oaxaca

According to one of the millions and billions of statistical rankings by the European Union burocrats, the greeks are the most anti-americanists in Europe. I read this in a newspaper some years ago. Well, I'm not very proud of that, and of course I am against anti-americanism.

The matter is not what you are but the rate that you change and evolve; that is, what you do in order to become better, and always according to your current beliefs. Well, I happen to admire the people who managed to overcome as much as possible what they have been fed with since they were born. I mean, let's consider a person A leading a normal life and being brought up by people who have a critical attitude in their lives and tried to transmit this in the child. Let's consider another person B, who was brought up by people who stayed in front of the TV all the time making theirs the opinion of the TV producer. I kind of simplify things, but what I want to conclude to is that if these two persons have the same culture and mentality etc. when they reach the age of thirty years old, well then person B had to try more to do it, or, in other words, the rate of his change was bigger, don't you think?

I do not have a lot of doubts that the society in the US is a lot more puritan than in Europe. And I really admire the people who manage to overcome this characteristic of the society where they were born. Most of them seem also rather reformists to me, but still they did a lot more to achieve what they did.

A lot of theory and no action. I was inspired to write these things by the american cartoonist, Peter Kuper. Peter Kuper is a politically aware cartoonist. One year ago he moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, with his wife and daughter for a yearly stay. They stay 10 min from downtown Oaxaca and he reported about the other side of Oaxaca.

So what's up there? The conflict in Oaxaca lasts for over five months now. It started on May 22nd, after 70,000 teachers rose against the government, asking for raise in their poor salaries, increase of the quality of conditions at schools, and establishment of justice and education with dignity. After the violent suppression of the teachers on June 14th, over 350 social associations, indigenous people unions, syndicats, NGOs joined together to form APPO (Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca - Assembly of the people from Oaxaca), with the main request that the governor of the state of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, shall resign.

On October 27th, 4,500 federal police officers arrived to Oaxaca to dump the revolt and filled the streets with blood; helicopters fly above the city throwing chemicals. They attacked heavily armed the barricades on the streets of Oaxaca. The first victims were a teacher, a member of APPO, and Brad Will from IMC NY. This attack has cost more than fifteen deaths so far, the number of arrests is unknown.

The sixth commision of EZLN (Comisión Sexta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) made a call to all those taking part in the sixth Campainha to manifestate their solidarity to the people of Oaxaca, in every possible way, all over the world, asking for the resignment of Ulises Ruiz, his punishment and the punishment of all assassins payed to work for him. So far, there have been great manifestations in New York (11 arrests) and at least 13 other cities in the US, London, Barcelona, Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, São Paulo, Fortaleza.

source: IMC Mexico, IMC Athens, IMC global, EZLN