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The Revolutionary Situation in Mexico and Revolution in the u.s.

category north america / mexico | indigenous struggles | opinion / analysis author Saturday September 02, 2006 00:58author by Joaquin Cienfuegos - Cop Watch Los Angelesauthor email joaquin at copwatchla dot org Report this post to the editors

Oaxaca, Mexico has setting an example to the people of Mexico and to people all around the world. What started as a teacher’s movement against the privatization of education has turned into a popular movement against the state government. The APPO (Asemblea Popular de Pueblo de Oaxaca – Popular Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca) has been where the people have been connecting through and organizing themselves.

The Revolutionary Situation in Mexico and Revolution in the u.s.
By Joaquin Cienfuegos

(Member of Cop Watch Los Angeles)


Oaxaca, Mexico has setting an example to the people of Mexico and to people all around the world. What started as a teacher’s movement against the privatization of education has turned into a popular movement against the state government. The APPO (Asemblea Popular de Pueblo de Oaxaca – Popular Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca) has been where the people have been connecting through and organizing themselves.

The state has assassinated and tried to repress this movement, but people have continued to mobilize and organize themselves and step up the resistance (because if they do not, the government’s massacre will continue). People in Oaxaca have been taking over the means of communication, from TV stations to radio stations. Community members are defending each other with homemade weapons, rocks, sticks, and bricks against riot police, and their paramilitaries. The people set up barricades and block streets and their main demand is for the disappearance of the state government. The APPO is the democracy of the people not the PRI (Institutional “Revolutionary” Party).

The state government is afraid, and they’re trying hold on to their power as the people revolt. They call the popular movement subversive urban guerrilla warfare. In an article from La Jornada titled “Oaxaca, magisterial y la lucha armada” (Oaxaca, the teachers, and armed struggle), it talks about how armed resistance and armed struggle have been present in Oaxaca for decades. In Mexico teachers who have taken up arms have been the famous revolutionaries Lucio Cabanas and Genaro Vasquez. The situation today in Oaxaca, where people have continued to step up the resistance, where armed struggle is a tactic that is necessary when the state is murdering the population that opposes it. Armed resistance is not what has made the struggle in Oaxaca revolutionary though, but the level of self-organization, autonomy, and the community building that has raised the consciousness of the population to raise their sights and demand their self-determination from bad governments.

This plays into and fans the flame of the growing revolutionary movement on the national level. In Chiapas, Atenco, Guerrerro, Michoacan, Baja California, and in other parts of Mexico – there has been communities organizing themselves, building liberated autonomous communities, defending themselves from attacks from the state, and taking direct action against imperialism and neo-liberalism. It’s a situation where people are raising their consciousness through seeing the corruption of the government, because of stolen elections. It is a situation where oppressed people look to more hope in the Other Campaign of Adherents to the Sixth Declaration from the Selva Lacandona, then the Presidential Election. This is what is called a revolutionary situation: a situation where the contradictions between the people and those in power have become so great that the state cannot hide them and keep the people in check.

Revolutions are made by people, and by their popular movements. They do not happen through vanguard organizations, or professional revolutionaries, even though historically those vanguard organizations co-opt the popular movements and become the new oppressor once in power. What is happening in Oaxaca, is what indigenous people there have been doing for centuries, organizing themselves and relying on themselves.

A revolution in Mexico, means a great deal to oppressed people around the world, and especially oppressed people within the u.s. The revolution in Mexico can and will spill over into the u.s. The imperialist government of the united states has always dominated politically and economically the government in Mexico. They’re responsible for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and other economic policies that steal resources from indigenous people and farmers from Mexico, forcing them to leave their homes and migrate to the u.s. to survive. They have always put in place the governments in Mexico that will follow their orders. The u.s. has armed and trained the militaries, police, and paramilitaries that massacre, rape, disappear, repress the oppressed people and their communities in Mexico. The u.s is the overseer in the misery people around the world suffer.

