A solidarity caravan travelling to the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala in the Triqui Region of Oaxaca has been attacked by UBISORT paramilitaries. Two are confirmed dead, with at least 15 injured and three missing.
Oaxaca: Paramilitary attack leaves two dead and three disappeared
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
April 27, 2010
To the media
To the people of Mexico
To the people of the world
To the people of Oaxaca
Armed attack against the Caravan of Support and Solidarity with the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca
CONTEXT:
Yesterday the realization of this caravan to the Triqui region, inside of our state of Oaxaca, was announced to the media. In this caravan there are comrades from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), Section 22 of the teachers' union, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL), CACTUS, members of MULTI (Independent Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle), as well as international observer comrades.
As was already announced, the caravan left today, April 27, 2010, at approximately 11 AM from the city of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, with the goal of breaking the siege that the Autonomous Triqui Community finds itself in as a result of state and paramilitary repression against the process of autonomy which it is building inside this community. Violent paramilitary attacks have occurred at different moments during the autonomous process of San Juan Copala and have been directed by the paramilitary organization called UBISORT (Union for Social Well-Being in the Triqui Region) which in reality is presided over by Rufino Juárez Hernández and the MULT (Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle Movement.)
Before the departure of the caravan, the autonomous president of San Juan Copala, Jesús Martínez Flores, placed responsibility for any attack on Evencio Nicolás Martínez, Oaxaca State Attorney General, Jorge Franco Vargas "El Chucky", State Interior Minister, and Carlos Martínez, local PRI candidate for the state congress. Also, he urged UBISORT and MULT to behave responsibly and with earnestness towards the peace negotiations for the Triqui people.
EVENTS:
Approximately 100 kilometers before reaching La Sabana, the road was blocked with rocks, and that is where the cowardly armed attack began, by about 15 paramilitaries in the service of the murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz's government (the type of weapon is unknown), leaving vehicles destroyed, wounding a comrade, and leaving two people dead.
During the attack, some comrades escaped, hiding in the hill, and of those who don't know their way we are worried that they have been captured by the paramilitaries. Those comrades who as of now are disappeared are NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ, DAVID VENEGAS REYES, and DANIEL ARELLANO CHAVEZ, all of them members of VOCAL.
Regrettably, as information is coming in we know that two comrades lost their lives in this paramilitary attack; they are BEATRÍZ ALBERTA CARIÑO TRUJILLO, a member of CACTUS, and TYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA, an international observer comrade from Finland. Both died as a result of gunshots.
During the events, comrade MONICA CITLALI SANTIAGO ORTIZ was wounded in the back by a gunshot and was attended to by medics in Juxtlahuaca.
Those who stayed in the area of the shooting were taken from the vehicles and brought to the hill to be interrogated; some were threatened with death and later were released on the highway. Comrade RUBÉN VALENCIA NUÑEZ, a member of VOCAL, was detained by paramilitaries who took his I.D., his cell phone, and threatened him with death, then let him go.
An ambulance came to the site of the events to attend to the wounded, but was also cowardly shot at by the paramilitaries, which forced it to leave. While they were leaving, they found a wounded comrade who they attended to, and to whom they confirmed the death of the comrades previously mentioned.
As a result of the confusion and uncertainty of the events, the location of the previously mentioned comrades is unknown, as is their physical and psychological condition.
WE ENERGETICALLY DENOUNCE:
That this armed attack is a product of the conditions of institutional violence and impunity that paramilitary groups enjoy in this region of our state. Institutional violence directed at the different manifestations of social struggle in Oaxaca, and specifically against the construction of autonomous processes.
This attack occurred in the context of the isolation and state of siege that the municipality of San Juan Copala lives under, where since January the children have not had classes, where the community does not have electricity, potable water, doctors, and lives under permanent paramilitary harassment as a result of the blockade they have established there.
WE DEMAND:
That the murderer Ulises Ruiz's government end the paramilitary attacks in the Triqui region. As well, that he end the financing, arming and impunity that these paramilitary groups enjoy in our state.
The immediate return of our disappeared comrades.
WE CALL:
To the people of Oaxaca, of Mexico, to the international community and the different social organizations, collectives, and groups, to visibly show your solidarity and support with the demand for the return, alive, of our disappeared brothers and for the punishing of those responsible. Also, we fraternally call on you to demand an end to the violent conditions facing the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala.
The live return of the disappeared comrades!
Punishment for the murderers of our comrades!
End the attacks on the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala!
End the paramilitary blockade that encircles this autonomous Triqui community!
Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom
(VOCAL)
Comments
conflicting reports coming
conflicting reports coming in, some say 2 deaths, others say 5
Supposedly Police trying to get to the area are unable to because of being fired on by UBISORT paramilitaries. this might be bullshit as i dont expect they're to concerned about this.....except poassible international issues after killing a foreign national. though didnt seem to worried about brad will either......
——————- URGENT: The
——————-
URGENT: The solidarity caravan that was en route to the Autonomous Municipality San Juan Copala in the Triqui region, which was made up of international observers, members of CACTUS, VOCAL, Section 22 of the teachers union, the the APPO, was attacked with firearms in the La Sabana community, which is controled by the organization Unidad de Bienestar Social de la Region Triqui (UBISORT). This organization is impeding the rescue of the wounded. Reports indicate that there are at least 15 wounded, it is unknown if there are any deaths. It is reported that Alberta Cariño, director of CACTUS, is disappeared. We fear that this action constitutes a provocation that could be used to justify the militarization of the Triqui region.
Requested Action
Call the Government of Oaxaca and demand that the necessary conditions be established so that the State Police and rescue teams can rescue them and provide them with medical attention.
Governor of Oaxaca
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Tel. 5015000 ext. 13005
Fax. 5015000 ext. 13018
Background info:
Original post:
There is an extremely tragic and urgent situation developing in Oaxaca. On Tuesday afternoon a caravan of between 40 and 100 people was ambushed in an armed attack by paramilitaries.
The solidarity caravan is made up of VOCAL (an anti-authoritarian group), CACTUS (a community radio group), SNTE Section 22 (the Oaxacan teachers union), members of the APPO, and international solidarity activists from Finland, Italy, Belgium and Germany.
They were heading to break the siege of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, a Triqui town of around 700 people in eastern Oaxaca near the border with Guerrero. During the Oaxaca uprising in 2006, the town declared itself autonomous and has fought to maintain its autonomy ever since. In response, the Oaxaca state government, ruled by the PRI, has been funding two paramilitary organizations, MULT and UBISORT. These groups have been carrying out numerous assassinations against individuals and members of MULT-I (not to be confused with MULT), a group which supports the San Juan Copala's autonomy.
On April 17, after assassinating teacher and activist José Celestino Hernández Cruz, UBISORT installed a blockade around the town and cut off the electricity and water. The municipality then called for a solidarity caravan to break the siege. That caravan left this morning and was attacked by UBISORT paramilitaries outside of San Juan Copala in the town of La Sabana.
The human rights groups Nodo de Derechos Humanos states that 15 people have been wounded and the director of CACTUS, Alberta Cariño has been disappeared. The blog Oaxaca en Pie de Lucha states that reliable sources have told them that one woman brought to the hospital to be treated says there were two bodies brought with her.
Nodo de Derechos Humanos also said that UBISORT was preventing the evacuation of the wounded and that the state police refused to intervene because they had not been ordered to by the governor. Oaxaca en Pie de Lucha now states press reports claim that the police have been sent to the area.
I will try to keep this updated, but also check out El Enemigo Común and My Word is My Weapon, where much of this information comes from. If you speak Spanish, Oaxaca en Pie de Lucha is updating frequently.
