If anyone has any doubts that working people have the capacity or the desire for revolutionary struggle, the Oaxaca Commune certainly shows otherwise. The organisation and heroism in the face of state repression has been magnificent.
The Paris Commune lasted only fifty one days. The Oaxaca Commune lasted much longer. Nevertheless the hard right Federal Mexican Government of Vincente Fox is putting the boot in and it looks like the commune will be defeated.
This Commune is not led by the indigenous of Mexico but the proletariat. Although initiated by the teachers the struggle has embraced the proletariat and poor small farmers of Oaxaca, as well as the indigenous population. Oaxaca is one of the poorest cities in Mexico so there were many proletarians willing to struggle as well as the teachers.
The struggle began on National Teachers Day in May this year. On that day teachers in Oaxaca set up tents. The reactionary Oaxaca state government responded by pepper bombs from the air and armed police with clubs. The unionists responded not by surrender but by forming a soviet, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (OPPA). Since June there has been a situation of dual power in that city of Mexico. Their demo�s have been massive. One million of the four million residents of Oaxaca participated. Their demand was to get rid of the state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. It was Ortiz who authorised the military attacks on the teachers� camps.
In September 5 a proclamation from the OPPA soviet declared the state government null and void, not recognised in Oaxaca and not representing the people of Oaxaca.
This popular assembly has more than just assembled. They have set up picket lines and barricades. They have occupied the main centre of town, the Zolola. 2,000 barricades have been assembled .throughout the city. Coca Cola truck drivers have used their trucks to physically become part of the barricades.
Within the OPPA Commune there is a strong women�s organisation. This organisation took over the main commercial tv channel, channel Nine. Radio and tv stations are now under the control of OPPA.
The level of consciousness has been high. The Oaxaca Communards believe in international solidarity with the worlds� oppressed. But this is not revolutionary internationalism. They also see the need to go beyond their own city and state. But this is not a revolutionary programme. What is needed is a political programme which unites the proletariat and the oppressed around a programme of state power � a revolutionary workers and small farmers government. This the Oaxaca Communards do not have.
On October 27, OPPA organised a massive rally calling for the resignation of Oaxaca Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. President Fox responded by sending in the �preventative" police � the PFP. Detentions, deaths and violations of human rights. In short, the movement has been bathed in blood.
Of course, historically this is nothing new. Marx and Engels recognised the Paris Commune as an heroic attempt by proletarians to take control of their own lives. They saw this commune as a foretaste of the new society, based on soviet power. But they recognised that success of such a commune required the extension of the revolution and a programme for political power. The Oxacca Communards, the OPPA, have failed to learn this fundamental lesson and history has been repeated � at the bloody expense of the Mexican proletariat.
It is urgent that the Mexican proletariat mobilise around a revolution to bring down Vincente Fox and to smash the Mexican state. International action is required also. The smashing of Oaxaca will be a defeat for the revolution not just there but for the whole of the Mexican proletariat. Revolutionary action from the Mexican proletariat would see the Oaxaca Commune rise again.