On Nov. 10, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) was formally dissolved. It was replaced by the State Council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (CEAPPO) on the same day. The CEAPPO was announced as the official government in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
The APPO, a broad coalition of leftist and progressive forces, came into being two days after the corrupt and repressive
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In the months that followed, the people built barricades, occupied government buildings and took over several radio stations to push the movement forward. The movement has been met with violence, primarily from police out of uniform acting as paramilitary squads. The mainstream media has been circulating a figure of nine deaths, but the real number is believed to be higher.
The recent formation of the CEAPPO came on the heels of a severe escalation of repression against the people’s movement. On Oct. 29—the third and last day of a strike called by the APPO—the Fox administration unleashed 4,500 Federal Preventative Police (PFP) in full riot gear in Oaxaca City.
Backed by helicopters and water cannons and armed with tear gas, the cops destroyed barricades and forced the people to retreat from the city square, or zócalo. The APPO and its supporters regrouped at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University to protect the voice of the movement, Radio Universidad.
On Nov. 2, the APPO and its supporters repelled police forces that attempted to invade the university area. They stood their ground and defended themselves for over six hours with sticks, stones, homemade explosives and other improvised weapons against the police, who eventually retreated.
The APPO responded to the aggression by calling the sixth megamarch since the conflict began. Tens of thousands of demonstrators from Oaxaca and elsewhere participated in the march on Nov. 5.
Government officials had expected the movement to collapse once the police captured the city’s zócalo—the heart of the struggle for several months. Instead, the continued resistance and the creation of the CEAPPO show that the movement is gaining strength.
Power shifts toward workers
The CEAPPO is the product of the deliberations of a three-day constituent congress that began on Nov. 10. It has a legislative and executive branch.
As many as 3,000 delegates at the congress represented neighborhoods, social organizations and the people at the barricades. The CEAPPO has 260 representative seats, including 40 seats for the teachers’ union as well as seats of honor reserved for political prisoners.
Unlike bourgeois democratic institutions, the structure of the CEAPPO places political power in the hands of the working class. It was set up to make it accountable to the people in struggle. The CEAPPO expressly grants people the power to recall elected officials and hold referenda.
It supports economic justice, respect for the autonomy of Indigenous peoples and sustainable development for the benefit of Oaxaca’s people. Women are guaranteed at least 30 percent of the seats in the new body.
The formation of CEAPPO further reaffirms the existence of two competing powers in Oaxaca. The power of the bourgeois government of Ulises Ruiz is enshrined in existing laws and institutions, while the power of CEAPPO emanates directly from the workers and their supporters. Although Ruiz is also supported by the federal Mexican capitalist state apparatus centered in Mexico City, his administration is currently incapable of governing in Oaxaca.
This situation in Oaxaca is highly unstable—the two governing powers represent different classes and are inherently contradictory and incapable of coexisting in their present forms for an extended period of time. The Mexican bourgeoisie will not sit idly as workers take charge of their own affairs. The PFP remains in Oaxaca.
Widening struggle
Armed leftist guerrilla organizations have started taking action to support the struggle in Oaxaca. On Nov. 6, bombs
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Although the APPO’s leaders denied connections with the five organizations that claimed responsibility for the bombings, they expressly refused to condemn the actions. The APPO has remained largely non-violent in order to avoid further repression, acting only in self-defense. Its orientation toward armed organizations, however, indicates it does not oppose the opening of new fronts with different tactics of struggle.
APPO leader Flavio Sosa has noted that the upheaval will spill beyond Oaxaca. “Ruiz is just the detonator,” said Sosa. “We are living through a historic transformation in Latin America.” Sosa, like other APPO leaders, has received death threats and is facing arrest warrants for his role in the movement. (International Herald Tribune, Nov. 9)
Ignacio Castelo, a leader of the Democratic National Convention (CND) from Baja California, spoke in San Francisco on Nov. 12 about the APPO’s efforts at connecting with the national struggle. Castelo pointed out that the APPO had refrained from connecting with the CND in its infancy, but recent broadcasts of Radio APPO were openly supportive.
The CND was the culmination of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of protesters, who set up camps in the heart of Mexico City for nearly two months to oppose the presidential election stolen by Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party. On Sept. 17, the CND declared the center-left López Obrador the legitimate president of Mexico.
A national strike is scheduled for Nov. 20 in protest of the electoral fraud in the presidential elections and to support the people of Oaxaca. On that day, López Obrador will symbolically assume the presidency of a parallel government. Starting on Dec. 1—when Calderón assumes the presidency—CND supporters will begin protests at all of Calderón’s public appearances.
Ruling class dilemma
Mexico’s ruling class is very concerned about the present political turbulence. Calderón, already marred by an electoral scandal, will not be helped by the uprising in Oaxaca when his presidency begins.
Fox promised in late September to deal with the crisis in Oaxaca before the end of his term so that Calderón would come into office under relatively stable conditions. With only two weeks remaining, Fox is on his way to failure.
Had the Mexican ruling class backed the call for Ruiz to resign this past summer, the explosive situation in Oaxaca might have been defused early on. It is not uncommon for the ruling class to sacrifice one of its own in order to diffuse mass, popular fury. This tactic can shift the focus away from the real problem—the capitalist system.
But now, if Ruiz falls, his departure will not be construed as a validation of the “democratic” nature of the system. For the past several months, the system has been revealed as violent, exploitative and bankrupt. The demise of Ruiz would be an empowering victory for the working class.
The bourgeoisie has nothing but arrogance and contempt for workers. This is true in Mexico, the United States and all over the capitalist world.
In Mexico, the capitalists thought they could trample the poor and oppressed people as usual. But they have failed so far. Instead, the working class has turned these attacks into a new deepening of the class struggle. This struggle will one day lead to the capitalists’ demise.