Most of this info from angrywhitekid.blogs.com
text in Spanish of various
text in Spanish of various organisations' response to the attacks. Includes that of Section 22 of the Teachers' Union and the Spanish CGT Union
Sección XXII del SNTE repudia agresión contra Caravana
Ante los hechos ocurridos esta tarde en el municipio autónomo de San Juan Copala , donde resulta herida de bala Mónica Citlalli Santiago Ortiz y trasladada a la clínica del IMSS de Juxtlahuaca, la Sección 22, Repudia enérgicamente tales hechos y las agresiones contra las organizaciones que participaban en la caravana motorizada que iba con el firme propósito de apoyar a una más de las comunidades de nuestro estado y lograr que las condiciones de desarrollo en el aspecto educativo fueran las mejores.
En la asamblea estatal del 24 de abril el magisterio oaxaqueño resolvió respaldar a las organizaciones de ayuda humanitaria que se trasladarían hasta este municipio, para coadyuvar en el restablecimiento de la estabilidad, contribuir en la defensa de las garantías individuales, y observar las condiciones para el restablecimiento del servicio educativo que desde hace 4 meses están suspendidas por la situación que prevalece en la zona y garantizar la seguridad de los compañeros trabajadores de la educación.
El movimiento Magisterial de la sección 22, responsabiliza al gobierno estatal de las agresiones y hechos violentos contra la caravana a través de grupos encargados de desestabilizar la zona Triqui generando un escenario de sometimiento.
Por lo anterior la Sección 22 de Oaxaca exige: Castigo a los responsables por los hechos tan lamentables
La presentación con vida de los compañeros desaparecidos
El total respeto al proceso de Dialogo y paz de esta zona Triqui.
Salida pacífica Civilizada a los problemas internos entre habitantes de estas comunidades
El restablecimiento de la tranquilidad y paz social en la región
Informacion de PRENSA Y PROPAGANDA de la sección 22-Oaxaca
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CGT ante el ataque paramilitar en San Juan Copala, Estado de Oaxaca, México
Desde la Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) del Estado Español queremos mostrar nuestra más enérgica repulsa por el asesinato de Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo , integrante de CACTUS y Jyri Antero Jaakkola , compañero observador internacional originario de Finlandia, por la desaparición hasta el momento de los compañeros Noe Bautista Jimenez, David Venegas, la reportera Érika Ramírez y el fotógrafo David Cilia, de la revista Contralínea, y por el elevado número de heridos . De momento este podría ser el saldo tras las agresiones realizadas por los paramilitares a los habitantes del Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, en el estado mexicano de Oaxaca, aunque según diversas fuentes podríamos estar hablando de 5 personas muertas y más de 22 desaparecidas.
Desde hace meses los paramilitares mantienen al citado Municipio Autónomo en estado de sitio, resultando imposible el desarrollo normal de la vida, pues no hay luz eléctrica, ni agua, ni médico, las clases están suspendidas desde enero y las mujeres son acosadas cuando salen a buscar agua y comida por los paramilitares que forman un retén permanente en la comunidad.
Debido a esta situación se puso en marcha una Caravana de Solidaridad en la que participan observadores internacionales, integrantes del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS), de Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad (VOCAL), de la Sección 22 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Enseñanza (SNTE), de la APPO y del Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui- Independiente (MULTI). El objetivo era brindar un apoyo activo a la autoorganización del Municipio Autónomo, detener cualquier tipo de agresión, romper el cerco mediático y documentar la situación.
Es en este contexto y ante la iniciativa pacífica promovida por organizaciones sociales y populares , en forma de Caravana Solidaria, cuyo objetivo es defender los derechos como pueblos indígenas, donde se produce una respuesta bélica, que a través de grupos paramilitares respaldados por los poderes gubernamentales ha provocado, de momento, el lamentable resultado descrito anteriormente.
Por todo lo expuesto anteriormente desde la Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) del Estado Español consideramos responsable de los hechos sucedidos al gobierno de Ulises Ruiz Ortiz por fomentar las disputas entre la población y permitir a los grupos paramilitares hacer uso de la violencia. Y le exigimos a ese mismo gobierno el cese de los ataques paramilitares en la región Triqui.
Presentación con vida de los compañeros desaparecidos
Castigo a los asesinos
Fuera paramilitares del Municipio Autónomo San Juan Copala
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El FPDT condena la agresión a Caravana humanitaria en San Juan Copala
Como Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra condenamos enérgícamente la cobarde agresión de la que fueron víctimas diversos compañeros que se dirigían hacia el pueblo triqui de San Juan Copala en Oaxaca, estaremos pendientes de la información que se vaya generando, lamentamos las muertes de compañeros que según reportes de medios alternativos fallecieron en el lugar a consecuencia de la emboscada que fueron objeto.
Exigimos la presentación con vida de las personas que se encuentran desaparecidas, exigimos también como FDPT el repliegue de las fuerzas represoras, que se ayude en la atención a los heridos que hasta este momento se encuentran en el lugar de dicha emboscada.
Recordamos que meses atras durante la visita del FPDT a dicho municipio durante la gira "12 presos 12 estados" no se pudo llegar a dicho lugar por las amenazas de agresión hacia el Frente, esperamos que haya una solución pacifica y que el Gobierno de Oaxaca se responsabilice de dicho acto.
Desde aquí nuestra solidaridad y apoyo a las organizaciones y compañeros victimas de este ataque cobarde, seguiremos al tanto de la información más reciente. Compartimos la alerta para que sea difundida en más medios, blogs y organizaciones sociales.
ACCION URGENTE
· Sufre emboscada la caravana que se dirigía a la Agencia Municipal de San Juan Cópala, Oaxaca. hay muertos y heridos.
El día de hoy 27 de abril de 2010 salió de Huajuapan de León la Caravana de Observadores Internacionales de Derechos Humanos venidos de Europa:(Finlandia, Italia, Bélgica y Alemania) acompañados de integrantes del colectivo VOCAL; integrantes de Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos,(CACTUS), de la Red de Radios y Comunicadores Indígenas del Sureste Mexicano, Maestros/as de la Sección 22 y algunos concejales de la APPO. Se trasladaban en 3 camionetas para dar cobertura a los maestros que regresan a impartir clases en este municipio. Además, fueron a documentar las violaciones a los derechos humanos que sufren las comunidades indígenas Triquis.
Según información preliminar, sufrieron una emboscada en el lugar denominado “La Sabana”, un pueblo antes de llegar a San Juan Cópala. De acuerdo al informante hay muertos y heridos de gravedad pero se desconoce la cantidad y los nombres de los defensores víctimas de este atentado.
Ante estos hechos de violación EXIGIMOS.
AL GOBIERNO FEDERAL:
1. Información sobre los hechos ocurridos el día de hoy donde se presume la emboscada en contra de observadores internacionales y nacionales.
2. Garantizar la salida y atención de los heridos, que aún se encuentran en el lugar de a emboscada.
3. Actuar de manera inmediata para atender de fondo la violencia que viven las comunidades Triquis.
4. Su inmediata intervención en la investigación de los hechos violentos suscitados el día de hoy y la pronta reparar del daño conforme a los principios internacionales de derechos humanos.
5. Garantizar la protección de Defensores/as de Derechos Humanos.
6. Asumir su responsabilidad al no aplicar los mecanismos adecuados para los defensores/as que se ven obligados a intervenir en situaciones de riesgo para cumplir con su labor.
DENUNCIAMOS:
Ø Al Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca por su nula intervención para garantizar la seguridad de las personas y defensores de derechos humanos que iban en la caravana de observación de derechos humanos a la Agencia de San Juan Cópala.
Ø A las instituciones estatales de Procuración de Justicia por su negligencia y aplicación de la justicia ante los hechos violentos que vive la comunidad indígena Triqui.
SOLICITAMOS A LAS ORGANIZACIONES SOCIALES, CIVILES, DE DERECHOS HUMANOS NACIONALES E INTERNACIONALES.
Enviar cartas a:
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Lic. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos, Casa Miguel Alemán, Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF. Tel: +52 55 27891100; Fax: +52 55 527 72 376. E-mail: [email protected]
Secretario General de Gobernación.
