APPO Tries to Return to Its Origins

By Sergio de Castro Sánchez

During November 17-18, 2007, the Third State Assembly of APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) was held in Oaxaca amidst a climate of open confrontation between the diverse sectors making up this movement.

This new meeting of the highest decision-making body of APPO was characterized by an intent to return to the logic of the principles that gave birth to the movement.  According to Rubén Valencia, a member of APPO’s State Council, this new reorganization should proceed from the fact that “We are all APPO, inspired by the communality that is the form of expression of our indigenous peoples.  It recognizes that APPO is not simply the State Council.  It is by joining the people in their own spaces that we are going to strengthen this great movement.”  Valencia seeks “to define APPO as democratic and autonomous.  It is necessary to construct autonomy and popular power.”  And this will be possible “if the Council redefines itself as [a body of] mandated delegates, as it had been in the past, and not as leaders of the ‘masses,’ as some are accustomed to calling the people.  I believe that if the formal principles that had constituted APPO are respected with total clarity and faithfulness, this third assembly of APPO, over and above the protagonists [of the dispute], will have contributed to what the rank and file wants in terms of going forward.”

Despite this, or precisely because of it, some organizations that had participated in the most recent state and municipal elections (in August 2007) preferred not to attend this assembly, one that brought together some 350 delegates.  Of these delegates, 38 represented various organizations, and 24 came as representatives of nieghborhoods, municipalities, and communities.   The assembly also included 27 members of APPO’s State Council.  At first glance, the number in attendance might seem sparse, but it looks different if one keeps in mind the much fewer number of people that showed up in recent months at the meetings of the State Council (the directory of APPO, made up of 260 councilors).

According to Valencia, “in the last few meetings, there were few councilors and few organizations that met as part of the State Council of APPO.  This time, as it had been in the past before the recent mistakes of the Council, it was recognized that this is a movement of the rank and file and not leaders.  In this sense, I believe that the attempt of distinct social spaces to meet legitimizes our efforts now.”  The assembly was also attended by Emeterio Merino, who has slowly recovered from a police beating on July 16, 2007 that almost killed him.

For Cástulo López, a spokesperson of APPO, “the sectors opposed to the realization of the Assembly prefer to keep the movement dispersed, because it suits their particular agendas, and it is quite probable that they will start negotiations with the assassin Ulises Ruíz.”  According to this member of CODEP (Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the People), “the false arguments of those who wanted to invalidate the Third Assembly on the basis that APPO is made up of 300 organizations were off the mark—there used to be that number, but because of the savage repression, participation has declined.  Some organizations sought to change the political demands of APPO into economic demands; others returned to their own agendas.  Most recently, the numbers of people at the meetings of [APPO] councilors did not exceed 30, and these were no longer representative.  This is the reason why the Third Assembly is being held: to restore representativeness and content.”

It was clear that the power of APPO to convoke a meeting had not diminished in this latest assembly, especially when compared to what had become habitual recently in the movement.  Quite to the contrary, this new effort involves trying to return power to the base of the movement, the rank and file that had turned its back on APPO precisely because of the behavior of some leaders that violated the movement’s founding principles.  These leaders, some with greater success than others, had opted to participate in institutional processes that they themselves had denounced as being fraudulent, corrupt, and not at all representative of the desires of the people.

Special mention should be made of the commercial media that chose not to cover the Assembly meeting.  Accustomed to repeating the words of certain members of the leadership, for the most part belonging to the FPR (Popular Revolutionary Front) and the “electoral” wing of APPO, the media followed the directives of these leaders in regards to the Third Assembly, helping to create the image of an illegitmate meeting convened by a few organizations on the margins of APPO.  This comes from people who had unilaterally declared in the First State Assembly (held during February 11-12, 2007) that “APPO has decided to participate in this year’s elections that will choose the members of the next state legislature and new municipal presidents.”  When this declaration was made, the majority of the State Council was unaware that such a decision had been taken.

But the fact is that the holding of this Third Assembly is something that had been gestating for several months, and as Cástulo López pointed out in a press conference, it was necessary to begin the process of reorganizing the movement.

However, Florentino López, the “official voice” of APPO and state president of the FPR, asserted in a text published a few days ago that this was not the right moment for the holding of such an assembly.  After referring to the current social conflicts in Oaxaca, he added that “What the organizations that intend to contribute to the organized vanguard of the people have to do is to give a perspective to all those sectors who struggle every day.”  Apparently, the rank and file is not sufficiently prepared as to be able to decide the path to follow, and what is necessary now is to give them the necessary instruments so that the struggle attains its objectives.  There is no doubt as to who should perform this task.  Florentino López goes on to say that either “we march together with our people, understanding its rhythms, providing perspective to each contingent that goes out to fight” or else “we isolate ourselves from the daily struggle of our people” and “we force the processes of reorganziation.”  In his view, what must be done is to find the unity of “everyone together in a single front.  This includes the correct use of elective office, through the comrade that the movment has succeeded in placing in the state assembly.” 

At the very least, it is curious to relate marching together with the people (that is to say, “giving them a perspective”) and elective office, when the abstention level in the state and local electoral process this year was the highest in Oaxacan history.  It is also contrary to the principles of APPO…that make it clear that those who stand for election must do so in the name of their own organizations, and not that of APPO.  This is what Cástulo López warned about on November 5, when he pointed out that the “deputy-elect Zenén Bravo will represent neither APPO nor the social movement, but his own organization, the FPR, that supported him.”

Some of the organizations that did not attend the Third State Assembly were the FPR and the FALP (Broad Front of Popular Struggle), both self-defined as Stalinists; the Nioax (New Left of Oaxaca), close to the PRD (the party of López Obrador); and COMO (Coordinating Organization of Oaxacan Women), which has recently drawn close to the FPR.  A few months ago, there was a split within COMO, from which emerged the “Mujeres sin Miedo” (Women without Fear) collective, who explained their leaving COMO as being due to the fact that “there were erroneous positions that in the interests of democratic centralism tried to subjugate different initiatives, to take control of efforts as the Stalinists had tried to do.”  At the same time, the Oaxacan teachers’ union decided not to attend.

All in all, APPO faces a new challenge from here on: trying to return to the task of bringing together struggles that, on the basis of perspectives of autonomy and popular power as alternatives to institutional “democratic” power, had moved away from APPO, due both to its internal disputes and the pursuit of an electoral strategy that some defended as a “tactic” adequate to achieving social transformation in Oaxaca and others interpreted as being only a way for a few organizations to satisfy their particular interests.

November 25, 2007

(Original article in Spanish: www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=59535 )