Sergio Beltran (Universidad de la
Tierra)
What is Now Activism?: The Case of
Oaxacan Society Uprising
In the last two years, with a very
diverse group of people, I have become involved in a process of experiencing,
reflecting and discussing the changes and shifts in the activism during the
last four decades. We have been unfolding new characteristics and definitions
of the human life flow, and the way personal and collective “moves” influence
the way societies are organized. The transformation is happening not only at
the visible layer of the “strategies” of protesting, but at deeper levels,
affecting the means and purposes of activists’ demands themselves.
In the middle of the 20th century, activists around the
world were protesting and demanding the recognition of civil and human rights
around the “civilized” countries”. They demanded the State and the rest of
society recognize equality among people living in the same country . . . even
at a “human” level. At the same time, the colonial countries (in the
traditional use of the concept) testify to the organization of the “radicals”
(labeled wrongly by the “experts”) in liberation and guerilla armies, fighting
for independence. After they succeeded (at least at some level) the
“strategies” of struggle and demonstration, as well as the means of the protest
switched in some degree. Recognized at the general level as the right to
“equality”, the demand was for the local power institutions of the State to
make the legal changes that allowed the people to effectively address their
rights. A few years later, the struggle was concentrated on demanding that the
“global” institutions draw the frames to contain the “local” governments and
societies. At that moment, activists and general societies felt the right to
protest and try to change any social, economic, environmental, gender, etc.,
injustice around the world.
Something that was shared by all
the activist and social movements described above, is the notion that power is
somehow held by “others”, out of the people’s hands. And that it was necessary
to demand that the “legitimate” holders of that power consider the ways they
were exercising power, in order to achieve people’s desire for the “way it
should be”.
In recent times, the western
“modern” conception of power has been changing. Increasingly around the world,
activists, social studies “professionals” and people in general have started to
believe that power is somehow in their own hands, that it is something that
depends on the individual and could be shared at the community and social
level. It is, in opposition to the
“modern” concept, under people’s control, and representative democracy has been
challenged. Diverse social movements and actions taken by activists around the
world are now exercising that “power” for social transformation with effective
actions for change. We are not “demanding” that someone else do the changes or
actions we want; we are not “waiting” for the “proper conditions” to live the
way we want. We are transforming our realities at the local level, without
abandoning the hope that this transformation could be a “good example” for others
to effectively transform the world we live in.
The Oaxacan case
The social uprising that has been
occurring in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, is a good example of the
transformation at the core of activists’ and social movements’ conceptions.
This is true not only at the strategy level or at the level of the means for
social transformation or the way we conceive power, but it is also a radical
change in the “typical” actors of social change.
On May 20, 2006, the local section
of the teacher union started a conventional strike to demand better work
conditions and an incremental increase in their salary levels. At the
beginning, ordinary people and social organizations were not paying attention
to them. Teachers sitting in the main plaza of the city was quite normal,
people were used to it. The strike happens every single year when the labor
contract of the teachers reaches a level of new negotiations. After an intense
media campaign against the teachers’ union, on June 14 the local government decided
to use the police for repression of the strike. What was considered by the rest
of Oaxacan society to be a “normal” labor strike, then catalyzed into a
questioning of Oaxaca’s government. All the social inconformity that was
isolated until that moment, all the struggles, unified against the governor.
In the days after the unsuccessful
attempt to “finish” the teachers protest, the strike was transformed into a
generalized social movement against the constituted powers. The labor and
economic demands of the union were put aside, and the general demand was the
dimition of the governor. The call reached society at all levels: social and
civil organizations, “alternative” political parties, communities, indigenous
movements and almost all the grassroots organizations and collectives. All of
these came together to “fight” together for the common purpose.
The demand that the “head” of the
government step down was just giving a frame for the real struggle. The real
reason for the people’s struggle is the effective transformation of the power
structure and the framing of new social “rules” for living together. People
discovered that effective power is held by all and they are using it to put
pressure on the constituted institutions to transform the way society has been
commonly “ruled” in Oaxaca.
The way this collective and popular
movement has decide to organize themselves is one of the key elements that made
me feel it is a good example of the way activism is NOW under transformation.
In order to coordinate and guarantee that very different efforts, demands and
social collectives (some who’d consider others the “enemy”) could work
together, Oaxacans decided to search their roots to find a way to ensure that
their actions could be effective, and at the same time, prevent majority groups
from imposing their vision and strategies on others. In indigenous communities,
they found the assembly structure for social dialogue and collective
decision-making . At the end of June, the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca
(APPO) (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) was born. The name
implicitly recognizes the plurality and multi-culturality of Oaxacan society.
