Greetings from C.A.S.A. Chapulin in Oaxaca!

December represents many things; the end of the year, evaluations, reflexion, and planning for a new year.  It is also the month where the Virgen of Guadalupe and Christmas is celebrated for Catholics.  Additionally, it is also when the International Day of the Declaration of Human Rights is commemorated, of which CASA would like to reflect on:

Inhumane Rights 

It is said that 51 years ago the declaration of human rights was created and adhered by a grand majority of the countries of the world…but what is really happening? 

In reality: there are more that 1.2 billion people who suffer from hunger, a number that is expanding throughout the world. The majority of whom are women, children, and elderly.

There are thousands of victims of the wars for empire and the number increases everyday.

Every day there are people in struggle who are repressed, tortured, and “disappeared” by the henchmen controlled by multinational powers through “counterinsurgency” strategies.

Everywhere there are women who are raped and sexually assaulted
Families who lost their loved ones in the hands of state terrorism who continue to search for truth and justice in the face of cynical responses from governments both fascist and “pseudo-progressive” alike.

The majority, the dispossessed, the “nobodies”, the marginalized by a system that privileges only a few, continue to suffer a silent and invisible violence. 

 In the face of all that, this December the 10th, we don´t want to celebrate. We want to stand up against those conditions that we live under, because if we don´t act now it won´t only be global warming that will leave us burned; it will be our failure to act upon global change.

* CONTENT*

Mexican Electrictrians Union (SME) Continues to Resist the Government´s Plan to Destroy It
This past October 11 Felipe Calderon issued a presidential decree to "disappear" the semi-nationalized electricity company "Luz y Fuerza del Centro". The move simultaneously left more the 44 thousand people without work and sought to destroy one of the most progressive and powerful unions in the country, the "Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas". Since then the union has resisted and built popular support to challenge the president´s neoliberal agenda. Actions have been held througout the country, including blockades and marches in Oaxaca, to support them. In Mexico City 11 eleven continue on hunger strike in order to demand a solution from the president.

 ...We Continue Weaving Resistances...
After the first Nacional Forum: Weaving Resistances in Defense of Our territories which took place on the 17th and 18th of April 2009 in San Pedro Apostol, Octolan, Oaxaca, organizations from around the state and the country have returned to the table to continue to create spaces for analysis and reflection between different movements and communities in resistance, in order to connect and to create solidarity between them and against the plunder of their lands.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Around the world, November 25th is recognized as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This date originates from the assassination of the three Mirabel Sisters, women from the Dominican Republic who were assassinated for their political activities against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship. In Oaxaca and elsewhere, the struggle and resistance continue. Click to read various articles about the situation of women in Oaxaca, and their participation in the social movement and in community radios. Also, check out the last article to make a colonial connection with violence against women in Mexico and violence against women of color in the U.S.

Electoral Fraud Proved in Honduras: More than 50 Percent Did Not Vote
While most international news organizations took obedient dictation of the Honduras coup regime's claims of more than 62 percent voter participation in the November 29 "elections," authentic journalist Jesse Freeston did what real reporters are supposed to do: He went directly to the source, asked questions, took notes, and videotaped the evidence.

Covering their faces, judicial police appear in court to lie about Víctor Herrera Govea
“Judicial police, after beating people up and telling lies and covering things up, how do you explain all this at home when you’re asked: what do you do?” This question written on a poster is one of many that around twenty demonstrators hurled at the judicial police who covered their faces as they left the courtroom in the prison known as the Reclusorio Sur after appearing to give false testimony in the case of the young political prisoner Víctor Herrera Govea on Thursday, November 19

The U.S. Can’t Win the Drug War in Mexico with the Merida Initiative
The “war on drugs” in Mexico is widely publicized in the United States, with newspaper coverage of the almost daily carnage, violence resulting from drug-trafficking and fighting it. However, the issue is more complex than a mere showdown between cartels and the military. Drug trafficking is Mexico’s largest source of income and the illegal activity functions based on a system of corruption in the military, police force, the government, and banks.

THIS DECEMBER LET´S TAKE ACTION TO FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
...I dream of freedom.  It is the sweeetest word I have ever heard and eah night I dream of it. I dream of a country and a world where the death penalty exists only in our memories, where it is history. I dream of the abscence of bars,  the abscence of shackles, and the abscence of the threat of death." –MAJ On 9th of December, the day that Mumia Abu Jamal will have spent 28 years behind bars, we invite you to participate in a protest to demand his freedom in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City or wherever you may be.

 
WHAT'S NEW IN C.A.S.A. CHAPULIN?

CASA Strategic Plan 2009-2011

New initiatives to strengthen cross-border grassroots organizing and movement building

CASA Chapulin has recently been having a series of collective meetings to flesh out a strategic plan that charts new initiatives to strengthen and expand solidarity organizing in Oaxaca.  

The plan responds to the changing political landscape after the popular movement of 2006, the need to foster new leadership, and the need to build alliances across differences of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, geographies, and age.

To start off with, our efforts will focus on the need to do solidarity work under two specific working areas: the media and food sovereignty.

Three key goals will shape CASA’s work in the next coming years:

    * Building relationships and networks across borders, colors, generations, and sociogeographies
    * Facilitating movement building across communities in resistance
    * Building alliances with a strategic focus on: people of color, immigrants, indigenous peoples, and low-income peoples based in the U.S.; as well as communities in resistance in Central and South America.
    * Cultivating strategies for grassroots organizing that are global in scope and rooted in local realities

  Efforts to achieve these goals include the following:

    * Expanding CASA’s Volunteer Opportunites to include communities historically marginalized from solidarity work-immigrants, POC, indigenous, low-income, and people from Central and South America
    * Expanding CASA’s Delegation Program with the intention to cultivate a space of intercambio (mutual exchange) between communities in resistance in Oaxaca, greater Mexico, Central & South America, and immigrant, indigenous, POC, and low-income peoples based in the U.S.

  Other elements of the plan include creating a collective setting amongst members, staying connected to the land and practicing food sovereignty by maintaining the urban garden in our backyard, and becoming financially autonomous from institutions.

Call-out to donate $$$
 
As always, we encourage members and allies to support our transnational justice work by donating to CASA Chapulin We operate on a tight shoestring budget and depend on grassroots fundraising efforts made by you.   Donations will go towards maintaining a collective space open and ensuring that 2 coordinators keep building a grassroots base in Oaxaca.  Make a tax-deductible contribution by visiting our website: www.casacollective.org or, donate by check. Make checks out to 'The Faithful Fools' with 'CASA' in the memo line, and mail to: CASA c/o Faithful Fools 230/234 Hyde St. San Francisco, CA 94102

If you would also like to receive this newsletter in Spanish or if you are interested in applying for a volunteer position, please write to the same email address: colectivocasachapulin@gmail.com

Saludos de Solidaridad

Collective of Support, Solidarity and Action

Oaxaca, Mexico