Across the world, grassroots opposition has continued to support the people of Oaxaca and Palestine. In the US and Europe, people have expressed solidarity with Oaxaca and demonstrated in front of Mexican embassies. In San Jose, a small group of activists distribute literature about the apartheid nature of the Wall and lead weekly protests against both walls as well as Israeli actions against the people of Palestine. In Atlanta, GA., Radio Diaspora (www.wrfg.org) dedicated a segment to the repressive walls on the US-Mexico border and in Palestine.
In Mexico itself are actively working to make the link between the struggles. The Campaign and the APPO have expressed solidarity, and in a recent letter the Campaign has joined with the people of Oaxaca (for the full letter, click here. ). In Mexico, the social movements gathered in the Border Social Forum held on October 13 â 15 declared: âWe will organize an International Week of Action from the 9th to the 12th of November, including solidarity actions with the Mexican and Palestinian people and educational activities regarding the common struggles.â Those actions had been postponed due to the national focus on the uprising in Oaxaca. The current uprising in Oaxaca by the oppressed indigenous generation is called pointedly the âOaxaca Intifadaâ and links between the Mexican and Palestinian struggles are built as the repression increases.
The latest massacre in Palestine has seen 20 people from Beit Hanoun refugee camp killed my Israeli shells. And with the US vetoing yet another UN Security Council resolution, it is unlikely that the Israel will be held accountable for war crimes. But absurdity of US rejectionism is only matched by Israeli cynicism; as Beit Hanoun is written off as an accident, Occupation forces continue the siege on Gaza while the Apartheid Wall furthers the colonial project in the West Bank.
In Oaxaca, the Mexican government continues to throw its military might against the peaceful protest of 70,000 educational workers. Oaxaca has a long history of resistance to the colonial interests of the central state, and in the most recent protest has called for the end of the corrupt and repressive government under Ulises Ruiz. Working through the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), the people continue peaceful protests in the face beatings, abduction and murder at the hands of the military.
The struggle in Oaxaca and Palestine are not only linked by colonial violence. Recently Boeing and Elbit Systems, the Israeli firm responsible for the construction for the Apartheid Wall in Palestine, has been a awarded a contract to construct a similar monstrosity along the US-Mexico border. Kollsman Inc., an American-based subsidiary of Elbit, has been selected as a member of the winning consortium by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the Secure Border Initiative (SBI).
Justified under the quasi-religious discourse of âthe war on terrorâ and ânational securityâ, the wall will have a decidedly negative effect on the thousands of Mexican immigrants who attempt to gain entrance to the United States. While the US wall does not function like the Israeli colonial land grab (with the subsequent partitioning of villages and destruction of farmlands), both walls are racist in nature and must be resisted.
Just as the Mexican government failed to kill the spirit of resistance in Oaxaca, so has the Occupation failed in Palestine. On both sides of the world, the struggle against colonialism and racism continues.