La lucha sigue en Oaxaca
For my presentation in my world culture class (per Mathieu's request) I did a study of the political identity of the protestors who have taken over the city of Oaxaca and kicked out the governor. Here is the intro to my presentation:
"Every year in May, school teachers from across Oaxaca state gather in the capital city. They set up camp in the central plaza in front of the governor's palace and go on strike for several weeks. They usually negotiate a small increase in salary. This has been happening for 26 years. This year, on June 14, the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz ordered the state police to forcibly remove the strikers. The police attacked in the middle of the night, with weapons, tear gas, and a helicopter. But the strikers fought back, and the next day they retook control of the central plaza and drove the governmental employees and the police out of the city center.
Various groups from Oaxaca joined the teachers, and overnight they grew in number from 70,000 to about 400,000. Over 350 civic, social, and political organizations joined them. Two days later they held an assembly in which they formed the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), declared the Oaxacan government illegitimate, and started drafting a new constitution for a government of the people."
Here are a number of slides of the protests and the banners the banners and posters displayed.
Here's a quote from the APPO website: "We understood that we had to put aside our differences to unite against the common enemy of all Mexicans at this time: Fascism. Fascism, which in Oaxaca is represented by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, ex-governor of Oaxaca."They are willing to negotiate with the government on everything, except the non-negotiable removal of the governor. Yesterday there was an official negotiation between the Interior Secretary and members of the PRD representing APPO's interests. Fox has brought a force of 20,000 military troops to the hills and towns surrounding Oaxaca, so everyone is very nervous. National PRD leaders are traveling to Oaxaca to act as human shields in case of a violent attack. Groups of protestors are holding 72 hour vigils in the central plaza. Everyone hopes for a resolution without violence.
posted by Michelle & Rob @ 2:03 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
How are the Economics exams going these days? - Bruce
Fine. I'm happy to discuss with you any interesting economics topics, such as the guy who won the Nobel prize for microloans in Bangladesh.
However I must say I prefer my other classes.
From Bruce in Huatulco:
Something I posted to my mailing list....
A couple of people have asked me about the fighting and protests in Oaxaca City...
Every May for the last four or five years, the teachers' union has gone on strike in the state of Oaxaca. They've always asked for a pay increase, better hours, etc. After a couple of weeks they've been given a token increase and they've then gone back to work . Thousands of teachers usually arrived in Oaxaca and camped out in the zocalo. It was always a bit messy but peaceful.
This year's strike has been quite a bit different. The new governor is a right-winger named Ulises Ruiz, and pretty much everyone I ask agrees that he's even more crooked and dishonest than the usual thugs in power. When the teachers went on strike, he refused to budge, so they refused to go back to work. After about four weeks of protests and demonstrations, Ulises sent in about 400 police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets against a few thousand protestors. Although the police managed to drive the protestors out of the center, they were outnumbered. The protestors rallied and fought back against the police, injuring hundreds on both sides.
This really riled up the leftist element, and while the police pulled back to lick their weounds, they streamed into Oaxaca and pretty much corrupted what was a teachers strike into a very left-wing anti-business, anti-globalization anarchist movement. For about the last four months the leftists have seized radio stations, press, etc. and erected barricades throughout the city. The police have stayed in the outskirts of the city and an ugly stalemate has held the city in its grip since. The protestors have vowed not to leave until Ulises resigns or is driven from office.
I haven't been to Oaxaca City since before this mess started, but I've seen photos and heard reports from others who have. Apparently the zocalo and much of the centre have been ruined with burnt vehicles, vandalism and massive amounts of graffiti.
Outside of the city that hasn't been any violence, but tourists have been scared off by the reports. Tourism here, which is normally slow in the autumn months anyhow, has dropped to a level even lower than usual.
A couple of days ago the teachers were offered a small pay increase and some other benefits if they went back to work. The teachers then voted overwhelmingly (something like 70%) to return to work immediately. Well, the other factions are now very upset as they feel betrayed by their comrades in the teachers union, so their is a lot of infighting right now in Oaxaca.
Yesterday some state police approached a barricade. It's not clear to me what happened next (the reports vary depending on whom you listen to) but four people ended up being shot to death and now fighting has broken out all over the city. Apparently the military has been sending in troops this afternoon.
Here on the coast, things are really quiet and peaceful like always. Most people seem to want the strike to just be over with so that tourism will return.
Bruce's most recent post:
On Saturday morning I got to see a real-life protest march here in lil ol' La Crucecita. About 11:30 I was walking near El Madero (the one and only shopping mall) when I noticed a large group of marchers. The marchers were carrying large banners and chanting slogans such as "Fuera Ulises". My impression was that they weren't so much pro-teacher or pro-APPO as anti-Ulises. The crowd was well-organized with people of all ages. The marchers seemed to almost be in more of a party-mode as they were all smiling and appeared quite cheerful. Most of the onlookers on the sidewalk seemed more amused than anything else by the march.
Then as I watched, several taxistas became really upset that the march was holding up traffic for all of five minutes. Several of them started honking their horns and yelling and swearing at the rather mellow 'protestors'. Some imbecile in a delivery truck then swerved out of the stopped traffic and tried to force his way through the marchers, honking and swearing while waving his fist at them!
For a moment I thought things were going to get ugly, but the protestors just kind of put their hands up in the air and started telling the driver to relax and take it easy as they parted and let him drive through. The driver was really quite the a**hole - I'm surprised he didn't get a well-deserved punch in the face!
The rest of the march passed by peacefully. I'd estimate the size of the march at about 2000 people. I found it a very interesting in our little burg.
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