Lic. Fernando Gomez Mont.
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06600, México, FAX +52 (55) 5093 34 14. Email: [email protected]
Licenciado Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Procurador General de la República,
Procuraduría General de la República, Paseo de la Reforma nº 211-213, Piso 16, Col. Cuauhtémoc, Del. Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06500, Fax: +52 55 53 46 09 08; + 52 55 27 89 11 13 (si responde una voz, digan: "tono de fax, por favor"), Correo Electrónico: [email protected] / [email protected]
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Dr. Raúl Plascencia Villanueva.
Lic. Mauricio E. Montes de Oca Durán,
Unidad para la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos SEGOB, Av. Paseo de la Reforma 99 Piso 19 Tabacalera, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal, 06030, Tel: (55) 51-28-00 Ext: 11863, Email: [email protected]
Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos en México.
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CACTUS: Ataque paramilitar a la Caravana de Paz en el Municipio de San Juan Copala
Huajuapan de Leon Oaxaca a 27 de Abril del 2010
El dia de hoy, martes 27 de Abril partió hacia el Municipio Autónomo de San juan Copala una caravana de observación de derechos humanos; integrada por observadores nacionales e internacionales. Dicha comisión partió alrededor de las 13 horas, el objetivo de la caravana era el cese al hostigamiento, represión y asesinato de que son víctimas los y las integrantes del Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, además de llevar víveres. ya que la comunidad fue cercada, sin contar con el derecho a la alimentación; al libre tránsito, todo esto es resultado de un política represora que ejerce el gobierno del estado; a través de su grupo paramilitar denominado Unidad de Bienestar social de la región Triqui (Ubisort).
El gobierno estatal ha hecho caso omiso de las denuncias que se han hecho sobre lo que acontece en la región triqui.
Sin embargo, hoy esta caravana que partió con este firme propósito fue recibida a balazos por el grupo paramilitar UBISORT en el centro de la población denominada la Sabana. Los resultados de este terrible y condenable ataque sobre la caravana aun son incuantificables. Se nos ha informado que Mónica Santiago procedente de la ciudad de Oaxaca se encuentra hospitalizada en Juxtlahuaca, de la misma manera lamentamos informar que al parecer nuestra compañera Bety Cariño se encuentra herida, en el lugar de los hechos. EL ataque fue perpretado alrededor de las 14: 30 horas.
Hasta este momento no estamos seguros sobre la integridad física y psicológica de nuestra compañera, ni de los demás participantes en la caravana.
Es por ello que responsabilizamos al C. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, a la Unidad de Bienestar Social de la Región Triqui (UBISORT) y quien resulte responsable de tan terribles actos.
Exigimos que el gobierno del estado, a través de la Policía Estatal entre a la zona para poder saber en que estado se encuentra nuestra compañera Bety Cariño y demás participantes de la caravana.
Alto a la represión contra el Municipio Autónomo
Respeto a los Derechos y Cultura Indígena.
Rescate y presentación de todos y todas las participantes de la caravana.
ATT:
Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos; CACTUS
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El COL.LECTIU ZAPATISTA "EL CARAGOL" de València (Estado Español) CONDENA el atentado armado sufrido el 27 de abril, contra la caravana de Apoyo y Solidaridad con el Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, Oaxaca.
El Col.lectiu Zapatista "El Caragol" de València (Estado Español) CONDENA enérgicamente el atentado paramilitar contra la caravana de solidaridad con el municipio autónomo de San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, en el que han asesinado a BEATRÌZ ALBERTA CARIÑO TRUJILLO integrante de CACTUS y TYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA, observador internacional finlandés. A estas muertes, y según otras fuentes radicadas en la zona, el número de asesinadxs ascendería a cinco.
Asimismo, el número de desaparecidos, según las fuentes, estaría entre 8 y 22.
Desde el Col.lectiu "el Caragol":
Responsabilizamos de este atentado a las fuerzas paramilitares apoyadas por las estructuras gubernamentales del estado de Oaxaca, así como al gobierno federal que invisibiliza la represión a la que están sometidos los municipios autónomos indígenas, así como todo el movimiento nacional e internacional que los acompañan.
Lamentablemente este ataque no es aislado, sino que forma parte de todo el ciclo de violencia estructural y guerra "preventiva" implementada por el estado mexicano contra la lucha de los pueblos indígenas por su autogobierno, y por tanto, por poder gestionar el territorio que habitan.
Nos solidarizamos con los y las compañeras de Oaxaca que han visto atacada su acción de solidaridad con el municipio autónoma de Copala. Así mismo, acompañamos el dolor por la muerte de la compañera Bety de CACTUs ,así como el compañero anarquista Finlandés, Tyri Jaakola.
Solicitamos la aparición con vida de todxs lxs desaparecidos así como el castigo de los responsables materiales e intelectuales de la brutal agresión aramada. Asimismo, avisamos que desde aquí seguiremos luchando contra la impunidad y por la autodeterminación de los pueblos indígenas de OAXACA.
Col.lectiu Zapatista "El Caragol" de València (Estado Español)
At a rally Tuesday evening in
At a rally Tuesday evening in the city of Oaxaca, the head of the teachers' union, Azael Santiago Chepi, called on the federal government to step in to determine what happened and for the ten people reported disappeared to be released alive. He also placed responsibility for the ambush on the government. Another union leader called for the one confirmed injured person, Mónica Citlalli Santiago Ortiz, to be moved from the hospital near San Juan Copala to a hospital in the city of Oaxaca. Chepi stated that many things remain unclear and that the union will be meeting to decide a plan of action.
The news outlet Contralínea, which apparently was the only one to have reporters with the caravan, has stated that as of 2 AM Wednesday, their two journalists remain "disappeared."
Florentino López Martínez, a member of the APPO and the FPR, told El Universal that there are five injured caravan members in the Juxtlahuaca public hospital, but that the hospital is surrounded by police and they are unable to determine what their condition is. Where Florentino got this information is not clear.
The state government (which backs the group that attacked the caravan) released a statement "lamenting" the attack, claiming it didn't have "formal knowledge" of the caravan and indirectly placed the blame for the ambush on the caravan for "not taking into account the conditions" in the area which "are not favorable for this type of action." Those "conditions", created by the government, are exactly what led to the need for a caravan in the first place.
The paramilitary group supported by the PRI government of Oaxaca that ambushed the caravan, UBISORT, released a bizarre, rambling statement, eventually claiming that MULT-I and the autonomous municipality - who called for the caravan - were actually the ones to attack the caravan and are trying to make themselves look like martyrs. Needless to say, that is complete nonsense.
the generally reliable
the generally reliable Mexican daily La Jornada speaks of at least two deaths, fifteen injured and several missing: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/04/28/index.php?section=estados&article=039n1est
yeah that what my contacts on
yeah that what my contacts on the ground are saying as well but proceso has the other figures so i mentioned them too.
the comrade i just spoke to says that 2 members of VOCAL (David and Noe) are still missing.
Update- The following remain
Update- The following remain missing:
1. Martin Sautan – Belgium
2. David Venegas – Oaxaca – Vocal
3. Noé Bautista – Oaxaca- Vocal
4. Fernando Santiago - Oaxaca – Brigadas Indígenas
5. David Cilia - Journalist with Contralínea
6. Ericka Ramírez - Journalist with Contralínea
Leaflet written by the
Leaflet written by the Finnish activist shot in Mexico
http://kommunalismi.net/2010/04/29/leaflet-written-by-the-finnish-activist-shot-in-mexico/
This text was distributed in Finland as a leaflet by the communalists. Jyri worked with us in our workgroup phase, but chose not to get involved when we decided to move on to our organization phase and instead started working on Mexico solidarity.
