Invitation to the libertarian caravan for the peoples in resistance in the Isthmus of Oaxaca

Published on January 11, 2015 in Oaxaca ---- For autonomous, horizontal and anarchist 
struggle ---- To the autonomous and libertarian forces. ---- To the relatives of the 
disappeared from Ayotzinapa. ---- To the independent and community media. ---- And to all 
those who carry a new world in their hearts. ---- The accumulated rage in the unsettled 
hearts from the south of the territory dominated by the Mexican state knows how to move 
forward using an organizing process which takes horizontality as a way of life as its 
starting point. Self-determination has become an indispensable part of daily life for the 
peoples who know how to shout to the four winds of the injustices committed by domination 
and power; from the indigenous Zapotec rebellions, through the short-lived autonomous 
process of General Charis, up to the struggles in defense of the land, territory, 
territoriality and autonomy which at this precise moment are stronger and more vibrant 
than ever.

In Oaxaca, the struggle for autonomy has been dormant, expressing itself through the 
peoples? resistance, such as in the communities of the Isthmus region where the Binizaa 
and Ikoots people interlink. For more than three years, the megaproject they have tried to 
put into place on these lands, consisting of the installation of wind farms on the Santa 
Teresa Shoal, has triggered escalating conflicts and widespread repression.

Gui?xhi? Ro?- ?lvaro Obreg?n is one of the communities that has rejected the imposition of 
the wind farm. It is also one of the entrances to the Santa Teresa Shoal, which the 
capitalist firm Mare?a Renovables has sought access to in order to impose the wind farms. 
Since the beginning of this conflict, the community has learned how to advance from 
resistance to organization.

The struggle in ?lvaro Obreg?n began more than two years ago with the strike against 
paying high electricity rates, and gaining strength in the conflict against the wind 
farms. During this time, they succeeded in expelling the Mare?a Renovables company; in 
withstanding a confrontation with more than 500 state police who came to take down the 
barricade they maintained on the former estate of General Charis in order to allow free 
access for the company; after this came the need for self-defense, leading to the creation 
of the Binni Guiapa Guixi community police on February 9, 2013. The next step was the 
rejection of the political party system and the boycott of the July 2013 elections. This 
struggle led to the creation of the community council, the council of elders and the 
highest decision-making body, the general assembly. The local government offices remain 
under the control of the community assembly and up to now have served as bastions for the 
autonomous process.

It is in this context that we, as anarchist collectives and individuals, have joined this 
process.

Anarchism has walked in the hands of the peoples through historical processes and 
indigenous unrest. We feel close to these struggles in many respects, and there are many 
similarities that unite us: the way of relating to one another based on mutual aid as 
expressed in tequio, mano vuelta, gueza, etc. [forms of collective communal work and 
support], in the horizontality reflected in using the assembly as the highest expression 
of order (without majoritarianism, or political abuses, without prominent leaders, without 
doubletalk, without victimization or capitalizing on tragedies, but above all without a 
dynamic that tries to impose one way over all others), where comrades? voices are heard, 
valued and respected in order to resolve communal conflicts (not turning them into 
conflicts betweenen unions, persons or political platforms), but above all we are united 
on the basis of an anticapitalist life with autonomous ambitions without the need for the 
state and in a more harmonious relationship with nature.

As libertarian collectives we believe that many of the basic practices inherent in the 
daily life of the peoples are truly indispensable to collective life. As such, we have 
seen theory be surpassed by the oppositional practices we have tried to bring about hand 
in hand with the neighborhoods, communities, schools and in the street itself.

As anarchist collectives, we identify ourselves as a grouping to support and strengthen 
the autonomous process now being undertaken by the comrades from Ghi?xhi? Ro?- ?lvaro 
Obreg?n and San Dionisio del Mar, as we have walked together, as we have battled and stood 
together, as we have learned together how to build another path on the ruins of the 
electoral system, moving from the process of integration, to the community assembly, to 
the creation of the community police and the council of elders.

We Denounce

The path of autonomy is costly. It has not been easy to withstand the continually 
intensifying attacks, beginning with the attempt to take the peoples? territory, the clash 
with the state police, up to the internal battle with the group opposed to the assembly, 
led by Jorge Alonso, a paid agent of Sa?l Vicente, the Municipal President of Juchit?n.

