I was saddened to see that you included your personal (and inaccurate) assessment of a very complicated situation in a commentary read by thousands of people who don’t know any better.

In your commentary “Abductions of Civil Movement Leaders Continue in Oaxaca” you wrote:

“The question of who betrayed whom is, in my personal opinion, answered this way: Rueda betrayed the teachers, Section 22 betrayed the APPO. Not all teachers agree with the decisions made by Rueda, but no teacher assembly has been held since the vote to return to classes.”

You wrote the same thing in a posting to the OSAG list, which I assumed was written before the Narco News commentary was posted. I replied to the posting explaining why I disagreed with the claim. But I didn’t go into as much detail as I will nowŠ First let me clarify that you are of course entitled to your personal opinion, but when it goes out to thousands of readers, it has a different impact.

Rueda (and his handful of cronies in the Seccion 22 executive committe) sold out and betrayed the teachers. That much is clear. We don’t know what Rueda was offered, nor by whom. We don’t know if they threatened to throw his kids from a helicopter, or offered him a condo next door to Elba Esther Gordillo, or both. But his actions are indisputable evidence of his having been persuaded to betray the teachers and the movement.

However, that does not, in any way, prove that therefore the Seccion 22 betrayed the APPO. And here’s why...

1) Given that the teachers have not had an assembly, all statements made by Rueda are illegitimate. He cannot make statements about how teachers are, or aren’t, participating until those actions have been decided in a state assembly. He is only proving just how hard he has sold out when he makes sweeping statements about what the Seccion 22 will do, when there has been no state assembly to make those decisions.

2) The teachers haven’t had a state assembly since late October. They VERY MUCH want to have an assembly, and have been clamoring for one for weeks. The fact that they haven’t had an assembly is, in no way, an indication that they have betrayed the APPO. If they could have had an assembly, they would have done it by now. Here’s why they haven’tŠWhat happened this year had never happened to the Seccion 22 before. There was no blueprint. The timing and nature of Rueda’s betrayal essentially disintegrated the Seccion 22 structure. It happened at a time when a) teachers were being shot dead in barricades b) other teachers were on their third week of hunger strike in Mexico City c) teachers had gone for over 2 months without pay. Rueda’s illegitimate declaration, on national television, that teachers would go back to classes, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It caught the teachers at their weakest, most desperate moment. With all the divisions and infighting that already exist in the Seccion 22, that blow basically destroyed the Seccion’s structure and organization. And they have yet to recuperate.

Furthermore, in order to have a state assembly, it is required that at least 50% of the executive committee be present (there are about 120 teachers on the executive committee). Easily half of them “went” with Rueda. And they don’t want to show their faces in Oaxaca. (Teachers might lynch them if they did). If one took the time to understand Seccion 22 structure, and the conditions that have to be in place in order for the teachers to have a state assembly, one would understand why the teachers haven’t had an assembly since late October. And without a state assembly, the teachers cannot, as Seccion 22, make a decision as to their continued involvement in the movement. Therefore, they cannot possibly, as Seccion 22, have made a decision that would constitute betraying the movement. Essentially, without an assembly, teachers are left to determine their ongoing participation in the movement on an individual basis.

3) Teachers on an individual basis continue to participate. One might argue that they are small in numbers. That’s true. That’s because the majority of the 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca live far from Oaxaca city, and they are working. (The teachers who continue to participate are primarily from Valles Centrales and Sierra Norte...in other words, close by.) Are we going to accuse the campesinos, medics, obreros, etc. who live elsewhere in the state of betraying the APPO, just because they can’t leave their jobs and travel 10 hours to participate in mobilizations?

In many cases rural teachers made a commitment to community authorities that, come hell or high water, they would make sure their kids get a full school year, despite the months of strike. If those teachers begin to abandon their workplaces, ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, they are on their own. That’s the idea behind a strike...strength in numbers. Teachers who leave their workplaces, on an individual basis, could very likely face repression in the communities where they work (many of them already are); at the very least they will find themselves in a very difficult position when they do return to their communities. So you see the dilemma? With an executive committee that betrayed the movement, the teachers can’t have an assembly. Without an assembly, they can’t make a decision to go back out on strike in a unified way. Without a decision to go back out on strike in a unified way, the majority of Oaxaca’s teachers will be hard-pressed to leave their communities and come to Oaxaca city to visibly participate in mobilizations.

4) Nevertheless, teachers continue to meet, at the regional and district level, precisely to discuss how they can continue to participate in the movement despite their union structure having disintegrated. Even though I am no longer in Oaxaca, I remain in close contact with lots of teachers, from lots of different parts of Oaxaca, and the reports I get from them are that they are a) pulling their hair out in desperation over how to respond to Rueda’s illegitimate declarations and b) meeting with teachers from their district and region (and with non-teachers as wellŠparents, community authorities, etc) to find a way to continue organizing and mobilizing in their communities and regions.

5) There are 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca. You can’t possibly generalize about them and say “they” betrayed the movement. There are teachers in the Consejo Estatal of the APPO, risking their liberty and possibly their lives every time they attend a Consejo Estatal assembly. There are teachers in prison. Quite a number of the regional APPOs that were formed around the state in the last 6 months formed out of meetings initiated by teachers. Those teachers are now back in their communities where they organized those regional APPO’s. Do you think that, just because those teachers aren’t seen marching in the streets of Oaxaca city, they’ve betrayed the APPO? The taking over of palacios municipales in places like Tlaxiaco, Huautla de Jimenez, Juxtlahuaca, over the last six months, were organized in large part by teachers. Do you think the teachers in Huautla de Jimenez (12 hours from Oaxaca city) are sitting on their haunches, betraying the movement?

Although it may sound like it, I’m not defending the Seccion 22 as an institution. It’s a profoundly flawed union (although better than most unions in Mexico). The teachers’ movement is in crisis and has been for some time. I could go on and on about the contradictions, hypocrisies, and weaknesses of the Seccion 22. But one thing is the institution, and another thing is the rank-and-file base. And while some of those rank-and-file teachers are surely quite happy to be getting their paychecks and could give a rat’s ass about the APPO, their numbers do not constitute a majority and do not justify accusing all of Oaxaca’s teachers of betraying the APPO.

But what worries me most about the publishing of the statement that the Seccion 22 betrayed the APPO is that it plays right into the hands of the state, and the mainstream media, cause that’s the message they have been working on for months. I have TV recordings from August where media circle jerks like “Tercer Grado,” on Televisa, devoted an entire half-hour to talking about how nifty it would be if a wedge could be driven between the APPO and the Seccion 22; how that would surely be the beginning of the end of the APPO. And they have crammed that message down the public’s throat ever since. And now Narco News has done it too.

We all know that Oaxaca is living an extremely difficult moment right now. And it ain’t over. A lot of teachers are among those who are being hardest hit by the repression. And the teachers who are most committed to the struggle are the ones who are going to pay the highest price for Rueda’s betrayal. They are the ones who not only have to face repression for participating in the movement, but they will also have to face a public that believes they betrayed the movement. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Your commentary will be read by a lot of people who don’t have the background to make an educated decision about whether or not to believe the Seccion 22 betrayed the APPO. They will take it a face value. And I think that’s an injustice for the thousands of teachers who continue to participate.