Feminist Peace Network

The following statement and call to action is being circulated by the Global Women’s Strike . Please note that there were substantial formatting problems in the original, every effort has been made to correct them without changing the text itself:
WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD SUPPORT THE DEMANDS OF THE
WOMEN OF OAXACA

4 January 2007

In November the Global Women´s Strike met with women from Oaxaca, Mexico, and we committed ourselves to spreading information about their struggle, their demands, their leading participation in the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO)
Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, the great unity it has achieved and the harsh repression attempting to defeat it.

Your support is needed:

1. Sign and return this letter. We will forward it to
the authorities and themedia. Send protest emails and
faxes to the authorities.

(Please note that this was originally sent as an email. To sign the letter, it will be necessary to cut and paste into your email program.)

2. Donations. We are sending $1000 to the women of Oaxaca knowing that we can count on international support. We will send everything we collect.

To send a donation in US dollars make cheques payable to :

Global Women´s Strike
PO Box 11795
Philadelphia, PA 19101
USA;

In pound sterling to:

Global Women’s Strike
Crossroads Women’s Centre
230a Kentish Town Road
London NW5 2AB
England

In euros to:

Huelga Mundial de Mujeres
Centro Las Mujeres Cuentan
Radas 27 Local
08004 Barcelona
Spain

Or by bank transfer to:

Huelga Mundial de Mujeres Caixa Penedes
IBAN: ES94 2081 0249 50 3300003442.

Please write Oaxaca on the back of the cheque.

3. Circulate this information as widely as possible.

BACKGROUND

It is claimed that agriculture was born in Oaxaca (and
in a few other regions of the world).Its historical
has been given Humanity Cultural Heritage status.
Oaxaca is atourist city, expensive for its low income
inhabitants. The majority live in Indigenous
communities, poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of
the city(colonias), often headed by women whose
husbands or sons have emigrated toother states or to
the US in search of employment.

Oaxaca is one of the areas where Plan Puebla Panama a
huge road built for the multinationals as part of the
expansion of the free trade agreement between North
and Central America is being built despite the
opposition of Indigenous and ruralcommunities.

Injustices have accumulated for many years. In the
municipalities, the resources allocated to Indigenous
peoples for community development, never arrive. And
what arrives is tied to the political parties, or the
funds are diverted by the municipal presidents in
cohoot with state officers.

In 2004, Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz came to power
through electoral fraud and repression was
unleashed.Movement people who were Indigenous,
teachers and others were attacked, detained and even
disappeared. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz ´cleaned up´ the Zócalo
(the main square where the government buildings are
found), preventing Indigenous and other small vendors
from selling as they have always done.

A PEOPLE-TEACHERS STRUGGLE

On the 1st ofMay, International Workers Day, the
teachers unions (Section 22 of the SindicatoNacional
de Trabajadores - SNTE and the Coordinadora Nacional
de Trabajadoresde la Educación - CNTE) presented a
petition to the government. Instead of responding to
these demands, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz spent millions of
pesos on a media campaign which claimed that the
teachers had everything they needed.

On the 22nd of May, the teachers called a strike and a
people-teachers picket in the Zócalo,which was joined
by grassroots and Indigenous organizations. The
Indigenous communities lack all kinds of basic
services, and so had a series of economic demands
relating to infrastructure: drinking water,
electricity, roads,schools, health clinics. The
teachers demand better wages, the improvement of school
buildings, and resources for the students: free
breakfast, shoes,uniforms, books… The Mexican
constitution guarantees free education, yet mothers are
having to pay registration fees. They have joined the
teachers in defense of their own economic and social
demands.

On the 2nd of June, the first people-teachers
Mega-march was held. 100,000 people took part. On the
7th, a second Mega-march of 200,000 people put
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz on trial.

On the 14th of June, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz violently
evicted the picket without any concern for the women
and children on it. They killed some people,
asphyxiated children and pregnant women. The tear gas
and other chemicals caused women to miscarry
and children to be born ill, but people were too
frightened of the repression to report this.

Many people who had believed what the media was saying,
realized what was happening. From that moment the
demand that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz had to go became the
main demand ofthe movement which represents the
majority of the Oaxaca population.

In response to the criminal eviction of 14 June,
Indigenous communities, colonias and many other sectors
came out in defense of the teachers and in a few hours
regainedthe Zócalo. The movement called its 3rd
Mega-march and succeeded in reinstating the mass
picket.

Between the 17and 21 June the Popular Assembly of the
People of Oaxaca (APPO) was formed as amovement
independent of all political parties, with 365
organizations of different sectors, and on the 20th of
June a collective provisional leadership was chosen.

On the 22nd of June, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz called a march,
which the popular-teacher movement called the ´March of
Shame´ because many had been tricked into marching.
There were police, undercover cops, organizations of
the political party PRI brought infrom other states,
workers under threat of losing their jobs who
marched against their will, and Indigenous communities
who thought they were defending teachers and education.
Still, they were only able to mobilize 3 to
5,000 people.

