Thursday, June 23, 2016
Given the
marches and the blockades, it is a nuisance to have to go into Oaxaca every
day, but the dentist summons, and I cheerfully chauffer Linda’s abscesses and
Kirsten’s molar roots down to the Calle Reforma every morning. So far we’ve not
been too hindered at the choke points, since I’ve been here long enough to know
some routes around them. And there are the smart phone ‘bloqueo apps’ [pronounced blow-káy-oh]
to give us a heads-up about the siting of current chaos.
[A note
about that. We are safe; most everyone who doesn’t go looking for confrontation
is safe. The flash points are announced ahead of time. Leaders say when and
where they are going to march: they have to, to be able to attract their
followers. The bloqueo apps inform
the rest of us about the whens and wheres, so we can avoid them. You mostly
can’t predict which of the marches are going to flare into violence, since
angry people and policemen are always present. But WE won’t be there, that’s almost
a certainty. Back to the report:]
On Monday
nothing moved. Neither did we: all appointments canceled, schools closed. Tuesday
they were still closed, with ‘until further notice’ signs on many of them. Tuesday
on the way in to the dentist in town we saw the remnants of a few burnt-out
trucks on the highway, and the scorch marks, perpendicular to the traffic flow,
of the incinerated barricades. Tuesday on the way home the vehicular cadavers
had been reduced to three, and we saw a crane lifting one of the charred hulks
for removal. Tuesday morning in town, while the ladies’ molars were being poked
and drilled, I strolled down to the Zócalo for a newspaper, and took photos of
some of the most aggressive, picturesque, and artistically meritful of Sunday’s
graffiti on Calles García Vigil and Independencia. When we returned to town
Wednesday morning, the graffiti were gone, the walls painted over with ugly
orange swatches.

The tents
in the Zócalo and surrounding streets still remain where they were place 39
days ago, though they seem less densely packed and with not nearly so many
people lounging about in them. The steady drizzle that intensified to heavy
rain every fifteen minutes or so might have had something to do with that. Yesterday
somebody planted some symbolic coffins in front of the Municipio.
The violent clashes on the highway
were Sunday afternoon. In the past couple of days many photos of the
confrontations have been posted on the internet. On
Sunday in town several businesses had had their windows shattered. ATM machines
were destroyed, and several department stores and convenience stores in central
Oaxaca were looted. Many walls are smudged from the smoke of burning rubber. By
Wednesday most of the street trash had been removed and some of the windows
replaced. There has been a run on the installation of roll-down metal shutters.

The
follow-up news stories to Sunday’s events make it pretty clear that the CNTE,
the national teachers’ union, and its Sección 22 Oaxaca affiliate, have been
successful in at least one of their objectives, which is to turn their protest
against the education reform law into an issue of basic labor rights, and to
engage international labor and human rights organizations to accept their
version of events and to speak out on their behalf. They also seem to have
successfully situated their struggle into the context of a class war, and the
worldwide clash of the proletariat and the capitalist exploiters.
Wednesday
was held up for a few minutes in town by a march of health industry workers:
most in their dress whites, calm, chatting with each other as them marched,
some on cell phones, a few carrying placards of solidarity. In the Zócalo one
of the leaders of Sección 22 thanked them for joining the struggle, underscored
how it was a government plot to seize control of the health industry and
warning them that their labor rights were just as much in play as those of the
teachers. “We will join you,” they said, “in your fight to annul the new public
health reform laws. [Note: not a single sign referenced Obama-Care.]
The casualties at the blockades in
Nochixtlan (92 kilometers north of Oaxaca City on the toll road to Puebla and
Mexico City) and at Hacienda Blanca (2.5 km downhill from the Casa DaviLinda)
have galvanized (a) opposition to the government in general, (b) conspiracy
theorists, (c) other labor unions, (d) students, and (e) even the Church, which
–no surprise-- has taken a stand pro-negotiation and anti-violence, without
venturing into the minefield of specificity. The recent violence has also
galvanized supporters of the primacy of law and order and the sanctity of life
and property; government people, impresarios, chambers of commerce; small
business owners, and some of the organizations of parents of school kids.
Though I have always considered my self solid with the downtrodden and against
the alleged downtreaders, to my discomfort and lurking embarrassment I find
myself increasingly in sympathy the the law and order folks.
All sides seem to be urging the
parties to negotiate rather than resort to violence, and some conversations
have indeed begun. Few people seem to be focusing on the tragedy of yet another
truncated school year.

As my
brother John pointed out in his analysis of a few days ago, in struggles like
these facts are only semi-relevant and events are generally labeled and given
valence even before they occur. This truth becomes self-evident when one
glances at the competing narratives playing out on the front pages of the
newspapers posted at the kiosks in the Zócalo. The police fired without warning
/ the CNTE began hurling rocks and cohetes
(fireworks) at the police. The CNTE was determined to provoke violent response
/ the CNTE was infiltrated by agitators, probably from the government, and they
are the ones to blame. The CNTE demands to negotiate / but is intransigent. The
government won’t negotiate / wants to negotiate but will not capitulate to
ultimatums. There is probably an element of truth in ALL of these assertions.
And also in the belief that none of the parties will negotiate in good faith.
And that the whole mess rests on an underlying bed of class struggle. (No, I am
not talking about party rifts in the US Congress.)
There is a
strong element of economic terrorism in the tactics employed by the unions, one
that while it purports to cause grief to the “ruling class,” mainly hurts the
“people.” An increasing number of stores in the historic center of Oaxaca are
shuttered. Waiters, kitchen staff, sales people are on reduced wages or out of
a job. The spokesperson for the hotel sector estimates losses already at 150
million pesos (18p = $1 US). The twenty-plus blockades on national highways in
various parts of Oaxaca State mean that goods are not moving. The protests have
clamped a tourniquet on the arteries of commerce – to save the patient, argue
some, and to kill the patient, say others. Perishables like fruit, vegetables,
fresh fish, and chickens (so many, and so cheap, that they are the only meat
eaten by many people) are not reaching Oaxaca City. Supermarket shelves are
going empty, and prices are rising on the goods that are getting through,
further prejudicing the folks on the margins of the money economy. Banks can’t
move cash, and everyone below a handful at the top are paid in cash, not by
check or bank transfer. People can’t meet their payrolls.
Possibly the biggest hit has been
in the construction industry which, according to industry figures, employs
183,000 people in the state. Cement comes mostly from the states of Puebla and
Morelos, with some from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Construction projects --
roads, houses, factories – are coming to a stop, and their workers are not
being paid. And there seems to be no one – except maybe “the system,” to hold
accountable. Or to make restitution.
There
aren’t many notes of humor in all of this, although here is one that maybe
would have made even Bakunin smile. I’m paraphrasing from the ADN news service:
‘A group of self-styled anarchists, their faces covered with black masks,
blocked one of the lanes of the road that in front of the university. Their
plan, to seize a bus to block the road completely, to gather supporters, and to
march to the Zócalo in support of the striking teachers. But nobody wanted to
join them, so after a few minutes they dispersed and went back into the
university.’ Ideally, to attend a good labor history class. Don’t they know
that trying to organize anarchists is like trying to herd cats?
More,
undoubtedly, to follow.