Teaching Rebellion
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teAcHINg rEbeLlion teAcHINg rEbeLlion Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca Edited by Diana Denham & C.A.S.A. Collective teAcHINg rEbeLlion Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca By Diana Denham and the C.A.S.A. Collective Copyright © 2008 Diana Denham and the C.A.S.A. Collective This edition copyright © 2008 PM Press All Rights Reserved Published by: PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org Cover photograph by Eleuterio García Layout and design by Diana Denham & Courtney Utt ISBN: 978-1-60486-032-0 Library Of Congress Control Number: 2008929100 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the USA on recycled paper. Table of Contents Maps .................................................10 Preface ..............................................12 Introduction ....................................24 Testimonies ELEUTERIO ...................................42 GUSTAVO .....................................152 The police attack and the teachers American journalist shot fight back: June 14, 2006 at the Calicanto barricade MARINITA ......................................54 HUGO ...........................................164 The people of Oaxaca fill Artist protests the invasion the streets in solidarity of the federal police SARA ................................................64 YESCKA .........................................182 Human rights abuses escalate Day of the Dead honors movement martyrs MARCOS .........................................74 SILVIA ............................................192 The Popular Assembly of the Peoples Students and neighbors at the barricade of Oaxaca—the APPO—is born defend of Radio Universidad LEYLA ..............................................84 PADRE ARIAS ...............................208 “This office has been seized!”: the APPO Priests in solidarity with the movement shuts down government buildings confront church hierarchies CUAUTLI ........................................98 CARMELINA.................................218 Community self-defense groups form: Indigenous organizer describes The topiles of the APPO struggle for autonomy EKATERINE ..................................108 PEDRO MATIAS ...........................232 Guelaguetza Popular, an indigenous Journalist suffers state repression festival reclaimed on November 25th GENOVEVA ..................................118 AURELIA .......................................248 Repression in the region of Loxicha Bystander, trapped in a city under siege, is violently arrested and abused TONIA ...........................................130 CARLOS ........................................262 The March of Pots and Pans: Long term organizer battles privatization Women take control of the media by multinational corporations FRANCISCO .................................142 JENNY ...........................................274 The movement responds to government Brad Will’s family comes to attacks community-controlled media Oaxaca demanding justice DAVID ...........................................288 Political prisoner challenges state repression and movement hierarchies DERWIN .......................................302 “The day they arrested my dad”: a child’s involvement in the movement ADÁN ............................................316 The people of Zaachila replace corrupt mayor with a popular assembly Conclusion .....................................330 The Other Campaign, APPO and the Left: Reclaiming an Alternative Teaching Rebellion Study Guide ...347 What can we learn from a movement? Chronology of the Popular Uprising .........................................356 Historic Context ............................366 Photography Credits .....................374 Glossary .........................................378 Acronyms .......................................381 Acknowledgements We are grateful to all of the people who have dared to imagine, defy, create and march under the banner of a more just Oaxaca. We are especially indebted to those who have shared with us their dreams and struggles so that we can share them with others through this book. For advice, questions, contacts and encouragement we thank Silvia Hernández Salinas, Gustavo Vilchis, Sergio Beltrán, Anabel López Sánchez, Sara Méndez, Diego Cruz Martínez, Jonathan Treat and Ilaria Gabbi. We thank Yakira Teitel and Peter Gelderloos for their extremely valuable revisions. Many thanks to the C.A.S.A. board and Anna-Reetta Korhonen, Kate Iris Hilburger, and Claire Urbanski for their contributions to a nascent collective in uncertain circumstances. We are especially grateful to Rights Action, Squat Elimäen- katu 15, Terrace F. Club, Glen Brown and Jeanie and Kate Benward, whose generous support made possible the book’s first printing. Thanks to Matt Burke and Gwen Meyer for help with photos, layout and printing ideas, and thanks to the Oaxaca Solidarity Network and Rebeca Jasso Aguilar for helping with transcriptions. We also want to express our appreciation of Doña Angelina for keeping us well-fed with tamales and for up-to-the-minute reports on neighborhood news and the radio’s latest broadcast- ing. Compiling this book has been a rare privilege, giving us the opportunity to hear stories of an exceptional moment in Oaxaca’s history, and allowing us to meet so many wonderful people along the way, many of whom we are unable to name in these brief acknowledgements. 7 Collaborators This book is the result of the collaboration of members of the C.A.S.A. Collectives. C.A.S.A. (Colectivos de Apoyo, Solidaridad y Acción or Collectives for Support, Solidarity and Action) are centers for solidarity work in Oaxaca and Chiapas, México. C.A.S.A. facilitates the work of international activists as human rights observers, independent journalists and volunteers for grassroots organizations. For more information, see www. casacollective.org. Editor Diana Denham Interviews, Transcriptions, Translations Diana Denham Chris Thomas Laura Böök Andrea Smith Gerlaine Kiamco Riccardo D’Emidio Patrick Lincoln Elizabeth O’Brien Kate Benward Silvia Hernández Layout Tim Gibbon Diana Denham Cover Design Tim Gibbon Cover Photo Eleuterio García See pages 372-375 for photo credits 9 Mexico Oaxaca State Oaxaca City Oaxaca City Center Teaching Rebellion 12 Preface By Diana Denham and Laura Böök It was July 2006, just one month after the police attack on striking teachers in Oaxaca, when we began to weave our way through the colorful plastic tarps that lined the streets. These makeshift tents sheltered a massive social movement that seemed to have formed almost overnight. The tens of thousands of people camped out in protest were reading newspapers, hold- ing meetings, updating each other on the latest events…and sewing. As far as we could tell, the face of the revolution was a sea of embroidering women, patiently awaiting the resigna- tion of their repressive governor. And we wondered, were these the urban guerrillas decried in the mainstream media? Despite the fact that armed attacks against protesters were organized by the government, it was movement participants who were constantly demonized as violent and menacing in state-run and commercial media. A group of international activists, human rights observ- ers, and volunteers for grassroots organizations, our collective hoped to learn as much as we could—from up close—about the uprising that had taken over a city and captured the attention of the nation. What we saw and lived would transform the way we understood movements for social justice in our own countries and connect us to the people of Oaxaca in ways we had never anticipated. As the movement took hold across the city and beyond, state brutality continued while tactics of organized civil dis- obedience intensified in response. The social movement began to seize government buildings and organize alternative systems of self-governance. By the end of the summer, Oaxacans began to raise barricades in neighborhoods all over the city to defend 15 Teaching Rebellion themselves against attacks organized by the government. Late one Saturday night, we were walking back to the house in the occupied city when we got our first taste of community based self-defense. A fire was lit on our street, and a woman with a flashlight checked all the cars that lined up to pass. We stopped to talk with our neighbors standing guard. While some of the barricades around the city were made of cars, buses, or large stones, the one on our street had a more homemade look: bricks, wooden crates, a broken washing machine, a cardboard cut-out of a cactus that looked like it belonged in a high school play, a plastic skull. Someone brought us coffee and we stayed for awhile chatting—in the midst of their stories and laughter, our neighbors told us that they were prepared to risk their lives for what they believed in. Radio Universidad was on in the background, playing music to keep up the spirits of the people at the barricades. When it was time to head home that night, eight women from the barricade, all armed with baseball bats, escorted us down the street to our house to ensure that we got there safely. Everyone could feel the tension rising. Glued to our radio during the entire month of October, we listened to the calls for peaceful resistance and reinforcement at the barricades under attack. At the end of October, there was an urgent knock at our door in the middle of the night; a friend arrived seeking refuge. He had been forced to run for his life when forty armed men in unmarked vehicles showed up and opened fire at