Mexican Federal Preventative Police are invading Oaxaca. Like, now.

[sabotabby]

Via nuncstans: The situation in Oaxaca has escalated. To say the least.

Anyone have updates? Suggestions for protest actions? (As we found out when we tried to deliver a letter of protest a few weeks ago, the Mexican consulate in Toronto keeps some very shitty hours.)

Related: IWW Resolution from earlier this month.

Comments

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

Surprise, surprise. It looked like this was going to happen earlier this month.

I'm not sure where other people stand on this since this is the FIRST mention I've seen of it on my friends list. For me, it's very disappointing that the protesters didn't move beyond their reformist orientation, but it's also not a bad sign that the Mexican state was so slow to send in troops. It's also heartening to see that these people weren't cowed by violence; better yet, they employed it themselves when they shot rockets at police helicopters and shot back at the cops. Good work

But in the end, "direct democracy" and radical gestures like armed confrontation and taking over radio stations don't count for anything so long as radical demands aren't being made. I won't get caught up in fawning over all kinds of organizational forms that are absolutely meaningless and harmless to capitalism so long as they're not posing a direct challenge to capitalism and the state. A clear enunciation of a communist platform by even a minority of workers outweighs tenfold the most perfect examples of direct democracy!

The other problem is that the uprising didn't really expand in a meaningful way. Sympathy and solidarity all over Mexico, to be sure, but where's another Oaxaca? Impossible to fault anyone for this, but it should stress the importance of revolutionaries' day to day activities: agitation and eduction.

[nuncstans.livejournal.com]

Via Zapagringo:

An electronic blockade against Mexican embassy and consulate websites. Just open it up and leave it open while you work on your computer, check out:

http://www.mountainrebel.net/oaxaca

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

How does this work? Bandwidth allotment? Server overload?

[nuncstans.livejournal.com]

honestly, i don't really know...

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

I think so. From reading the website I think it is an ambitious attempt to overload the servers of the mexican embassies in the US and Canada by reloading images from their sites over and over. They called it a "virtual reality sit-in". And sure enough, the mountainrebel site got overloaded before anything else!

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Yes it did! And here I was, thinking it had been taken over by zombies...

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Wait, is this related to the teachers' strike that made the news months ago?

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Yes. After teachers were shot, the union and various community organizations convened the "Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca". They managed to drive the local police out of the city in June, and it's been in an uneasy stand-off, with occasional attacks by PRI goons, for the last four months.

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

I've heard a report that activists in Milan have started a sit-in occupation of the Mexican consulate, in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca. I have not yet been able to find confirmation.

[jaymoh.livejournal.com]

yeah, I feel rather helpless. I'll look for actions around here...

Oh...

[jaymoh.livejournal.com]

Democracy Now! ic covering this. I haven't listened to it yet.

There's an action today at 4pm at the Mexican consulate. I will try to leave work early and go.