Popular assemblies and confederations
Jyri Jaakkola
Communalism is an ideology and a political movement, which aims for a direct
democracy. It abandons capitalism as ecologically unsustainable and inhumane.
However communalists do not seek for an alternative from strengthening the
state or taking over state power for themselves, but to the contrary from an
social order that rises from taking part in local popular assemblies and
libertarian associations based on them. Communalism provides a clear and
practical proposal for political institutions and praxis that enable social
freedom.
Direct democracy
According to communalists al political power should belong to local popular
assemblies. True democracy can only be accomplished if people take part in open
assemblies, where they can meet each other face-to-face and create social forms
of action together. Every member of a community should have an equal right to
propose matters to their neighbourhoods popular assembly to decide upon and
also to voice their opinions on them.
No act is democratically justified if it is not directly proposed,
discussed and decided on by the people – and not any form of an representative.
Managing these jobs can however be left for comittees or other forms of
workgroups that execute the decisions of the assembly under their close
scrutiny. Membership in comittees and workgroups, and also other jobs and
responsibilities, can be rotated regularly so that power doesn’t accumulate on
omission to a few based on “expertise” or knowledge. All members of a
community don’t of course have to take part in all deciding about all issues,
but all will have an equal possibility to take part in matters that are
important to them.
Decentralizing cities
The size of cities and municipalities is crucial to fulfilling communalist
ideals of civic democracy and governance of cities and municipalities by their
members. Modern metropolitan cities have to be in the end decentralized to
smaller municipalities and communities. This also has sound ecological reasons
for it. Physical decentralization of cities will of course take a long time,
but they can be decentralized institutionally before that. Popular assemblies
can at first work as networks in block, neighbourhood and city levels.
Municipalization of the economy
Communalists propose that the economy should be municipalized and all privately
owned land and factories and other production facilities should be moved to
joint ownership by the municipalitys citizens. Decisions about economic
functions will be made by all members of the municipality in assemblies. This
would mean that economy as a whole will be brought amidst political
decisionmaking, and also that single factories or farms will no longer be
competing entities. In assemblies people would not only belong to their own
profession with their own conflicting interests, but they would work for the
benefit of the whole community. This way a basis could be created for an
economy purely ethical reasoning, where everyone would give according to their
abilities and receive according to their needs.
Confederalism
All economic activity or decisionmaking doesn’t need – or be possible – to be
limited to areas where people can congregate to meet in assemblies.
Communalists propose a confederation as democratical and libertarian municipal
alliances. It is a network of administrative councils whose members are
selected face-to-face in assemblies. The delegates can be recalled and changed
at any moment and they are responsible to the assemblies that have chosen them.
Assemblies also carefully regulate the delegates and give guidelines to their
action. In fact they are more messengers of assemblies rather then
representatives, since representatives make decisions for the communities that
they represent. Decision making and making policy decisions will be solely the
right of the assemblies. Only administration and coordination are
responsibilities of confederal councils.
If members of a confederation cannot get to a agreement through their
delegates, a confederation wide general election can be held, where the common
policy of municipalities will be decided. When creating a confederation there
can be an agreement among members that functions as a sort of a constitution
for the confederation and that defines every member community’s rights and for
example how they can resign from the confederation and what kind of issues can
be decided in whole confederation wide general elections.
An agreement like this would on one hand secure the rights of communities and
the people who live in them against the arbitrariness of the majority opinion
and also would make possible to take action for example in a case of a single
community polluting other communities areas. Also confederalism would
prevenhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/
AR2010042805382.htmlt local communities from relapsing to parochialism.
Also economic cooperation should be expanded to cover the whole confederation.
Ideally acommunities would combine their strengths in local confederal networks
that would join even larger – ultimately even worldwide – networks where
production and distribution is planned according to the needs of a community
and their possiblities for production.
Assemblies as a force for changed
Some of the most central methods when striving for communalism are starting
local assemblies, strengthening and making their power legally binding and
radically democratizing existing municipal institutions. Local assemblies
should also create confederalist networks with other communities, so that the
movement can rise to be national and even international. This way directly
democratic political institutions would exist already before abandoning old
social order and a new relapse to oligarchy would be unlikely after a
revolution. Also functioning of assemblies could create many needed reforms in
peoples life already when political power officially belongs to the state and
state-like municipal structures.
When they develop assemblies will most likely come to a conflict with state
institutions and capitalist economy, because power cannot exist simultaneously
belong to both the state and corporations that govern the economy and the
people in directly democratic institutions. This way a revolutionary tension
will form, that causes assemblies to take all political power to themselves and
their confederation.
In addition to starting assemblies communalists also favor coops and
other cooperative forms of educational alternative economy. However these
should be regarded as mostly educational, because staying alive in the market
and growing to challenge capitalism is quite unlikely. Rather alternative
economys islands must adopt ever more practices from regular companies and they
must adapt to existing economy according to it’s terms. True struggle is
fought over political power that must also be used to force economic
activity to assemblies direct governance.
A speech Jyri made a week
A speech Jyri made a week ago. Hyökyaalto is a Finnish grassroots network inspired by rising tide. Jyri is last speaker, he starts at 20:40. Clip is in Spanish, no subtitres.
Dialogo Climático de los Pueblos
http://www.vimeo.com/11125300
The remaining VOCAL members
The remaining VOCAL members are now safe. David is unhurt and Noe been shot (non lifethreatening). they confirm that they were with the 2 Contralineas journalists who were both alive (though 1 shot) when they last saw them. these 2 remain unaccounted for
link to article with pictures in spanish
http://contralinea.info/archivo-revista/index.php/2010/04/27/grupo-armado-ataca-caravana-de-paz-en-oaxaca/
VOCAL communique in
VOCAL communique in spanish
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. A 29 de abril de 2010.
A los medios de comunicación
A los pueblos de Oaxaca
A los pueblos de México
A los pueblos del mundo
SEGUMIENTO DE COMUNICADO:
Sobre la Agresión armada a la Caravana de Apoyo y Solidaridad con el Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, Oaxaca.
Desde el día 27 de abril del 2010, después de brutal represión estatal y paramilitar contra el proceso de autonomía que se esta construyendo en la comunidad de San Juan Copala. Quienes fueran atacados aproximadamente a 4 Km . Antes de llegar a la Sabana, el camino estaba bloqueado con piedras, y ahí es donde empezó la agresión cobarde con armas de fuego, por parte de alrededor de 15 paramilitares al servicio de gobierno del asesino Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, (se desconoce el calibre), dejando los vehículos destrozados.
Lamentablemente dos compañeros perdieron la vida en esta agresión paramilitar, ellos son: ALBERTA CARIÑO TRUJILLO (BETI CARIÑO) integrante de CACTUS de quien lamentamos el asesinato y JYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA, compañero observador internacional originario de Finlandia, amante de la comunalidad de Oaxaca, voluntario para colaborar en VOCAL en los proyectos de soberanía alimentaria y cambio climático, así como observador internacional, el participaba en Finlandia en el Barco Stelle e ISI TULLI, compañeros mandamos nuestro más sentido pésame por la pérdida de nuestro hermano y amigo JYRI. Ambos murieron por producto de disparos de arma de fuego en la espalda y cabeza.
Nuestra compañera MONICA CITLALI SANTIAGO ORTIZ, fue herida de un rebote de bala en la espalda (en el Hospital del IMSS se aseguro que es de grueso calibre), quedando esquirlas. Ella fue dada de alta el día 28 de abril a las 12 am y esta completamente estable.
APARECIERON NUESTROS COMPAÑEROS HOY 29 DE ABRIL, aproximadamente a las 12:00 am DAVID VENEGAS REYES Y NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ, llegaron a la ciudad de Juxtlahuaca, por lo que responsabilizamos a los diferentes niveles de gobierno así como a ULISES RUIZ ORTIZ de cualquier cosa que pudiera pasarles a ellos en el trascurso de su camino, hacemos un llamado a los organismos de derechos humanos y medios de comunicación a dar seguimiento.
