The materials
posted here are being made available as sources of information and opinion
on contemporary social movements in Mexico. They form a resource
that will hopefully be expanded on in the future, possibly to include
texts from elsewhere in Latin America.
The three texts
appear here in English translation for the first time. The anonymous
comic has been posted elsewhere on the internet, but is included here
since it complements the other materials.
There is no
uniformity of perspective among the materials. They have been
chosen for their intrinsic worth, but also for their diversity, in a
deliberate attempt to provide alternative points of view on events
in Mexico. For many on the anti-authoritarian left, support
for social movements elsewhere resembles a kind of well-intentioned
cheerleading. The nuances and contradictions of the movements
themselves are often glossed over or elided completely. In the case
of the recent upheaval in Oaxaca, the movement there has been presented
in almost monolithic terms, with only a belated and cursory discussion
of the divisions existing within APPO (the Popular Assembly of the Peoples
of Oaxaca) between its anti-authoritarian wing and a Stalinist faction
centered on the FPR (Revolutionary Popular Front), and between those
supporting the autonomy of the movement’s base and those seeking to
use APPO as a political vehicle. The fact that some of the
most radical elements of the Oaxacan movement (such as the sector asssociated
with the street barricades) were located outside the formal structures
of APPO has almost gone unreported.
Claudio Albertani’s
article “Oaxaca One Year Later: The Mirror of Mexico” provides an
overview of the Oaxacan movement, and details the repression meted out
by state authorities in an effort to erase the uprising. Albertani’s
synopsis of events is useful, even if at times he is overly indulgent
of the movement’s weaknesses. Toward the end of the article,
he describes some of the maneuvering of Stalinists within APPO, and
suggests that the anti-authoritarian elements of the Oaxacan movement
may have to go beyond APPO if they are to continue to develop.
The document
“Our Position within APPO” comes from inside APPO, and as such provides
a window on internal debates within the assembly. OIDHO (Indian Organizations
for Human Rights in Oaxaca) is part of the Alianza Magonista Zapatista,
which forms part of the anti-authoritarian current within APPO.
The Alianza Magonista Zapatista, as its name suggests, considers itself
to be both anarchist and aligned with the Other Campaign of the EZLN
(Zapatista Army of National Liberation).
A different
Mexican anarchist perspective, one that is highly critical of the EZLN,
is elaborated in the text by the Libertarian Socialist Group, “The
Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign: A Program and Project
for the Continuation of Capitalism.” This text is repetitive
in places and suffers from a kind of overly doctrinaire reasoning, but
it makes a number of important points about the limitations of the the
Other Campaign and the cult of subcomandante Marcos among the Zapatistas
and their supporters.
The comic by
Ana Nimo is interesting in several aspects. It presents a view
of the Oaxacan movement as seen by an outsider (an “international”),
but it is not merely another paean to APPO. On the contrary, she
raises important questions about the role played by bureaucrats and
Stalinists from the very inception of APPO. She describes
how these forces sought to promote their own agendas, intruding on one
of the boldest acts of the Oaxacan movement: the appropriation of official
media (including a television channel) by APPO supporters, who then
broadcast their own programs to the surrounding population.
Suggestions concerning other materials (or links to other texts) that might be posted here are welcome.
Additional Translations:
APPO Tries to Return to Its Origins
The Reorganization of APPO: What Is at Stake?
With the Third State Assembly, Measuring the Forces within the APPO
New Just Published By Collective Reinventions:
Broken Barricades: The Oaxaca Rebellion in Victory, Defeat, and Beyond
.pdf version
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