At the same time oppressed people in the u.s. are being killed, repressed, raped, exploited, and imprisoned. Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and all people of color, young, working class, homeless, undocumented, unemployed, women, queer, transgender people living in the “richest country” in the world suffer from third world conditions. Especially us in the South West region who suffer from colonialism and neo-colonialism (as do people in the South, and other regions of the us), because we are living on stolen land and our communities are being occupied by the police departments, the courts, the prison industrial complex, an the entire police state. The struggle in Mexico is similar to our struggle, and it is our revolution. We have a responsibility to do our part, to organize in our communities, build autonomy, self-determination, self-organization and the self-defense of our neighborhoods, our people, and ourselves. We have a responsibility to bring down u.s. imperialism. Oppressed and colonized people all around the world have a common enemy, the white supremacist-patriarchal-and imperialist system and those who maintain it.

Related Link: http://www.copwatchla.org
author by Richard Peninger - nonepublication date Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:00author email TellTheTruth at aol dot comauthor address TheUSIsHelpingManyMexicanPoorPeopleauthor phone 615-123-5678Report this post to the editors

I live in the US and work for the state. I can tell you that illegal aliens from Mexico and other parts south here get fantastic treatment. The people of the US AND THE GOVERNMENT help them get homes, educate their children, pay for medical care, home care, and childcare when the mothers have to work. Mexican poor people are FIRST IN LINE above indiginous Americans to get college loans and full grant money, plus food stamps. They get free medical care at the emergency rooms. Our hospitals, and schools are absolutely over-flooded with poor and working class Mexicans. The American people wanted to help them so they turned a blind eye to it. Now that the system is breaking down, some states are finally beginning to put some restrictions on benefits. The US has been great to Mexico, and there IS NO POLICE STATE HERE. Police are accountable to independant public boards and civil officials. You are just trying to make the poor people in Mexico hate Americans. You are COMMUNISTS, and you lie about America. I know first hand that we are doing everything possible to help poor Mexicans. The rich class in Mexico needs to create business opportunities to help the poor get jobs and prosper. Mexico is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources. Stop your communist plot to destroy America! We Americans do everything possible to help people in need and it is unjust. You are lying to poor people and making them angry so you can incite an unjust revolution. Why don't you try helping the people in Mexico get educations, build businesses, and prosper, instead of inciting riots? YOU MAY NOT ALTER OR EDIT THIS STATEMENT BUT MAY PUBLISH IT AS I HAVE WRITTEN IT.

author by Andrew - WSM - personal capacitypublication date Wed Sep 13, 2006 20:45author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Hi Richard,

The claim that 'illegal aliens from Mexico and other parts south here get fantastic treatment' seems a little odd as "According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 1,954 people died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between the years 1998-2004". In the 30 odd years of its existence in comparison the Berlin wall 'only' killed some 300 people, would you also consider that 'fantastic treatment' or is it better described as a crime? The death rate on the US 'wall' is 30 times greater than the death rate on the Berlin wall.

I'm not actually in the USA but in Ireland, a country that has also sent a huge number of 'illegal aliens' to the USA. Quite a few of my friends have been or are working in the USA illegally. But probably because they are white and arrive with a bit more money they did not have to risk their lives to get into the US in the first place.

When you suggest we are communists you are sort of right but that is not the reason we highlight the abuses of the US police or migration. We do so because the people you call 'illegal' are what we see as 'fellow workers'. And we don't like to see our fellow workers excluded or beaten simply because they were born on one side of a border and we on another.

But you will be pleased to know that as anarchist communists we don't just pick on the policy of the USA state but also that of all other states. As I mentioned I'm in Ireland and if you click on http://www.anarkismo.net/migrationracism/irelandbritain and look at the right hand column you will find a listing of similar articles we have published in relation to Ireland that make the same sort of points that this article make on the USA.

A final point.

