Recent political events in Mexico (Gustavo Esteva) (delete if uninterested)

Interesting article on both elections in Mexico and teacher's strike in Oaxaca.  Let me know if you want more information on either...

Gracias,
Mercedes.

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Subject: Fw: [ActionGreens] Report: Recent political events in  Mexico (Gustavo Esteva)


----- Original Message -----  From: "Mitchel Cohen" <  mitchelcohen@mindspring.com <mailto:mitchelcohen@mindspring.com> >
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006  11:34 AM
Subject: [ActionGreens] Report: Recent political events in  Mexico (Gustavo Esteva)



Gustavo Esteva is an extremely  important figure
in Mexican politics. He gave the keynote address
at  the "Another World Is Necessary" conference
organized by the Center for  Global Justice that
Cathryn, Robert Gold, John W. and I (from  NYC)
attended a few weeks ago in San Miguel de Allende,  Mexico.

Here, Gustavo, who lives in Oaxaca and has
written many  books concerning social movements,
philosophy, and so forth (and was a  friend of
Ivan Illich), discusses the current situation.

-  Mitchel



REPORT ON AUGUST 30, 2006
From Gustavo  Esteva

Recent political events in Mexico

For two years, the  whole establishment conspired
to prevent the victory of the leftist  candidate
in presidential elections, Andrés Manuel López
Obrador  (AMLO), which took place last July 2nd.
The President, the government,  the political
parties, the media, private corporations, the
Catholic  Church.all of them used illegal tricks
in a very dirty campaign against  AMLO, who any
way had for 18 months, in most polls, an
advantage of 10  points over Calderón, the candidate of the right.

The electoral  journey went without special
incidents. At the end of the day both  candidates
declared victory. A few days later the official
electoral  body announced that Calderón won for
0.5% votes. There were very strange  manipulations
and apparently a very sophisticated fraud  was
implemented. AMLO immediately organized two
marches in Mexico City  (one of one million
people, the other with two million people)  to
claim for the cleaning of the election. He asked
for a recounting  of every vote. He also organized
the longest sit-in in history: seven  kilometers
in one of the main avenues of Mexico City and the
main  plaza. He has been living in one of the
encampments of the sit-in in the  main plaza for
more than a month. And he convened a  National
Democratic Convention for September 16th
(Independence Day in  Mexico), in order to create
a kind of alternative government or  government in
resistance, with the purpose of reorganizing all
Mexican  institutions from the bottom up. He
appealed to one article of our  Constitution,
recognizing the right of the people to change at
any  moment their political regime. The organizers
expect a million people for  the Convention,
representing every municipality and sector of the  society.

Next September 1st President Fox will read his
last  report to the nation in the Federal
Congress. A few days ago,  anticipating the
marches and blockades announced for that day,  the
buildings of the Congress were surrounded by
tanks and thousands  of policemen and troops - a
kind of announcement of what is to come. When  the
Electoral Court rejected all the claims submitted
by the parties  two days ago, Calderón declared
immediately that he is ready to deal with  the
violent ones -clearly announcing the mano dura
(strong hand) he  pretends to use.

Before September 6 the Electoral Court should take  any of two decisions:

1) Nullify the elections, and we will thus get  in
December a very weak Interim President, leading a
country  economically devastated and socially and
politically divided (the  elections showed the
Northern states for Calderón, the Center and  the
South for AMLO; the votes also followed class
lines), with the  mandate to organize elections in
no less that eight months and no more  than 18. We

can anticipate great instability and every kind of  turbulence. Or:

2) Confirm the victory of Calderón. There will  be
profound frustration and rage in millions of
people, particularly  the poor, who nourished many
hopes about AMLO. AMLO will lead a kind  of
uprising, trying to moderate and control a
movement of millions of  people, in the whole
country. We can anticipate great instability and  every kind of turbulence.

The word fascism has been circulating in  these
months, and particularly in the last 30 days, in
order to  describe attitudes, ideologies and
behavior of the group that may take  office next
December. It is not the word to use, as yet, but
it gives  an idea of the humor in the country.

Since January, Subcomandante  Marcos started a
tour around the country for The Other  Campaign,
organized by the Zapatistas with the conviction
that the  political classes (including the left)
were clearly unable to listen to  people's claims.
It was a campaign for the people themselves to
listen  to each other and organize their struggle
without the political parties  and the government.
Most probably the Zapatistas will wait until  the
Convención of September 16th to take a position
about the  movement. The Other Campaign was
explicitly separated from any political  party or the elections.

Recent political events in Oaxaca

We  have been in turmoil for a long time, in view
of the barbaric  administration of the
psychopathic, corrupt and authoritarian  governor
of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, who took office on
December 2004  after a fraudulent election.

