Violent Attacks Against “Casa Autónoma Solidaria Oaxaqueña de Trabajo Autogestivo”

[ The destroyed front door of CASOTA ]

To the people of Oaxaca
To the people of Mexico
To Section 22
To the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca
To the media

In the early morning of Monday, December 8, 2008, murderer Ulises Ruiz’s Oaxacan state government, through its Preventative and Municipal police, onboard various police pickup trucks and motorcycles, violently attacked those who live and work in the political and cultural space of the house located at 408 Crespo Street in the historic center of Oaxaca, “Oaxacan Autonomous Solidarity House of Self-Sustaining (Autogestive) Work” (Casa Autonoma Solidaria Oaxaquena de Trabajo Autogestivo – CASOTA).

FACTS:

At approximately 12:30 AM, two State Preventative Police patrol units violently and without reason stopped two comrades who left the political space, forcing them to show identification and submit to pat-downs. One of them was detained and violently put into a police vehicle, while the rest of the comrades in this political space gathered to try and rescue our comrade, and once we got into the house around 15 preventative police trucks began their repressive aggression, without caring that inside the house was a child of no more than two years old, using tear gas, gunfire, and beatings with bricks. For about an hour they attacked the house, destroying the main door and windows.

As a result of the state police’s aggression, various comrades have contusions from the rocks and billy clubs they repressed us with, and intoxicated with gas those of us who were inside the house, as well as causing considerable damage to the building, such as the destruction of the main door and windows and the bullet impacts that damaged the facade of the house.

WE DENOUNCE:

That this action was planned by the bad government of murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz as a consequence for our participation in the movement of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, it is known that those who make up this space continue participating in the movement and we maintain a complete repudiation of the bad government of Ulises Ruiz and we continue in the search for a profound and radical change in our society in a peaceful but forceful manner and in an open struggle against the state, the bad government and the political classes of all the political parties.

Moreover, we denounce that this cultural and political house, where diverse collectives and people in the APPO, among others VOCAL, meet, have been constantly criminalized by the bad government and some segments of the media in a tenacious manner, above all for what happened on November 25, 2008, when we participated in the march commemorating two years of the worst repression the people of Oaxaca have ever faced.

WE DECLARE:

That this aggression with not stop those who make up this space in their search for a society with justice, freedom, peace and dignity, even though this has awakened the hate, criminal anxiety and violence of the bad government.

That this aggression is not an isolated incident but forms a part of the bad government’s general strategy to strangle and suffocate the reorganization that is currently happening inside of the APPO.

That this cultural and political space located at Crespo 408 is a place where we practice peaceful initiatives to construct a new society in an autonomous manner independent of the state, the economic powers, and the political classes of all political parties. This has been done principally through different workshops where we share our skills freely, as in silk screening, binding, editing and printing of texts, urban agriculture, a peoples kitchen, recycling, electronics repair and activities such as video screenings and talks, performances of resistance music, and other political-cultural events.

WE REQUEST in a fraternal and firm manner the backing and solidarity of the people of Oaxaca who struggle and resist, of Section 22 of the democratic teachers’ union, and of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, that this aggression is a clear display of the repressive and violent climate through which Ulises Ruiz is again trying to suffocate the reorganization of our social movement, and above all, all those sectors the don’t give in to negotiations or to the surrendering the principles of the APPO and the just struggle of the people of Oaxaca.

WE FIRMLY DEMAND:

An end to the repression and harassment of the different collectives and persons who live and work in this space and the complete repayment for the damages caused to the building as well as the immediate removal of the police forces who permanently harass and surveill this space.

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN A BLOCKADE ABOVE CRESPO 408 (ON THE SIDE OF THE RETIREMENT HOME) TODAY, DECEMBER 8, AT 5PM.

WE MAKE AN URGENT CALL TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA, THE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA, THE DEMOCRATIC TEACHERS’ UNION OF SECTION 22, FOR THE REPUDIATION OF THIS AGGRESSION WHICH WE SUFFERED AND WE ASK FOR YOU TO JOIN US TO DEFEND THIS SPACE, WHICH IS OPEN TO THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA, IN A FORCEFUL AND MASSIVE MANNER.

Oaxaca de Magon, City of Resistance, December 8, 2008.