APPO replied with a 4th Mega-march which brought more
than one million people to Oaxaca from eight regions of
the state. APPO was able to unite the different
sectorsof the movement. Indigenous and rural people
with students, teachers, social security workers,
telephonists and colonias. Nuns and priests have
joined in defence of the rights of those with least,
though the Catholic Church hierarchy hasbacked Ulises
Ruiz Ortiz.

The creation of APPO was a crucial step in the
consolidation of the movement. At first, men were the
majority of those elected to APPO’s leading
collective; only 7 were women. Then other sectors and
municipalities joined. And when the APPO
Women’s Coordination was formed 35 women joined the
leading collective, and at APPO´s first congress on
10-12 November, there was discussion about how many
delegates each sector should have and it was decided
that at least 30% of them should women.

On the 26 of July, APPO decided to take the three
powers of the State: government house andthe Secretary
of Finance, the Chamber of Deputies, and the penal
courts. Those who participated most in taking the
Secretary of Finance were the women: housewives from
the colonias, teachers, and women of all ages from
community organizations. They began to get to know each
other and they saw the need to have their own action.
For the teachers it was an opportunity to
participate directly because the unions work through
delegations and those who are not delegates remain
outside.

AUTONOMOUS WOMEN: HOUSEWIVES,INDIGENOUS, TEACHERS,
STUDENTS, RELIGIOUS, DOCTORS, COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS

On the 1st of August women called a great march, named
the Pots and Pans March, in which 20,000women and
children participated, including 15,000 teachers:
Indigenous, women from the colonias, from community
organizations such as CODEP, OIDHO, CODEDIXANICA,
CIPO, FPR, from the teachers unions, nurses, students
and Indigenous communities. They chanted: “Take it,
man, your wife is rising” and “When women move forward,
no man is left behind.”

The Pots and Pans March directed itself to the fourth
power the media and took over Channel 9 and the
state radio. About 350 women went in and the rest
surrounded the building to protect them. Nobody stopped
them. They asked the radio listeners for water, food
and people who could operate television cameras. In a
few hours they were able to broadcast. Channel 9 and
the radio which they named Radio Pots and Pans, were
at the service ofthe people, broadcasting discussions
between women, their demands, and on the 2nd of August
for the first time images of the repression which had
taken place onthe 14th of June.

The Pots andPans March began as a proposal of the
housewives of the colonias who had been
brought together by the community organizations like
CODEP (Comité de Defensa de losDerechos del Pueblo).
The colonias women are one of the most combative
sectors: mothers, grandmothers, wives, daughters, aunts
and sisters, women are the primary carers of the human
species and the first to struggle for justice
when their children, partners and relatives are victims
of repression. Before there had been no direct
communication between the women from the colonias and
the teachers, but now they had united and the colonias
women said: “I don’t care that my children lose school
because this is a lesson of struggle for life.”

This is not the first time that women have organized
autonomously. In 1995, the women from CODEP held the
first women congress wit the participation of various
Indigenousnations, and organized joint actions with
women from other organizations (OIDHO;CODEDI, FUDI),
for example the International Women’s Day march on the
8thof March 1997, the first statewide mobilization of
women. Now many women are part of the state council of
CODEP and of APPO, and they say that many of
the movement men didn’t accept this participation of
women on their own behalf, and so women’s autonomy was
dropped. Nevertheless on the 8th of March 2005 women
demonstrated in the street again and put forward their
demands as the women and as the people.

Now many womenare more determined than ever. The Pots
and Pans March and the occupation of Channel 9 created
a space for everyone: “The repression brought us
together; also the opportunity to change the situation.
On the 1st of August we undid our chains.This is our
moment.”

The autonomous actions of the women have changed the
relationship with the men: there is more respect, more
recognition of the fundamental role of women in the
struggle.

THE WOMEN´S DEMANDS

On the 31st of August APPO´s Coordination of Women of
Oaxaca (COMO 1st August) was formed. It raised that:
“At present and due to the extreme poverty,
the conditions for having so many children do not
exist, in addition the struggle demands that we should
be participating in other areas.”

On the basis of documents from the conference and what
the women told us, we have assembled the following
demand:

Equal participation of women and men.

Reclaim the Indigenous traditions, unless they undermine the human
dignity of women.

The right to land or Indigenous women: the majority do not own their homes because as
women they don’t inherit their land.

To struggle against violence: many are beaten by their husbands; many married whom their parents chose for them.
Literacy: many women over 40 years old don´t know how to read and write and don´t speak Spanish.

Compulsory teaching of the languages of the original cultures of the state of Oaxaca.

The formation of brigades to go to Indigenous communities, villages and colonias to let
people know about our experience of struggle.

To struggle against discrimination.

To struggle against the economic system. Women are the poorest, and to create an economy based on sustainable development.

No to losing your job because of pregnancy.

Abolition of provisional contracts.

Health services: many women die without having seen a doctor.

Decent housing.

