OPEN LETTER OF THE FRACCIÓN TROTSKISTA –
For the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, EUROPE

TO THE EUROPEAN ORGANIZATIONS OF THE LEFT
AND TO THE MILITANT ORGANIZATIONS OF THE WORKING CLASS

AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE BARRICADE OF CINCO SEÑORES
AND THE SILENCING OF RADIO UNIVERSIDAD:

LET US ACTIVELY BUILD INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY WITH
OAXACA TO AVOID A NEW MASSACRE!

The dismantling of the famous barricade of Cinco Señores caused by the offensive of the repressive forces left the way clear for the PFP to enter the Universidad Benito Juárez with the purpose of silencing the voice of the resistance, Radio Universidad, once and for all.

With the elimination of what had been the strongest defence of the university bastion, and facing the danger of being raided by the repressive forces, Radio Universidad stopped broadcasting on Thursday, November 30 in the morning (Mexican time).

The situation in Oaxaca at a critical moment

This is the result of the terrible repression that swooped down on the workers’ and people’s movement after the 7th ‘Megamarch’ on November 25. In spite of popular resistance, the blow with which the repressive forces struck was severe.

The toll of that day was three dead, dozens of wounded and disappeared, not counting the arrests and a police-military repression against the leadership and activists of the APPO, which prevented the necessary massive reorganization of resistance, owing to the virtual secrecy forced on the militants of the Oaxaca Commune, as well as the avalanche of arrests, and the impunity with which the “caravans of death” of the paramilitaries are travelling throughout the city, catching every “suspicious person.” This climate of a virtual state of siege in the state capital and its outskirts forced the popular masses of Oaxaca, who until the 7th ‘Megamarch’ had been in the centre of politics and resistance, to retreat partially and handover territory.

At the same time, the absence of a decisive response on the national level by the working class and militant sectors, owing to the immobility of the trade union leaderships that did not come out with their force to help the people of Oaxaca, acting like that ,in the image and likeness of the sectors connected to López Obrador’s PRD, allowed the federal and state government to act with greater harshness in order to repress. In spite of everything, on Saturday, December2 – in the midst of police harassment – hundreds came out to march in various parts of the state.

This does not mean that Felipe Calderón, who is taking office, after the fraudulent elections of July 2, will not have to confront a national panorama marked by the discontent of the masses, big social polarization and the opposition of the centre-left PRD. The Mexican social and political climate is extremely uncertain, as the situation in Oaxaca showed for six months. It is not accidental that the new President named a representative of the most extreme right wing of his party, the PAN, which advocates harsh treatment against social movements, to head the Secretaría de la Gobernación (the interior ministry). Aiming a hard blow at the APPO, Fox’s government, before yielding power to his accomplice Calderón, managed to appear to shut down the open revolutionary situation in Oaxaca for weeks.

Today, the situation for the most active militants and those at risk (workers’ leaders, students, neighbourhood leaders and residents of Oaxaca) is very difficult. The troops of the repressive forces can arrest them at any moment. In recent weeks, organizations that defend human rights have charged that clear cases of abuse, torture and rape are taking place in the detention centres.

Outside of Mexico, in addition to keeping those who are following the evolution of the Oaxaca Commune informed, the task that faces us as militant internationalists is active and concrete struggle to defend the accomplishment of the people of Oaxaca with the purpose of avoiding a new massacre, as far as possible.

In spite of its limitations and weaknesses, the Oaxaca Commune, a virtual organ of workers’, teachers’, women’s, students’ and peasants’ power, showed for months how our class can exercise its social, political and military hegemony territorially. And it showed a counter-tendency and an alternative, against a future that, for the majority of Mexicans, is synonymous with hunger, destitution and imperialist oppression imposed through the Mexican regime of rule by alternating parties. This is the example that the federal and state government, with the complicit silence of foreign chancelleries, wants to efface.

Mexico is not only a semi-colony of the United States. To a lesser extent, it is a semi-colony of the European Union, the country’s second economic partner. The European multinationals play an important role in key sectors of the economy (in the tourism and service industries), contributing to the imperialist looting of a country of which Oaxaca is among the most impoverished regions.

In the eyes to millions of Mexicans, and beyond Mexico’s borders, in the eyes of exploited and oppressed people worldwide, the Oaxaca Commune represents an alternative, and so, in the moment of harshest repression against the APPO, we must not hesitate to solidarise with our class sisters and brothers, many of whom are youths, who are giving us a heroic and hopeful example, often paying for their thirst for justice with their lives or their freedom.

That is why, here in Europe, we must defend the APPO and the Oaxaca Commune, by creating support committees in order to build the broadest possible solidarity mobilizations, with resolutions of support, demonstrations, and concrete class solidarity actions. Starting with the organizations that call for international proletarian socialist revolution, we must demonstrate, along with all the democratic organizations, the militant unions, the groups and currents involved in international solidarity, that the Oaxaca Commune is not alone.

The EZLN has called for international solidarity actions on December 22.Nevertheless, the people of Oaxaca urgently need solidarity, starting from today forward, to defend their struggle and their more than 160detained comrades — we can not wait another day. For this reason we call on all the comrades and organizations in solidarity with the EZLN to intensify their solidarity with the comrades in Oaxaca. We also believe that it is fundamentally important that in this international solidarity movement the unions and workers’ organizations participate on the front lines. In Mexico, working class action together with the struggle of all the people can be decisive to free the detainees from prison. Likewise, strikes and working class mobilizations in Europe and the United States could be a great weapon for achieving this goal.

Let us not waste another minute:

– Form Oaxaca solidarity committees!
– Down with the repression by the PFP and the “caravans of death”
against the people of Oaxaca!
– Repressive forces out of Oaxaca, down with the military occupation!
– Ulises Ruiz get out!
– Drop all the charges against the militants and activists of the APPO!
– Return the disappeared alive!
– Immediate freedom for all political prisoners!
– Advance, with working class methods, all necessary actions of international solidarity to defend the heroic and glorious Oaxaca
Commune!

December 3, 2006

Trotskyist Faction – Europe

– Class against Class (Spain)
– International Strategy Magazine (Germany)
– International Strategy Notes (France)
– Trotskyist Notes (Italy)

The Trotskyist Faction of Europe is part of the Trotskyist Faction for the Fourth International, which also includes the PTS in Argentina, the LOR-CI in Bolivia, the LER-QI in Brazil, CCC in Chile, the LTS-CC in Mexico, and the JIR in Venezuela.