Oaxaca is in the midst of revolt and resistance. A mass of the residents united in popular assemblies have termed Oaxaca City an independent and self managed commune (relating it to the Paris Commune of 1871), the APPO. The popular assemblies took form when citizens joined in and aided with striking teachers from Section 22 of the SÃndicato Nacionál Trajabadores Educativas (Teachers Union) who were attacked by security forces loyal to Oaxaca’s ruling Governor. The initial teachers strike and subsequent attack on it by government (and paramilitary) forces happened earlier this summer. The popular assemblies and it Commune have continued since.
The assemblies are semi-mass bodies, multi-tendency, and have functioned as a dual power in Oaxaca. Workers, students, Leftists, anarchists have all participated in the Communes organization and life.
This past weekend security forces attacked yet again and killed several people including a U.S. based anarchist and journalist.
Oaxaca, like other regions of Mexico that have experienced revolt againstst the Mexican government, are highly influenced by both the legacy of Zapatista struggle and of radical syndicalism (which has a long history of participatory politics and libertarian socialism in Mexico going back to the anarchist unions and radicals like the Magon brothers).
In a world where the Left resistance continues to be inspired and characterizeded by centralized and authoritarian parties, Oaxaca and the struggle in Mexico represents the popular and libertarian spirit of revolt. Oaxaca representsts an example of a resistance not bound by the cult of authority – vanguard or parliamentary.