David y Noe estuvieron escondidos en el monte con David Cilia y Érika Ramírez, por lo que se sabe que los periodistas desaparecidos de la revista Contralínea están vivos y necesitan ser rescatados. Érika Ramírez se encuentra sin ningún tipo de lesión, pero deshidratada y débil. David Cilia se encuentra con una herida de bala en el pie izquierdo y un rozón de bala a la altura de la cintura. Ninguna de estas lesiones lo pone en riesgo de morir, a no ser que no puedan alimentarse. Solicitamos sean rescatados de manera inmediata.
Las demás compañeros que acompañaban la caravana incluidos los internacionales se encuentran bien aunque con incertidumbre ante los hechos.
EXIGIMOS:
Al gobierno del asesino Ulises Ruiz, el cese a los ataques por parte de paramilitares en la región triqui. Así como el cese al financiamiento, armamento e impunidad de la que gozan estos grupos paramilitares en nuestro Estado.
Retiro inmediato del bloqueo paramilitar en el que se encuentra el municipio autónomo de San Juan Copala, así como respeto a las comunidades indígenas autónomas.
Garantizar la integridad física y moral de todos nuestros compañeros que estuvieron en la caravana, especialmente a RUBEN VALENCIA NUÑEZ, quien fue amenazado de muerte.
Castigo a los asesinos de nuestros compañeros asesinados ALBERTA CARIÑO TRUJILLO y JYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA.
La presentación inmediata con vida de los reporteros Érika Ramírez y David Cilia.
AGRADECEMOS LA ATENCION:
Al pueblo de Oaxaca, de México, a la comunidad internacional y las diferentes organizaciones sociales, embajadas, colectivos y grupos, por hacer visible su solidaridad y apoyo y les pedimos seguir exigiendo de manera conjunta la presentación con vida de desaparecidos y el castigo a los responsables de los asesinatos. También, los llamamos fraternalmente, a exigir un alto a las condiciones de violencia en contra del Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala.
Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad (VOCAL)
Continuar leyendo ‘COMUNICADO DE VOCAL sobre emboscada a caravana en San Juan Copala’
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION IN
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH OAXACA
Friday, April 30
1 PM
Mexican Consulate
27 East 39th Street (btwn Madison and Park Aves.), NYC
LIVE PRESENTATION OF THE DISAPPEARED
JUSTICE FOR MURDERED COMRADES BETY CARIÑO AND JYRI JAAKKOLA
END THE ATTACKS AND SIEGE ON THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA
On Tuesday, April 27, an solidarity caravan made up of Oaxacan civil society organizations and international solidarity activists was ambushed by state-backed paramilitaries. They were bringing much-needed supplies and attempting to break the siege of San Juan Copala, an autonomous Triqui community encircled and accosted by the same paramilitaries. Around 15 armed men from the paramilitary organization UBISORT ambushed the convoy, killing Bety Cariño, director of the Center of Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), and Jyri Jaakkola, an international solidarity observer from Finland.
Two reporters accompanying the caravan, Érika Ramírez and David Cilia, remain disappeared. Just before the ambush, two Triqui women from San Juan Copala were disappeared by UBISORT. At the scene, several surviving caravan members received death threats from UBISORT.
Join us in standing in solidarity with the autonomous project of San Juan Copala, to demand justice for Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, and that the disappeared are returned alive, immediately.
For more information see El Enemigo Común: http://elenemigocomun.net.
Called for by Friends of Brad Will. For more information, contact Scott Campbell, [email protected].
Here some texts of Jyri in
Here some texts of Jyri in Finnish. He was amongst one of the most active contributors to Finnish anarchist journal Väärinajattelija (vaaris.org). Maybe some of them get translated in days to come.
Toinen Meksiko:
http://www.toinenmeksiko.org/
Paulo Freire ja vallankumouksen ajankohtaisuus
http://www.vaaris.org/no2/paulo.htm
Sorrettujen pedagogiikka - Anarkistinen näkökulma Paulo Freiren ajatteluun
http://www.vaaris.org/no2/sorrettujen.htm
Tulevaisuus: runsauden anarkiaa
katsaus Esko Valtaojan kirjaan Avoin tie – kurkistuksia tulevaisuuteen
http://www.vaaris.org/no2/tulevaisuus.htm
Tiede ja niukkuus klassisessa anarkismissa
http://www.vaaris.org/no2/tiede.htm
Murray Bookchinin yhteiskuntaekologia - kommunalismi evoluution tienä itsetietoisuuteen, vapauteen ja eettisyyteen
http://cc.joensuu.fi/~jnsoa/kokoelma/tjaakkola.htm
Meksikossa kuolleen ihmisoikeusaktivistin vappulentolehtinen
http://kommunalismi.net/2010/04/28/meksikossa-kuolleen-ihmisoikeusaktivistin-vappulentolehtinen/
the journalists were rescued
the journalists were rescued about an hour ago and are currently receiving medical attention.
When they escaped, David and Noe brought with them a video taken in hiding proving that all four of them had survived the initial attack in case of any of them turned up dead or further injured
link to video (in spanish but with english translations in the comments sections): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_k07Li_3bc
http://contralinea.info/archivo-revista/index.php/2010/04/27/grupo-armado-ataca-caravana-de-paz-en-oaxaca/
Another article by Jyri has
Another article by Jyri has been translated.
http://kommunalismi.net/2010/04/30/murray-bookchin%e2%80%99s-social-ecology-communalism-as-evolutions-path-to-self-consciousness-freedom-and-ethics/
Murray Bookchin’s social ecology: communalism as evolutions path to self-consciousness, freedom and ethics
In Elonkehä’s number 10/03 Olli Tammilehto pointed to John Clarks and David Watsons attempts to combine deep ecology and social ecology. The basics of deep ecology are most likely familiar to Elonkehä’s readers, but what is social ecology?
Social ecology is typically connected to Murray Bookchin, an American, and I will discuss his ideas in this article. According to Bookchin nearly all ecological problems are social problems. Ecological crisis is caused by the capitalist society, but it has deeper roots in social hierarchies. Social ecology proposes replacing state and capitalism with an ecological society, that is based on relations without hierarchy, geographically decentralized communities, ecotechnology, organic agriculture and human scale production facilities.
Social ecology denies a clear division or a inevitable opposition between nature and humanity or society. Movement from nature to society is gradual and basic problems that pit society against nature are growing within social evolution - not between nature and society.
This way typical features to humanity and human communities such as reason, technology and science cannot be declared destructive without taking in to account the social factors that have an effect on them. Ecological problems are also not simply or primarily caused by religious, spiritual or political ideologies. To understand modern ecological problems we have to find their social causes and solve them using social methods.
Diversity, engagement and spontaneity
In his writings about ecosystems and evolution Bookchin emphasises the principle "unity in diversity". Lifeforms and organic interactions diversity gives evolution new pathways to travel and is the basis for ecosystems fertility and stability. Because this diversity is created spontaneously in nature and our knowledge of complex internal relations within ecosystems are limited, humanity should try to protect natures diversity and leave as much room as possible for its natural spontaneity instead of trying to control it.
To Bookchin most significant factors in evolution were symbiosis and reciprocity, where different lifeforms complement each other by creating biotical ecocommunities between different organisms living within the same sphere. These biotical ecocommunities are by their nature participatory, so all of their very different members participate in evolution and creation of life.
Similar principles of diversity, participation, spontaneity and non hierarchical relations within ecosystems exist in anarchist social theories. According to Bookchin applying these ecological principles to social organization would remove the division between nature and society and replace it with a continuum that would combine biotical and social ecocommunities.
Hierarchy and domination as an ecological threat
Possibly the most central part of social ecology is formed by the critique of hierarchies and various forms of domination. According to Bookchin our attempts to control nature are caused by forms of domination among humans. Men didn’t think of dominating nature before they had started dominating young people, women and each other.
