Oaxaca, update
Nancy Davies - 12.02.2007 10:15
This is a really exciting time. The APPO lives.
The causes of the movement, we know are: utter corruption and the history of political bossism by the PRI; the twenty year history of economic degradation caused by transnational/neoliberal policies, NAFTA, World Bank, etc; and neglect of Oaxaca's needs for many years by the federal and state authorities. When we investigate popular assembly movements in Latin America it looks like at least there was a unionized working class to be thrown out of work by the forces of neoliberalism. In Oaxaca, there isn't that – the main employer has been the government. The lost jobs are mainly in agriculture, and that results in a huge migration. Oaxaca never really reached the industrial workers phase, and thus a lot of the rhetoric regarding "the workers" just doesn't ring true.
Speaking just for myself, there are two words I detest: masses and peasants. Gimme a break. I can live with "multitude" and "campesino" if necessary, but don't push me.
Anyway, here we are. If you look outside Oaxaca city, there are dozens of towns in turmoil, because of either PRI crooks uncovered (more likely always known but now confronted), town governments overturned, or schools still held by the PRI Section 56 (is that right? 59?). There is a fierce struggle going on in some towns, with literal fighting. Several towns have declared their return to usos y costumbres. A few hundred teachers are still in prison.
The Isthmus is in an uproar over the wind farms. They were "rented" by intermediaries who gave the local owners next to nothing (100 pesos annually per hectare) and then turned around and rented the land to the transnationals at hefty prices. These exemplars of neoliberalism are making grand profits while the local people are left behind. Consciousness now is on the rise, and the struggle to rewrite the contacts is underway.
Autonomy was declared by a collection of Triqui towns. The Costa formed an asamblea. There is a vital movement underway for establishing more community radios.
This weekend the APPO is meeting, while other APPO activists are in Mexico City or the USA or Europe or somewhere, getting the support they need. The biggest decision has to do with how to approach the elections. If the APPO can't clean out the PRI this year, then when?
1. What will URO do to prevent the ouster of the PRI in August (state legislature) and October (mayoral) elections? I shudder to think. This is a man who permits the police (not the Federal riot control nor the state riot control, but the local police) to wrap their clubs in barbed wire.
PRI operatives right now are reported to be out in the small towns giving away cement or food, in other words, buying votes. The campaign to vote the PRI out will be seminal, keeping in mind that Oaxaca has never achieved a division of powers between the legislature, executive and judicial branches; and furthermore, those three branches have been dominated exclusively by the PRI. Nor has Oaxaca ever had a law of transparency so that millions of pesos are ripped off each year by caciques who enrich themselves while the towns starve for resources.
If the PRI can be defeated at the polls, that may leave Oaxaca freer to make social changes which are essential and within the power of the state legislature.
2. Essential changes are, however, to a great part dependent on the federal government and the climate of neoliberalism. For example, will the feds allow Oaxaca to "take back" ownership of its natural resources. A good example is the transnational occupation of the Isthmus by eolic generators which produce electricity for transnational profit -not local-, mentioned above. Another is the use of water by Coca Cola. The water to profit (and some claim that the water is not treated for minerals, etc.) is not quite free to Coke, but is in short supply for local peoples. Others concerns are mining, manufacturing of paper products (Kimberley Clark), etcetera. The use of natural resources and labor is not benefitting Oaxaqueños whom we know are the second poorest population among the Mexican states.
3. Section 22 of the teachers union is now missing about 5,000 education workers, who went with the PRI and Elba Esther Gordillo. That leaves 65,000, a force to be reckoned with. They have declared themselves for the APPO – and for participating in the marches, etcetera. The marches are not as important as what the teachers can achieve in their towns.
4. If the APPO succeeds in helping the PRI to lose, will it achieve status as a voice to be reckoned with? Or will the public heave a sigh of relief and let go their indignation? Will a new state legislature deliver on a PRD promise to oust URO? The APPO is set to back FAP candidates, which might be a nice alternative, but are we so naïve as to suppose that those politicians will not be corrupted? Nope, we're not.
5. If the PRI loses big-time, what will the position of the PAN (nationally as well as locally) then be? And will such a defeat buy the APPO time to move on other issues beyond getting Ruiz thrown out? Ruiz is so tiny a part of the problem!
6. An important question is how to enhance the Oaxaca economy to allow everyone to survive without migrating.
A campaign is underway (once again) to lure tourists, this taking place while the newspapers are filled with photos of razor wire, attacks dogs, mounted riot police, etcetera. Not an attractive destination! Tourism is of little or no interest outside of Oaxaca City, Puerto Escondido and Huatulco. It doesn't effect enough of the general population to be significant as a true economic engine. What is really significant is channeling the profits from natural resources to the local economy, and allowing the local peoples to proceed with sustainable agriculture and small businesses. That is to say, local control.
|
