STOP THE MASSACRE AND THE SAVAGE REPRESSION
BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THE PAN AND THE PRI IN OAXACA
MOBILIZATION AND NATIONAL STRIKE IN SOLIDARITY
Yesterday, after a massive march against Ulises Ruiz, thousands of PFP troops, supported by the ministerial police and the death squads of the PRI paramilitaries, brutally attacked the militant comrades of the APPO, in what was the most violent day in these last six months of struggle. Our comrades in Oaxaca, who were laying siege to the PFP, were attacked with guns, tear gas, rocks and armoured vehicles, and the encampment at Santo Domingo was set on fire. A paramilitary group attacked from two station wagons, firing more than 100 rounds and murdering three comrades (carrying off the bodies of two of them). In addition, up until now more than 100 people have been arrested and dozens of people have disappeared. During the night, the armoured vehicles attacked anything that moved in the streets, making arrests left, right and centre, while URO’s murderers roamed around the city with their submachine guns. The PFP gangs entered hospitals in order to kidnap wounded comrades, but were prevented from doing so by the courageous defence by health workers.
According to the government and the PFP, the intention is “to re-establish order” by executing arrest warrants against members of the APPO, in what has been turned into a real witch-hunt characteristic of the methods used by the old PRI government in the 1960s and 1970s. Meanwhile, our comrades are trying to reorganize and are resisting the brutal offensive.
Thus, Fox’s government and the PRI are showing that they will try, through the most savage repression, to silence the heroic people of Oaxaca, who continue to be ready to struggle. There is a reactionary agreement between the PAN and the PRI, to liquidate this movement of struggle, to prevent it from becoming a point of reference for the workers, peasants and youth of the whole country (and for those sectors that are fighting in defence of their rights, like the sugarcane workers and workers in secondary education). With this repression they want to create the conditions for the new, submissive and pro-imperialist government of Calderón to be installed without problems on December 1, leaving the way open for deputies of the PRI and the PAN in the Congress of the Union to agree on plans against the masses. By avoiding the fall of the hated and repressive Ulises Ruiz as a result of popular resistance, they will then be able to agree on an institutional reshuffling that will keep the PRI in Oaxaca State and preserve the antidemocratic institutions.
Faced with these underhand tactics, the people of Oaxaca must resort to legitimate self-defence and reorganise themselves to respond to this wave of death and repression orchestrated by the Interior Department, the federal government, Calderón and the PRI.
Active solidarity in the streets is urgently needed throughout the country. Only the workers’ and people’s mobilization will halt the repression against the workers, peasants, indigenous peoples and students of Oaxaca. Bold and decisive mass actions cannot be postponed any longer. The big unions with hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the country must put into practice class solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Oaxaca. The leadership of the SME, the UNT, the miners’ union and the CNTE, at a national level, must now call a national strike to avert a bloodbath, with a set of demands that can unify the primary and urgent struggle against repression and in support of the demands of the APPO, with the demands of various sectors of workers against the government (like the struggle against increased prices for milk and gasoline and against privatizations). They must show that they are on the side of the workers and must hold back the brutal offensive against the people of Oaxaca.
In the same way, the unions, the ‘Other Campaign’, and the organizations of workers and the left, as well as the organizations in favour of democracy and all those who have recently demonstrated against repression (like the CND) must organize the mobilization against repression, with a big solidarity march and actions throughout the country, putting all our forces at the service of the fundamental task of defending the people of Oaxaca. Let us promote in a united manner a national plan for mobilization, headed by the unions and popular organizations, to halt this attack by beginning to form a National Coordinating Committee against Repression and in defence of the people of Oaxaca.
– Down with PFP repression and use of death squads against the people of Oaxaca!
– Repressive forces out of Oaxaca State!
– Ulises Ruiz must go!
– Drop all criminal charges against members of the APPO!
– Return of all the people who have disappeared!
– Immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners!
LIGA DE TRABAJADORES POR EL SOCIALISMO – CONTRACORRIENTE
LIGA DE UNIDAD SOCIALISTA
26/11/06
