September 9th, 2007 – sumacer writes: On Friday 14th September, an Indymedia activist from Oaxaca, Mexico came to the Sumac Centre to speak of the ongoing struggle in Oaxaca against the unpopular and corrupt governor and the repression that followed an annual teachers strike. Since the strike, the resistance in Oaxaca has turned into the largest popular rebellion in over a decade. The hundreds of illegal detentions, disappearances and injuries, and at least eighteen documented deaths mark an unignorable part of modern Mexican and world history. Around 40 people attended the talk which lasted about 2 hours and consisted of short films with talk in between. Please see the report and listen to the audio.
Report: An Evening With M – Oaxaca Talk At The Sumac
Audio: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Links: Oaxaca tour feature article (UK Indymedia) | Oaxaca Topic Page (UK Indymedia) | Indymedia Oaxaca
Previous talks at the Sumac Centre: Argentinian film makers screen Indymedia film | Indigenous Woman from Ontario, Canada voice their struggle in defend of land
Above, a highly-contested presidential election. Below, a campaign facilitated by the Zapatistas to focus the grassroots anti-capitalist Left all over the country. 2006 was a tumultuous year in Mexico… there is no end in sight. Increasing movement protests and the annual teachers strike in the south-eastern Mexican city of Oaxaca became the largest popular rebellion in over a decade. Then hundreds of illegal detentions, disappearances and injuries, and at least eighteen documented deaths followed.
In Oaxaca, a broad-based movement to unseat an unpopular and corrupt governor turned into a grassroots uprising for direct democracy. For months, hundreds of residents in the half million people City and surrounding area took part in and maintained more than 1,000 street barricades, protest camps, occupations of government buildings as well as the literal takeover of mainstream media outlets. Mexico’s federal government later sent in thousands of militarized police to crack down on the popular uprising and prop up the regime of the status quo. Talking part in all of these events is a lively independent media movement…
Our speaker is an IndyOaxaca activist, indigenous to the mixed territory of oaxaca and an avid community radio, video and print and independent media activist.
We will screen short films and from the horses mouth we will see behind the reasons for last years events in Oaxaca, bad governments, land struggles, exploitation, migration, the destruction of the environment, the continuing annihilation of indigenous cultures, ways of life and in mexico, their eternal refusal to conveniently make way to projects like the Plan Puebla Panama and disappear for the benefit of the rich and for “the North”. we will look at what this means, to be indigenous,to be autonomous, to be rebellious, to organize and resist. resist dams, roads and agribusiness, biodiesel plantations or corporate T.V. we will update on the EZLN campaign of continuing resistance. and look into european and UK involvement in the area, dissect it and draw parallels with local plans and struggles, community organisation and independent media, we expect peoples involvement and hopefully look inside our own reality actions and beyond…
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