Thanks to a grant from A.J. Muste, in 2006 CASA expanded its work into the neighboring state of Oaxaca. See Volunteering to apply.
Why a Program in Oaxaca?
As in Chiapas, our program in Oaxaca addresses the need for international solidarity and support for local organizations and communities as well as the need for radical educational spaces where international volunteers can share skills and participate in experiential learning about global systems of injustice and resistance. We hope our work will inspire and prepare volunteers to engage in social justice struggles in their home communities.
Oaxaca Context
There is a great need for human rights observation, international attention, and volunteer support in the state of Oaxaca as it now ranks first in Mexico for human rights abuses. Like Chiapas, Oaxaca has a history of grassroots movements for economic and social justice; however, the violent military and paramilitary repression of communities receives less attention in the international sphere.
Beginning in the spring of 2006, hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government: grinding poverty, widespread human rights violations, and rampant government corruption. These mobilizations represent an unprecedented attempt to address the cultural, economic, social and political marginalization that has accompanied eighty years of single-party rule by the PRI.
The broad and inclusive movement that emerged in May 2006 has captivated the nation and earned the admiration of communities organizing for social justice around the world. On June 14, 2006, a massive state police force was deployed to Oaxaca City. Using clubs, teargas, firearms and helicopters, they displaced a sit-in of more than 20,000 teachers representing Oaxaca's historically combative section XXII of the National Union of Education Workers. The teachers had been occupying the city center for three weeks to demand a living wage, resources for infrastructure repair, and free schoolbooks and social services for poor students. This state-sponsored violence was the latest in a long history of government attempts to silence social movements. But this time, the people decided to fight back.
In an unprecedented response that the government never anticipated, the teachers regrouped and reclaimed the city center from the police, but not before the violence triggered a massive public outcry, from which the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca—the APPO—was born. State Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, widely believed to have come to power through fraudulent elections in 2004, had thrown a match into the tinderbox. Marches in solidarity with the teachers flooded the city in the days following the June 14th attack. People from all over the state came out to help the teachers rebuild their plantón encampment and to offer food to those camped out in protest. The solidarity that came from virtually every sector of society stemmed not so much from outright support for the teachers' demands as from indignation at the use of state force against peaceful protestors and long-held desires for power to be dispersed among Oaxaca's many distinct indigenous communities.
Three days after the initial attack, the APPO held its first statewide assembly, which was attended by representatives of 300 social organizations, student and activist collectives, as well as individuals who didn't belong to any organization. While focusing their energies on the demand everyone could agree upon – the resignation of the governor responsible for the repression – the APPO also started organizing for everything from institutional reform to regional autonomy. While the APPO took on a formal structure with a centralized leadership eventually susceptible to co-opting by a number of career politicians, it also became a powerful idea that gave name to a variety of actions and informal community groups. For months, the popular slogan "Todos Somos APPO"—"We are all APPO"—rang out it the streets with frequency.
Despite its spontaneous formation, the APPO - and society as a whole - quickly developed the organizational capacity to address the political violence plaguing Oaxacan society. These problems included the disregard for freedom of expression, the lack of transparency and consultation in the use of public funds, widespread corruption, a history of infiltration of indigenous self-governance structures and the ongoing repression of social movements. Oaxaca contains the largest indigenous population in Mexico, and the highest levels of poverty and marginalization. More than half the state's population earns less than the national minimum wage of 45 pesos per day, or $4.50 US dollars. As Oaxaca is rich in biodiversity and natural resources, it has been the target of corporate-led development at the expense of communal land, indigenous people's right to self determination, as well as economic and ecological sustainability. Oaxaca is also first in the nation for violence against women and is among the top five Mexican states with the highest level of immigration to the United States.
The Oaxacan state and federal government have a vested interest in maintaining the appearance of peace and tranquility, as the state is a popular tourist destination. In fact, through both political and violent coercion, the state is being remade to suit the interests of the tourist and big business industries. This results in the expropriation of land, culture, and autonomy from indigenous people.
This alarming trend is evident in the creation of the tourist town of Huatulco, which necessitated the displacement of 30,000 local residents. Due to the privatization of beaches and restrictions on commerce, local residents often have few economic options other than selling trinkets to tourists. In addition, Governor Ulises Ruíz is working hard to eliminate rights such as freedom of the press, expression, and consultation.
In 2007 and 2008, selective repression has continued, in which individual activists have been accused of crimes unrelated to demonstrations (such as drug possession, murder, theft) in order to discredit them publicly and compromise their political involvement. In April, two young indigenous women, ages 16 and 18, were murdered because of their participation in a community radio in their village. As a result of state violence and infiltration, the intense organizing of the social movement that was born in 2006 has waned, though the government has left pressing demands ignored. However, those who created the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca continue organizing in their affinity groups, in rural communities, and in neighborhood assemblies, demanding attention to such issues as economic and political marginalization, environmental degradation, discrimination against women and widespread racism against indigenous peoples.
The Role of International Presence
Attempts at grassroots mobilization in Oaxaca have often been met with violent repression and until 2006, very little information about the situation in the southern state was covered in international media. In Chiapas, structured international human rights observation and a network of Zapatista sympathizers who distribute information worldwide have been essential supports in the movement's struggle for social justice and autonomy. In Oaxaca, CASA was created to do the same.
During CASA networking meetings in August 2005, four major human rights centers in Oaxaca expressed a great necessity for such a project and their enthusiasm for collaboration. Sensing this urgent need, other international human rights organizations have also recently begun to take action in Oaxaca.
El Servicio Internacional Para La Paz (SIPAZ) distributes information and urgent actions regarding the situation in Oaxaca, and Witness for Peace moved its Mexico office to Oaxaca where it hosts international delegations. These two groups are among many close organizational partners that CASA works with to create an effective and appropriate international presence in Oaxaca.
The Oaxacan collective has supported threatened activists and published Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, a compilation of testimonies and photography from the social uprising of 2006-2007.
