December 21, 2014
Translated by Scott Campbell
[See update below]
To the autonomous and libertarian forces.
To the relatives of the disappeared from Ayotzinapa.
To the independent and community media.
And to all those who carry a new world in their hearts.
The accumulated rage in the unsettled hearts from the south of the territory dominated by the Mexican state knows how to move forward using an organizing process which takes horizontality as a way of life as its starting point. Self-determination has become an indispensable part of daily life for the peoples who know how to shout to the four winds of the injustices committed by domination and power; from the indigenous Zapotec rebellions, through the short-lived autonomous process of General Charis, up to the struggles in defense of the land, territory, territoriality and autonomy which at this precise moment are stronger and more vibrant than ever.
In Oaxaca, the struggle for autonomy has been dormant, expressing itself through the peoples’ resistance, such as in the communities of the Isthmus region where the Binizaa and Ikoots people interlink. For more than three years, the megaproject they have tried to put into place on these lands, consisting of the installation of wind farms on the Santa Teresa Shoal, has triggered escalating conflicts and widespread repression.
Gui´xhi´ Ro´- Álvaro Obregón is one of the communities that has rejected the imposition of the wind farm. It is also one of the entrances to the Santa Teresa Shoal, which the capitalist firm Mareña Renovables has sought access to in order to impose the wind farms. Since the beginning of this conflict, the community has learned how to advance from resistance to organization.
The struggle in Álvaro Obregón began more than two years ago with the strike against paying high electricity rates, and gaining strength in the conflict against the wind farms. During this time, they succeeded in expelling the Mareña Renovables company; in withstanding a confrontation with more than 500 state police who came to take down the barricade they maintained on the former estate of General Charis in order to allow free access for the company; after this came the need for self-defense, leading to the creation of the Binni Guiapa Guixi community police on February 9, 2013. The next step was the rejection of the political party system and the boycott of the July 2013 elections. This struggle led to the creation of the community council, the council of elders and the highest decision-making body, the general assembly. The local government offices remain under the control of the community assembly and up to now have served as bastions for the autonomous process.
It is in this context that we, as anarchist collectives and individuals, have joined this process.
Anarchism has walked in the hands of the peoples through historical processes and indigenous unrest. We feel close to these struggles in many respects, and there are many similarities that unite us: the way of relating to one another based on mutual aid as expressed in tequio, mano vuelta, gueza, etc. [forms of collective communal work and support], in the horizontality reflected in using the assembly as the highest expression of order (without majoritarianism, or political abuses, without prominent leaders, without doubletalk, without victimization or capitalizing on tragedies, but above all without a dynamic that tries to impose one way over all others), where comrades’ voices are heard, valued and respected in order to resolve communal conflicts (not turning them into conflicts between unions, persons or political platforms), but above all we are united on the basis of an anticapitalist life with autonomous ambitions without the need for the state and in a more harmonious relationship with nature.
As libertarian collectives we believe that many of the basic practices inherent in the daily life of the peoples are truly indispensable to collective life. As such, we have seen theory be surpassed by the oppositional practices we have tried to bring about hand in hand with the neighborhoods, communities, schools and in the street itself.
As anarchist collectives, we identify ourselves as a grouping to support and strengthen the autonomous process now being undertaken by the comrades from Ghi´xhi´ Ro´- Álvaro Obregón and San Dionisio del Mar, as we have walked together, as we have battled and stood together, as we have learned together how to build another path on the ruins of the electoral system, moving from the process of integration, to the community assembly, to the creation of the community police and the council of elders.
We Denounce
The path of autonomy is costly. It has not been easy to withstand the continually intensifying attacks, beginning with the attempt to take the peoples’ territory, the clash with the state police, up to the internal battle with the group opposed to the assembly, led by Jorge Alonso, a paid agent of Saúl Vicente, the Municipal President of Juchitán.
The incongruity of the fake left, which at one point supported the community; the illusory, mediocre means of “struggle” which involve a vicious cycle of marching, getting bussed in, rallying, encampment, dialogue and negotiation, have served to strengthen the discourse of the state, and used to accuse those comrades in struggle of being “violent”, “wild” and “closed-minded” for not wanting to negotiate and mediate with the state. This same discourse is that with which the hegemonic “PRI” [Institutional Revolutionary Party] from 1982 defamed and reviled the nascent COCEI [Coalition of Workers, Farmers and Students of the Isthmus]. Yesterday’s accused are today’s inquisitors. At the national level, the scene repeats itself and we can see how our anarchist and masked comrades are accused of being “infiltrators,” “of being part of groups in service to the state” and of other meandering hogwash that has already been aptly dealt with by the Zapatista comrades in their statement “On Ayotzinapa, the Festival, and Hysteria as a Method of Analysis and Guide for Action.”
We see that at this point, the negotiating, conciliatory and reformist left has worn the struggle down; that unscrupulous reformist organizations have capitalized on tragedy, selling and playing with the pain and rage of the relatives of the disappeared. These strategies in all their facets have served and will continue to serve in strengthening the state structure.
It seems incredible to us that 43 reasons have not been sufficient enough to channel rage against our true enemy, and that civil society has been so easily distracted by the progressive and passive morals imposed by the media bombardment about the anarchist, direct action and the mask which for us is a means of security and struggle. It is deplorable that 43 reasons have not been enough for the CNTE [National Coordinating Body of Education Workers] to stop begging the state, reaffirming its servile position of appeasement, of being the strongest strike-breaking arm that the state-capital has, in the form of Section 22 [the Oaxaca local of the SNTE-CNTE].
However, we embrace and join the intrinsic rage of the people, which has been expressed through a diversity of tactics, moving from a defensive position to one of active and direct solidarity.
For us, autonomy, solidarity and mutual aid go beyond the borders imposed by states. The offensive continues and the means of struggle are strengthened through worldwide networks, from the comrades in Greece claiming autonomy for the Exarchia neighborhood and supporting anarchist prisoners, moving on to the defense of the land and territory in France with the lamentable death of our comrade Rémi Fraisse, with Operation Pandora and the attacks on anarchist and autonomous processes by the Spanish State, or the latest aggression against the autonomous community of Ghi´xi´ Ro´- Álvaro Obregón by paramilitaries in the service of Jorge Alonso and the state police, about which the following alert was issued by the Community Assembly:
“Jorge Alonso Santiago’s group and a police unit from Juchitán fired upon a community police patrol and the comrades who comprised it, creating a climate of tension, using the pretext of ‘an alleged theft’ in order to threaten us with the entry of the state and federal police” who for hours positioned themselves at the entrance to the community and which has left us on permanent alert.
Days before, the assembly of the community of San Dionisio del Mar, which is in the midst of an autonomy-building process, was attacked by more than 500 police in order to enforce the holding of elections for municipal president, elections that the assembly had boycotted on more than one occasion, keeping the community under siege for more than three days.
Invitation to the caravan
Given these events and in alignment with our solidarity actions to mutually strengthen both the communities in struggle and the autonomous and libertarian processes, we have decided to launch a libertarian caravan during the second week of January 2015 with the goal of supporting, sharing and coordinating among the autonomous efforts which have made themselves invaluable and that advance with strength and conviction thanks to the indigenous forms of understanding communal life.
For the multiplication of autonomous and libertarian efforts!
No comrade in prison is alone, no peoples in the struggle are alone, for the strengthening of solidarity networks!
For autonomous peoples’ organization!
With rebellion we will defend autonomy!
Peace among peoples, long live anarchy!
From the combative and insurgent Isthmus
Collectives:
BARRO Negro [Black Clay]
Cruz Negra Anarquista de México [Anarchist Black Cross of Mexico]
Bloque Autónomo de Conciencia Revolucionaria [Autonomous Bloc for Revolutionary Consciousness]
Centro Social Y Biblioteca libertaria “Errico Malatesta” [Errico Malatesta Social Center and Libertarian Library]
Ungovernable Oaxaca, December 21 of the damned capitalist century
UPDATE
[Spanish original]
January 2, 2015
For years now the Binizaa and Ikoots peoples from the Oaxacan Isthmus have resisted with dignity the attacks of State-Capital which has been trying to remove them from their territory in order to impose a wind farm megaproject on the Santa Teresa Shoal. The peoples of the Isthmus have not only rejected this project, which for them represents death, but have begun to walk the path of an autonomous life, abandoning the electoral system and its political parties, opting to live according to their own forms and rules as decided through the community assembly.
To walk towards autonomy is not easy, but nonetheless the peoples in resistance from the Isthmus know how to persist. They have known how to face repression and conflict generated by the Mareña Renovables company, which has used every possible means to try to defeat the dignified resistance of the peoples, the attacks which continually intensify, beginning with the attempt to take the peoples’ territory, the confrontation with the state police, and up to the internal battle with groups opposed to the assemblies.
That is why we see it as necessary to practice solidarity and mutual aid, to build networks and ties that allow us to strengthen one another by making links between different libertarian efforts. For that purpose, we are calling on groups, collective and individuals to participate in the:
LIBERTARIAN CARAVAN TO SUPPORT THE AUTONOMOUS PEOPLES AND PROCESSES IN THE ISTHMUS
It will be held during the second week of January 2015, leaving the city of Oaxaca on January 15, en route to the Isthmus, where it will visit some communities in resistance with the goal to support, to share and to coordinate among autonomous efforts.
For more information and to register to participate and/or to propose workshops during the caravan, send an email to caravan.istmo@gmail.com.
No peoples in resistance is alone!
With rebellion we will defend autonomy!
Peace among peoples, long live anarchy!
