The Reorganization of APPO:  What Is at Stake?

by David Venegas

The holding of the Third State Assembly of APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) during November 17-18, 2007 was characterized by an atmosphere of great fraternity and understanding among those who attended, and by a strong resistance to its being held on the part of one sector of the organizations within APPO.  Those opposed to the meeting included the FPR (Revolutionary Popular Front), the FALP (Broad Popular Front of Struggle), NIOAX (New Left of Oaxaca), all of which decided in the end not to attend.  It was also one of the most heavily attended assemblies of the movement in recent months, something that demonstrates the pressing need for reorganization and the clear proposals that exist in the minds of the rank and file about how to continue the social struggle undertaken by the peoples of Oaxaca for more than a year.  The high level of participation in this meeting was also due to the fact that all people, whether they belonged to organizations or not, were invited to attend.

This allowed the presence of a large number of representatives from unions, organizations, collectives, and communities, as well as the presence of a great number of activists, men and women engaged in the social movement who in the past would not have had the opportunity to attend.  The fact that the Third State Assembly, which was attended by more than 300 delegates, has been impugned and despised by the leadership of Section 22 [of the Oaxacan teachers’ union] and by those organizations that did not attend is due not only to the fact of their being absent; this would be to reduce the conflict to a vulgar act of capricious, political revenge.  Without denying that such reasons were important for some opponents of the meeting, the motive for the failure to recognize the fact of the Third State Assembly, and the calling of another, rival assembly for December 8, 2007, has a deeper meaning.

The Third State Assembly marked an important watershed in terms of overcoming the inertia at the base of the movement in recent months, a period in which there had been a reduced participation of people in mobilizations and the assemblies of APPO had been emptied of representatives from communities, neighborhoods, NGOs, barricades, and collectives.  Those who remained were for  the most part representatives of organizations.  All of this led to a situation in recent assemblies where discussion had been reduced to whether or not to participate in the recent elections or to the strengthening of certain national political organizations…Discussion was also reduced to decisions about the date and time for holding marches, and many times not even this, because for months the initiative for mobilizations had come from Section 22, whose strikebreaking and capitulationist leadership was pressured by the brave and determined drive of the state assembly and the rank and file of the teachers’ union.  All of this, together with government repression (a true state terrorism implanted in Oaxaca by Ulises Ruiz in order to maintain his power), had increased the climate of fear, dejection, confusion, and distrust among the rank and file of the movement, but above all increased the separation —in aspirations, objectives, and interests—between the body of the social movement and those who claimed to be its head, the State Council of APPO.

Away from external situations like those mentioned above, discussions in the Third State Assembly revolved around the necessity for a real and profound reorganization of APPO, with a faithful dedication to its fundamental principles: a reliance on assemblies, reflecting the democratic spirit of the Indian peoples of Oaxaca; a practice of social struggle waged by the rank and file, peaceful, autonomous, and independent of the corrupt institutions of the state and political parties; and a commitment to directly confront the capitalist system that enslaves us.

As elevated as this discussion was, the delegates didn’t want to leave without bringing up the subject of the acts of persons and organizations inside the movement that, benefiting from certain economic and political privileges (including foreign travel), had violated the basic principles of APPO, and whose opportunistic activities had openly betrayed the social movement.

Above all else, the prevailing mood in this Third Assembly was dominated by the necessity of constructing agreements of unity among the different peoples, organizations, groups, and persons participating in the social movement.  This led to the conclusion that the fundamental demands of APPO in this stage of the struggle were: removal of Ulises Ruiz as governor; freedom for all political prisoners in the state of Oaxaca (and not only those who have been imprisoned during this movement); and the call for the punishment of those responsible for the repression, which has spread its pestilential stench from cops at the lowest level of the hierarchy of the repressive apparatus on up to the highest echelons, the secretaries of state, Ulises Ruiz and Vicente Fox.

With the proposal for holding meetings of women and youth, this Third State Assembly was impregnated with the spirit of unity of the social movement, one made up of all its participants: Indian peoples; mestizos and Afro-Mexicans; people from the neighborhoods and those who maintained the barricades; workers and campesinos; the young and the old.  That is to say, this was a unity achieved from below, by the rank and file, and not a sham unity based on a mediation among organizations, as was the case in the State Council of APPO.

There were other themes that weren’t discussed in the Third State Assembly.  Most importantly, the assembly failed to discuss how to bring back to the movement the millions of people who, in the marvelous moments of the past year, saw APPO as embodying the fulfillment of their dreams and most genuine aspirations for a collective life based on justice, dignity, peace, autonomy, and wellbeing.  But the meeting of the Third State Assembly was a first step on this path of achieving a profund and real reorganization of APPO, a step that will confound those who want to ignore and deprecate this effort and the participation in it of more than 300 delegates, representatives of communities, organizations, and state and national unions. 

What is at stake in this struggle inside APPO is no small matter.  On one side are those who seek to maintain control of the assembly and the movement by means of their incipient bureaucratic structures, like the vocerio (official spokespersons) and other commissions, with the aim of negotiating with the government to secure the economic and political benefits they desire.  On the other side are the many men and women, whether members of organizations or not, who have sought unflaggingly to lift the movement from the prostrate state it has been reduced to by government repression, the infringement upon it of political parties and their candidates, and the betrayal on the part of many who pose as the movement’s leaders.  Among these men and women working toward the reorganization of the movement are to be found those who have suffered repression, imprisonment, and persecution, a fact highlighted by the participation in the Third State Assembly by the families of those killed and imprisoned.  On this last point, the political prisoners in Santa Maria Ixcotel, who include four out of the six remaining political prisoners from APPO, were able to participate (by means of a written communication) in the discussions of the Third State Assembly.

The next assembly—scheduled for December 8, 2007—has been called by those who have derided the Third State Assembly and its accomplishments.  Nonetheless, the men and women of Oaxaca who seek to raise the social movement from prostration, dispersion, and confusion, and return the movement to its legitimate, orginal aspirations and principles, will attend this meeting on December 8.  They will do so in confirmation of the spirit of building agreement and finding a real, principled unity, which is the necessary basis for the reorganization of the movement of the peoples of Oaxaca.  In the final analysis, the next meeting would not be occurring without the direct pressure coming from the rank and file of the social movement.

November 6, 2007

David Venegas is a founding member of  VOCAL (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom), an anarchist group that has participated in APPO.  He is currently incarcerated in the prison of Santa Maria Ixcotel.