Convocation to the State Forum for the Defense of the Peoples of Oaxaca

TO THE INDEPENDENT SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE PEOPLES’ MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES
TO THE CIVIL GROUPS, COLLECTIVES, AND DEMOCRATIC UNIONS
TO THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

The brutal, systematic repression of the Mexican State against the movements for social transformation keeps on happening throughout the country, and in our state the situation is extremely serious.

The dominant classes and the big transnational interests maintain a mediocre political class and institutions that aim to do away with citizens’ rights, criminalizing all social protest. The exercise of constitutional rights in Mexico and in Oaxaca is now a crime. In order to grant even more privileges to a handful of economic interests, there are no holds barred on state terrorism.

Our peoples are suffering from big capital’s all out offensive, and the communities that resist and defend their territories are punished. Lands, water, mineral resources, and biodiversity are the booty for the big businesses, which use corrupt public officials in order to take them over. Today dozens of community representatives are in prison or at large as a form or pressure to facilitate the plunder of the community patrimony.

On the other hand, the national social movements are going through an organizational decline, and key formations such as the National Front against Repression, National Dialogue, the Other Campaign, and the National Democratic Convention are stagnated or in a process of consolidation, yet disperse.

In Oaxaca, after the historic experience of our struggle against tyranny in 2006, we find ourselves submerged in a repressive climate, in which we aren’t strong enough to stop the arrests and kidnappings and launch a major initiative in defense of our peoples’ rights.

It’s true that many peoples and organizations keep on resisting in spite of the climate of intimidation and violence that we suffer on a daily basis. There are a lot of us who continue to struggle, first of all to maintain independent forms of organization based on a new political practice with ethical values, always promoting local, regional, and national unity, and above all, defending our territory and the political emancipation of our people.

There are a lot of us who keep on struggling against the misgovernments, like those of Felipe Calderón and Ulises Ruiz, which only represent the interests of local bosses and large foreign enterprises.

In the face of the need to strengthen our struggles and to be effective in defending our rights, the undersigned organizations call on the entire independent social movement and the people in general to participate in the State Encounter for the Defense of the Peoples of Oaxaca, which will take place on April 9 and 19 in the Teachers’ Hotel in the City of Oaxaca. In this forum, there will be a discussion of the following themes oriented towards the reorganization, structuring, and strengthening of the broad social movement, from the six regions of our state, under the following themes divided into four discussion groups.

1. Community and alternative communication: Community radios, video, press, internet.

2. Community defense of the national resources: land, water, biodiversity, air, forests, electricity, oil.

3. Repression of constitutional and human rights: Freedom of political prisoners, cancellation of arrest warrants, live presentation of disappeared people.

4. Organization and social movement in Oaxaca: the construction of an alternative organization of the people and for the people.

RESPECTFULLY YOURS,

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, February 27, 2008

Autoridades Municipales de San Pedro Yosotatu, Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, Organizaciones Indias por los Derechos Humanos en Oaxaca (OIDHO), Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo (UCIZONI), Colectivo Autónomo Magonista (CAMA), Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS), Alianza Magonista Zapatista (AMZ), Comité de Defensa Ciudadana (CODECI), Comité por la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas-Xanica (CODEDI-Xanica), Unión de Organizaciones Indígenas de la Chinantla (UNORINCHI), Consejo de Organizaciones Indígenas y Productivas de Oaxaca AC (COIPAC), Movimiento Agrario Indígena Zapatista (MAIZ), Frente de Pueblos del Istmo en Defensa de la Tierra, Red de Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste, Grupo Solidario La Venta, Centro de Estudios de la Región Cuicateca Tepeuxila, Bienes Comunales de San Juan Jaltepec Yaveo, Alianza Mexicana Por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos (AMAP), Frente de la Cordillera Norte Mixteca, Comisariado Ejidal de El pípila, Mazatlán, Comité de Presos Políticos de Ixcotel, Comité Estudiantil Urbano Campesino de Oaxaca (CEUCO), Movimiento Cívico Ciudadano de Salina Cruz (MCC). Alianza Libertaria Magonista (ALMA), Asamblea Universitaria de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana plantel Azcapotzalco (UAM-A).