Friends on the OSAG listserv,

      Dave Brown (OSAG post #2107) refers to a Fifth Internationalist (Trotskyist) article that attacks the failure of the Zapatistas and of the PRD (Obrador) to support what the author, Keith Spencer, mistakenly calls 'The Oaxaca Commune'.
      Ken Norden (OSAG posts #2108, 2109, 2110), the first post his own analysis and the second two statements put out by the Grupo Internacionalista, Mexican section of the League for the Fourth International, all three arguing in similar vein to Dave Brown's post.

      I believe the criticisms of AMLO are basically correct (here I don't accept Jill Irene Freidberg's proferred explanation that the PRD held back to avoid giving the appearance that there might have been substance to the PRI and PAN charges that APPO was funded by the PRD). I think the criticism of the Zapatistas by Dave and Ken is completely unjustified, although utterly sincere.

      Both Dave and Ken are clearly favorable towards the North American part of the self-appointed 'Vanguard of the Working Class', what I (from my anarchist perspective) see as the hard sectarian left. It's almost too obvious to deserve pointing out, but the fact remains that none of these sectarian left groups has mounted an effective action that led to support here in Oaxaca for the truly popular movement. That's not a reason to attack them. They did what they could, I'm sure. They hate capitalism and all it stands for with the same venom that keeps me enraged at the states' atrocities.

      The fact is that they are not leading the working class, as they dream of doing. What Nancy Davies says in her forthcoming book speaks directly to this notion of 'leadership':

“Leader” means in the APPO context, as in Zapatista usage, “lead by obeying” the will of the assembly. Or, to put it in other terms, one is leading only if everyone else is following. If nobody is behind you, you are not leading. The APPO has a built-in disregard for and dismissal of its “leaders”, by consensus or by referendum or by plebiscite. The same holds true for the teachers’ Section 22 assembly, which has marginalized its former “leader” Rueda Pacheco, who seemed to not be leading by obeying the will of the assembly.[bold my emphasis –G.S.]

The form of the APPO is not only usos y costumbres, but also non-violent, and inclusive. [emphasis in original]

Being inclusive has been partly from necessity, to build strength. It is also a political posture. Just as the Zapatistas have been inclusive, with the sole exclusion of armed groups, so has the APPO. The APPO, however, has stood as itself; so, for example, although many adherents may be Zapatistas, or members of political parties (PRD, Communists, Socialists, etcetera), the APPO, as befits its origins in usos y costumbres, is not a political party and does not aspire to be one. It is the form we are talking about here, the form of a popular assembly governing structure, which in turn supports a political agenda. [emphasis in original]

As a person educated in the European tradition, and white, and northern, I see clearly how tempted readers of European descent are to reach for their history of the Paris Commune or the soviets. For those who are descended from the indigenous cultures, this is not part of their culture except insofar as some may have been educated to it in the university. It’s not what came to them from their mother-culture, as Hansel and Gretel or Jack and the Beanstalk came to me, from mine.

      I want only to add that I watched the entire so-called 8th mega-march on 10 Dec. It was truly inspiring to see, in the face of all the threats to which adherents (and even sympathizers) have been subjected. Among the demonstrators were individuals for whom arrest warrants were outstanding, but they marched, defiantly. To speak, as the article Dave referred to does, of the Oaxaca Commune having been defeated, is badly mistaken. It shows a lack of understanding of the dynamic that is happening here. A teacher friend who must be between 50 and 60, and whose leg just above the knee still bore evidence, more than two weeks later, of being badly struck on the 25 November attack by the PFP, said to me yesterday, The fuse has been lit. I think his prediction is correct. I hope so. In any case, don’t write off either what the people of Oaxaca are trying to do, or their way of going about it. They are magnificent.
Sincerely, George
george.salzman (at) umb.edu