Hierarchies and domination are in addition to political and economic institution rooted in our their cultural forms so deeply in our families and between age groups, genders and ethnical groups that they effect even how we experience reality which also includes nature and other lifeforms. To counteract this social ecology emphasizes diversity without placing differences in to hierarchical order.
According to Bookchin we cannot remove the aim of controlling nature and create an ecological society before we remove from society all hierarchical structures. He also emphasizes that social hierarchies are an institutional phenomena, not biological. They are results of organized and carefully built power relations and we cannot find justification for them from nature.
Urbanization and state as detriments to democracy
One of the most central hierarchical structures is the state. According to Bookchin state takes both spiritual and material power away from communities and limits their developmental potential by taking their power and right to form their own fate. The state - and in our time the nation-state - representatives and institutions have eviscerated also the individual as a public creature, a citizen, that has an participatory role in social functioning. This development has been helped by urbanization, that transforms cities from clear, human scaled and democratically governable entities to enormous marketplaces and centers for mass production and consumption.
The ethical content of city life as a space where you can learn civic skills, responsibility and acting on ideals of democracy are wiped out. Modern city is ran like a business, that is guided by profit, expenses, growth and employment. This kind of corporate spirited city depends on and helps simplifying an active citizen to a receiver and customer of public services. "A Good Citizen" obeys the law, pays taxes and votes ritualistically among preselected representatives and "minds his own business". Democracy becomes purely formal instead of being participatory. Power is bureaucratized and centralized to the state and half monopolistic economic actors.
Modern gigantic place an enormous burden on nature, waters and air in the areas that they have conquered. Urbanization has spread among the countryside as well disturbing it’s ecological balance. The culture of the countryside and it’s rich traditions have been displaced by city life and mass culture unifying and urbanizing the lifestyles of the countryside. Industry and city based economic forms and techniques have conquered agriculture. Cities seem to have taken full control of the countryside.
Capitalism and weakening communality
Central to decline of vitality and communality of local communities is also the development of modern capitalism. In addition to weakening traditional economic forms like small scale agriculture, craftsmen and simple barter capitalism also threatens to destroy all features of organization of communities, appreciation of cooperation, autonomous structures and local cohesion, that were typical to societies before capitalism. It has spread competition to all levels of society, not only between capitalists in their competition to control the market.
An economic system that is based on competition and the selfishness that it emphasizes invades also the family and neighbourhood and threatens to destroy even the smallest feelings of communality, ecological balance and diversity of social life. Citizens become mere buyers and sellers and simplifying social life and surrounding nature leads in the end even to the simplification of the human mind. Capitalism erodes peoples self confidence maintaining economic basis and community that would help participation in social life.
According to Bookchin basics for an safe and enjoyable life could be created for all. Despite this capitalism has created a stronger sense of scarcity then any social order before it. Needs are created artificially and capitalist exploitation and manipulation makes ordinary life social empty and boring. When society has been transformed to a factory and marketplace the basic reason for living has been simplified to production for the sake of production and consumption for the sake of consumption.
Grow or Die!
Capitalist society that is based on competition and growth for the sake of growth must eventually destroy nature just like an untreated cancer destroys it’s host. Personal beliefs, good or evil, do not matter in an economy based on the "grow or die" -principle. Accumulating capital to weaken, buy, merge and destroy your competition is a requirement for existing within capitalist economy, which makes it a system of endlessly growing and centralizing wealth. Capitalism inevitably turns against and turns environment to "unnatural"; inorganic, synthetic or simplified.
Ecological society as the fulfillment of nature become self-conscious
Despite the current state of our societies Bookchin believes in humanity’s possibility to develop as moral and ecological actor. Self-consciousness and capability to systematically generalize their consciousness by philosophy, science, ethics and aesthetics and also to change their selves and their environment with the aid of these things place humanity in a special place in evolution. These capabilities are creations of evolution itself and place humanity to be responsible for the progress of also the organic evolution.
Humanity could be rational manifestation of natures creativity and fertility and its involvement in events in the rest of nature could be equally creative as the rest of the nature. Ecological society could fulfill one of evolutions grand lines, the trend towards self-consciousness and would extend freedom, reason and ethics as a dimension in nature. This natures potentiality to realize itself as consciously creative is still unfulfilled: this is proven by hierarchies, class divisions, state and other social phenomena like this.
Communalism as an political alternative
Political and activity level Bookchins social ecological philosophy is concentrated on power and institutions that use it. According to Bookchin growing corporate and political system is removing almost all of control over their lives from ordinary people. That is why economic needs can force people to work against their best intentions, even against deeply felt values about nature in a way destructive of nature. Solving ecological and social problems created by created by centralized corporations, ownership relations and productions growing power is absolutely a question of power - who has power and who it’s denied from. To Bookchin democracy and peoples freedom to control their own life are basic prerequisites for an ecological society.
The nowadays mostly extinct "socialist" world doesn’t give a better model for failed liberalism. Totalitarian countries are equally responsible for pillaging the earth and a classless society is not necessarily free of hierarchies. As an ecological alternative Bookchin offers communalism, where social power belongs to democratical general assemblies. According to him true democracy can only happen if people take part in open, face-to-face assemblies to create social policy. Not a single act is democratically justified if it is not directly proposed, discussed and decided by the people - and not representatives. Administration of these acts can be left to committees and other workgroups that would fulfill assemblies decisions under close public scrutiny.
Politics or statecraft?
As a central method in creating communalism Bookchin thinks is starting local assemblies, empowering them and formalizing their power and radically democratizing local municipal institutions. To him politics like it is understood nowadays is an unfit arena for ecological movements. Modern politics mostly means a series of struggles for power, where parties try to occupy the key positions needed to control state functions. Political parties are formed to get power, to rule and control. They mainly built hierarchies and work top-to-bottom like miniature states.
According to Bookchin the concept of politics popular today is mostly statecraft. Influencing politicians, lobbying, voting and other parliamentary of party centric activity is statecraft, as is all functioning of state institutions. Those who take part in this - both politicians and lobbyists - is unified in a belief that change can only or primarily be done by the use of state power. Appealing to state power legitimates and strengthens the existence of the state inevitable and the more power the state has the less the people have directly. This way Bookchins views differ for example from Leena Vilkka’s interpretation that when considering the Green Party accepts as hallmarks of social ecology as reformism and acceptance of the parliamentary way.
As a replacement for statecraft Bookchin tries to rejuvenate politics in it’s classical meaning as a domain of self-governance. According to him politics cannot exist without municipal cooperation caused by peoples grassroots organization. The genuine unit of politics is municipality either as a whole if it is human scale or divided in to units like neighbourhoods. According to Bookchin practicing politics in arenas has a crucial meaning also for individual freedom: municipal freedom is the prerequisite of political freedom and political freedom is an prerequisite of individual freedom.
Decentralizing cities
That if traditional ideals of civic democracy will be fulfilled and if municipalities and cities can be governed by all their population in assemblies depends largely on the size of municipalities and cities. Although assemblies can also work as networks on block, neighbourhood and city level the cities have to be decentralized in the end. Decentralizing power and large cities is also a spiritual and cultural value because it combines community empowerment to individual empowerment.
Bookchin does admit that physical decentralization of large urban entities such as New York to genuine municipalities and local communities takes a long time. But according to him there is no reason why they couldn’t be decentralized institutionally before that.
Smaller cities are not only prerequisites for fulfilling ideals of freedom, but we also need them to live in balance with the rest of nature. Decentralizing our cities and economic production would make possible to use local materials and sources of energy fully, would shorten transportation distances, would help preventing pollution and recycling waste, would improving knowing earths ecology for example in agriculture and would remove bureaucracy that wastes resources to managing work.
Human scale and self-sufficiency
Decentralizing and changing to human scale technology and production would help people to understand their functions better and govern them directly without "experts" and leaders. Decentralizing production and creating more self-sufficient local communities would shift economic power’s center of gravity to local level and would create economic essentials for local communities self-government and sovereignty. The diverse and equal participation that human scale makes possible would create a basis for a new feeling of humanity - a feeling of individuality and community.
Reasonably self-sufficient communities whose dependence on their environment would be clearly visible, would create a new form of reverence to the organic world that sustains them. Even if small industrial complexes would have duplicates in multiple communities each groups knowledge of their environment would cause a more intelligent and loving use of it. Single community should however not strive for complete self-sufficiency because mutual dependence among communities and regions is both a cultural and political advantage.
0.1 Confederalism
Decentralizing cities and human scale of communities do not necessarily guarantee fulfillment of democracy or ecological society. Decentralized society is not necessarily free of domination, hierarchies or parochialism. Social organization must be based on larger principles the localism. Bookchin proposes confederation as a democratic and libertarian form of municipal alliance. It is a network of administrative councils, whose members are chosen from face-to-face assemblies. Delegates can be recalled and exchanged when ever and they are responsible to the assemblies that chose them. Assemblies also define carefully the authority of their delegates and provide guidelines for their action. Confederalism includes a clear division between deciding about policy matters and coordinating and executing those policies. Power to decide and create policy would be solely the function of assemblies and administration and coordination would be the responsibility of confederal councils.
Municipalizing economy
To govern production and distribution Bookchin proposes that economy would be municipalized and decisions for economic actions policy would be made among all citizens of a municipality in assemblies. This would mean bringing economy to the sphere of political decision making as a whole, so that individual factories or farms would no longer be competing units. This would create a basis for a moral economy, where people would work more for the benefit of the community instead of their own benefit and where everyone would give according to their capabilities and take according to their needs.
The principle of confederalism would reach its fulfillment when communities would combine their resources in local confederal networks. Confederal ecological society would share resources and not be based on selfish and calculating trade of capitalistically working local communities. Combining handcraft and small scale industry and farming in to cooperation of multiple municipalities confederation would increase individuals possibilities of action and the stimuli that they are exposed to.
Also rotating political civic responsibilities and productive work duties would diversify the experiences that people have both in intellectual and physical work that would stimulate their senses and help find new dimensions in self development. Communal life would be created in to a sort of school of civic skills, paideia, like Greeks of the ancient era called it. Giving birth to new citizenship and participation in common matters should become a form of creative art, that would also in an aesthetic sense be appealing to deeply human need for self expression. Possibility for meaningful participation in political and communal life and plentiful stimuli can increase richness of skills and character also in individuals. This way the largest possible freedom of personal development would be combined to skills and possibility to work communally and ecologically to bring humanity in harmony with the rest of nature.
Sources
• Bookchin, Murray: Toward an Ecological Society, Black Rose Books, Montréal-Buffalo, 1980.
• Bookchin, Murray: Post-Scarcity Anarchism, Black Rose Books, 1986.
• Bookchin, Murray: The Modern Crisis, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, 1986.
• Bookchin, Murray: Remaking Society. Pathways to a Green Future, South End Press, Boston, 1990.
• Bookchin, Murray: From Urbanization to Cities. Toward a New Politics of Citizenship, Cassell, London, 1995.
• Bookchin, Murray: The Murray Bookchin Reader, Cassell, London, 1997.
• Vilkka, Leena: Mustavihreä filosofia, Elämänsuojelija-lehti, Tampere 1999.
• www.social-ecology.org
• www.demokratisktalternativ.org/suomi/demalt-fi.html (trans. now http://kommunalismi.net )
Edited version of the article has been published in two parts with the name "Ecological society" in numbers 1-5-16/2003 and 1/2004 of Elonkehä -magazine.
latest VOCAL statement in
latest VOCAL statement in spanish
will translate when i get a minute
30 DE ABRIL 2010
SEGUIMIENTO DE COMUNICADO:
Sobre la Agresión armada a la Caravana de Apoyo y Solidaridad con el Municipio Autónomo de San Juan Copala, Oaxaca.
Queremos comunicar que DAVID VENEGAS REYES esta con nosotros y se encuentra bien, y que NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ, se encuentra hospitalizado en el IMSS y que ha sido hostigado y amedrentada los familiares y amigos que se encuentran cuidándolo. Por lo que hemos denunciado estas agresiones físicas y morales que se están haciendo en contra de nuestro compañero.
Sobre la Movilización y denuncia de la APPO, en la ciudad de Oaxaca.
En la marcha convocada por algunos compañeros de organizaciones de la APPO, partimos con dolor, rabia e indignación este 30 de abril poco después de las 5 pm, saliendo de la fuente de las 7 Regiones, respaldando el proceso de construcción de Autonomía de San Juan Copala, exigiendo el castigo a los asesinatos cometidos por el grupo paramilitar Unión de Bienestar Social de la Región Triqui (UBISORT).
Esta marcha ha sido con la intención de hacer publica nuestra exigencia que Copala hoy necesita justicia, y que los responsables de la brutal emboscada a la Caravana de observación y apoyo al municipio autónomo, ha sido un golpe a la autonomía de los pueblos, no podemos permitir que se siga reprimiendo igual que en 2006 e incluso antes a los pueblos que se organizan y lucha por la construcción de autogobernarnos, con autonomía, dignidad y paz pero con justicia, mientras los gobiernos gocen de completa impunidad. Otra de las demandas pronunciadas en la marcha han sido el castigo a los asesinos de nuestros compañeros Alberta Cariño, y Jyri Antero Jakkola.
NO OLVIDAMOS, NO PERDONAMOS NO NOS RECONCILIAMOS.
¡JUSTICIA AHORA!
FUERA PARAMILITARES DEL MUNICIPIO AUTONOMO DE SAN JUAN COPALA
VOCES OAXAQUEÑAS CONSTRUYENDO AUTONOMIA Y LIBERTAD.
VOCAL
An interview of Jyri Jaakkola
An interview of Jyri Jaakkola 1st of February
An interview of Jyri Jaakkola (Finnish anti-authoritarian activist, murdered by paramilitaries in Oaxaca 27th f April) he gave 1st of February in Finland, before leaving for Oaxaca, with subtitles in English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMy7yTvFiNU
An extract:
"If by my own precense have a change to prevent violent moderation, that
would be a thing to do. something like Paolo Freire said:
'the real solidarity is, that you put yourself in to the same position with
the one's that you are solidar with'
Which means for me, that somehow I got to put myself to the game.
Eventhough I will never end up to the same position as locals.
I will have plane ticket back to Finland, also this blond skin color which
will work as some kind of protective coloring etc.
Just to be there with local people, if it helps them. And to try to spread
information about their struggle and their goals. I think that is the main
reason why I am leaving there."
(No subject)
POLITICAL DECLARATION OF
POLITICAL DECLARATION OF VOCAL ON THE PARAMILITARY AGGRESSION SUFFERED BY THE CARAVAN OF SOLIDARITY AND OBSERVATION WITH THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA ON 27 OF APRIL 2010
The violent deeds of April 27th of this year, in which the caravan of observation and solidarity with the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, of which our organization formed a part, was attacked by gunfire by the paramilitary group of the UBISORT-PRI and that resulted in the murder of our comrades Bety Cariño Trujillo and Jyri Jaakkola, show the degree of violence and impunity which maintains in power the murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, his party the PRI and the local despotisms and the para-militarism by which this political party sustains itself in the indigenous and campesino communities of the state of Oaxaca
Yesterday the 29th of April 2010 at approximately 12 o'clock, our comrades Noe Bautista and David Venegas, members of VOCAL, finally managed to break through the paramilitary encirclement and arrived at the city of Juxtlahuaca where they announced that the journalist comrades David Celia and Erika Ramírez of the magazine Contralínea were still alive but were prevented from walking due to the bullet wounds received by David Cilia. They required an immediate rescue operation. Due to the pressure brought about by their relatives, work colleagues and the evidence that they remained alive that was delivered by our comrades in a video to their relatives, a rescue was finally carried yesterday which succeeded in recovering these comrades. Today they are recovering satisfactorily from the aggression they have endured
Nevertheless the recovery of the bodies of the murdered, the healing of the injured and the rescue of the disappeared persons do not resolve the fundamental problem in San Juan Copala and for which the Solidarity and Observation Convoy was organized: the state of siege and the unpunished murders that the PRI-UBISORT maintains against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, with the total complicity of the state government headed by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. From November 2009 to this month of April there have been 19 unpunished murders of inhabitants of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala carried out by the PRI-UBISORT. They have also cut off the electricity and in the entrance of the community they maintain a checkpoint, through which they even impede the entrance of food to the women.
