Oaxaca to defend the teachers’ strike and to demand the ouster of hated PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
The Fox administration had hesitated for many months to take such action, realizing it could backfire and detonate further insurrectionary struggles across the entire country. It also didn’t want to pay the political price of sending in troops to prop up a politician as universally despised, even among the conservatives in the state, as Ruiz Ortiz.
In addition, the government had succeeded in luring the top leadership of Section 22 of the teachers’ union — the backbone of the strike and popular upheaval — into accepting a settlement. There was a possibility now of splitting the movement by getting the teachers’ issues resolved without having to meet the demand to impeach Ruiz Ortiz.
This settlement, I should note, included many key concessions by the government to the teachers’ demands — concessions that were made to the union precisely because the government hoped to split the teachers away from the rest of the embattled people, organized in the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).
For example, the wage-parity increases during the first year (amounting to a 30 percent raise) are more than double what the government had proposed initially. The government, moreover, agreed to pay the remaining 825 million pesos over six years, even though some major loopholes were thrown into the agreement on this question. More money was allotted for uniforms and schools. All wages lost during the course of the strike would be paid. Jailed teachers would be released. And the union was recognized as such — when at first the government wanted to dissolve the union into a “civil society” roundtable pact with the governor.
These gains are not insignificant — even though the union didn’t get what it had hoped to get from the Senate Commission: an agreement to impeach Ruiz Ortiz.
But when Ruiz Ortiz — a maverick politician who cannot be controlled even by the Mexican ruling class — sent in his own goons last Friday to kill the three teachers and one U.S. journalist/activist, he forced the federal government’s hand to intervene. Ruiz Ortiz and the U.S. Embassy wanted the government to move forcefully to smash the barricades and reclaim the downtown section of the city, including the occupied government buildings, from the people, organized by APPO.
The movement retreated tactically to prevent the bloodshed, but it has regrouped since. The mass march Monday afternoon in Oaxaca of close to 200,000 people showed that the movement is not only alive, but it is angrier than ever.
More important, the movement is extending nationally — something that has raised immense fear among the ruling rich of Mexico.
This past Monday and Tuesday, close to 180,000 teachers in five states of the Mexican Republic went out on strike in solidarity with APPO and to demand the immediate withdrawal of federal troops, an end to the state-sponsored violence, the punishment of all those responsible for these crimes (first and foremost among them, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz) and the impeachment of Ruiz Ortiz. All these teachers are in unions affiliated with the dissident wing, or caucus, of the National Teachers Union (SNTE). The dissident wing is known as the CNTE, or Coordinadora.
Today, the CNTE top leadership called on the 250,000-plus teachers organized in the CNTE to carry out a two-day teachers’ strike on November 9-10.
On Sunday, the National Democratic Convention (CND) came out of its one-month slumber to organize a mass march in Mexico City. The previous afternoon, Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a scathing attack on the government and demanded the withdrawal of the federal troops and the impeachment of Ruiz Ortiz.
Yesterday evening (October 31), Lopez Obrador convened a rally of more than 5,000 people on just a few hours’ notice. Again, he lambasted the PAN and PRI for propping up Ruiz Ortiz. At the rally, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, a leader of the PRD, called for a National March in Defense of the People of Oaxaca, to be held “in the briefest possible delay” in Mexico City. Jesusa Rodriguez, coordinator of the Democratic National Convention (CND), called for the formation of a National Front in Defense of the People of Oaxaca.
Likewise, unions and community organizations have begun to send caravans and brigades to Oaxaca to support the struggle in Oaxaca. In many parts of the city of Oaxaca, barricades are back up — and APPO has since established a massive Plantón, or encampment, in a square and adjoining streets outside a Church on the outskirts of the city.
The chant heard across the country is growing louder and louder: “Oaxaca Vive, La Lucha Sigue!” — Oaxaca Lives, The Struggle Continues!
What Next?
With every passing day, the spiral of violence in Oaxaca is deepening.
The November 1 issue of La Jornada newspaper reports that goons hired by the PRI are roaming the streets of Oaxaca and vandalizing ATM machines, government buildings (something that did not occur during the four months of occupation of the Zocalo district by APPO) and otherwise provoking confrontations and deaths.
What’s most interesting about this information is that it comes from the Fox administration itself. La Jornada writes: “According to a spokesperson for the federal government, special police operatives in Oaxaca are reporting that groups linked to PRI politicians are committing acts of vandalism and violence in different points of the state’s capital with the purpose of having the blame placed on the activists of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).”
It’s not every day that a government admits this kind of thing. Such an admission is the reflection of a major crisis brewing at the highest levels both of the government and of the PRI. How else can one explain the fact that in the Senate last week, the entire PRI caucus voted to chastise Ruiz Ortiz and to call upon him to “strongly consider stepping down from office.”
Ruiz Ortiz wants the violence to escalate to justify the further repression and iron fist. Only this way, he thinks, can he behead the opposition and remain in power. But Ruiz Ortiz’s intransigence is destabilizing the entire country on the eve of the December 1 transfer of the presidency to the fraudulently “selected” Felipe Calderón.
For now at least, Ruiz Ortiz’s strategy is working. An estimated 300 union and political activists have been rounded up and detained by federal troops and security forces. There are reports every day of more deaths and injured. A full-fledged occupation against the will of a people is being established with the aim of crushing the resistance to Ruiz Ortiz’s tyrannical rule.
But can this occupation succeed in putting down the popular revolt? Everything indicates this is not in the cards.
What Way Forward?
Earlier today (November 1), an assembly of teachers, healthcare unionists, students, campesinos and shantytown dwellers gathered in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, at the initiative of the leadership of Section 7 of the SNTE teachers’ union. Section 7 is also part of the CNTE dissident wing.