On May 22nd the teachers union (70 000  teachers
in the whole state) started a sit-in at the main
plaza of  Oaxaca, as part of their struggle for
economic claims. In the city, the  people reacted
with indifference or anger to the sit-in and  the
blockade of some streets; they were used to these
annual  demonstrations, which always end in a
negotiation producing some  additional perks for
the leaders of the union and for the  teachers.
The people were also angry because the teachers
abandoned  the schools - and many families did not
know what to do with their  children.

On June 14th the governor ordered a very  violent
repression of the sit-in, including bombs of tear
gas thrown  on the teachers from a helicopter
-many of which fell in private houses  or offices
in down town. The episode changed the nature of
the  movement. ¡Fuera Ulises! (something like
Ulises out of Oaxaca) became the  unifying slogan
for all the people discontented with  his
administration. The teachers union, observing
such impact,  attempted to orderly articulate such
social forces as support for their  movement and
convened a Popular Assembly of the People of
Oaxaca  (APPO, for its name in Spanish). Hundreds
of social and grassroots  organizations joined
immediately the Assembly. Radical groups in  the
teachers union changed soon the relationship
between the union and  APPO. They imposed to the
leadership of the union a kind of  subordination
to the Assembly, which is a very complex  and
heterogeneous body which has been leading the
uprising since June  20th. Many marches have been
organized. One of them gathered a million  people,
almost a third of the population of the state.

It is a  very long and complex story, with very
impressive episodes. Two of them  may illustrate the struggle:

1) Given the usual use of the media  against the
movement, a group of women of APPO peacefully
invaded the  public network, which operates radio
and TV for the whole state. It had  been used by
the governor for propaganda against the movement.
The  group started to disseminate the ideas,
proposals and initiatives of APPO  and opened the
network to the people 24 hours a day. Thousands
of them  started to call the station, which of
course had every kind of technical  problems (the
women occupying the network had no previous
training for  this). One night, a group of
undercover police agents and mercenaries  came to
the facilities with weapons and started shooting.
They  destroyed the equipment and injured some
people. A few hours later, as a  reaction, APPO

occupied ALL private radio stations and TV
networks in  the city. Instead of one, they
suddenly got 12 channels to  disseminate
information about the movement.and give voice to the  people.

2) After several skirmishes, the governor kept
the police  in its barracks (apparently the
policemen refused to follow instructions  to
repress the people, who were very well organized
for self defense).  For more than a month, no
police, not even traffic police, has been seen  in
the city. Night and day members of APPO stay in
sit-ins before  every public agency in the city
and all the private radio stations and  networks
in its hands. (The governor and all its officers
meet  secretly in hotels or private houses; no
bureaucrat can come to work).  One night, a convoy
of 30 pick-up vans, with undercover agents  and
mercenaries, came to the sit-ins and started to
shoot. They were  not shooting at the people, but
trying to intimidate them. APPO  reported
immediately the situation, in the occupied radio
stations. In  a few minutes the people started to
organize barricades, to prevent the  arrival of
the convoy. In one place, they were able to close
the  street with a truck and thus "trapped" a
pick-up van. Its occupants  escaped. In another
street one guy died; apparently he was  not
involved in the sit-in and was only passing by
when the attackers  started to shoot. Since then,
every night, at 11:00pm, more than a  thousand
barricades close all the streets around the
sit-ins or in  critical crossroads. At 6:00am the
barricades are partially dismantled,  to facilitate the circulation.

Two stories may illustrate the mood in  the city.

1) Two days ago, in a street of a lower middle
class  neighborhood of the city of Oaxaca, there
was a big fight in a private  party. A couple came
out of the house, very drunk. "Perhaps we  must
call the police", said him. "Don't be stupid",
said her; "there  is no police". "You are right",
said him, confused; "let's call  APPO".

2) "Don't be stupid", said the petty, corrupt
leader to a  young baker in a street in downtown
Oaxaca, in the sidewalk before his  shop; "if you
do that I will burn your place. These spaces are
mine.  You are in command in your own home, but I
am the boss here". And he took  his gun,
threatening the baker, while his bodyguards
surrounded him.  But Diego Hernández was not
intimidated. "I am not afraid of you", he  said;
"behind that gun a coward is hidden". They were
going to beat  him, when Diego exploded three
fireworks, as APPO does in the barricades,  if
there is something suspicious or threatening: it
is the alert  signal. That was enough. For now.

There is an increasing tension.  Organized
business close their shops two days ago. The
Ministry of the  Interior finally intervened and
there are conversations in Mexico  City.

In order to legally oust the governor, the Senate
should  declare "desaparición de poderes" (meaning
that the constituted powers  are no longer
governing). The current Senate leaves office  next
September 1st. The new Senate is of course
involved in the  national turmoil. Anyway, both
PRI and PAN have expressed their full  support to the governor.

In spite of the guerrilla attacks of the  police,
a human rights organization reported that in the
last months  there was less violence (deads,
injured) than in any other month of the  last 10 years.

But a severe repression, both selective  and
massive, with the federal police or the army, can start at any  moment.






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Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción  Comunitaria
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 <http://www.ciepac.org/> Docendo discimus.

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