in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where a deadly police crackdown against teachers has left at least eight people dead, more than a hundred wounded this week. On Sunday, police descended on teachers in the community of Nochixtlán, where they had set up blockades to protest against neoliberal education reforms and the arrests of two teachers’ union leaders last week on what protesters say are trumped-up charges. Democracy Now! correspondent Andalusia Knoll traveled to the area and interviewed survivors of Sunday’s deadly attack.
Gustavo Esteva talking:
we had a very bloody battle. It is—until now, we had a report of nine executed, assassinated, 23 disappeared, at least 21 arrested, 45 in the hospital, more than a hundred injured. It is—was a very bloody, long-announced battle. It was the—it is the beginning of the war. And we are surprised and amazed that the authorities are following the script, literally the script of 10 years ago—first the teachers’ mobilization, then the sit-in, then the repression. This is a very complex war. It doesn’t—it did not start in Oaxaca. The teachers’ struggle, it is a global struggle. It started in Colombia, in Brazil, in Chile, in the U.S.—everywhere. And today we are in a war trying to say a very firm no to this kind of education. It is useless instruction. We are discussing education. We have a plan of education. We can offer an alternative for—of education. And we are saying no very firmly to all the so-called structural reforms that mean basically a change of only ownership. They are selling our land, our territory. The people are resisting. And then we are resisting with them to oppose this kind of operation. This is a very complex war that just started. We are at the beginning of this very complex war against us, against our territory.
governor was in a party. He asked the intervention of the federal police, that those killing people were the federal police, not just the state police. It was an operation combined by the federal police and the state police.
Right now we have a curfew in Nochixtlán, in the place. We are—this moment, we don’t have any specific activity, but we are waiting for the next scenes of the battle. The battle has just started.
the last report we had, it is nine people were literally executed, assassinated. We had 23 people disappeared. We have at least 21 arrested. We have 45 people in the hospital. We have more of a hundred wounded. This is the last report. At the beginning, the police said that they had no firearms. Finally, when we had in Facebook lots of images of the police shooting in a very clear attack on the teachers, they finally accepted that at the end they brought people with firearms. But it was a very concerted attack. It was a very bloody battle against the teachers.
First, the teachers are saying no to what they call an educational reform that is not educational reform, that is bringing basically useless instructions instead of education. The teachers had a whole plan for real education for the indigenous people of Oaxaca. And they are saying no to a reform that put many people, of teachers, out of a job. It is not privatization of education, but abandoning the education, particularly in indigenous areas. Then it is—the teachers are joined by the indigenous people, protecting the education, real education, for the children. But the teachers are also saying no to the so-called structural reforms that basically means a change of ownership and selling our territories. Forty percent of Oaxaca has been sold for 50 years’ concessions to private companies. And the people are resisting, protecting their own territories, because it is basically indigenous territories. And then they are saying yes to a real education and no to this kind of operation dispossessing the people of their own land, their own territory.
And this is, of course, connected with the case of Ayotzinapa, the 43 that we are still missing, because it is again the evidence that in the case of Mexico, we cannot draw a line separating clearly the world of crime and the world of the institutions. It is the same thing for us. We are living in that kind of conditions. It is not the criminal assaulting the power or killing the people; it is the authorities mixed with criminals, are the final—for us, become the same kind of thing, attacking us, killing us, affecting all our lives.
We are just at the beginning of this battle. This is not the end. It was a very bloody weekend, but this is just the beginning. It was really clearly announced. We, in Oaxaca, knew very well that after the elections, that they were waiting for the elections to start this kind of repression. For us, the teachers are clearly the object now, because if they suppress, if they win over the struggle of the teachers, this will be intimidation by all the other people resisting. That is, then, the authorities did not learn the lesson of 10 years ago. They are following the script of 10 years ago. And then we are—we learned the lessons. And then we are beginning a very complex strategy for a long struggle.
2006, in the midst of a bloody state crackdown on striking school teachers in Oaxaca that sparked a popular uprising against the then-Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz over the months, a long rebellion. In 2006 in Oaxaca, gunmen with ties to the Mexican government shot and killed three people, including the U.S. journalist and activist Brad Will.
situation has deteriorated. It has not improved in these 10 years. We learned a lot of lessons. The experience is cemented in the hearts and the minds of the people here in Oaxaca. We learned a lot. We will not commit the same mistakes that we committed 10 years ago. I will add to that story of 10 years ago that after the teachers’ mobilization, there was a horrible, horrible media campaign against the teachers, then, after that, the repression. And this is exactly what we are seeing today. After the teachers’ mobilization, we had this horrible media campaign against them, preparing the public opinion for the repression, and then we had the repression this weekend. But we learned the lessons. We are prepared. Basically, one of the things that we are saying that we are trying to apply in the reality is that David can always win over Goliath if he fights in his own territory. We are saying that, for example, the teachers have, as people, as their own territory, the classroom. They can organize the first, the most important struggle in the classroom, trying to bring back real education for the people in Oaxaca. And second, we want also to be in the streets supporting this struggle that is really a very complex struggle. We are struggling for our life. Our movement has consolidated. We have for the first time, after lessons of 2006, conversations between the teachers and the civil society. We have something that we call espacial civil, civil space, where a hundred organizations, grassroots organizations, collectives, community organizations, NGOs, many people are together, joining the teachers in this very complex and long struggle. This is just the beginning.
there is a very clear linkage. This is an attack. The attack on the people of Ayotzinapa, these young men and women, has been basically for 15 years. They are trying to dismantle all these schools that are where the sons of the peasants are learning to become teachers for the peasants. They are not studying to leave their communities, but to stay in the communities as teachers. And they have been trying to disappear them as part of this general reform of the system of education. They want to dissolve these schools. And the students were trying to protest, to express their decision to continue their studies. And they were going to a protest in—around October the 2nd to commemorate the killing of students in 1968. That is when they were disappeared, attacked first by the police and then supposedly transferred to criminals in this very open association between the police and the criminals. Then we are seeing the same kind of things against indigenous people, against education, against real education for the indigenous people. We are seeing a very clear link between the two kind of things.
Urgent Action: Civil Society of Oaxaca emits humanitarian alert due to armed attack of the State against civilians.”
this is the espacial civil that I was talking about. We are expressing our decision—it’s an alert. We are really in trouble. We are in a very serious situation. This is not the end of something, but the beginning of something that is very dangerous for our lives, for all of us, for our condition.
Nine people were literally assassinated. Nine people. This is the last report we have. And 23 are disappeared. Then we don’t know if they are still alive or not. More than a hundred wounded. We have 45 in the hospital and more than a hundred wounded.
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Gustavo Esteva
founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca and author of many books, including New Forms of Revolution. Gustavo has also been a columnist for La Jornada.
Oaxaca-വഹാക
— source democracynow.org