The Chiapas assembly adopted a Declaration to the People of Mexico that is worth quoting at some length. The Declaration states:
“We address you to state our full agreement with the demands of the movement in Oaxaca: Ulises Must Go! Punish all the assassins, beginning with Ulises! Army and Special Troops Out of Oaxaca! Stop the Killing! Free All the Detained Leaders and Activists! …
“On October 31 in Mexico City, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo of the PRD called for a National March in Mexico City in support of these very demands. He called on workers, peasants, and youth from throughout the country to mobilize in the nation’s capital, where the decisions in relation to Oaxaca are made.
“Two years ago, the people of Mexico marched, more than 1.2 million strong, to demand that the ban on allowing Lopez Obrador to run for the presidency be dropped. We won this demand through our independent, mass action. More recently, on September 16, we gathered again, 1 million strong, at the National Democratic Convention (CND) to affirm the will of the people that Lopez Obrador should assume the office of president of the Republic.
“The emergency-response actions around the country have been extremely positive. Many, many more are needed — every day. But we must now concentrate our response in one mass demonstration of the magnitude of what we organized against the “desafüero” [ban on standing for office] in 2004.
“That is why we are calling on compañero Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leaders of the CND, the APPO, Section 22 of the SNTE, the political parties in the Broad Progressive Front (FAP), and the unions (the Electrical Workers Union/SME, UNT, CNTE, STUNAM, SITUAM, and others: All should unite in issuing a call for a Mass March on Mexico City to be held as soon as possible.
“At the same time, we would like to allow ourselves to propose that these organizations, among others, set up a National Front in Defense of the People of Oaxaca so that we can coordinate our efforts nationally and be even more effective in our work to force the ouster of Ruiz Ortiz and the withdrawal of the PFP and AFT troops.”
Another initiative that also should be highlighted is a Declaration by a number of local union presidents of Section 22 in Oaxaca applauding the decision by the CNTE to issue a call for a two-day CNTE strike on November 9-10 — but proposing that such a strike should be a nationwide teachers’ strike.
“The issues of privatization, under-funding and union-busting which we in Section 22 had to face are the same issues that teachers are facing across the country. We need to mobilize teachers in every town, city and state in this great strike.
“And let us not think for one moment that the gains we in Oaxaca just made at the bargaining table with the government are secure. They are not. Most of our teachers have still not gone back to work given the instability and lack of security across the state of Oaxaca. Teachers are being jailed today for resisting the Army occupation. And we have just learned that the government wants to seize our union halls and force our evictions.
“To win, to force Ulises out of office before December 1, we must expand the November 9-10 strike to teachers across the nation, and, wherever possible, to other unions. We cannot wait any longer to take action.”
The reference here to the December 1 date is important. If Ruiz Ortiz is forced out of office before December 1, the state is required to hold new elections for governor. However, if he does not step down till after that date, he can name a successor, essentially placing him behind the scenes running the show.
The perspectives put forward by these teacher unionists in Chiapas and Oaxaca point the way forward.
Our Tasks in the United States
Large protest actions are being held in cities across the country at the Mexican Consulates.
In San Francisco last night, more than 200 people gathered at the Mexican Consulate to demand the withdrawal of the federal troops, the ouster of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and the punishment of all those responsible for the heinous state-sponsored crimes against the people.
Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO), noted that the Council fully supports these demands and will urge the rest of the labor movement to do the same. Paulson also brought greetings to the rally from City Supervisors Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano. Ken Tray, political director of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), decried the killing of teachers and activists in Oaxaca and pledged his union’s full support for the struggle for democracy and justice in Oaxaca.
A dozen or more other speakers also chimed in with their messages of solidarity — Frank Martin Del Campo, from the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; Al Rojas, from Mexicanos en el Exterior; Jessica Sanchez and this author, on behalf of the Mexico Solidarity Committee; Todd Chretien, Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate; Gloria La Riva from ANSWER, Cristina Gutierrez from Amigos del Barrio, Dave Solnit from Indymedia, Miguel Robles from the Comite en Defensa del Voto, among others.
This is just a beginning. We must expand and deepen these efforts — and we must act now.
Not One More Death in Oaxaca!
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
Co-convenor, OWC
Member, Executive Committee
San Francisco Labor Council
Thursday, November 2 at 10:15 a.m.
Dear Friends:
As you can see from the note below, the military and police forces are readying to violate the Mexican Constitution by sending in troops to take over the Autonomous University of Oaxaca, from which APPO supporters are broadcasting their appeals over Radio Universidad and from which the resistance to the bloody occupation is being organized.
Please forward this emergency appeal widely and urge everyone to send faxes and email protest letters to Carlos Abascal Carranza and Vicente Fox demanding an IMMEDIATE end to the military operation in Oaxaca:
– Hands off the University of Oaxaca!
– Stop the killing!
– Withdraw all federal and state troops and police NOW!
– Free all the detained unionists and activists!
– Ulises Ruiz Ortiz must go, so that peace can be restored!
Please call the Mexican Consulates in your cities with your message of protest, organize emergency protest actions with press conferences at the Consulates, or build support for these urgent demands in your unions and community organizations. We need to act now!
All messages should be sent to:
– Vicente Fox Quesada,
President of Mexico
vicente.fox.quesada (at) presidencia.gob.mx,
– Carlos Abascal,
Minister of the Interior
segob (at) rtn.net.mx
– Please send copy to Fernando Mendoza Pérez,
International Coordinator, Sección 22 del SNTE-CNTE:
Alborotador_oax (at) hotmail.com
Not One More Death in Oaxaca!
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin