The following is an email I received from George Salzman :
Friends, I received from a teacher here, a good person who I’ll call X, the following heartfelt e-mail to various international human rights (derechos humanos) organizations:

Dear Sirs:

When almost all the human rights organizations interested in knowing the situation of human rights in my country are paying a lot of attention to the Oaxacan struggle to get a new democratic order in this poor southern Mexican state, not many of them are looking to the dismay situation that most Central American people traveling through Mexico …

The audio on this page was part of a special 12-hour New Year’s Day broadcast on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal. The shows combined are a look back at the resistance of local and global social justice movements in 2006, and a look ahead to the struggles to come in 2007.

In the audio player to the right you can listen to 16 of the 28 shows. If you want to listen to the rest, please head over to this page on the CKUT blog

Thanks to Jaggi for sending this out.

A …

THE WOMEN´S DEMANDS

On the 31st of August APPO´s Coordination of Women of Oaxaca (COMO 1st August) was formed. It raised that: “At present and due to the extreme poverty, the conditions for having so many children do not exist, in addition the struggle demands that we should be participating in other areas.”

On the basis of documents from the conference and what the women told us, we have assembled the following demands.

- Equal participation of women and men.
- Reclaim the Indigenous traditions, unless they undermine the human dignity of women.
- The right to land for Indigenous women: the majority …

By Sean Donahue, the Narcosphere — In southern Mexico they say “The Spanish were the invaders, but the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Jesuits were the conquerors.”

Those words echo through my mind as I look at the police encampment beside the Santo Domingo cathedral in the Zocalo, the historic center of the city of Oaxaca City, capitol of the state of Oaxaca.

The guide books speak without irony of the beauty of the city’s colonial architecture. Colonial is the operative word. The architecture is a triumphant monument to violent attempts to subjugate the Zapotec and Mixotec people of the …

DECEMBER 22nd URGENT ACTION FOR OAXACA

WHEN: DECEMBER 22nd 2006

WHAT: The EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has called for worldwide solidarity and demonstrations, in support of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) and to protest against the brutal police repression they continue to face.

WE DEMAND:
* The removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
and the Mexican Federal Preventative Police from Oaxaca City.
* The release of all political prisoners.
* Answers for those who have disappeared.
* A stop to government funded pirate radio station “La Ciudadana” that calls …

INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN OAXACA (OIDHO)
Saturday, November 11, 2006.

“And the old vulture lies in wait, high on his rock. He fixes his bloodshot eye on the advancing giant, still unaware of the causes of the insurrection. Tyrants don’t understand the right to rebellion.” (From Regeneración, September 10, 1910.)

Download the OIDHO Proposals as a pdf

en español: Propuestas para el Congreso Constitutivo de la APPO

THE NATIONAL AND STATE CONTEXT

Recent political events like the approval of the “Televisa law,” the vote fraud in the presidential election, and the refusal of the national Senate to declare the removal of …

The Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM) is a social and democratic organization formed by 26 indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, comprised of about 2,000 members. They follow libertarian and indigenous ways and customs. The CIPO-RFM is a grassroots movement whose members work in their communities in the defense of human rights, on communal projects and environmental conservation, and in the provision of basic social needs.

For updated reports on the current uprising in Oaxaca visit The Narco News Bulletin

Liberty, Justice, Autonomy: Building a Magonista Reality

“When the People Have the conscience That they are stronger
Than their rulers, There …

By Gloria Muñoz Ramírez, La Jornada
November 27, 2006

The popular movement of Oaxaca has gained ground and legitimacy in the world of resistance. It is no longer only the repression that has brought together activists, collectives, political, religious and human rights groups, people of the art community, and academic and cultural representatives of more than 20 countries, but the expression of an organized form of autonomy that has become, little by little, a referendum of political transformation spurred from below.

An act of repression instigated the creation of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) this past June, as well …

ASSEMBLY OF THE ZAPOTECO, MIXE AND CHINANTECO PEOPLES OF THE SIERRA JUÁREZ

GUELATAO DECLARATION

The municipal and communal authorities, representatives of community and regional organizations, citizen men and women from the communities and municipalites of San Miguel Cajonos, San Francisco Cajonos, Santa Cruz Yagavila, San Baltasar Yatzachi, Villa Hidalgo Yalalag, San Juan Analco, Calpulalpan de Méndez, San Juan Yetzecovi, San Juan Yalahui, San Juan Atepec, San Cristóbal Chichicaxtepec Mixe, San Juan Tabaá, Santa María Yavesía, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tanetze de Zaragoza, Asunción Cacalotepec Mixe, Villa Alta, Macuiltianguis, Ayutla Mixe, Tamazulapan Mixe, San Juan Teponaxtla, San Miguel Tiltepec, Guelatao de Juárez, Santa María …

It’s not usually my style to take on anything that ‘conservative people’ would say, but today I was introducing myself to the world of blogging and I stumbled upon the following the article that I really had to respond to. My commentary follows…

Monday, November 06, 2006
Oaxaca, Mexico: President Fox to crawl in gutter with APPO leadership

UPDATE!
Reforma now reports that presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar said this afternoon that President Fox would not be meeting with APPo leadership as had been announced by the office of the Secretary of the Interior. Aguilar said that Carlos Abascal, Secretary of the Interior, …