Oaxaca: A General Loss of Fear

[Wiley50]

From : George Salzman <[e-mail]>
Sent : Monday, September 11, 2006 4:06 AM
To : undisclosed-recipients:
Subject : A general loss of fear



A heady atmosphere, have no fear
Come visit Oaxaca, sense the joy of hope
Sense the courage in their hearts
Sense the constructive energy
Sense the poetry of revolution
Sense the legacy of Pablo Neruda

Monday, 11 September 2006

Friends,

It is far easier to catch the spirit of the people during these now-peaceful days and nights than to keep track of the multiple details of the struggle as it progresses throughout the state of Oaxaca, and increasingly, in other parts of Mexico. As I stepped out yesterday morning to go to the Sanchez Pasques market a block away to buy our usual Sunday morning tamales, bright early sunlight on my back, Colorado-blue sky above, a few men and women on our quiet street, Callejón del Carmen, on their way to and from the market, it all said softly, “This may not be heaven but it’s about as close as you can get.” The market was bustling as usual. I bought yoghurt with small chunks of fresh fruits from Simon, Josefina and their son Luís, a couple of fresh pan amarillo - rolls with a good crust enclosing a tenacious interior, two mole tamales, and the day’s Noticias, the best local daily newspaper.

It was only three weeks since August 21, but in this short time a great deal had changed since I wrote that day:

Government in Panic as Popular Movement spreads and solidifies
Attacks on media of communication
Terrified at wide-ranging sources of honest information

In the early hours of this morning state forces – likely exclusively or including paramilitary thugs – i.e. uniformed- and/or un-uniformed-state-paid thugs – attacked the cerebral cortex of the Oaxaca Peoples’ Revolution. The Peoples’ Media were targeted, and other media, privately owned but supportive of the movement were on the government’s hit list. The growing strength of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (la Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca, APPO) is quite clearly terrifying the ruling class. Those running the so-called “Constitutional Governments, Federal and State” without a doubt know the thorough disgust and anger of the Mexican people with their sordid dictatorship for the better part of a century. Their fear – I hope well-founded – that their impunity may be coming to an end – that they may be called to answer to a governmental structure run by ordinary humble people – has panicked them.

Visit to the TV transmission tower security detachment

Yesterday, for the fourth time since I got back to this determined, almost exuberant hotbed of revolutionary fervor, I made my daily pilgrimage to the top of Cerro Fortin (Fortin Hill). That’s where the transmission tower of televison Channel 9, which the “Women with Pantaletes”, i.e. women with panties (the gender counterpart of Men with Pantalones – signifying men with balls) seized control of the state television and radio ofices about two and a half weeks ago. The road to the summit has been blockaded with seized buses, barbed wire, rocks across the road, and a rotating group of teachers who maintained a 24-hour-a-day security encampment to guard the tower. When I arrived at their camp, perhaps about 7:30 pm, I told them that FM 96.9 had gone off the air a short time ago. FM 96.9 is the powerful radio station that is part of the seized state TV and radio complex. The teachers were confident it would be back on by the next day (today). But it is still not broadcasting at 11:30 am Monday.

Fear in the hearts of the humble

At the start of the road that runs from the plaza at the front of the guelaguetza stadium a familiar face greeted me, an indigenous woman vendor, but without her customary broad shallow basket of candy, cigarettes, etc. balanced atop her sturdy head. We saw one another almost daily during the past year when I did my usual “constitutional” climb to the observatory and the planetarium at the top. She asked me if I was going to the summit, and when I affirmed I was, she asked if she could accompany me. Claro que sí – of course - I responded, and we set out together. She told me she hadn't gone since about three months ago, because she was fearful. Instead of her usual broad basket she now had only a small basket with a handle that she held beside her. Sales way down. We trudged past the piles of rocks, made our way around the buses blocking the road, and the barbed wire, up to the transmitting tower. A couple of maestros bought single Marlboros from her package as another of them spoke to me disapprovingly of smoking. As I was talking with the teachers we suddenly realized the vendor had disappeared, apparently so fearful that she wanted to retreat to the plaza below, and was already out of sight along the road down.

