The APPO Two Years On: Where Now For Oaxaca's Social Movement?
By Scott Campbell
05 September,
2008
Countercurrents.org
This fall in Oaxaca marks a
season of commemorations. Already marches for fallen APPO members
Jose Jimenez Colmenares and Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes have woven
their ways through the streets of the city, pausing at the spots they
were murdered in 2006, holding ceremonies at the Cathedral. Twenty-four
more such processions await Oaxaca in the coming months. That number
will only grow as efforts are pursued to identify the, at minimum,
eight bodies in hidden graves discovered recently in Oaxaca's main
cemetery.
In what is a lifetime for social movements and a blink of an eye in
history's ledger, a little more than two years have passed since the
people of Oaxaca erupted in spontaneous but ingrained rebellion against
the barbaric rule of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and all that
he embodies. Mere days after URO's storm troopers raided the city
center on June 14, 2006, in an attempt to remove the encampment of
striking teachers (after regrouping, the zocalo was retaken by the
teachers and their supporters), the Popular Assembly of the People
of Oaxaca (APPO) was formed. At its core, the APPO was a consensus-driven,
horizontal grouping rooted in the millennia-old indigenous practice
of assemblies. David Venegas, APPO participant and member of the anarchist
group VOCAL, recently wrote in the Oaxacan daily Noticias that "the
Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca is, naturally, opposed to
power, since horizontalism, respect for consensus and respectful dialog
are the fundamental principles of the assembly."[1] For more
than five months, APPO controlled the city of Oaxaca and much of the
state. Not until Vicente Fox, in one of his parting shots as president,
sent in paramilitary federal police on November 25 did URO regain
"control." Rather it would be more accurate to say the APPO
lost physical control. Much has been written and recounted about those
"days of freedom", as one friend called them, that it is
unnecessary to relate them here. For a comprehensive recounting, I
recommend Nancy Davies' The People Decide: Oaxaca's Popular Assembly,
available from NarcoNews.com.
Two years
later what is left now in Oaxaca? Has the APPO been reduced to a memorial
mechanism to commemorate its fallen? Is it accurate, as URO keeps
insisting with epileptic vigor, that, "nothing is happening"
here? Or are we seeing a movement in chrysalis, reconsolidating only
to reemerge just as vibrant, but even smarter, than before?
To be sure, there are conflicting messages and what will emerge is
far from predetermined. A bleak picture can easily be painted. For
starters, the APPO for all intents and purposes no longer exists,
in terms of an assembly which meets, makes collective decisions, and
takes action. However, many organizations that were part of the APPO
still use that name when publicizing their actions and sending out
communiques, which ironically - or tragically - frequently denounce
other organizations that were APPO members and who also use the APPO
label. Obviously this creates confusion at best and dejection and
disillusionment at worst.
There are no clean divisions here, but the conflict can be uneasily
broken down into two general camps. Those who have chosen to use the
political and social clout of the APPO to engage with the current
political system and try to get what they can from it and those who
reject any relationship with the system that in 2006 was killing and
disappearing their comrades. This has created, as Kiado Cruz, editor
of OaxacaLibre.org, wrote, "a general paralysis"[2] within
the social movement and in its current formulation there is no hope
for forward progress. This loggerhead has led to diminishing displays
of social mobilization under the banner of the APPO, and in further
blows to the now agency-less entity, these disputes between the two
camps often take place publicly.
One example of the mutual animosity occurred during a march on August
10th, marking the murder of Jose Jimenez Colmenares. While the procession
paused where Jimenez fell, anarcho-punks spray painted the walls of
the building Jimenez was shot from. A couple of the slogans included
denunciations of Zenen Bravo. "Our fallen don't fit in ballot
boxes. Understand that, Zenen!" screamed the walls. Bravo is
now a state representative in Oaxaca, a former council member of the
APPO, and an organizer with the Popular Revolutionary Front (FPR),
a Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist group. Elected in 2007, his decision
to run on the joint ticket of the PRD-PT-Convergencia ("center-left"
political parties) was a major blow to the integrity of the APPO which
as a general rule rejected involvement with political parties and
electoral politics. Later on in the march, German Mendoza Nube, another
leader of the FPR, was heckled with calls of "traitor" when
he gave a speech. FPR members rushed the hecklers - who were the anarcho-punks,
members of the anarchist group VOCAL, and other - and an intra-APPO
street fight nearly broke out.
The next day, along with the dispute being mentioned in the media,
the "official" APPO website exaggerated the incident and
denounced VOCAL. The following week a march occurred for Lorenzo San
Pablo, another murdered APPO member, organized by VOCAL, and the "official"
APPO website did not see fit to mention it.
