Oaxaca: From the Front Lines

[Wiley50]

[e-mail]

Subject: Building a Oaxaca information and solidarity communication
network
From: George Salzman <[e-mail]>
Date: Saturday, 9 Sep 2006 04:16:59 -0500
To: undisclosed-recipients:

Friends,

I have had a flood of mail which, in addition to comments,
contains requests for information about
1) whether to continue earlier plans for a forthcoming visit,
2) how to help the popular movement here, and
3) the conflict situation in Oaxaca (and Mexico).
This note is an effort to respond to the three issues raised by
correspondents.

1) I think there is no significant danger to tourists who come to
visit Oaxaca, contrary to the travel warnings issued by the United
States and Canadian governments. Some inconveniences perhaps, but no
personal dangers. I have not experienced a moment of hostility from
anyone, and I am clearly a gringo in the eyes of any native Oaxacan.
Nor have I heard from any friends of hostility, threats, or even
unfriendliness towards them as foreigners.

There are several important reasons for not cancelling travel
plans to visit Oaxaca.

You can help the Popular Movement re-establish normal economic
life here, which the Mexican Federal and Oaxaca state governments,
aided by the U.S. and Canada, are trying to prevent in order to crush
the rebellion. Oaxaca, an economically impoverished state, is heavily
dependent on tourism to sustain its economy. Simply by visiting as a
tourist, you can help the peaceful struggle of Oaxacans (and other
Mexican citizens) to achieve true democracy.

I believe the greatest threat to the people's efforts is that
the Federal government might use the Mexican military to smash the
emerging popular government here. The presence of foreigners serves as
a strong deterrent to help prevent a military attack on Oaxaca.

If you visit, you will learn firsthand about what is happening
and be in a position to help spread the truth when you return home.
The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, the Asamblea Popular de
los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO), is making an effort to resuscitate
tourism as part of its program for a return to economic normalcy.
Visiting Oaxaca at this time will offer you an opportunity to see a
truly non-violent revolutionary effort by a large majority of Oaxacans
to change their government, and to do it faced with the threat of a
possible violent bloodbath by the federal government's armed forces. I
personally do not believe the Oaxaca State government is any longer a
viable counterforce, having totally lost its legitimacy in the eyes of
a large majority of its citizens.

2) The most direct help you can offer the popular struggle here is to
participate in making the truth known, especially to Americans and
Canadians, but also to Europeans. Obviously this requires initially
that you become as informed as you can, primarily by seeking
information not available from the corporate media, and then helping
to publicize the reality that exists here, either individually or by
joining or forming a group to carry out that work. Listed below are
several possible information sources I recommend. Solidarity groups in
the U.S. and Canada can also play an important part in supporting
Oaxacans, and some already are. Such groups normally include
educational work along with their other solidarity activities.

In arguing for the importance of getting the truth known
internationally, I'm guided by my conviction that it was the
international awareness of the struggle of the Zapatistas that
permitted them to survive. The Mexican government tried to annihilate
them immediately after the uprising surfaced on January 1, 1994, when
president Carlos Salinas de Gortari ordered the military to attack.
Twelve days later he halted the attack because of the international
ramifications it would have if pursued further. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce
de Leon, in early 1995, shortly after he assumed the presidency, broke
the year-long cease fire and ordered the military to attack, but he
was forced to abruptly halt this attempt some days later, also because
of international reactions. It was, I'm sure, the marvelous
international communication network of the Zapatistas initially, and
of the nexus of groups that soon developed in San Cristóbal de las
Casas, Chiapas, with their global internet news-dissemination
capability, that kept the Mexican government at bay, and allowed the
Zapatista movement to survive. Similar communications efforts in
Oaxaca City can likewise help to deter the federal government from
attacking the popular movement, and you can be a part of the network.

3) Locally we have a group that meets weekly, the Oaxaca Study-Action
Group (OSAG). It is open to all who wish to participate, visitors,
expatriates, and Oaxacans. If you visit we will welcome you to attend.
But even if you are not here in person, you can participate through
the discussion listserve we maintain, which is a source of up to the
minute information. You can read it at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaxacastudyactiongroup/ . If you wish to
subscribe to this open, unedited list, so that you can also post to
it, write to [e-mail] . It is
mostly in English, some in Spanish. OSAG describes itself as follows:
…n international non-governmental network in solidarity with the
communities of Oaxaca. OSAG's network communicates with thousands of
people around the world, by using the internet and personal contacts.
OSAG is a part of civil society, not affiliated with any government or
political party. El Grupo Estudio Acción de Oaxaca (OSAG) es una red
internacional no-gobermental en solidaridad con las comunidades de
Oaxaca. La red de OSAG comunica con miles de las personas alrededor
del mundo, usando el internet y los contactos personales. OSAG es un
parte de la sociedad civil, no afiliada con ningún gobierno ni partido
político.

Other local sources of information:

The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, la Asamblea
Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) maintains a website at
http://codepappo.wordpress.com/codep/ titled APPO CODEP Regeneración
Magisterial. It is rapidly on its way to becoming a primary
documentary archive as well as containing much other information about
the ongoing activities. Currently exclusively (or almost exclusively)
in Spanish.

The daily newspaper Noticias, Voz y Imagen de Oaxaca, published
in Oaxaca City, is the largest circulation daily in the state, which
both the previous governor, José Murat Casab and the current governor,
Ulises Ruíz Ortíz (URO), both of the PRI party, tried to destroy
because of its insistent reporting on their thoroughly corrupt and
dictatorial administrations. It is at
http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/index.php . In Spanish.

The Oaxaca Lending Library website recently initiated a page of
first hand reports by Oaxaca residents. It does not endorse the
viewpoints expressed, but offers them as a service intended primarily
to its members and friends. http://www.oaxlibrary.com/Crisis.htm .
Thus far these have been in English.

A steady stream of articles on the now-almost-four-month-old
conflict in Oaxaca, written mainly by people in the city, has been
appearing in the Narco News Bulletin, at
http://www.narconews.com/en.html . Mostly in English, but some also in
Spanish.

Since state operatives destroyed the major state-wide broadcast
facilities of Channel 9 and FM 98.6 early on the morning of August 21,
as described in my article "Incipient Revolution in Oaxaca" at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-08-29.htm , and
the popular movement countered by seizing ten radio stations later
that day, the number of stations occupied and being used by APPO has
varied. It is now about four. I will try to get specific information
about them, and whether any of them can be heard on-line, for a
subsequent report.

Non-local sources of information.

I believe the best coverage is probably in the national daily
newspaper published in Mexico City, La Jornada, which is available at
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ . In Spanish.

I hope the information above will be useful. And I encourage you
to take part in building the grassroots communications network. If you
come to Oaxaca I would enjoy meeting you and sharing on a personal
level some of what I've learned about this wonderful society.

With best wishes,
George

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

[burrowowl]

1. K & R

Thanks for the news!

[Wiley50]

2. Thanks. I try to be of service n/t

[Raksha]

3. Kicking - thanks for the information!

:kick:

I'm pretty distracted with the ABC Rovaganza right now, but trying to stay current on this story anyway.

[annabanana]

4. Great information. I'm afraid we're all kind of distracted

around here today (probably tomorrow too.)