In The Wake of the Otra: Because We are all Prisoners

This may be the most important outcome of the Otra Campaña: a heightened sense of the necessity for collaboration, to achieve a united voice. Self-criticism, as well as harsh criticism of other groups, were put forth by several organizations, analyzing what happened during the campaign’s visit. The adherents to the La Otra Campaña as participating organizations include OIDHO (Organizaciones Indias por Los Derechos Humanos en Oaxaca), AMZ (Alianza Magonista Zapatista), CIPO-RFM (Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magon), CODEDI (Comisión Defensa Derechos Indigenas), Section XXII of the teachers union, UCIZONI (Unión de Comunidades Indigenas de Zona Istmeño); COMPA (Coordinador Oaxaca Magonista Popular Antineoliberal), plus a fluid additional alphabet soup of about sixty organizations large and small, reflecting the enormous diversity of  up-til-now isolated struggles in this impoverished state.

Some groups, such as OIDHO, forthrightly recognize the danger that La Otra will fail in Oaxaca as other Zapatista initiatives have, due to sectarian squabbling.

As Marcos advised, “In La Otra we are not friends, we are companions, and each group must speak to its own members, about its own things, and recognize its own errors and virtues”– then join forces to present a united front. Coming together is a process of overcoming sectarian rivalries and dissent. The first ray of hope is the rally around the autonomy struggle in San Blas Atempa, and the second is the campaign to free the prisoners.

When La Otra Campaña rolled into the state, rivalries resulted in efforts by smaller groups to torpedo a proposed meeting with prisoners in Ixcotel; to hold a massive rally in the Oaxaca City’s Guelaguetza auditorium – a favorite site for all the political parties– ; and to send partial and selected information to Delegate Zero regarding agreements supposedly achieved in the state coordination meetings.

The result was a mishmash of changed schedules, lack of accurate information which prevented participation, problems with security people, and disappointed attendees.

Harsh feelings resulted from the allegiance of groups and organizations such as UCIZONI to the PRD (Partido de la Revolucion Democratico) and the political campaign of Lopez Obrador. Criticisms were made of the sloppy security for Delegate Zero’s caravan, which at one point on the highway was stalled in the middle of a herd of moving animals. Coordination for who got to speak and who did not at the interminable meetings was not satisfactory. Even one of the sites for an appearance by Marcos came in for harsh criticism: the University of La Tierra, which is run by Gustavo Esteva. Universidad de La Tierra brings USA students, local people, and many visitors to meetings to discuss Zapatista philosophy, among other subjects. Esteva, who presents himself as a long-time ally of the Zapatistas, was denounced by OIDHO for his collaboration with former governor Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano in formulating the Indigenous Law of Oaxaca. That law served Carrasco as an excuse to gut the San Andres Accords, an unforgivable betrayal of the indigenous communities.

Nevertheless, hundreds of organizations, communities, collectives, and individuals from various parts of the state  attended La Otra Campaña meetings, including an infamous meeting which resulted in media-publicized variations about what did or didn’t happen in the Teachers hall, and elicited a conciliatory explanation from Marcos.

It was a very sizable mess: Oaxaca is at a boil, separate bubbles pop to the surface in town after town.

The Other Campaign’s passage resulted in some hard lessons among those who are already screwed by government repression: come together on what can be agreed upon, and cede on hard points for the benefit of all.

All the Oaxaca groups share a common history as fighters against poverty, repression, and bad government. Among the issues Oaxaca’s poor and indigenous face are loss of autonomy of various towns, interference by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and PRD, imposed caciques, police threats, repression by the state government, and disappearances of campesinos in opposition. Not to  mention theft of government funds after events like Hurricane Stan (five months later, the Isthmus has received nothing), or normal theft such as education resources which vanish into thin air between the senders and the supposed recipients.

The unending violence in February and March of this year alone involved such different Oaxaca towns as Juchitan (February14-16, twenty wounded, just one week after La Otra Camapña passed through. The dominant issue in the Isthmus is privatization of natural resources.), and San Blas Atempa (March 1, see Narconews). Similar battles to oust PRI-appointed mayors are common. On January 26 the Oaxaca municipal police shoved around a group from the city’s colonia Pueblo Nuevo when residents arrived at the municipal palace seeking an interview with the mayor because of longstanding failure to get street paving- i.e., it was a civic, not even a political protest. The brutal treatment on the doorstep of city government indicates that government violence is not limited to remote towns. Repression of dissent of any kind is a fact of life in Oaxaca.

The good news is that in a hands-on city follow-up to La Otra Campaña’s  visit, the indigenous teachers sector CMPIO (Coalición de Maestros y Promotores Indigenes de Oaxaca)  met on February 18 to formulate its plans to launch its part of the state-wide, national, and international campaign to free political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Each state in Mexico will have to defend their prisoners according to their own ideas and resources, and unite in response to Delegado Zero’s call for a common effort to pressure national and international forces.

A second follow-up meeting took place on March 4, with analysis of each groups’ strengths and weaknesses during the Zapatista visit, a discussion of how to approach the prisoner campaign, and an assignment of tasks. Each meeting was attended by about fifty people.

The call to action, full of irony and grief, is entitled Porque Todos Somos Presos: Because We Are All Prisoners.

When it comes to unity, when it comes to confronting the government corruption and repression as a unified force, Oaxaca’s a bitch. It remains to be seen if the Zapatista Otra Campaña sheds its grace on this rancorous, beleaguered state.