Oaxaca, Oaxaca - The rebellion is back. But this time its aim is to transcend Oaxaca and "become the embryo of a general insurrection in all of Mexico" and position itself in the international arena by means of trips abroad.
In June 2006, this movement first showed its face under the name of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), when then Governor Ulises Ruiz ordered the evacuation of the central plaza of Oaxaca that had been occupied by teachers of Section 22 of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers [CNTE], sparking a scenario of confrontations between police forces and the movement.
There were five long months of merciless war, barricades, rockets, blood and death. Now, seven years later, the APPO is taken out of the trunk of history and renamed the United Front for Social Struggle (Fulus).
In November 2012 the first contacts between 400 organizations were initiated with half a dozen unions and other groups and nongovernmental organizations. Its creators, who are teachers, peasants, indigenous and social activists, say they've learned their lesson, that Fulus now has structure and organization vast enough to attract more radical social movements in the country, including the ability to capture so-called guerrilla groups, as well as those of San Salvador Atenco, the #YoSoy 132 Movement and the SME [Mexican Electricians Union], among others.
Fulus's demands are varied, but all combine in one direction:
"to confront the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, its structural reforms such as in education, labor and energy; and his buddies in the misnamed Pact for Mexico, which ended up pulverizing the opposition."Within days the front will "be on the offensive", first boycotting the July elections in the state of Oaxaca, and the celebration of the Guelaguetza [a huge, highly profitable summer folk dance festival in the city of Oaxaca]. Later, its leaders say, they will trigger a series of protest actions at various points in the country to show "the muscle behind the re-founding of the APPO".
The Organizing Committee of Fulus is convinced that the creation of the National Gendarmerie has this movement and organization as its target.
"They won't encounter a letterhead, but a single force, very real, such that they will feel its weight and power when our community forces surround the Mexican state."These are the voices of the call to insurrection. Teachers, farmers and indigenous make up the leadership that restructured the APPO into Fulus. They include Gustavo Adolfo López Ortega, who in 2006 functioned as the quarterback of logistics and communication for APPO; Miguel Cruz, Luis Fernando Canché, Elena Lara, Roberto Jiménez García and César Martínez, all commissioned to talk to Milenio during one of the recesses of the meetings held at Section 22 headquarters of the Oaxaca teachers.
Gustavo Adolfo relates some of the names of the organizations that are preparing to reposition the APPO with its new face: Popular Revolutionary Front, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom, National Indigenous Front, the Popular Indigenous Council, Organization of Merchants with Consciousness, Comprehensive Front of Marginalized Communities, Colonia Alvaro Obregon, the Anti-Wind Farm group and "Ricardo Flores Magon" among others.
"[Fulus] is a referee. It is a large group whose decision-making is horizontal, without pre-determined leadership. The goal is to fulfill the call that [Zapatista Subcommander] Marcos once launched, 'everyone inside'. So the doors are left open to all, from the most moderate, those seeking dialogue and believing in parliamentarism, to guerrilla groups," said Gustavo Adolfo.He added that the Organizing Committee does not intend to sit down at a negotiating table or with
Governor Gabino Cué [of Oaxaca] or the Secretary of Government Relations [SEGOB], Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, but that each organization, as such, is entitled to pursue the path of dialogue to resolve their demands.
"We will not rush the pace, because the main objective is to give it a national, a general explosion, to convert this new national and international front in order to brew a widespread insurrection," he warned.Elena Lara relates that shortly they will begin a national and international tour to
"raise the awareness of the people, of Mexican society about the severe damage that there may be if Pemex [state oil company] is privatized and of continuing with structural reforms that will bring benefit to only 200,000 Mexicans.
"Our struggle is short, medium and long term," said Miguel Cruz, where "labor of an ant will have to be accomplished in order to articulate 'national discontent' that will serve to 'overthrow the current political system'," she explained.The Fulus currently relies on six committees: Organization, Press and Propaganda, Alliances, Finance, Political Orientation, and Security. Luis Fernando Canché explains that for the moment it is working in 37groups and in various regions of Oaxaca and in this work "we are finding a real strength for reorienting the bases."
"We are managing the articulation of a single side, a single front, which allows us to create the conditions to re-organize ourselves now, not only as resistance, but to go on the offensive with powerful social movements such as SME [electricians union], the miners of Cananea, among many others, in order to confront the Mexican state."The new leaders of this new face of rebellion have received notice that several initial criminal investigations would be directed against them and, subsequently, arrest warrants. No one is surprised and definitely, they are set to reinitiate "the summer of war" [2006].
Socrates Santiago Chiñas, secretary of Alliance and Social Administrator of the teachers union, explained that the determination to re-constitute the APPO as the United Front for Social Struggle, aims to have a large force of social mobilization to deal with attacks by state and federal governments. He clarified that the list of demands delivered to the government of Governor Cué is still pending.
He put forward that the short-term tasks will to support the struggle that the union has initiated to repeal the federal education reform and to achieve the release of the four teachers and an activist who were recently implicated in the kidnapping of the nephews of the President of the Oaxaca Business Coordinating Council, Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani.
He stated that the APPO
"was founded on June 17, 2006, in the context of the popular uprising against Ulises Ruiz, when 365 social, popular and union councils participated in its formation with a single demand: the exit of the murderous and evil governor of Oaxaca."Representatives of the National Union of Electricians, the Communist Party of Mexico and members of leftist social organizations from Guerrero and Chiapas attended the re-organization of the APPO. Spanish original