At the beginning, urban “professional” analysts, were making fun of the idea
that a popular Assembly needed to be of the people. The use of the plural is a
recognition of the multiple differences between social and cultural groups,
that at the same time, recognize each other as equals.
The decision-making process is
“filtered” by using consensus as the only way to take decisions; the voting
model is only used to take minor decisions (the date or route of a
demonstration, but never the strategic importance of doing it or not; the use
of a word or another in a document, but never the content of it). The Assembly
model has open spaces of participation for social groups never listened to
before (like the women’s movement, youth, etc.). It has enabled otherwise
“antagonistic” groups to discuss and struggle together. In a session of the
Assembly, the Marxist/Leninist Communist party can testify on one side, and on
the other, the grassroots groups of the Catholic church. Both listen to the other side’s arguments and
express their own arguments and often, discover together that both are part of
what has been notoriously recognized in Oaxaca in recent days as The People.
During the last 7 months, the State
of Oaxaca constituted power has been effectively “neutralized” by peoples’
actions. The struggle has unmasked the idea that a society cannot exist without
strong governmental institutions. Peoples’ organizations at all levels have
substituted government actions that weren’t easy to imagine before. Some
examples could illuminate this. After 3 weeks with no one collecting the
garbage, several neighborhoods in the city of Oaxaca started to organize
themselves and now the parks of the city have benefited with several composts
and recycling projects have more clients than ever. At some corners of the
city, garbage was used as construction material for the barricades. Unfortunately,
those images were circulated (out of context) around the world by the
mainstream media, without any understanding of the deep meaning of both the
barricades and the use of the garbage.
Another amazing example of the
Assembly process is the way people deal with security. For ages, humanity was
told that police and government institutions were necessary for the sake of
peoples’ security. However, there was no police presence at all for four months
in the city of Oaxaca, as well as in several other parts of the state, and
there was not an increment of insecurity in the streets. An international
journalist was telling me one night, while we were visiting some barricades,
that she couldn’t imagine any other city in the world that has burned in fire
and wasn’t robbed after two days without police. Even though several thieves
were “arrested” by Assembly members, there was not an increase in delinquency
during the period that people controlled the streets. Nor was there any massive
attack to commerce like the ones that the mainstream media needed (and
sometimes even claimed) to increase their sales. The people organized night
barricades not to protect themselves from other people, but for protection
against the paramilitary attacks that plain clothed police officers (but using
official cars and guns) and governor supporters perpetrated at night against
the movement. The worst attack to formal commerce was not perpetrated by the
protesters. It was done the night the Federal Police took the plaza and moved
the people out. An owner of a newspaper stand declared to the media the next
morning that after 5 months of people controlling the plaza, his business had
never been attacked, but the night the Feds came in, they took all the
magazines and destroyed the stand. Even the mainstream media circulated this
story (all of them were recording the interview). So, in concern for security,
another mask fell down.
But the most notorious change that
the Oaxacan struggle has shown is the way different actors are participating in
this process. Different social groups have come together in an unique way,
trying to reach a new way of governance for the state of Oaxaca, and through
that, for the country. Non-violent actions (often brutally attacked by the
government) have been the strategy to bring together gigantic demonstrations,
where people from all over the state, from all different cultures, beliefs and
social sectors, came together to show the strength of The People, recognizing
diversity as the only way to reach unity. It is important to remember here,
that even though they had been historically and systematically ignored by
governmental institutions, the Oaxaca movement has followed all the legal ways
of demanding the removal of the governor and a new constitution, or at least,
radical changes to local laws. Government institutions have been scaling up the
conflict.
On August 1, the women actively
participating in the Assembly had a parade (literally, without women, this
movement wouldn’t made half of the actions it has made). After their protest (a
peaceful but very noisy march of the women around the city smashing pots and
other kitchen materials, which is becoming a popular action in Oaxaca), they
took the decision to “do something” against the local government TV channel’s
misinformation about the Assembly. They decided to march to the channel and
demand for an hour to broadcast their position. When they arrived, the manager
of the TV station (another woman) laughed at the hundreds of women sitting
outside her office and denied the petition. Then the channel was “taken” by the
women. They sent home all the staff, who first turned off the equipment to
prevent the women from broadcasting themselves. However, a few hours later, the
movement was broadcasting, giving voice to anyone who asked and increasing
their capacity to transfer information.
After almost a month of the TV in
the hands of the movement (plus the university radio and the teachers’ union
pirate radio) the violence imposed its logic. The government shot out their own
transmitter to remove the TV from the airways. The police action took place
around 3 in the morning and by
These are a few examples of the new
ways struggle is being born in