In the House of Commons last night around 40 people met for the ‘Launch of International Support for Mexico’s Public Trial of Crimes Against Humanity’. The meeting was organized by The Global Woman’s Strike and hosted by John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn.
Before the meeting leaflets were handed out to everyone to inform people of the recent police brutality brought on APPO activists in the state of Oaxaca, including our own comrade from Militante , Adan Lopez .
The meeting started by showing a 25min film that chronicled the
community/teacher movement in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico. Since last year there have been strikes and demonstrations that have had 1.5 million out on the streets (from a population of 3.7 million) demanding their rights and calling for the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz. A group of women took over the local
TV station, buildings were occupied, road blocks were put up and transport taken over. The film showed the government and police reaction and repression of the uprising. It showed the federal preventative police breaking up demonstrations and gangs of police/hired thugs in cars and on motorbikes, dressed in black, shooting and arresting activists, one of which was Bradley Will.
Two teachers from Oaxaca (one from APPO, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) spoke in detail about the grievances of the teachers and how Governor Ulises Ruiz fraudulently came to power and how he has been mistreating the indigenous peoples (Oaxaca population is 70% indigenous) and misspending the wealth of the state how his administration has been orchestrating the repression of the social movements including assassinations, disappearances, rape, torture and arbitrary detention.
About 60 people have been killed and hundreds (350) arrested. 60 have been disappeared.
The meeting was detailed but narrow in scope, focusing on human rights abuses, until Jeremy Corbyn spoke and connected it to the larger mass movements throughout Mexico and linked it to the interests of imperialism and the Plan Pueblo Panama. Both Corbyn and John McDonnell spoke impressively, and are submitting an Early Day Motion in Parliament on the issue, as well as promising to begin solidarity work, a breath of fresh air in comparison to the other lay-about MPs in Parliament.
During question/answer Julian Sharpe informed everyone about
the arrest of Adan Lopez, our comrade from the Militante and got everyone to sign the petition, including John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. Matt Wells intervened as well and offered to try to raise the issues in his trade union, PCS.
