The People Decide - Nancy DaviesWhile the corporate media chased street battles, Davies followed the real story: how a striking teachers' encampment transformed into a popular assembly that governed much of the state by direct democracy. Her articles are republished as they ran in Narco News during the uprising, giving the reader the feeling of being there as it happened.
Declaring that “no leader is ever going to solve our problems,” the APPO encouraged the formation of popular assemblies at all levels of society: neighborhoods, street blocks, unions, and towns. The assemblies function by indigenous “uses and customs,” traditional consensus-based governing mechanisms. As with the Zapatistas, leaders govern by obeying the will of the people. Any leader who fails to do so is quickly removed, as has happened to a few APPO members.
Above all, the APPO is a lesson in solidarity. Whereas after four days of struggle in Seattle during the WTO protests some leaders and spokespeople of various organizations publicly denounced one another's tactics, the APPO stands strong and has never taken the focus off of its goals, no matter how ugly the situation has become. The assembly consistently declares its solidarity with Oaxacans in the struggle, its dedication to continue its civil and peaceful struggle, and its condemnation of violent police and paramilitary attacks against them. It also counts every disappeared, murdered, and arrested person and never allows them to be forgotten.
(Kristen Bricker, http://www.leftturn.org/thepeopledecide)
Narco News - The Other Journalism
This is a great source to use to find out about the situation in 2006 as well as the recent events taking place in Oaxaca. It is an internet resource so it is the easiest to access.
APPO Communique
December 3, 2006
PEOPLE OF OAXACA! PEOPLE OF MEXICO! PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!
From somewhere in the state of Oaxaca, as the State Council of the Popular Peoples’ Assembly of Oaxaca,
WE DECLARE:
FIRST: The APPO is more alive than ever in the hearts of the workers, indigenous people, campesinos, housewives, students, youth, children, and all the exploited and oppressed in Oaxaca and Mexico. The State Terror that has been unleashed on the people of Oaxaca and the international community with increased brutality since November 25 has not weakened our desire to be free men and women.
Nor has it made us change our minds about whether our struggle should continue to be a political, peaceful and mass movement, despite the fact that 17 people have been killed during this stage of the struggle, dozens of people have disappeared and hundreds are political prisoners; we consider this toll to consist of crimes against humanity.
SECOND: The APPO continues to act permanently; although we are not visible at sentries or heard over the radio 24 hours a day, we still live and communicate with the same indomitable spirit which we have inherited as exploited people. We are fighting and will continue to fight intensely for the fall of the tyrant and his dictatorship, the dictatorship of capital.
This new stage of struggle that we have named the “Stage of Peace with Justice, Democracy and Liberty without Ulises Ruiz Ortiz” is, at the same time, a novel exercise to continue the struggle that the APPO is learning to build with patience, perseverance and wisdom.
Our original peoples taught us this on November 28 and 29 at the Forum of Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, when they told us that the “path must be taken slowly,” which is what we are doing now, without losing sight of the common objective, which is the profound transformation of living, working, academic and recreational conditions for our people. As the faithful puppet of the wealthy and the drug traffickers who he defends and represents, URO (Ulises Ruiz) stood in the way of this path. As representatives of a people who decided to embark on the route to their own emancipation, we will remove him from this path that belongs to us.
THIRD: The Council is calling all people of Oaxaca from now until December 10 to organize and carry out mobilizations and protest actions to spread the “Stage of Peace…”, the call for the release of political prisoners, the return of the disappeared, the cancellation of orders of apprehension, an end to illegal arrests, an end to gag orders, the withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), and what brought us all together: the departure of the murderer Ulises Ruiz from Oaxaca. We call for this to happen in all regions of the state through our regional, municipal and sectorial Popular Assemblies. We do so because on December 10 we will hold a “Grand Concentration,” meeting at 10am at the monument to Juárez, located at the Crucero de Viguera in Oaxaca City, to express our condemnation of and opposition to the baton and rifle policy to which this group of murderers and thieves who call themselves the government in Oaxaca want to subject us.
FRATERNALLY,
“ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE”
STATE COUNCIL OF THE APPO
(http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/357773.html)
The Politics of PRI
It is important to understand how the Mexican government works in order to understand the grievances of the people. Mexico's government is known for its scandals and corruption, and much of the problem is rooted in the corporatist system which is dominated by the political party called Partido Revolucionarion Institucional (PRI).
This site is also very informative in other aspects of Mexico such as history, economy, culture, and society. It is vital to gain a better understanding of such things because they are all influential to the movements of modern day.
APPO CommuniqueDecember 3, 2006
PEOPLE OF OAXACA! PEOPLE OF MEXICO! PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!
From somewhere in the state of Oaxaca, as the State Council of the Popular Peoples’ Assembly of Oaxaca,
WE DECLARE:
FIRST: The APPO is more alive than ever in the hearts of the workers, indigenous people, campesinos, housewives, students, youth, children, and all the exploited and oppressed in Oaxaca and Mexico. The State Terror that has been unleashed on the people of Oaxaca and the international community with increased brutality since November 25 has not weakened our desire to be free men and women.
Nor has it made us change our minds about whether our struggle should continue to be a political, peaceful and mass movement, despite the fact that 17 people have been killed during this stage of the struggle, dozens of people have disappeared and hundreds are political prisoners; we consider this toll to consist of crimes against humanity.
SECOND: The APPO continues to act permanently; although we are not visible at sentries or heard over the radio 24 hours a day, we still live and communicate with the same indomitable spirit which we have inherited as exploited people. We are fighting and will continue to fight intensely for the fall of the tyrant and his dictatorship, the dictatorship of capital.
This new stage of struggle that we have named the “Stage of Peace with Justice, Democracy and Liberty without Ulises Ruiz Ortiz” is, at the same time, a novel exercise to continue the struggle that the APPO is learning to build with patience, perseverance and wisdom.
Our original peoples taught us this on November 28 and 29 at the Forum of Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, when they told us that the “path must be taken slowly,” which is what we are doing now, without losing sight of the common objective, which is the profound transformation of living, working, academic and recreational conditions for our people. As the faithful puppet of the wealthy and the drug traffickers who he defends and represents, URO (Ulises Ruiz) stood in the way of this path. As representatives of a people who decided to embark on the route to their own emancipation, we will remove him from this path that belongs to us.
THIRD: The Council is calling all people of Oaxaca from now until December 10 to organize and carry out mobilizations and protest actions to spread the “Stage of Peace…”, the call for the release of political prisoners, the return of the disappeared, the cancellation of orders of apprehension, an end to illegal arrests, an end to gag orders, the withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), and what brought us all together: the departure of the murderer Ulises Ruiz from Oaxaca. We call for this to happen in all regions of the state through our regional, municipal and sectorial Popular Assemblies. We do so because on December 10 we will hold a “Grand Concentration,” meeting at 10am at the monument to Juárez, located at the Crucero de Viguera in Oaxaca City, to express our condemnation of and opposition to the baton and rifle policy to which this group of murderers and thieves who call themselves the government in Oaxaca want to subject us.
FRATERNALLY,
“ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE”
STATE COUNCIL OF THE APPO
(http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/357773.html)
The Politics of PRI
It is important to understand how the Mexican government works in order to understand the grievances of the people. Mexico's government is known for its scandals and corruption, and much of the problem is rooted in the corporatist system which is dominated by the political party called Partido Revolucionarion Institucional (PRI).
This site is also very informative in other aspects of Mexico such as history, economy, culture, and society. It is vital to gain a better understanding of such things because they are all influential to the movements of modern day.
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