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An activist from Oaxaca speaks in London, 17 February, 2pm!

No Sweat | 16.02.2007 20:16 | Oaxaca Uprising | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London

An activist from the celebrated Oaxaca struggle is speaking in London on Saturday 17 February.

Andreas Aullet, an activist from the huge workers' and popular struggle that took place last year in Oaxaca, Mexico, is speaking at SOAS tomorrow (Saturday 17 February) at 2pm.

He has already spoken at well-attended meetings in Brighton, Cambridge, Nottingham, York, Manchester and Sheffield (unfortunately he didn't make it to speak to the 70 people who turned up in Norwich due to a mechanical failure!) Please come and find out about the struggle of the workers and people of Oaxaca against corruption and against capitalism!

"Andres Aullet works with the Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners of Oaxaca. Along with other activists, he is helping to set up a nation-wide body to coordinate the struggle for the release of all political prisoners in Mexico. Andres was an activist during the strike of UNAM (Universidad Autónoma de México) in 1999, from which he graduated as a lawyer.

"He will be speaking in London at 2pm on Saturday at the School of Oriental and African Studies, off Russell Square, near Goodge Street, Russell Square and Euston tubes."

No Sweat
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- Homepage: http://www.nosweat.org.uk

Comments

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Pushing the new leninist vanguard party

17.02.2007 08:21

This tour has been organised to promote leninist political idealogues to niave students. As was said on a previous IMC post - the speaker on this tour concludes his talk by promoting the very misleading idea that we need to form a new vanguardist authoritarian political party to "represent" the movement. what bollocks!

You have been warned! :-0)

for the 21st Century

Yawn

18.02.2007 19:10

What absolute bollocks.

Yes, the speaker on the tour, Andreas Aullet, is a Marxist and a member of Mexican socialist group. He is one of many speakers that No Sweat has brought to the UK since 2002. These speakers - from countries as diverse as Indonesia, Haiti, Argentina, Iraq, Bolivia, the US and Mexico (twice) - have come from a variety of labour movement and leftist backgrounds, including syndicalist and anarchist. Andreas came to speak in his capacity as a participant in the Oaxaca struggle and an activist and lawyer who is helping to fight to free political prisoners following the Mexican government's repression.

What was wrong with him putting forward his political views? Last year's speaker on the No Sweat Zanon tour put forward a sort of syndicalist perspective. Does that mean it was all a syndicalist conspiracy? And when the speakers from the US Living Wage Action Coalition, who were anarchists, came over, was that an anarchist plot? Don't be so ridiculous and paranoid. There were various people involved in the organisation of the Oaxaca meetings, lots of points of view in every audience and lots of time for questions, discussion and debate. I'm sorry if someone putting forward a Marxist view offends you, but there it is.

For reference, in addition to a lot of detailed description of the struggle in Oaxaca and practical proposals for solidarity, the basic ideas Andreas put forward were this. i) The central, back-bone role of the organised working class, in this case in particular the teachers' union, in the social upheaval. ii) The need for the movement to overthrow the state and take political power. iii) In his view, the need for revolutionaries with these perspectives to get politically organised together to advocate and fight for these ideas in the movement. You might disagree with these perspectives, as in fact many in No Sweat do, but what's so sinister about them?

Sacha