The USA and these days Ireland are countries which contain a vast amount of wealth. But that wealth is very, very unevenly distributed with the top 1% holding most of it. There is more than enough wealth to pay for healthcare, education and housing for everyone and really that top 1% must snigger when someone like yourself is foolish enough to imagine that the problem is down to poor peoples need rather than rich peoples greed.

author by Prestonpublication date Sun Sep 24, 2006 05:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

In a country where people can be jailed without trial or being charged, where citizens die of hunger and lack of healthcare, where people do not always have access to adequete education, people will oppose the government. This is true in Mexico and the U.S. Communists do not lie, there are people who lie that are communists, but being a communist does not make someone a liar, if you believe that you have become a victim of propaganda.

Maybe the rich class in Mexico needs to create jobs, maybe the rich class in the U.S. does too, unfortunately the rich generally want to hold on to what they have, and obtain more. If the workers got paid what their work was worth, than these corporations would not make profits. The common people are all to often neglected, and they cannot be blamed for fighting their way from the poverty they are put in.

-Preston

author by Chipublication date Fri Nov 02, 2007 20:59author email chuckhallproductions at earthlink dot netauthor address author phone 8045555555Report this post to the editors

The fact is that we as americans, that pay our taxes, follow the laws, and work do not want our tax dollars to go to people who have not gone through the process of becoming a citizen of the the US. In Ireland you have traditions, Irish traditions. In America(USA) we have our own traditions that we would like all of the people that want to become citizens in our country to assimilate to. If they don't like it then don't come here. Its that simple. I want the people of Mexico to fight against their own governments not ours because we owe them nothing. Secondly, the wealth issue. Yeah, we have tons of money. Every week here in America we produce millionaires. Some of them last, some of them are stupid and blow all their money. Thats life. Why would I work my ass off just to give it to someone who may or may not deserve it? Let me be the judge of who gets my charity. There are less racial stigma than you think. We are an abrasive society. We say what we want because we don't give a shit. It doesn't mean that we hate a particular race or group of people. It means we use racial slurs to ensure maximum impact. Have you listened to any hip hop lately? I'm a hip hop producer so don't try to analyze me or the culture. In every society there will be racism. You cannot defeat it. You try to get past it and realize that people are people. You have to give them a chance to fix their own problems and even educate them on particulars that maybe they don't know about. Handouts create weak societies. Societies that don't have the backbone to work for themselves fail economically. You must create a hunger for competition and compassion in order to win in this world.

author by joepublication date Wed Dec 12, 2007 03:51author address author phone Report this post to the editors

You can not compare deaths from the Berlin wall to deaths from people crossing the United Stated border with Mexico. As a resident of the border with Mexico, I know first hand the conditions that exist in this area. Most of the border is uninproved scrub-type desert. Other than the Rio Grande are, there are many areas were there is no water to be found. This is in contrast to where there is a wall in a city. Plus the first point about them getting treated fantastically can not be rebuffed by discussing the people that die because they are in the middle of the wilderness. Simply looking at the social programs that the immigrants are able to gain access to with out being a citizen will prove that illegal immigrants are treated well.

author by Anarchopublication date Sat Mar 15, 2008 04:22author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Chi I don’t think you understand anarchism. Anarchism isn’t about taking your money away and giving it to someone else, unless you are living off of the labor of others. It is the bosses, the owners, and the politicians that are getting the handouts in our society. They sit in their office making decisions without any real first-hand knowledge of what they deciding about. To them it’s abstract. They don’t think about the people they hurt with their decisions, or about how all their wealth comes from the labor of others they just care about the money.

We want the people at the bottom to be in charge and all the bosses and politicians can find real jobs instead of being parasites. If you work somewhere it should belong to you and anyone else who is working with you, not some distant, impersonal corporate board of executives. And then the people in charge will not be corrupted by power, and many people will form voluntary associations between each other’s groups in order to help each other out for mutual benefit.

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