IRSCNA: Support and Defend the APPO Commune in Mexico!

13 October 2006
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America

Support and Defend the APPO Commune in Mexico!

The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America backs the call made by our fellow workers to defend and support the Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) from attack by the Mexican military and rightist thugs. We must build support immediately so that a slaughter of our comrades can be prevented!

The APPO experiment began with an annual teachers' encampment that demonstrates each May for increased pay and improved conditions in Mexico's second poorest state. Instead of agreeing to the teacher's demands, however, the state authorities attacked the encampment on 14 June.

When the heavily-armed police stormed the town, the workers fought back and ejected them heroically while suffering hundreds of casualties. On 17 June, the workers then formed a popular assembly, representing the unions, working class activists and some eighty-five organisations. They proceeded to seize the radio and television stations and created a no-go area for the authorities. Trucks with supplies have been distributed to meet the needs of the people and collective decision making has replaced the corrupt capitalist government that was banished by the people. They have continued to repel rightist attacks steadfastly.

The events in Oaxaca have been widely compared to the Paris Commune of 1871, what Marx and Engels described as the model for socialist revolution, but now the town has been surrounded by the military and is threatened with destruction.

No one knows what will happen now that­ the commune has spread to the neighbouring state of Guerrero. The Popular Assembly there is comprised so far of over thirty workers and progressive organisations. It may be that even military suppression will not stop the revolutionary organising of the working class and poor farmers. We must act now to aid them and prevent their isolation. It is vital to picket embassies; tell your friends, fellow workers and neighbours and build solidarity before it's too late!

WORKERS, DEFEND THE APPO COMMUNE!
LONG LIVE THE WORKERS' AND POOR FARMERS' STRUGGLE!
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

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Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
PO Box 8266
Austin TX 78713-8266
USA
irscna@irsm. org
http://www.irscna. org/
http://www.irsm. org/irsm. html