In 2006 a huge social movement erupted in Oaxaca , demanding the corrupt State Governor resign, and asserting grass-roots autonomy. Hundreds of barricades were erected in Oaxaca City , dozens of radio and TV stations were occupied and the state government was paralysed – until the Federal government sent in overwhelming forces crush this flowering of grass-roots democracy.

APPO, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, were central to the struggle, and Ruben was deeply involved. In 2007 he co-founded VOCAL (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty ). In January he was stabbed in the neck in a politically motivated assassination attempt.

Ruben says: “In Oaxaca we have lived through the assassination of 26 activists, the incarceration of more than 500 political prisoners, and today we still have more than 40 political prisoners in Oaxaca . Despite all this repression, we continue our struggle.

We have a proposal of autonomy which we call communality, and we say that there are alternatives which are being proposed against the state and against capitalism.....”

“I want to emphasise the massive criminalization of social protest in Mexico . Not only in Oaxaca but also in Guerrero, Chiapas, Atenco, Michoacan, Puebla, and various other states .”

The peasant farmers of Atenco waged a spectacular direct action campaign and successfully stopped the government building a new airport for Mexico City on their land. But the state took revenge when in 2006 the police provoked a conflict and then invaded Atenco, violently attacking local citizens, killing two young people and committing horrific rapes and serious sexual assaults on at least 23 women. An international campaign is now demanding the release of 12 activists from Atenco's Peoples Front for the Defence of the Land, sentenced to up to 112 years.

A speaker from organisers Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group will describe their twinning with 40 Zapatista indigenous villages in Chiapas , and the eviction threats, jailings and repression Zapatistas and Other Campaign supporters face, as they resist mega tourist projects. The group has raised £20,900 for the Zapatista health service, enabling their “twins” of Autonomous Municipality “16th February” to build their own clinic. The Glasgow meeting will see the re-launch of the Glasgow Zapatista solidarity group.



Meeting details

– Glasgow: 6pm Wed 29 July, Electron Club, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St G2 3JD

- Edinburgh: 7.30pm Thurs 30 July, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL .

Both accessible for wheelchair users and free. Plus stalls with books, coffee, handicrafts from Chiapas .

More info www.edinchiapas.org.uk Contact  edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk