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Interview appeared in I number of junio/2002 of
periodic of UPA-Molotov
disinformation the representative of Popular the indigenous Council of
Oaxaca "Ricardo the Flowers Magon" CIPO-RFM, Raul Gatica "Those that we left affected in the wars we are always the towns, are not the rich ones" Popular the indigenous Council of Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magon" (CIPO-RFM) is one organizacion formed by 23 communities that actuan in 5 of the 8 economicas regions that the state of Oaxaca has (Mexico). He is born in November of 1997 like result of the confluence, from years 80, of diverse organizations and communities. But the particular repression, violence and interests of each one of the integral organizations cause that the Council has a series of losses, you complete them in the 2000. You complete because since the Council has but defined clearly its profile and contents (a one organizacion of communities and not alliance of organizations), they confian in which no longer habra but divisions. We took advantage of the informative tour by the state espanol one of its representatives, Raul Gatica, to speak with. P: As it is your form of operation, history, teorias in which you inspirais and the forms of Political intervention that teneis. R: Basicamente we have one orientacion communitarian, that serious our main axis of joint and performance. From ahi we have taken like part from the ideologico exposition the ideas from the magonistas, that he is not reduced to the thought of R. Flores Magon, but also to Ruined Creek, Tragedes, N. Teo Bernal, and a set of liberal, members of the liberal party that existed at the beginning of century. And good, the magonistas of today in day, that continue reflecting on many things. They are our ideologica, complementary inspiration to all the work of the community. Our ideals estan settled down in the communitarian work, have a democratica form to subsist, have like survival reason the mutual support, autogestion, the collective and gratuitous work, the will on watch, a series of values that has the community and that inspires to us to say that if the society worked as the communities work, because another world estariamos living. We have had a very dificil history, of repression, deaths. We are not submissive, we do not stay shut up, and good, in that sense we are attacked and done violence to by the different police corporations from the government, I exercise, the judicial policia, the municipal policia, the paramilitary ones that are indigenouss in his mayoria. And then all it makes seem that it is a lawsuit between us, when he is not asi, but who are people paid by the governments. In this subject we have had to resort to a series of fight forms that allow to cause that our communities are respected and that we obtain attention. The temptation of the violence in the indigenouss communities is latent, because Since of as much aggression, because moments arrive at which your you say that as in any case you are going away to die... Nevertheless until today CIPO has had capacity to resist to that temptation because obvious that if gives to fear the war us, we do not want the war because in her nobody desire, all lose, until which in the end say that they win. Those that we left affected in the wars we are always the towns, they are not rich those that go, we are between brothers single who of a side and others of another one, but equal, we killed ourselves. Then we have decided on the pacifica fight with collective and direct actions. Asi we do encamped of protest, takings of buildings, occupations of earth, houses, projects of communitarian transport with no need to have permissions, etc. And also we faced the policia, of other ways but we faced, with talent and imagination: we transformed a tradition into a fight form. Asi we transformed a celebration like the one of deads into a protest celebration, against the repression, the punishment to our brothers. We see that there has been as one esquematizacion of the fight forms. There is one who thinks that whichever but dano they do to him to the one of opposite, are but revolutionary, but combative. We say that he can be a that form but that it is not the unica, and we have drawn up our own lines: in each act to involve other people, to gain simpatia of whom although they are not of the indigenous advice, they get along with. Another point is that our actions summon to the taking of conscience of the people whom that sees us, and another thing is it becomes something pleasant for those who makes it, that is something that they like. And other but it is that it leaves without arguments the government so that does not repress to us, in such a way that if it represses to us it demonstrates that this repressing pacificos acts. We changed the songs that there are traditional by other songs. In those songs we requested justice and freedom of the prisoners, for example. If we go 400 of the advice to a manifestation, the song estan it singing 3,000, are 3,000 people who estan in agreement with the song, and which they are estan expressing against the government. Other forms of fight consist of making bled massive: if they are done painted, it does not pass anything, erase, we we have done painted with blood. Also they erase them, but it is not just like your you see one painted of spray one painted, in house of a civil employee, of people who went removing 10 centimetros from blood of her veins and were with her syringe writing the exigency. P: Cual is the form of operation of the community, as the daily life is lived? R: The community is a permanent space of contradictions. Who comes to say to them that the community is ideal and that she is perfect, it comes to say lies. The problem is not if we have or noncontradictions but as we are solving them. All the communitarian problems we solve them in general assembly: like space to choose our representatives, space to define Political, economica, social and cultural the life of the community, space where they become reeducacion and the corrective ones for the companeros that commit irregularities, like place where everybody exposes its ideas to say towards where it must go the community. Since comes different comites that there is in the community, and they are in charge to carry out the agreements. And in the case of the CIPO-RFM, our structure of operation it is very simple. The basico is the general assembly of the community. And this names its representatives, who form the Council of Base or Advice of the Community. This organizacion is the fundamental nucleo of ours. Since is the general assembly of Advice of base where the advice of all the communities reunen themselves. Between these instances there is a superior instance, that is the General Assembly of Members of all the Communities. This creates to operate its agreements an operative instance that is called Organizing Meeting of the indigenous Council. This organizing meeting has 12 areas of work: finances, connect, women, Youth the general coordination, the one of qualification, ecologia, culture, etc. P: After the Law approved indigenous does an year by Fox, Cual is the present situation of the Mexican indigenous movement? R: Which the senor Fox and its lacayos esten saying to the national community and independently international which already we have changed much, that in Mexico all this solving, the reality is that it is not certain. The indigenouss towns we continued having day (segun the official data that they have) a high degree of undernourishment in 70% today of us. Most of the deaths in the indigenouss communities continues being by curable diseases, most does not have the Basic services, the average of schooling is at the most the 2, degree of primary and mayoria does not know to read nor to write. There is no mejorias. On the other hand the Politicall Fox and all parties, (left and right, centers, ecologists and nonecological, all), approve a law that we called the Law Fox, or the law of contrarreforma indigenous. It is a law that this against our rights and denies the possibility to us of being subject of right. It denies the possibility of associating to us and it reduces to the ambito policeman purely to us. This has generated but of an answer from the indigenous movement; there are some who think that the fight we must give it single within the framework legal and have interposed a series of resources. There are some who think that the idea is to fight single from down, with mobilizations, to countermand that law. We thought that there is to make the two things. From always the indigenous movement in Mexico he has been multiple, with many faces, many visions and forms to see. Today he faces a very special challenge. This very dispersed, I do not say that he does not exist, exists and this making things, but descoordinadamente. The space of Consejo Nacional indigenous (CNI) has demonstrated that single in the measurement in which the EZLN summons it it articulates and it moves, but in case single it has not had the capacity to develop concrete works. We must obtain that the CNI is an instrument of the indigenouss towns, an instrument that is able to move when the brothers summon del EZ, but an instrument that also is able to move by if single, like indigenous movement, that has capacity to summon to the fight. The important challenge but that today it has the indigenous movement is to be able to be constructed a face, an identity, but coverall to drive that it depends on his own force. Us gustaria who people in Europe could see, think and feel the indigenous movement but alla of Chiapas. That he could understand that the Indians we are all over Mexico and we are in America and we are in the world. That the fight of Chiapas is the fight of all Mexico and all America, and that they do not make the favor him to the government reduce the single movement indigenous to single Chiapas and to about four municipalities, and single to the EZLN, and the worse thing, single to Subcomandante Marks. P: Cuales is the concrete problems in your state? R: The repression, the lack of resources, the lack of supports, the great misery and poverty, the lack of services, the illiteracy, the undernourishment the violence towards our communities. We among other things have come to Europe to denounce the violations of human rights that we suffered constantly, the isolation that we have suffered from the governments, who do not invest in our communities to develop them. The indigenouss communities we are facing in Oaxaca a Political of extermination that goes from forcing to the companeras to sterilization to introduce transgenicos maices in our towns to depend nourishinily on the great multinationals. This Political of extermination that we have this very hard, and basicamente this directed towards the indigenouss towns that we fought, that is, of way but behaved shamelessly, but the indigenouss towns that do not fight is even going them to exterminate. And for that reason we are asking for the people who us acompane, because we have seen that with the presence of other people the repression towards our towns stops a little. And also this possibility of acompanamiento entails the possibility of interchanging experiences, saberes and wills to continue fighting. |