The incongruity of the fake left, which at one point supported the community; the 
illusory, mediocre means of ?struggle? which involve a vicious cycle of marching, getting 
bussed in, rallying, encampment, dialogue and negotiation, have served to strengthen the 
discourse of the state, and used to accuse those comrades in struggle of being ?violent?, 
?wild? and ?closed-minded? for not wanting to negotiate and mediate with the state. This 
same discourse is that with which the hegemonic ?PRI? [Institutional Revolutionary Party] 
from 1982 defamed and reviled the nascent COCEI [Coalition of Workers, Farmers and 
Students of the Isthmus]. Yesterday?s accused are today?s inquisitors. At the national 
level, the scene repeats itself and we can see how our anarchist and masked comrades are 
accused of being ?infiltrators,? ?of being part of groups in service to the state? and of 
other meandering hogwash that has already been aptly dealt with by the Zapatista comrades 
in their statement ?On Ayotzinapa, the Festival, and Hysteria as a Method of Analysis and 
Guide for Action.?

We see that at this point, the negotiating, conciliatory and reformist left has worn the 
struggle down; that unscrupulous reformist organizations have capitalized on tragedy, 
selling and playing with the pain and rage of the relatives of the disappeared. These 
strategies in all their facets have served and will continue to serve in strengthening the 
state structure.

It seems incredible to us that 43 reasons have not been sufficient enough to channel rage 
against our true enemy, and that civil society has been so easily distracted by the 
progressive and passive morals imposed by the media bombardment about the anarchist, 
direct action and the mask which for us is a means of security and struggle. It is 
deplorable that 43 reasons have not been enough for the CNTE [National Coordinating Body 
of Education Workers] to stop begging the state, reaffirming its servile position of 
appeasement, of being the strongest strike-breaking arm that the state-capital has, in the 
form of Section 22 [the Oaxaca local of the SNTE-CNTE].

However, we embrace and join the intrinsic rage of the people, which has been expressed 
through a diversity of tactics, moving from a defensive position to one of active and 
direct solidarity.

For us, autonomy, solidarity and mutual aid go beyond the borders imposed by states. The 
offensive continues and the means of struggle are strengthened through worldwide networks, 
from the comrades in Greece claiming autonomy for the Exarchia neighborhood and supporting 
anarchist prisoners, moving on to the defense of the land and territory in France with the 
lamentable death of our comrade R?mi Fraisse, with Operation Pandora and the attacks on 
anarchist and autonomous processes by the Spanish State, or the latest aggression against 
the autonomous community of Ghi?xi? Ro?- ?lvaro Obreg?n by paramilitaries in the service 
of Jorge Alonso and the state police, about which the following alert was issued by the 
Community Assembly:

?Jorge Alonso Santiago?s group and a police unit from Juchit?n fired upon a community 
police patrol and the comrades who comprised it, creating a climate of tension, using the 
pretext of ?an alleged theft? in order to threaten us with the entry of the state and 
federal police? who for hours positioned themselves at the entrance to the community and 
which has left us on permanent alert.

Days before, the assembly of the community of San Dionisio del Mar, which is in the midst 
of an autonomy-building process, was attacked by more than 500 police in order to enforce 
the holding of elections for municipal president, elections that the assembly had 
boycotted on more than one occasion, keeping the community under siege for more than three 
days.

Invitation to the caravan

Given these events and in alignment with our solidarity actions to mutually strengthen 
both the communities in struggle and the autonomous and libertarian processes, we have 
decided to launch a libertarian caravan during the second week of January 2015 with the 
goal of supporting, sharing and coordinating among the autonomous efforts which have made 
themselves invaluable and that advance with strength and conviction thanks to the 
indigenous forms of understanding communal life.

For the multiplication of autonomous and libertarian efforts!

No comrade in prison is alone, no peoples in the struggle are alone, for the strengthening 
of solidarity networks!

For autonomous peoples? organization!

With rebellion we will defend autonomy!

Peace among peoples, long live anarchy!

From the combative and insurgent Isthmus

Collectives:

BARRO Negro [Black Clay]

Cruz Negra Anarquista de M?xico [Anarchist Black Cross of Mexico]

Bloque Aut?nomo de Conciencia Revolucionaria [Autonomous Bloc for Revolutionary Consciousness]

Centro Social Y Biblioteca libertaria ?Errico Malatesta? [Errico Malatesta Social Center 
and Libertarian Library]

Ungovernable Oaxaca, December 21 of the damned capitalist century

Translated by Scott Campbell

http://www.elenemigocomun.net/2015/01/libertarian-caravan-peoples-resistance/#more-11793