And therefore:

1. Create communal kitchens for each colonia and each block.

2. Form food collectives.

3.Establish comprehensive education programmes.

4. Eradication of alcoholism and drug addiction.

5. Form cultural collectives thatenable the Indigenous communities to have cultural interchanges by means of workshops, training courses and forums.

6.Promote projects for production, with adequate economic support, in terms of tools and other material resources for their functioning that enable community development and economic independence of the peoples of our state.

7. Hold study groups about our roots.

8. Promote a massive literacy campaign.

9. Develop programmes for radio and television to broadcastorganizing experiences from one people to another.

10. Training on genderequity for boys and men.

11. Developa project to reclaim Indigenous languages.

12.Stop Channel 13 for two hours and inform people about what is really happening in this grassroots struggle.

13.Contact groups of women in other states to let them know about the problems that we face in this state.

14. Hold an Indigenous Women´s Forum for which the call will be in Indigenous languages.15. Open an email for COMO 1st August to let people know about our activities.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

On the 21st of August, the women were evicted from
Channel 9 and the repression hardened. Ex-president
Fox sent the military police (Preventive Federal
Police) to Oaxaca, to support Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in
spite of the rejection of the population, because they
don’t want Oaxaca to set an example for other states.
House raids are continuing and many people have been
disappearedand killed, among them Brad Will, an
Indymedia US journalist. A number of women have been
detained and tortured, raped by the police and the
paramilitaries.

In response to this latest attack, on the 19th of
November, hundreds of women marched to the Zócalo. They
protested the sexual assaults by holdings mirrors which
said: “I am a rapist, I am a murderer,” so the police
and military could see themselves. They were attacked
with gas and water cannons.

But they have not given up. On the 18th and 19th of
November in Mexico City, on the initiative of the women
and men of APPO, the Popular Assembly of the People of
Mexico (APPM) was formed to initiate a government of
the peoplefor the people. APPO explained to the
organizations present which had come from all over
Mexico, that the point of the assemblies is to return
to consensus, that each person gives their view and
commits themselves in front of everyone, if they don’t
keep their word it becomes clear who is committed and
who isn’t. Women highlighted their leading role in
taking over Channel 9 and in building the barricades,
and were warmly applauded.

The Global Women´s Strike in Mexico, England and
Venezuela were present at the formationof APPM. We
were applauded when we spoke about the struggle of the
Venezuelan people for the reelection of President
Chávez, and when on offering our support we commented:
“As women we want all our work of survival and care to
be recognized, from making the coffee to caring for the
children along with justice work in the movement where
women may be the majority, even tough we maynot be
visible. In a world that kills us with hunger and
bullets, the work of survival that we women do is
revolutionary. No one knows this better than Indigenous
women.”

On the 25th of November the 8th Mega-march took place.
In order to justify the most brutal repression, the
federal government in cohoot with Ulises Ruiz
Ortiz, got police, paramilitaries and PRI infiltrators
to set fire to buildings and cars, and to assault the
demonstrators. They have arrested 141 people,
among them 34 women who have been treated outrageously, their heads have been shaved. Many men and women are
still disappeared or in different prisons, especially
in Nayarit.

Another Mega-march took place on the 10th of December,
to demand the release of all those who are being held
arbitrarily and illegally, that all those who havebeen
disappeared be returned alive, and the cancellation of
the arrest warrants.

On the 22nd of December, APPO called for an open public
dialogue.

OTHER STRUGGLES IN THE MEXICAN CAPITAL

Many struggles are going on all over the country. We
only mention that during the months of mobilization in
Oaxaca, millions of people all over the country were
protestingthe electoral fraud committed by Felipe
Calderón and proclaiming that Andrés Manuel López
Obrador is the president elect. On the 20th
of November, the Global Women´s Strike was in the
Zócalo of México city when LópezObrador was proclaimed
president elect by hundreds of thousands of people.

JUSTICE AND FREEDOM FOR OUR SISTERSAND BROTHERS IN
OAXACA

Since August, according to information released by the
CNDH (human rights commission) and published inthe
paper La Jornada, 20 people have been assassinated,
349 are being held, among them 34 women, and 370 have
been wounded. And it is well known that many people
have disappeared. According to APPO´s 22 December
letter, since Ulises Ruiz Ortiz took power 71 people
have been murdered, 150 raped or tortured inother
ways, more than 100 disappeared, and more than 500
detained.

Together with our sisters in Oaxaca, we demand
open public dialogue. Justice for women and all our
loved ones. An end to rape and other torture. An end to
repression. All those who have been detained
or disappeared must be returned alive and released. Out
with Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Withdrawal of the Preventive
Federal Police. Implementation of APPO´s
populargovernment. Implementation of women’s demands.
Invest in caring not killing.

Support by signing this letter and sending it back to
us at: womenstrike8m@server101.com

huelgamundialdemujeres@terra.es

It will be circulated internationally and sent to the
women and men of APPO, and to the Mexican authorities
and consulates.

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