We are publishing an translation of ci-ic of the Detained-Disappeared Day report from Mexico.
This August 30, the International Day of the Detained-Disappeared has been commemorated with mobilisations in different parts of the Mexican Republic to demand the presentation alive of the more than 100,000 disappeared throughout the country.
On a similar day four years ago, in 2018, the International Campaign #DrSernasPresentaciónConVida, which has joined the efforts of democratic organisations, collectives, trade unions, Communist Parties, personalities, academic and cultural institutions, etc. in Mexico and various parts of the world, began with a discussion held in the auditorium of the Central Law Building of the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca.
As part of this International Campaign, in Oaxaca City the mobilisation called by the People’s Current Red Sun has been carried out as planned.
This is the report addressed to the working class, the poor peasantry and the popular masses of Mexico and the world.
I. On the preparations
On August 9, the CP-Red Sun publicly issued the call to strengthen the International Campaign #DrSernasPresentationWithLife, which immediately found an echo within the revolutionary-democratic movement at the national and international level. This call was also deployed at the National Popular Assembly led by the Committee of Mothers and Fathers of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa who disappeared on 26 September 2014 in Iguala, Guerrero.
In Oaxaca, the CP-Sol Rojo called for a representative march with a meeting point at the Fuente de las 8 Regiones at 8:30am (resistance time) to later leave in the direction of the Oaxaca Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office. The slogan was clear: Firmly raise the red flag of comrade Ernesto Sernas García!
From days before, the walls of Oaxaca City were filled with the face and name of Dr. Sernas García. Those who disappeared him did not believe that they would always see him everywhere.
Doctor in Law Ernesto Sernas García was disappeared on 10 May 2018 at his home in San Agustín de las Juntas, Oaxaca; he was a professor at the UABJO, lecturer, researcher, essayist and at the time of his disappearance he was the defence lawyer of 23 comrades from CP-Sol Rojo accused of terrorism and carrying explosives for the reserved use of the Mexican army.
Because of the way in which our comrade disappeared, the context in which this happened, the secrecy and omissions of the old state and the level of collusion between the various structures of the regime, the family of comrade Sernas García and the CP-Sol Rojo affirm that this was a forced disappearance, that is to say: It was a crime ordered by the state!
II. Of the actions.
At the meeting place there were also other collectives of relatives of victims of disappearances committed by private individuals, but their route and objectives were different. Although these cases are not identified with the left or the popular movement, they are part of the figures of disappearances that exist in Mexico and that have been overflowing in the so-called “war on drugs” launched by Felipe Calderón and continued to this day with the militarisation of the country (in reality it is a war against the people) and that only results in the increase of criminality and violence against the masses.
The heroic Section XXII of the SNTE-CNTE was also present and denounced that among the disappeared of the teachers’ dissidence at the national level there are at least 40 comrades; the mobilisation of the democratic teachers went to the centre of the city.
The march of CP-Sol Rojo started at 9:30am (resistance time), clarifying to the comrades of the heroic Section XXII of the SNTE-CNTE that our mobilisation was destined for the DDHPO and not the zócalo of the city, so we were the first contingent to leave. The group of collectives of relatives of victims of disappearances committed by private individuals decided to wait for the teachers to request a space at their rally.
We started the march as what it should be: a combative, energetic and protest action, rejecting the practices that the agents of the state want to imbue the movement with, calling for calm strolls, walks and pacifist parades that have many colours and little action.
During the march, the People’s Youth Brigades and the Popular Student Movement spray-painted, wrote slogans and stencilled stencils, and also pasted posters flooding the streets with the name and face of comrade Sernas García.
The mobilisation was attended in solidarity by representatives of other sister organisations and unions, such as the Union of Oaxacan Artisans and Traders in Struggle (UACOL), the Zapatista Autonomous Movement for the Rescue of the Countryside (MAZORCA), Section XXII of the SNTE-CNTE, the SUTTEBCEO, Section 9 of the SINTS, among others. A banner with the face of comrade Sergio Rivera Hernández, a militant of the Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement (MAIZ) who disappeared four years ago in the Sierra Negra of Puebla, accompanied the march.
Hundreds of red flags and a combative atmosphere took over the streets of the city.
The contingent made a stop at the Fonapas crossroads to continue its march to the DDHPO, where the masses took over the installations and began a militant rally with the participation of the organizations and unions that accompanied us.
III. Incidents.
At the beginning of the march there was some confusion among the collectives of relatives of victims of disappearances committed by private individuals, since, in the inexperience of street mobilization and the prominence of some of its actors, they thought that they would lead all the marches, force all the organized forces to arrive at the same point and that they would be empowered to speak for all the disappeared persons, including our comrade Sernas García.
However, we considered that in the midst of the criminalisation campaign of the old State towards the family of Dr. Sernas and our organisation it was not correct to mix the issue of forced disappearance (committed by the State) with the disappearance committed by private individuals of people outside the movement, as we know neither the cases nor the specific contexts of this; furthermore, our itinerary was already planned and could not be changed.
Section XXII of the SNTE-CNTE, more experienced than those collectives in these matters, understood our position perfectly and asked them not to obstruct our march. We salute the struggle of the democratic teachers and we salute our own struggle, we demand the presentation alive of the education workers disappeared by the old state. We want them alive!
Later, in a bank branch of British imperialism (HSBC) the youth rejected the provocation of an element of private security who, feeling like a slave who becomes a hero of imperialism, tried to attack the youth with insults and shoves with a small billy club; the activists overcame him by simply ignoring him, setting up a siege and making graffiti and stickers with slogans like “death to the banks and death to capital! Let the imperialists begin to tremble, because we communists are going to overthrow them!”
The private security employee is certainly a worker. They do unproductive work in the service of big capital, their labour is not useful to the development of society, for it does not produce science, technology, infrastructure, food or knowledge. His work is based solely on the exposure of his physical integrity to safeguard capital and the sacrosanct private property of the bankers; necessity has led him to accept this work for which his masters will never thank him. Evidently we are not judging his work, but his lowly attitude, the guy is confused and unclassified in wanting to attack his class that fights against the damned masters. Unfortunately many workers are in the same situation, but the intensification of the crisis and the street mobilisation of the working class and the masses of the people will awaken millions to the struggle. The security employee has not been assaulted, but his class has given him an important lesson of dignity.
There were no major incidents during the march, the same political police that disguises itself as “press” has preferred to keep a good distance.
IV. Conclusions
We believe that the demonstration has been successful, that we have once again demonstrated on the streets the weight and combativeness of our revolutionary-democratic organisation.
We think that it has been right to defend the integrity of our banners and the legitimacy of our demand for justice by continuing the route traced by our organisation, without changes or softening. We think it is right to specify that the forced disappearance of our comrade is a state crime. We also think it is right that the CNTE and organisations like CP-Red Sun continue to unite our struggles and strengthen our immediate and historical demands in common.
Above all, we believe that the accompaniment and solidarity of some organised expressions of the popular movement is important, precisely in view of the coming times when the management of the state government will have to change following the logic of the new corporativism-officialism represented by Morena and the false left.
New winds are blowing, they are winds of struggle and for this our Rectification Campaign and street mobilisation continue to prepare us.
Ernesto Sernas García – present alive!
Because they were taken alive, we want them alive!
Defend the life and the rights of the people!
Combatively:
With the Red Sun, the people will win!
Red Sun People’s Current