A sense of confidence among the teachers

I asked permission to photograph the encampment and they were all delighted, insistent that they pose for me in front of the fence around the transmission tower, on which there was a large message posted, Fuera Ulises (Ulises Out!). Laughingly, they assumed pseudo fearsome stances with poles, iron rods, raised left fists, a machete, and the laziest "attack" dog you could imagine (they couldn't get the dog to pose). One woman grabbed my sombrero to wear for the picture. Then they wanted me to join them, I handed the camera to a compañero, the woman plastered the sombrero back on my head (crooked, not very dignified) and they tried to get me to hold a pole, but I refused. So I have pictures of "los jovial terroristas" (the jovial terrorists).

Attacks during the early hours today. I’m going out to get some more pictures, will report again later. The most up-to-the-minute English language source of information about events here that I know of is the Oaxaca Study-Action Group (OSAG) Yahoo groups site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaxacastudyactiongroup/

I urge everyone to spread the information as widely as possible. I believe It was only the extremely well-organized information network which, by generating international awareness of the attacks against the Zapatistas in Chiapas, “forced” Presidents Salinas de Gortari in 1994 and Ernesto Zedillo in 1995 to call off their attempts to crush the Zapatista movement with the Federal Army. The danger of a large scale military assault hangs over this incipient revolution-in-progress.

My most recent postings, which contain links to sources of information, are:

Building a Oaxaca information and solidarity communication network, 9 September 2006, at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-09-09.htm

In Oaxaca the Revolution isn’t just schlepping along, it’s in full-tilt, 3 September 2006, at
http://pwgd.org/gs/category/on-the-ground/

Incipient Revolution in Oaxaca, 29 August 2006, at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-08-29.htm
and an earlier, text-only version of this paper,

From Teachers’ Strike Towards Dual Power: The Revolutionary Surge in Oaxaca, at
http://www.counterpunch.org/salzman08302006.html

All comments and criticisms are welcome. <[e-mail]>

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[Peace Patriot]

1. Thank you, thank you, thank you! For this information and for being

there!

There have been a lot of fear-mongering comments at DU, about how dangerous this all is, and how the protests may explode into violence, etc., etc. I keep pointing out that the protesters in both Mexico City and Oaxaca have been entirely peaceful, the only violence coming from the fascist government. When are we northern activists going to get smart about this? It's not as if we've had no examples of slandered civil protests in our own experience--police riots portrayed as "melees," and so forth. The protesters in Mexico, in Seattle '99 and other anti-globalization demonstrations, at Kent State, at Century City, at Chicago and throughout the Vietnam War, and, indeed, most civil protests are/were objecting to the horror and massive DISORDER of bad government! Civil protest is aimed at RESTORING order--at achieving GOOD government! Only thugs, agents provocateurs, the police and the thieves and criminals of bad government who sick brutal enforcers upon the people DESIRE harm--heads bashed, bodies bruised and shot, injuries of all kinds, deaths, property damage. No civil protest groups EVER desire this. They want order. They want fairness. They want justice. They want equity. They want to bring balance to government policy and to set the government on a rightful course. Nobody, but nobody, wants to disrupt their lives with civil protest. Only the most grave injustice can inspire such a difficult and courageous undertaking as trying to influence bad government through civil protest.

Let's get this straight--and stop projecting our brainwashed fears onto the civil protests in Mexico, and stop accepting the disinformation of the Corporate Rulers, that civil protest causes disorder, or IS the disorder, and not THEIR greedy, oppressive, unjust, fascist policies, and THEIR brutal behavior in trying to stifle dissent and prevent change!

We also need to start projecting POSITIVE outcomes for democratic change here in the U.S., and there in Mexico. The Mexican revolution is in fact part of a huge, unstoppable leftist (majorityist) movement throughout Latin America. It is a magnificent, peaceful, democratic revolution, and is no doubt the reason that the Bushites fear brown immigrants here and have stirred up hatred against them. As the first indigenous president of Bolivia, elected this year, has said, "The time of the people has come." And that is the future, throughout the Americas. It's just a bit hard to see from OUR perspective, here, at the vortex of the Dark Towers.

Viva la revolución!

[zeemike]

2. We greatly appreciate you posting here

It is a valuable source of information for us here in the states because this is NEVER covered by our media
And I exploit every opportunity to spread this around so the others may know.
And by the way you are an excellent writer, not at all difficult to read.
K&R

[ninkasi]

3. Thank you so much for posting this

Recommended, it just needs one more. Perhaps our sisters and brothers to the south could teach us a thing or two about standing up to government oppression and corruption.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Thanks for the info. I spent some time in Oaxaca in my youth, and loved

the city and the people.

I am glad to hear they are on the road to kicking out the caciques. It's been a long time coming.