July 26th, 2007 – CODEP writes: APPO is a popular magisterial movement formed to resolve the conflict created by the tyrant Ulisés Ruiz and backed by ex President Vicente Fox Quesada and the illegitimate Fecal and all of the government apparatus that support them in the state of Oaxaca.
In November 2006 APPO finally met and formally constituted its existence as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca despite the obstacles created by some organizations that opposed its creation.
Among the themes generated by this assembly were defining the characteristics that APPO should have, as well as the objectives that it should strive for, based on the following general considerations
The creation of APPO had as its fundamental objectives the departure of Ulisés Ruiz Ortiz from Oaxaca, the creation of a new constituency and the installation of a new government or governing body that would decide what economic, political and social efforts the state of Oaxaca needs in order to develop. To this end we propose working for state and national recognition of APPO as the expression of a struggle devoted to restoring the traditional assemblies that enable our peoples to meet, to work together and to demonstrate both nationally and internationally what our struggle is about.
APPO should be understood as a place of reflection for the resolution of the problems our communities face and as a forum where the aged, women, young people, everyone, participate in making collective decisions. As such it is a place where compromises can be reached, recognizing that this reflects the customs and feelings of our communities.
APPO is inspired by the experiences and mystique of the peoples of Oaxaca. It is formed of popular assemblies of the state, sections, regions and neighborhoods of Oaxaca.
APPO should govern itself by the principles of horizontal organization, revolving participation, the ability to replace persons or activities and government mandated by popular assembly.
It is a place where participants commit themselves fully, incorporate a variety of relationships (excluding those based on domination) and recognize that the assemblies are not places for differences among individuals or organizations, nor are they places where one person or one group can claim to possess the truth. Nor are the assemblies trampolines for reaching positions of authority in the current political system.
APPO is a movement of the left organized to create a new nation, advocating a political, economic and social model different from that of neoliberalism. In principle it advocates national sovereignty, economic and social liberty and power to the people.
APPO should be the principle organism of popular authority in our state, charged with enabling the people to regain their right to establish social relationships and determine their own standards and governmental structure.
APPO should be the prototype for the prefiguration of the Mexican society which we are struggling to achieve.
APPO should be a place for the practice of a new type of politics, without dogmatisms, without exclusions, without committing the error of trying to enforce a single way of thinking or a single social model, promoting tolerance and democracy and opposing violence, discrimination and respecting those who think differently.
It should promote unification of all of the currents of social and class struggle—particularly popular movements–at all levels, particularly to restructure the oppressor state by creating a new type of state and a new economy, a new culture, a new liberating ethic based on self determination. It should rely on its own means of dissemination: rebel television, community radio, etc.
APPO does not conceive of transforming society for the future but assumes that the transformation is taking place here and now, promoting unity of action, autonomy, self-management, popular power and mobilization of the people.
For this it is necessary to develop a platform for work, a political ideology and a plan of action responsive to the popular movement—civic minded, revolutionary, peaceful and leftist. To accomplish this it will be necessary to program a second congress the coming year.
APPO is a place for the people, both those organized and not-organized, for the dispossessed and the excluded with the goal of including the interests of working class peoples. It is APPO’s intention to go beyond being merely a social organization.
Based on these characteristics and general objectives the APPO has sparked the establishment of APPs in various Mexican states. Its efforts are focused on the Popular Assembly of the People of Mexico (APPM) in order to coordinate operation of a specific work plan. APPM formed on November 18th and 19th, 2006 and has held a second and a third national assembly to define and emphasize the fundamental objectives of the struggle of the people of Mexico and promote unity with other important national movements like the Other Campaign, the National Dialogues and the National Democratic Convention. The assemblies are building a way for each entity to break through obstacles and work together through dialogue and lobbying. APPO as an org put forth initiatives in the struggle, like the Oaxacan People’s Forum for the Defense of Human Rights, which after the emptiness and silence of the month of December [following the crackdown of November 25th, 2006] made it possible to call attention to APPO’s repositioning in the struggle, not only nationally but internationally, keeping human rights violations, political prisoners, and political disappearances on the agendas of human rights organizations , plus killings and persecution by the Ulises Ruiz regime and its backers in the federal government.
It is undeniable that APPO continues to bring people together despite the situation prevailing in Oaxaca where repression, persecution and the systematic violation of human rights threaten to become part of daily life not only in our state but in the nation. For that reason it is urgent that we try to reorganize the forces that constitute APPO and APPM in two simultaneous directions: Oaxaca’s fight to get rid of Ulises Ruiz and to stop the repression and militarization of the state and the nation’s fight against structural reforms.
APPO and APPM have earned the right to exist, now they need to be recognized by those who oppose their existence within APPO. The right to exist is a validation that in no way solves the problems that we have to overcome in order to maintain, expand and unify ourselves as an entity capable of articulating the national struggle in conjunction with the peoples of Atenco, the Other Campaign, the National Dialogues and the Asembleas de Convencionistas. We are accumulating strength that in the coming months will crest as the new waves originating in the south sweep across the nation, hopefully finding it at its height of readiness for change.
CODEP
Member of the APPO
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source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaxacastudyactiongroup/message/3110
