On February 20, 21, and 22, 2009, the Second Statewide APPO Conference was held, with 702 participants, including delegates and council members, from all regions of the state of Oaxaca and from the different sectors in struggle –indigenous peoples, campesinos, unions, communities, and families of political prisoners, with the purpose of reorganizing, restructuring, and determining the political direction of the APPO.
After the democratic exercise of intense debate against the backdrop of current international, national, and state scenarios,
WE DECLARE
- The struggle for the democratization of the country means the freedom to organize independently and autonomously, and also means the freedom of indigenous communities and peoples to exercise their free determination to design their present and future, given that the democratic transformation of the country should contemplate the precept that the nation’s sovereignty is rooted in the inalienable right of the people to create or change their form of government in order to construct a new kind of power, and given that power based on the will of the people should make it possible to form a popular democratic country.
- The APPO is an assembly of assemblies which empowers anti-capitalist resistance and seeks unity in practice, one that basically seeks the profound transformation of the social, economic, political, and cultural life; adopts as a basic premise, independence from the state and from political parties; defines mass mobilizations in an open movement as its method of struggle; and defines its main program of struggle as working for a true social transformation and the organization of the peoples in order to trace a path towards a new anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-neoliberal project for the country, with a view to a new constituent congress.
- The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca is still alive because the causes that gave rise to the conflict in 1006 have not been resolved, and for this reason we place the unity of all its sectors above personal and organizational interests; nobody is the owner of the APPO.
- The APPO ratifies that it is politically, organizationally, and ideologically independent of the State and of electoral political parties. No leaders of electoral parties can be leaders or members of the APPO; this assembly is not a political trampoline. If a comrade wishes to participate in the electoral process, he or she will have to publicly resign from his post in the APPO five months before filing. Respect for the autonomy of the organizations and individuals who decide to participate in the electoral process without using the name of the APPO is ratified.
- The reorganization of the APPO is horizontal and will occur throughout the state. The proposed avenues are: THE REORGANIZATION OF THE APPO, THE FREEDOM OF POLITICAL PRISONERS, AND THE ONGOING STRUGGLE AGAINST PROJECTS OF PRIVATIZATION. To this end, we will mobilize with forceful actions undefined by union, party, or electoral interests, concentrating on strategic places in accord with socio-political moments and scenarios, bearing in mind that the struggle of the APPO can only be resolved by breaking with the regime and that it is necessary to form an alternative, popular government.
- Barrios, neighborhoods, agencies, communal landholders, municipalities, towns and collectives to consolidate the social base and reorganize the APPO.
- Regional and sectoral Assemblies to be held in order to inform participants of the resolutions of the Second Statewide APPO Conference. Attending delegates will assume responsibility for this task according to geographic, political, and organizational conditions.
- Assemblies to be convened in the various social sectors (workers, unions, indigenous people, campesinos, youth, students, artists and intellectuals, and alternative news media ) to inform participants of the resolutions of the Second Conference.
- With regards to Education and Culture for the peoples and communities of Oaxaca, we extend our solidarity to the honest, social commitment of the alternative education workers and their struggle for more and better education.
- The APPO does not have a negotiations policy because it does not recognize the local or federal government; furthermore, the only relation established with the government will be the legal kind, demanding the immediate, unconditional freedom of the political prisoners, combining the legal struggle with mobilizations in the street.
- The exit of URO from the state government and punishment for responsible agents continues to be a central, non-negotiable, non-renounceable demand of the peoples of Oaxaca; we also demand:
- Punishment for the material and intellectual authors and agents guilty of deaths, disappearances, and human rights violations.
- Annulment of all arrest warrants and measures involving human rights violations.
- Revocation of the prosecution of social activists of the APPO and in the country as a whole.
- Immediate, unconditional freedom for all arraigned prisoners and political fugitives.
- Absolution of all political activists with cases pending.
- An end to the harassment and abuse of social activists.
- Demilitarization of the territory of indigenous peoples and the country as a whole.
- Live presentation of those disappeared for struggling against the regime of political bosses existing in Oaxaca.
- We have named the New State Council, which is part of the APPO’s coordinating groups where representation exists in the state’s geographic regions and social sectors of the APPO; the first Assembly will be held on March 7, 2009.
- The APPO will continue to reinforce a broad, plural, class-based policy of local, state, national, and international alliances with all forces in struggle.
We thereby call for:
Upon concluding the Second Statewide APPO Conference, contrary to predictions of ruptures and liquidation by internal and external enemies, we now inform the peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the world that:
Oaxaca de Juárez, City of Resistance
February 23, 2009
PLENARY SESSION OF THE SECOND STATEWIDE CONFERENCE OF THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLES OF OAXACA
El pueblo Oaxaqueno, apesar de atravesar tantos golpes e injusticias, nos siguen ensenando k la union y la autodeterminacion es necesario para sobrevivir las malas intenciones de corporaciones y malos gobiernos. Aqui en los ee.uu. tambien han privatizado todo y cierran escuelas publicas para mandarlos alas privadas; cienes de maestros tambien han perdido sus trabajos porque segue no hay fondos, k transas?!