Class struggle deepens in Oaxaca, Mexico (it not just about Obrador)

[Robbien]

Hidden behind the headlines about the disputed July 2 Mexican presidential election is the unfolding situation in the state of Oaxaca. This increasingly pitched struggle holds great importance for the entire Mexican working class.

The current face-off between the people and the repressive state apparatus began on June 14 when members of the teachers union (known by its Spanish initials SNTE) were attacked by state police while striking for better educational resources. Since then, unions, Marxist parties, Indigenous groups and other working-class organizations have led a militant struggle against the state’s governor, demanding his ouster

State authorities and business owners have complained because the struggle has "negatively impacted tourism" and imposed a "sense of lawlessness" to the region. While tourism is down by 75 percent this season, the strikers and their supporters are not at fault. The ruling class is using these arguments in an attempt to mask the reality they face—they are up against a mass mobilization of the Oaxacan people.

The broad nature of this rebellion in Oaxaca is becoming clearer everyday. It is about much more than a teachers’ strike. Rossana Fuentes-Berain, a political analyst at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico told the Christian Science Monitor, "In the case of Oaxaca, what we are seeing now is something that has been boiling for decades. It is emblematic of frustrations people feel in parts of the country."

Whole townships have been taken over by workers, peasants and Indigenous people tired of the oppressive conditions brought on by neoliberal policies and capitalist corruption.

http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr005=wx2wvkg1v2.app5b&page=NewsArticle&id=5419&news_iv_ctrl=1261

[Erika]

1. Poor people have had enough

The redistribution of the wealth must include the working class. Bushbots need to learn that here.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Love the mock horror and disapproval from the very scum responsible

for the problem in the first place.

I really hope this situation gets a favorable solution this time. People are getting damned tired of being jerked around.

[Laotra]

3. Usos y custombres

The people's movement is functioning according to the form traditional direct democracy, which has legal base in Oaxaca's constitution. Most of Oaxacan municipalities have been administrated by usos y custombres all the time, now the representative party systems have been overthrown by the people in many more municipalities, and if I've understood right, the goal seems to be overthrow the representative party system also at state level replacing (or amending it) with direct and participatory democracy, with a new constitution for the state based on usos y custombres. That's why PRD is not happy about this revolution, which is not only against PRI but the whole system of "(neo)liberal democracy".

This is important, so progressive brothers and sisters also in USA should also watch and learn and imagine new ways, rethink their basic demands. Replacing GOP with DLC is not enough, not even replacing the twin party system with multiparty system, though that would be a positive step. The problem is that the purely representative system of liberal democracy is broken beyond repair, our Constitutions have been usurped and broken by political parties. What is increasingly uniting the new global revolution, manifested in World Social Forums etc. and it's local manifestations, is demand for authentic democracy, participatory democracy where we the people don't just elect more or less corrupt and psychologically damaged "leaders" to rule us, but decide about the issues when we so choose.

Direct and participatory E-democracy is one concrete thing that a net community like DU could try to develop, transforming our collective frustration not only with world situation but also with the political party this forum is affiliated to, into positive and creative collective work. Just a small idea, take it or leave it. If there is interest, perhaps a subforum dedicated for the discussion about these subjects could be a start?

PS: For extensive coveradge of Oaxaca see also Narconews.com, with authentic reporters in situ.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Bourgeois democracy has failed for it doesn't represent the people's

interests, but the interests of the ruling class and the bourgeoisie.

What is happening in Oaxaca is similar to the massive popular revolt in Bolivia that brought down a President and forced an election won by Evo Morales. It was the workers and peasants of Bolivia that took the lead, not the middle class!

[Laotra]

5. Very true, comrade!

But I would still define both Venezuela and Bolivia as bourgeois revolutions, with good potential of "movement towards socialism", continuing as processes of socialist revolution. Venezuelan constitution has strong elements of direct and participatory democracy, among the most advanced in the world together with Switzerland, but AFAIK the single most important legal right is missing, right to change and amend constitution by citizen's initiatives and referenda, which Switzerland has. We'll see how the Bolivian constitutional process goes, hoping for the best but my glass is only half full.

In the rich North our societies are not yet as polarized as in Bolivia and Oaxaca etc., and we must make our own path according to our circumstances. A large socialist movement concentrating on the ownership issues has currently no chance up here, but large segments of middle class could allready join a mass struggle for direct and participatory forms of democracy (ie "dictatorship of proletariat"), nobody AFAIK considers Switzerland a commie hell hole... ;). Socialism cannot be forced from above through party hierarchies, but must be build from below. The bolivarian revolution didn't really start with the first election of Chavez, but with the "Revolution that was not televized", when masses defeated the coup attempt and by saving Chavez made him their servant, not their leader.

[Acadia Blue]

6. Bourgeois? That means Middle Class. The Rich Capatilists are

who are oppressing the Mexican peasants and working class. In Mexico the middle class is paper thin. And I mean paper thin. They live in apartments and tiny houses and barely keep up.

[Southsideirish]

7. Many archeogical "digs" down there - I wonder if they are affected.