While this dispute plays out in the streets and the internet, the
power-hungry members of APPO continue their dance with their former
oppressors, now colleagues, while those seeking to stay true to the
original premise of the APPO propose to construct something new. It
is this phase of consolidation, deliberation, and reconstruction that
many believe hold the promise for a successful social movement.
Many initiatives have taken place in recent weeks which display this
new trajectory.
* A five day citizens' forum was held in the upper-class neighborhood
of Reforma in early August. It was inspired by the community's successful
effort to block the construction of a Chedraui (a Wal-Mart-type business)
store after the company cut down 200 trees in a park there at 4am
where they hoped to build their store. The forum focused not just
on what to do with the denuded site but also on "participative
democracy, what kind of city we want,"[3] and the problems facing
each neighborhood in the city and what actions, independent of political
parties and the government, can be collectively taken to deal with
those problems.
* Going on right now is a "barefoot researchers" seminar
organized by VOCAL and alternative education project Universidad de
la Tierra (Unitierra). This free and open project meets every two
weeks for five hours over the course of several months to undertake,
among other things, "a systemic reflection of the economic, social
and political situation in Oaxaca, with a national and international
perspective, with an emphasis on autonomous social movements; that
is to say, those that struggle from the grassroots to transform society
without taking power."[4]
* Most recently, the First Assembly of Community and Free/Pirate Radio
Stations was held in Zaachila, Oaxaca, at the end of August. There
participants created a permanent assembly for the promotion and defense
of community and indigenous radio stations, one of the most important
tools of the social movement and which is under constant attack by
the state.[5]
In a recent interview with Noticias, Gustavo Esteva, president of
the board of Unitierra and long-time academic specializing in social
movements, was described as noting, "Without a doubt"...in
his 50 years of observing the social situation in Oaxaca, "I've
never seen such movement and effervescence from below", which
should worry the government...He explained this social effervescence
is "invisible to the media because there is nothing spectacular;
it is not defined by marches, but the solidifying of initiatives for
the generation of a new social fabric".[6]
Reflecting on this new movement, Kiado Cruz labels it "communalocracy".
"It is important to reflect on our actions if our movement is
really to be beyond ideologies or if we are really to be movement
that has a face and a heart that we intuitively know is based in the
depths of our way of thinking, feeling and acting that we inherited
from our ancestors...With this intuition we can be sure that amongst
ourselves we can define the constructive means of action."[7]
What results from these forums, seminars and assemblies remains to
be seen. However, it is clear that though the APPO may be broken -
just as much by internal splits as government repression - the will
of the people to continue the struggle has not waned. The focus on
face-to-face, direct, horizontal community organizing, and the rejection
of interacting with or relying on political parties, government and
hierarchical organizations, holds great promise. It ensures that what
emerges will be a movement that is genuinely one of the people of
Oaxaca. A movement whose direction, actions, and victories will belong
to the people.
And as David Venegas writes, "Power, as much as it licks the
superficial wounds put on its body by the insurrectionary actions
of the people in 2006, and although it paints and adorns itself with
words of social peace, reconciliation and development on its horrendous
body, it will not be able to cure itself of the deepest wound caused
by the people in 2006, the wound created at the source of its strength
by the consciousness gained by our people of the unsustainable situation
and of the need to fight tirelessly to obtain true justice, freedom,
dignity and peace. It is this mortal wound that resides in the heart
of power and from which it will never recover."[8]
Scott Campbell is an organizer from the SF Bay Area currently residing
in Oaxaca. All quotations were translated from the Spanish by him.
He posts observations and translations Oaxaca-related material at
http://angrywhitekid.blogs.com/weblog.
1 Venegas,
David. "El equilibrio del poder." Noticias - Voz e Imagen
de Oaxaca. 13/8/08.
http://vocal.lahaine.org/
articulo.php?p=179&more=1&c=1. Noticias did not publish
the Op-Ed on its website.
2 Cruz,
Kiado. "Dar vuelta a la esquina." Oaxacalibre.org. 24/8/08.
http://oaxacalibre.org/oaxlibre/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=2082&Itemid=29.
3 http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/
oaxaca-ciudad-de-ciudadanos
4 http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/
diplomado-investigadores-descalzos
5 http://oaxacalibre.org/oaxlibre/index.php?option=
com_content&task=view&id=2096&Itemid=1
6 Matias, Pedro. ""Incompetentes juegan con fuego": Gustavo Esteva." Noticias - Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca. 3/8/08.
http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/index.php?option=
com_content&task=view&id=6583&Itemid=31.
7 See Cruz, Kiado above.
8 See Venegas,
David above.