With the Third State Assembly, Measuring the Forces within APPO
By Vladimir Méndez J (oaxacalibre.org)
Decimated, but “with the expectation of uniting those forces now dispersed due to repression and the [recent] election campaign,” the Third State Assembly of APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) began with participation of more than 300 delegates from 38 collectives and organizations, 12 communities and towns, 12 neighborhoods in the city of Oaxaca, and 27 councilors from APPO. It is hoped that the meeting will conclude agreements leading to a reorientation of the struggle of APPO, keeping as its first priority the liberation of political prisoners.
Not all of the organizations that participated in the formation of APPO in June 2006 showed up on this occasion. The FPR (Popular Revolutionary Front), COMO (the Coordinating Committee of Oaxacan Women), FALP (Broad Front of Popular Struggle) and NIOAX (New Left of Oaxaca, the organization of Flavio Sosa), among others, did not respond to the call for this meeting.
In fact, this Third Assembly, which started several hours late, took place against the background of the dispute between two blocs that have formed inside APPO. Both groups have claimed the right to convoke a state assembly of APPO, while denying the right of their opponents to do so. The leadership of Section 22 of the SNTE (National Teachers’ Union) has tried to defuse the situation, urging both factions of APPO to call a joint meeting with the aim of holding at a future date the Third State Assembly that began today, and at the same time offering the use of its facilities for such a meeting.
Leylo Centeno of CODEP (the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the People) denied that there had been a rupture within APPO. Basically, “the organizations that turned their backs on this assembly are the FPR, the March 2nd Collective, and COMO, which no longer represents [Oaxacan] women,” but rather “is a group much reduced from what had been the coordinating committee.” She asserted that all organizations had been invited to today’s meeting, “but they decided not to come.” She added that “the assembly doesn’t lose legitimacy because one or two organizations do not want to particpate. APPO is not divided: if there are those who do not want to go along with the assembly because they do not respect its principles, because they do not respect its agreements, then let them leave. It’s that simple.”
“There are people who do not fulfill agreements, who have not been coherent or consistent with the approach and the principles of the Assembly. Even so, they were invited to the debate. In any case, they were who they were. It is not right that they don’t want to recognize all this work, which is not the work of only two organizations, but rather is the work of a good number of representatives from various sectors,” explained Centeno.
This feeling was one shared by Miguel Cruz Moreno of CIPO (the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca), who argued that the assembly that met today “is the beginning of an effort to coordinate the work among those who respect the principles of APPO. Our struggle does not revolve around the issue of whether or not some organizations participate. The rank and file must stick to its principles and, on the basis of them, reset APPO on its way forward.”
For her part, Patricia Jiménez of COMO explained in a telephone interview that her organization would not attend the Third Assembly of APPO because “we think that it is not right.” She added, “We are in favor of a unitary approach. APPO is not made up of three or five organizations, but of hundreds of organizations. What should be done is to go along with the appeal of Section 22,” which had asked that the Organizing Commission of APPO be the body that convoked the Third Assembly. “We are not going to accept a sectarian appeal that wants to expell one or another group,” she indicated.
At the same time, she emphasized that “the calumnies, the defamations, the only thing that these are going to accomplish is to do the work of Ulises Ruiz, above all when they are made without proof. This kind of language is that of Ulises Ruiz, who is counting on division within APPO.” What must be done, she said, is “to get busy and to work in a coordinated way; it is painful to see how things stand, but we hope that this will make everyone think.”
Among the organziations who responded to the convocation of the Third State Assembly were: the “Vanguard” Rural Teacher Training College of Tamazulapam; the Committee for the Liberation of Adán Mejía; the Young Libertarian Movement; the Collective of the Barricades of Brenamiel; CODEP (the Committee of Defense of the Rights of the People), the Citizens’ Network (Red Cívica Ciudadana); the Indigenous Brigades; the Organizing Committeee of the Isthmus Region; CIPO (the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca); FIOB (the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations); the youth sector of APPO; CENEO (the Student Coordinating Committee of Teacher Trainees of Oaxaca State); the Ecclesiastical Base Committees of the Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca; CEDES 22 (The Center for Trade Union Political Studies of Section 22 of the teachers’ union); and others.
The APPO proceedings that began today were saluted by APPM (the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Mexico), APPP (the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Potosinos), SITUAM (The Independent Union of Workers of the Metropolitan Autonomous University), and a Venezuelan collective that announced that, inspired by the Oaxacan movement, a Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Venezuela was being established.
The absences at the Third State Assembly of APPO left a mark on the whole day. Messages circulated on the Internet: “It is a good day for FLP-FALP and others to taste the greasy, bitter flavor [that comes] from selling out for the sake of a few places on a electoral slate…”
From the start of the meeting, the fear that circulated through the building was one of finding out how much power (in terms of convoking a meeting) the other bloc had. Little by little, the participants arrived: the relatives of Emeterio Marion Cruz and David Venegas; neighborhood residents; peasants; students; barricaderos; and other familiar faces. The very same Emeterio [Marion Cruz], who had been savagely beaten by the “forces of order” last July 16, walked into the assembly, supporting himself with a cane, having recovered from his near-fatal injuries.
However, the local press did not come at all. It was purely the alternative press—two journalists, to be precise. The absences were felt. No COMO. No FPR. “They’re playing hooky,” someone said. They did not come, but the assembly started. “We did it! We did it!,” cheered a barricadero who also announced for the nth time that he would not remove his ski mask because his life was at risk. No one asked him to remove it. It was a pleasure to see “anarchists” participating in an organized structure and to hear pseudo-Trotskyists singing “The people united will never be defeated.”
In the end, some said that the match had ended in a tie. One bloc had on its side the institutional press and the leadership of Section 22; the other had the rank and file. The absence of the teachers—only three union councilors attended—although it weighed heavily, wasn’t a recent phenomenon. However in the teachers’ forum that took place yesterday, the councilors were exhorted by the majority to attend today’s assembly, something that they failed to do.
No. The settling of accounts did not take place. And, no doubt, what happens in Section 22 will have repercussions inside APPO. What seems certain is that it appears that the “independents,” the “radicals,” are gaining ground inside Section 22. Yesterday, for example, in the teachers’ forum, it was decided by a vote of 150 to 130 to call a congress in which the councilors who didn’t attend today’s assembly would be removed as delegates. And the same thing occurred among those attending the national teachers’ forum, where the majority supported the “independents,” with a minority continuing to identify itself with an organization [presumably the FPR or its allies].
November 20, 2007