During the days that the disappearance of our comrades lasted, it was possible to verify that the armed aggressions to which the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala is subjected by the PRI-UBISORT are both permanent and recurrent. Also, that the complicity of the state government is open and shameless and we now firmly believe that a paramilitary aggression of large proportions is being prepared against the inhabitants of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.
We believe that this paramilitary attack and what might happen later has as its main objective the destruction of a process that seeks to unite the Triqui nation through the autonomous organization of an indigenous town that for decades has endured the internecine division and violence caused by the interests of political control of the ruling party, the PRI.
We believe that this attack is also directed against all the processes for constructing autonomy that communities and organizations in Oaxaca fight for in order to build a form of life far removed from the power of the state and all political parties.
We place the blame for this paramilitary aggression on the PRI-UBISORT, by being the armed group that directly carried out the crimes of April 27, but also on Ulises Ruiz Ortiz for tolerating to the extreme of complicity, the existence of these groups. Also, Eviel Pérez Magaña, PRI candidate to the state government and therefore given to the macabre traditions of power in Oaxaca. These acts of violence form part and parcel of the hard line approach that candidates to the PRI government display to our society in order to maintain through terror, their political control.
We make an urgent call to all the organizations of the social movement of the APPO and to social movements on the national and international level to turn their eyes to San Juan Copala and in the immediate future organize ourselves in a massive solidarity convoy to break the state of siege that the PRI-UBISORT maintains against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala. In the same way we call on all the movements constructing autonomy on a national level so that we unite forces in the defence of the construction of autonomy in all those places of Mexico where peoples, organizations and movements are deciding to seek a just life with welfare and liberty through cultural, economic, and political autonomy.
We do a call on all comrades of the world, who work International Observation to be attentive to the struggle of the peoples of Oaxaca, which as has been shown by the brutal ambush of April 27, are to be found in a growing spiral of violence and aggression on the part of the government and paramilitary.
We demand that the murder of the comrades Bety Cariño of the CACTUS human rights organization - a tireless warrior in defence of mother earth, and of Jyri Jaakkola, international observer for peace with justice and dignity do not go unpunished and that all the state, national and international attention that this aggression has caused among society, the social movements and the press be directed to the cause which caused us to organise and to respond with the solidarity caravan of that fateful day of April 27 and that is to
BREAK THE SIEGE ON SAN JUAN COPALA AND TO PREVENT A MASSIVE PARAMILITARY AGGRESSION ON THE PART OF THE PRI-UBISORT.
Likewise we support the comrades Omar Esparza of CACTUS and Jorge Albino, spokesman for the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala for the threats of death they have received from UBISORT and the government of Ulises Ruiz.
We hold Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the PRI candidate to the governance of Oaxaca Eviel Pérez Magaña and the UBISORT-PRI responsible for any aggression that might occur against the members of our organisation VOCAL.
FRATERNALLY,
OAXACAN VOICES CONSTRUCTING AUTONOMY AND FREEDOM
VOCAL
Oaxaca of Magon, city of the resistance, 30 de abril de 2010.
here's a democracy now
here's a democracy now segment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZZ-POizW64&feature=related
link to video (spanish) of
link to video (spanish) of the background to this struggle and the fight of the citizens of San Juan Copala for autonomy- politcal, cultural and economic, from the state and all political parties.
the website its on belongs to the Oaxaca City social centre CASOTA, a project to strengthen the processes toward autonomy being taken in Oaxaca. Also physical base to several groups, one of which, VOCAL was instrumental in organising the solidarity caravan and whose members have been subject to ongoing threats and attacks.
http://casota.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/municipio-autonomo-de-san-juan-copala-2/
Article here;
Article here; http://libcom.org/news/dream-san-juan-copala-claudio-albertani-08052010
Statement from San Juan
Statement from San Juan Copala regarding the ambush, calling for a second caravan
May 11, 2010
Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca
“Bety,
We will NOT look for you among the dead,
We will continue to walk together, now with your intercession,
until the complete liberation of your people, our people”
TO THE STATE, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO
Comrades of the media, we have called you together at the request of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala. As the bearers of the voice of our people, we want all the people of Mexico to hear directly from us what happened on the 27th of last month and what continues to happen in our community.
That day, a group of criminals who call themselves the UBISORT social organization cowardly and treacherously murdered two human rights observers who were part of the caravan that departed from Huajuapan de León and who attempted, in a peaceful manner, to observe the criminal harassment which our people have been subjected to. The murderers, obeying the orders of he who hides his criminal face in the halls of government, have cut the drinking water and electricity and have obstructed the entry of food and teachers into the community, causing our children’s basic level classes to be suspended and for the health center’s medic to be forced to abandon the town. This is how the powerful in this country seek to put down the resistance and the quest for a dignified life for indigenous communities in Mexico.
We admit that in our region there are residents who, renouncing their culture and denying their history, serve the interests of the powerful who have always sowed division amongst us with the one goal of expelling the legitimate heirs to these lands in order to appropriate their natural wealth. As residents of San Juan Copala, we know who committed these crimes, and we know not only because of all they have done to us before but because they are the same who in the days before the caravan made public threats in the media. They are the same who obstructed the passage of the comrades from San Salvador Atenco, they are the same who, with brazen statements to some media outlets, are now trying to blame us for their criminal actions.
It is necessary to clarify that the Autonomous Municipality project of San Juan Copala was not created on a whim, on the contrary, because we know and love our history, it is an agreement of communal assembly that arose with the intent of pacifying the region through an indigenous government which rules through uses and customs without the interference of political parties and organizations, as we are convinced that a government which LEADS BY OBEYING will bring forgiveness, reconciliation and peace to our peoples in order to achieve the social development that we so desire. We want those who govern us to walk with us with a deep respect for our mother earth, our culture and our indigenous cosmovision; because of this we issue a fraternal call to our brothers and sisters who walk with the dignity of being indigenous to let us strengthen the communal assemblies, as it will be those which, sooner rather than later, will carry the fate of the region and expel from our grounds those who, believing us incapable of thinking, make decisions without ever consulting the people, they are those who, in the end, foster division and violence.
We demand that the Mexican state punish those responsible for all the crimes committed in the Triqui region, particularly the murders of our comrade Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola and we ask all of you to assist us in denouncing this state of injustice and watching to see that there is no impunity.
Finally, and as a result of the grave state of injustice and despair which we endure in the Municipality of San Juan Copala, we have asked the Diocesan Commission of Peace and Justice and the Bartolomé Carrasco Regional Human Rights Center to assist us in convening another humanitarian and observational caravan, making provisions for all the security measures and coordinating with all the national and international human rights organizations interested in corroborating the situation we live under in San Juan Copala, we need everyone in order to reach the political agreements that will definitively break the paramilitary, economic, political, social, media and starvation siege which is confronting our town.
We send a hug to our brother Omar and reaffirm our commitment to never give up, because the future that we yearn for is near. We know and believe that the night is darkest before the dawn.
Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala
(No subject)